Godmonster of Indian Flats

You aren't gonna find a movie like GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS at your local Blockbuster! If you have briefly seen clips of this one on the TV program REEL WILD CINEMA, then you've already had a fair idea of how weird this turned out to be. For those who have never seen this one before, let me explain further. It's another no-budget creation that is by far remaining to be extremely unusual to this day. Our late-night creature feature concerns an embryo that later becomes a giant eight-foot killer SHEEP monster ready to attack a small Nevada country town. (That's right, I said "sheep"!) Just as THE MIGHTY GORGA did with horrible costume design, so does this obscure film, having another ridiculous outfit in the history of cinema! It appears similar to another goofy costume on a kooky Kroft kiddie show! Notice that one arm is over twice as long as the other! And watch how this monster walks, too!

There has to be more to this utterly unknown artifact. I can honestly tell you that this is the second film I've watched containing the name Frederic Hobbs, another "lost & found" director who must have made the silliest movies ever printed on a negative. Unfortunately, he did only three films; the more familiar one is ALABAMA'S GHOST. He also designed (yes!) the ugly sheep costume that is present in this film. Did his career backfire or something? There's no telling!

An interesting fact according to a description written by BASKET CASE director Frank Henenlotter: the movie was played theatrically in 1973 until patrons suffered from massive seizures that later cut short of the film's circulation. This was due to the flashing colors of red that occured in scenes where the sheep was held in captivity during an experiment. The effect looks far better than the costume. At least this one accomplished a few good visuals such as the creeping red-orange smoke. The only thing that looks better is the silly script that contains scenes from a messed-up episode of "GUNSMOKE", which has NOTHING to do with the movie! It also has what may very well be the looniest, dumbest ending ever recorded on film!

I find this title interesting. Completely interesting! Interesting for its rare view of the drive-in theater that once ran a bunch of one-shot sleepers! Not a classic (and why should it be one?), but an entertaining staple to fill up those night owl minutes. It's a sure sign of how many more strange, lost, and forgotten movies are waiting to be recovered!

For the first, say, 85 minutes, I couldn't make heads or tails out of this film. It appears to be a lost episode of the Brady Bunch where they wake up and discover themselves in a lost episode of Gunsmoke where they all wake up and find themselves in a lost episode of Night Gallery. I get why the hookers wear Victorian get-ups, but why does the visiting financier wear a Wild, Wild West outfit while trying to close a business deal? Most realistic dump ever. Coolest movie monster ever. It looks like a huge plushie that got caught in a fan and half skinned. And sheepy got back! Somehow, the last five minutes of this extraordinarily aimless film turned it into an existentialist allegory and it all seemed perfectly sensible. Except maybe the white plastic casket at the dog's funeral and, of course, the pie eating contest.

Apparently unseen since its initial theatrical sweep in the early 70s(presuming it actually received distribution at all), this long-forgotten little coprolite was excavated from some lost-film boneyard during the late 90s, and has since laid claim to its rightful spot on the roll-call of the weirdest movies ever made.

GODMONSTER weaves an ambling configuration concerning a sheep fetus being exposed to a strange chemical vapor. Taken to a lab by scientists, it matures into a bald-headed, lopsided hirsute beast with a parched lolling tongue and a gimp arm. Naturally, the upright-walking miscreation escapes and hobbles over the arid desert terrain, scaring a few kids and wreaking general minor havoc. This course of events gives rise to a climactic stage so heteroclite...SO IMPOSSIBLY RANDOM...that it literally defies description.

All the elemental constituents of this film are surprisingly solid, and performances from the key players are moreless on-the-beam. It even has sharply defined characters and a developed, articulate subplot touching on sensitive sociopolitical issues. In taking note of these niceties, the burning question arises...how in hell could the folks involved with GODMONSTER have justified applying their erudite capacities to such a fly-ball project? Could a concept as utterly 'non-compos-mentis' as this have possibly seemed like a felicitous undertaking at the drawing-board stage? The mind boggles.

We can't lose this film again, or future generations will dismiss the lore as either a collective hallucination or an elaborate hoax. 10/10? 1/10? ...how does one possibly rate something like this?

I have seen every sort of monster: birds, cats, piranhas, crocs, bats, ants, grizzles, sharks; but killer sheep is a new one. I looked forward to seeing a flokati attack humans.

Yes, the acting is baad, the story line is baad, sometimes downright silly, the special effects were criminally baad, and the monster really looks baad. One flighty character (Mariposa) even tries to communicate with the creature with some kind of new age arm waving.

Just because a movie takes place in the West, doesn't make it a western, and just because you have a mutant sheep, you can't call it a horror movie unless there is some actual horror.

An parable for all conscientious sheep farmers : you can like your sheep, just don't love them; the result could well be an 10 foot sheep/man monster that your mother may have qualms about taking down to the local shops in a baby buggy.

I particularly liked the picnic scene where some children gaily enjoy their outdoor feast, ignoring the farmyard monstrosity clumsily approaching with lopsided gait until it is about 6 inches away from them; upon which they rapidly disperse with all the gritty realism of extras being cued to look surprised. Lack of peripheral vision must have been a genetic defect amongst the inhabitants of this mid-western town.

Definitely worth seeing, if only for the fact that no-one else you know will have seen it and you will be newly respected for discovering a potential cult gem. Whilst everyone else will be talking about pods and aliens and men turning into flies, you will receive awed silence as you describe the exploits of an enormous wobbly upright mutant sheep.