The Incredible Melting Man

An astronaut is transformed into a murderous gelatinous mass after returning from an ill-fated space voyage.

• Director: William Sachs
• Genre:Horror / Sci-Fi
• Runtime:86 minutes

Cast

Alex Rebar : Steve West (The Melting Man)
Burr DeBenning : Dr. Ted Nelson
Myron Healey : General Michael Perry
Michael Alldredge: Sheriff Neil Blake
Ann Sweeny : Judy Nelson

Astronaut Steve West is the only survivor of a mission to Saturn, returning to Earth after being exposed to an unknown form of radiation. While being kept under observation in a hospital, his health rapidly degenerates, and his flesh begins to literally melt off his body. Growing increasingly insane, he escapes the hospital and discovers that the only way to slow the progress of his condition is to consume the flesh of other human beings which oddly increases his strength as well. This puts him at odds with local authorities, some of whom (including his friend, Dr. Ted Nelson) want to bring him back with the understanding that they will try to cure him, and others who simply want him dead before he can take any more innocent lives. The film features an especially downbeat coda, in which Nelson is killed for seemingly no reason by two security guards (the Melting Man avenges him), the Melting Man melts away to little more than a pile of red mush, and is casually mopped into a garbage can by a janitor on the morning following the film’s climactic night-time faceoff at a power plant, as we hear a radio news report of another team being sent up to Saturn implying the possibility of a repeat episode. Read more