"Dr. Kurt Leopold" (Marshall Grauer) is a mentally unstable scientist who has worked for 20 years developing a formula which can turn a human being into a fish. Since he cannot get any humans to experiment on he decides to use his own body and rapidly turns into an amphibious monster (played by "Wade Popwell"). Having successfully crossed the threshold he first decides to take revenge on those within his profession who laughed at him and tried to stop his research. Once that is accomplished he then decides to take a mate to propagate the new species he has created. Complicating this is the investigation into these tragic deaths which includes both the local sheriff named "Lou Krantz" (Paul Galloway) and a marine biologist by the name of "Rex " (Gerald Cruse). Along with that two agents for an organization called "INPIT" by the names of "Walker Stevens" (Dave Dickerson) and "Martha Walsh" (Sanna Ringhaver) are also called to investigate. Now, as far as this movie is concerned I thought it was severely hampered by its low budget as the special effects, costumes and script were quite bad. I also didn't quite care for the narrative technique used to explain Dr. Leopold's thoughts and motivations. Along with that I thought some scenes went on much too long and could have been condensed or left out all together. On the plus side, I must admit that the creature had a good eye for women as both Nancy Lien (as the female camper) and the aforementioned Sanna Ringhaver were both rather attractive. Unfortunately, too much time and attention was spent on other things. In summation, while it may have been an earnest effort the lack of resources clearly showed and the overall picture was a dismal failure. Definitely below average.

I consider myself a connoisseur of bad movies, but this one is really something special. Compared to this, Plan 9, The Room, Manos: Hands of Fate, and even Killer Shrews are all masterpieces.There are unanswered questions in almost all movies, but there are simply so many in this one:First and foremost, why exactly did crossing a man with a catfish seem like a good way to rule the world?Why do they keep cutting to a sea turtle during his attacks?What did the octopus have to do with *anything*?Why did the guy who was following him still need the Geiger counter *after* he had him in plain sight. While we're on the subject, why didn't he simply shoot him at that point?Why didn't the sheriff use the gun in his hand? Opting for a fist fight with a man/catfish really seemed like questionable judgment.While we're on the subject, where did that gun go?Finally, they rescued the girl *before* he did anything to her, so why did she decide to become a fish at the end? Was she bowled over by his charm?Anyway, all I can say is wow. Just, wow.

An idiotic scientist decides to turn himself into a walking catfish monster. He also wants to create a new race of fellow walking catfish monsters. This is a horrible movie. It starts off with some laughable narration and an awful folk song. It only gets worse from there. That said, I was cracking up a lot throughout this thing. There's one golden moment shortly after the guy has changed into monster form. He's walking through a basement and clearly trips over something, perhaps the shitty monster costume itself. We're also privy to the long, drawn out process of him getting his machines, pulleys and other junk together for the mutation. This takes up about 20 minutes of screen time all by itself.About halfway through the film, we get more awful singing from a bunch of hippies, followed by a march to the local jail. The so-called hero of the picture is a joke. He and his girlfriend also wear ridiculous red jumpsuits. They should have just stuck with the college guy and the sheriff, not that doing so would have saved the movie or anything. This is currently #10 on the IMDb bottom 100 list. There's no question that this is a bad movie, but I wouldn't rate it that low simply because of the amusement I got out of it.

This is the second film that I watch in only a couple of weeks where I had to restrain myself from shouting at the screen: "Get over Creature from the Black Lagoon; its success has been twenty years!" A little word of clarification is in place here perhaps, this film and "Octaman" are two cheap 70's exploitation horror movies with a 50's attitude and mentality. Both titles desperately want to imitate Jack Arnold's legendary "Creature from the Black Lagoon" with an old-fashioned guy-in- a-rubber-suit monster emerging from still waters to attack unsuspecting swimmers. However, both films are also unimaginably bad, amateurishly put together and they actually make the aforementioned Creature look like it's "Citizen Kane". The ultra-evil and deranged Dr. Kurt Leopold – a scientist with obvious Nazi sympathies – found a method to mutate into a fish monster and simultaneously developed the absurd plan to create a superior aquatic race and exterminate all human beings. That's pretty much the whole set-up… There are certain hints towards interesting sub plots (fish jumping on land and revolting against humans, acid baths to dispose of failed experiments …) but they are never properly elaborated. "Zaat" is also obviously stuffed with Frankenstein influences. The monster creation process, for example, is very similar and there's also search for a bride for the monster. Basically, it comes down to the fact that Dr. Leopold intends to create a fish-queen and therefore he extendedly observes blond girls camping and then kidnaps them to his liar. There are numerous good reasons why "Zaat" is currently listed as n# 10 in the bottom top 100 movies of all time. The effects are incredibly tacky and the set designs are laughably cheap. Most of the film was most obviously shot on private locations, like somebody living room or the pond in one of the crew members' garden. The poor sucker who had to walk around in the suit appears to be drunk most of the time and the mask looks like a green version of Alf. The soundtrack is horrible and worst of all were the hippie morals being shoved down your throat, like for example the fact that "friends" of the environment escape the wrath of "Zaat". Only for very experienced bad movie fanatics.