Mystery Science Theater 3000 affectionately mocked plenty of genre movies over the years, but how did the cult comedy series manage to return the forgotten seventies sci-fi horror The Incredible Melting Man to its former glory? Released in 1977, The Incredible Melting Man is a pretty weak sci-fi horror effort mainly remembered nowadays for the compromised contributions that future makeup legend Rick Baker made to its production and for being riffed in a season four episode of the cult comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. For the uninitiated Mystery Science Theater 3000 was an influential comedy series which saw its revolving cast of hosts and puppets mocking woeful genre movies ranging from unintentionally terrifying kid's films to unintentionally hilarious horrors.
The series may have a lot of background lore, the puppets and hosts were being experimented on by mad scientists exposing them to the worst movies they could find, but as the show's iconic theme song itself noted, the plot was not what brought fans to MST3K. The series was known for spotlighting movies which, although terrible, were great fun. Although bad horror movies can be good for you, even the most forgiving fans of the genre find some so-bad-they're-good movies hard to sit through. That's why Mystery Science Theater 3000 became famous amongst film fans for making even the silliest and strangest corners of cult cinema palatable through the cast's hilarious riffs.
But the influence of the show didn't begin and end with MST3K's ability to make bad films into a good time. The strange case of The Incredible Melting Man is a testament to the fact that the show managed at times, entirely by accident, to fix films whose potential had been hampered by misguided producers (if only the show was around to re-do 2018's Slender Man after it was destroyed by misjudged edits). How did the series manage this feat? By turning a self-serious horror which had its humor excised by editors back into the goofy self-parody it was intended to be.
The Incredible Melting Man's Troubled Production
The Incredible Melting Man had a fascinating, troubled production, which ended up proving the importance of Mystery Science Theater 3000's contributions to cult cinema. The film followed the story of an astronaut returning from space with some sort of monstrous mutation which causes him to... Well, you can guess from the title. The premise was also explored in Stephen King's story, 'I Am The Doorway', although that story's acclaimed short film adaptation was received more critical love than this seventies flop. The Incredible Melting Man's original screenplay, inspired by Night of the Living Dead, was a goofy parody of the bleak, self-serious horror movies of the period. However, producers were concerned about the film's prospects at the box office and insisted on cutting out the movie's broadly comic moments. These scenes were replaced by reshot sequences that upped the film's "serious" horror content, leaving the movie with a bizarre, uneven tone.
These same producers even inexplicably ruined the special effects that Rick Baker provided for the film, cutting out many of the artist's most impressive contributions as they meddled with the final cut. Baker went on to create An American Werewolf in London's legendary practical effects transformation, and it's hard to imagine why the producers wanted his effects cut when his work on the film went on to influence Rob Bottin's work on Emil's gruesome death in Robocop. Director William Sachs was furious, blaming The Incredible Melting Man's lackluster critical performance on the misjudged reshoots. Sachs noted that these sequences featured shoddier acting than the rest of the film, and the film's tone ended up laughable due to these attempts at self-serious dark horror.
How Mystery Science 3000 Saved This Seventies Horror
This could have been the end of The Incredible Melting Man. The movie could have been thrown in bargain bins the world over, much like its titular protagonist ends up being swept into a garbage can at the end of the movie itself (yes, really. Even in the "serious horror" edit). But luckily the late nineties were a good time to love, and love mocking, horror. Horror movie parodies were increasingly popular and Mystery Science Theater 3000 had gained a significant cult following through its good-natured mockery of the genre's lesser efforts. Although The Incredible Melting Man was largely forgotten by the time Mystery Science Theater 3000's fourth season entered production, it was memorable enough to feature on an episode of the series. The show's creators didn't have a lot of love for the sci-fi horror, with Mike Nelson noting that "the plot is, and I'm not kidding here, the plot is a guy is melting. That's the plot."
To be fair to the film's producers, the likes of the recent release The Beach House have since proven that this sort of gruesome body horror can make for an effective genre outing. The difference, of course, is that The Incredible Melting Man was never intended to be a genuine horror, and as a result, its abominable re-edited cut failed as both comedy and horror. However, the film's leaden pace left plenty of dead air for inspired riffs from the MST3K crew, and the episode is regarded as a classic by fans of the series. With jokes ranging from sharp political satire to goofy ad-libs, Nelson and company managed to turn The Incredible Melting Man back into the parodic horror spoof its creator always hoped it would be, and provided some clever political commentary to boot (that Kuwait joke is as cutting as any environmentalist message in The Beach House).
Why Mystery Science 3000 Mattered
Mystery Science Theater 3000 always had a lot of love for horror cinema, with horror icon Al Adamson directing one of the show's most bizarre outings. But the show's ability to wring funny, clever, and inventive riffs out of even the dullest and most unwatchable-y bad movies meant that MST3K introduced a generation of viewers to the joys of so-bad-its-good cult cinema. The fact that the series turned Sach's film back into the goofy, self-aware comedy-horror it was always intended to be in the first place is proof of the transformative power of its witty riffs, and it's no surprise the series enjoys outsized cult status to this day.
The series has had an enduring cultural influence in the years since its initial cancellation, with Netflix reviving the show for two more seasons in the late 2010s. Not only this, but unintentionally funny "so-bad-it's-good" classics which the series spotlighted have gone on to gain cult followings of their own, with Manos: The Hands of Fate even gaining a sequel fifty years after its release and decades after MST3K highlighted its hilarious attempts at "horror". The show remains a cult comedy institution thanks to this ability to revive even the most seemingly doomed movie and shine a light on the hidden potential of all manner of forgotten genre fare.