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GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS / THE GIRL AND THE GEEK

A mysterious gas leaks out of a mine onto a sheep farm, causing one of a young farmer's animals to give birth to an enlarged embryo. Professor Clemmons (E. Kerrigan Prescott, ROSELAND) takes the living fetus to his lab and places it in an incubator where it hangs out for 60 minutes of the film, bobbing up and down and occasionally making a sound. During this time the professor's assistant (Peggy Browne) falls for the young farmer and he for she, so that's nice.

Nearby in town a young black businessman, Barnstable (Christopher Brooks, THE MACK) is trying to buy up mining rights in the area, but the mayor (Stuart Lancaster, MUDHONEY) doesn't want to sell to him and convinces the local residents to do the same. Several double-crosses worthy of a William Castle film later, Barnstable finds himself in danger and at the door of Professor Clemmons' lab. There is a big gun battle, and the ewe becomes enraged and escapes. (Terror, thy name is not giant lamb.) The beast inadvertently kills one person and then runs off into the hills. The professor's assistant catches up to the sheep and... and... and they dance together. Yep. The rest is too horrifying to be said; it can only be seen.

As far as giant mutant sheep movies go, this is the one to beat, yet it's not all good. On one hand the film boasts an eight foot tall badly constructed sheep muppet who walks on its hind legs (like all sheep do), as well as some clever camera shots, good acting (particularly from Mr. Brooks and Mr. Lancaster), a hysterical performance (the way E. Kerrigan Prescott intones his phrases is smirk-a-minute funny) and a sense of self awareness. But on the other hand, it's such a hodgepodge of different ideas all being crammed into one package that it loses itself at times and drags. Now that's not meant to discourage the curious - by all means, see this film (after all, this is the 8 ½ of giant sheep flicks). Just don't expect your interest to be held the whole way through.

While director Frederic Hobbs' GODMONSTER is fun but forgettable, SWV has included a little extra that suggests the director is worth another look: the musical number "You Can't Fart Around With Love" from his film ROSELAND. This four-minute clip - which reminds one of Robert Downey's PUTNEY SWOPE - features a deranged Busby Berkeley-esque dance number while E. Kerrigan Prescott, dressed like a Lawrence Welk Show reject, sings away. Absolutely mesmerizing, it makes one wish that ROSELAND was featured as a bonus film on this DVD. It's not. Instead, the bonus film is a Dale Berry classic, THE GIRL AND THE GEEK (a.k.a. PASSION IN THE SUN).

One is hard pressed to find a link between the nudie, semi-roughie THE GIRL AND THE GEEK and GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS, unless it's that in both films the monster doesn't do anything until the final reel. If that's the logic - or if not - it really doesn't matter; what does matter is that THE GIRL AND THE GEEK is out on DVD.

Taking a page from the Doris Wishman "shoot silent, overdub sound later" school of directing, Dale Berry's film grabs you by the shirt collars and never lets up.

A circus geek gets loose from the local carnival. The cops arrive, but since they can't seem to locate the geek in the pile of wood near his cage/home they give up. Meanwhile, two criminals are planning a job at the airport. At the same time star stripper Josette Valague (who vaguely resembles Giulietta Masina) is coming into town. One thing leads to another and she is kidnapped by the thugs, who drive off with her in their car. The film then breaks down into scenes of Ms. Valague getting the crap beat out of her in the backseat of the crook's car, interspersed with strip routines.

The criminals pull over and the one fighting with Ms. Valague punches her square in the face, knocking her out cold. The two criminals scuffle with one another and one winds up dead; the other chases after Ms. Valague as she tries to flee. He catches up with her and tears her dress. She breaks free and gets a good distance from him. She uses this lead to take the time to skinny dip in the nearby river. More happens, but why spoil the surprises?

Since this movie was filmed in the early '60s, the only nudity it could get away with was T & A. The movie pushes this boundary by having one of the longest "girl running through the woods with a briefcase covering her crotch" scenes I've ever encountered.

THE GIRL AND THE GEEK is a nonstop assault on the senses; as the threadbare plot unfolds, you'll find yourself confronted with so much non-surgically altered nudity and promised/delivered violence that boredom is impossible and repeat viewings inevitable. Dale Berry has proven to be a name to look for in the nudie film section at your local video store.

Three additional short subjects are included on this DVD: "Rural Rat Control," "Community Fly Control" and "The Geek".

"Rural Rat Control" is an instructional film from the '40s/'50s on how to rid your farm of unpleasant, unsanitary rats. The first half of the picture seems innocent enough, with the narrator's monotone voice describing the circumstances that allow rats to flourish, before degenerating into wholesale rat slaughter footage. You'll experience the joys of seeing real live rats become real dead rats via hammer blows to the head, rat traps, poisons that cause them to go into seizures (shown), and poisons that cause them to go into seizures and excrete pools of blood out of their mouths (shown). Yes, you'll laugh at the boring presentation and even make fun of the vocal style at first, but then your jaw will drop as you realize our ancestors were sick, sick, sick.

"Community Fly Control" is similar to "Rural Rat Control," but doesn't have the punch of seeing large mammals dying horrid deaths. It makes up for this with extensive maggot footage. You'll choke on your food as you see maggots in the trash, maggots in manure and maggots all over outdoor privies. Yes, while killing a fly isn't that traumatic, their grubby little offspring digging in the "dirt" sure as hell is.

"The Geek" is a short film about six campers who go out into the woods of the North West to look for the Sasquatch (apparently just a man suffering from lycanthropy). They find him and introduce him to one of the women in the group. Big Foot promptly has his way with her, while the victim/actress looks like she's laughing. A fight ensues as the victim lies on the ground. Big Foot is run off, but not without injuring some of the men. The victim is helped up and, WHOA, it's a different girl! I guess the cutting room floor footage was a bit hotter then what you'll get on this DVD.

Rounding out the extras is a "Gallery of Horror Drive-In" exploitation art and the always cool "Horrorama Radio-Spot Rarities."

The packaging claims digital remastering, causing one to fear what GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS looked like before. Featuring a scratchy print with poor definition in the night/dark scenes, this ain't pretty - but it's still watchable. The transfer's good as far as I can tell. THE GIRL AND THE GEEK is also a scratchy print, but since it's shot in B&W the age doesn't show as badly as on GODMONSTER. The shorts vary in quality.

The sound is in mono (like the recordings Elvis made when he was still cool). I could hear what was being said, so who am I to complain.

While GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS is a bit flat (BWA, HA, HA, HA), the addition of THE GIRL AND THE GEEK more than makes up for it. The shorts - particularly the scene from ROSELAND and "Rural Rat Control" - are great fun, helping make this DVD another winner from Something Weird.