Billed as "the first monster musical" which I believe is an accurate statement although perhaps nothing to be proud of. The concept here is very original as are many of the movie's scenes. For me, the biggest problem with the film overall is the musical part. These are some of the worst performances from singers and dancers that I've ever seen! The folk singer Don Snyder is perhaps the most horrific thing in the film (sorry Don, but it's true). Overall, the whole thing is just confusing as to why what appears to be an all ages carnival would have strippers or interpretive dancers? The plot is kind of all over the place and many questions are left unanswered, but it's not trying to be some fascinating narrative. I'd guess Ray Dennis Steckler simply had this idea for a musical and he used the budget and the space he had to make something that while awful is at least quite interesting.The good parts I would point to would start with the main henchman Ortega. Not sure if he has makeup, a mask or is just normally hideous but he's an interesting, although far more useless version of Fritz or Ygor. The dream sequence that Steckler wrote is a rather creepy, surreal moment that I always enjoy watching. I'd also note that the "zombies" look fantastic although I'm not sure what they are would technically be zombies as we think of them. If so perhaps they are more in the sense of old school voodoo controlled people because they definitely aren't supposed to be dead. Unfortunately though, we don't get to see a lot of these well done title creatures which is typical of small budget horror cinema. Because of it's originality I would recommend seeing it in it's unadulterated form at least once. After you do that, you should just get the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of the film because it's one of their best episodes and you'll be able to appreciate (perhaps tolerate is a better word) the movie much more...

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, which I will henceforth refer to a Incredibly Strange Creatures, is about an ugly, thickly accented fortune teller who pours acid on the faces of male customers, turning them into zombies. It's also about a hoodie-clad loser named Jerry (director Ray Dennis Steckler, under the stage name Cash Flagg,) who along with his idiot best friend and his girlfriend Madison, goes to the carnival. At the carnival, they run afoul of the fortune teller, and Jerry is soon hypnotized into murdering dancers that the hag wants dead for reasons that are never explained.There are other questions that are never explained. What is the fortune teller planning to do with her collection of zombies? She keeps them locked up in a closet for most of the movie, and doesn't seem to have any control over them. And are they actually zombies? They exhibit zombie-like behaviors, like a lack of speech and a tendency to mindlessly attack anyone in sight, but they're not undead or infected with any plague. For that matter, why does pouring acid on them make them lose their minds? I've met a guy with severe burns on his face and body. He's frightening to look at, but he could still carry on an intelligent conversation, and I never got the impression that he wanted to eat me.But Incredibly Strange Creatures is not the type of movie to ponder such things. It is the type of low-budget schlock that AIP would have turned up their noses at. This movie sells itself with promises of gruesome zombies, violent murders, and scantily clad women, but never really delivers on any of these. The movie's advertising even mentions "The hunchback of the midway in a duel to the death against the mixed-up zombies", despite there being no such scene anywhere in the movie.Incredibly Strange Creatures also bills itself as the first horror monster musical. True, there are several song and dance numbers, but these are on stage in a nightclub and a cabaret, and are only watched by Jerry. Come to think of it, he wasn't actually there for some of them, which leads to the obvious conclusion that the scenes are only filler to pad the runtime. This wouldn't be too bad, except for the undeniable fact that the songs and the dancing stink, the dancer's costumes are ugly, and so are the dancers. One of them appeared to have an Adam's apple.So why was Incredibly Strange Creatures made? Because someone thought it could make money. Did it make money? Unclear, but probably not much. Is there any reason to see it? MST3K did do a fairly good job with this one, by I would highly recommend against seeing the original unless you enjoy pain.

Can you figure out the plot of "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?", cause I couldn't really figure it out. Of course, I paid more attention to the snarky comments from Mike, Servo and Crow when Pearl forced them to watch it on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Joan Collins, Noam Chomsky and Glenn Close are among the people who get mentioned.As for the plot of the movie itself, as far as I could tell, it was about a gypsy (or is Roma the PC term?) woman who turns a loser into a zombie. The only character who really had my eye was Angela; she really was a hottie. In the end, the movie itself doesn't amount to anything, but the MST3K version is a riot. How cruel of Pearl to make Mike and the 'bots watch it.

I watched many movies in my teens, most of which I have no memory beyond a name or vague story plot. This movie, in addition to its title, created movie history in a lot of ways. I have to go to Rocky Horror to find an equivalent for several of these (combining horror, sf, comedy in a musical). I still remember the stark, anguished photography, the meaningless actions, the hopelessness so dark it could only be comedy. One review captured this, describing it as "lunar purity". I wasn't surprised to learn that one of the camera operators, Vilmos Zsigmond, went on to win an Academy Award for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Note that this review is written at least 40 years after I saw the film.