Zaat (1971) review

8. Zaat (1971)

Directed by: Don Barton

Produced by: Don Barton

Screenplay by: Don Barton, Ron Kivett, Lee O. Larew

Starring: Marshall Grauer, Paul Galloway, Gerald Cruse, Wade Popwell

When you hear about a movie with a title like “Zaat,” your first thought is, “What could it be referring to?” Is it an alien? A machine? A prehistoric lifeform? No, it’s a compound formula that can transform humans into sea creature hybrids. So, this film is basically a combination of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and it isn’t very good at being either of them. It’s about a mad scientist in Florida named Dr. Kurt Leopold (Marshall Grauer) who uses his ZaAt formula to become a catfish monster, believing aquatic lifeforms superior beings, and seek revenge on his former colleagues who mocked his work while also looking for a perfect female mate. Elsewhere, local sheriff Lou Krantz (Paul Galloway) and marine biologist Rex (Gerald Cruse) are investigating strange happenings perpetuated by Leopold’s work, and bring in a pair of scientific experts to help track down the cause.

Okay, so I was getting vague “The Beast of Yucca Flats” flashbacks early on since we don’t see Leopold talk, rather just hear his narrative monologue as he walks around tinkering disinterestedly with his scientific gizmos. But thankfully, this movie was shot with sound, and honestly, the stuff he says is so shamelessly hokey, I got a laugh out of it. It doesn’t matter anyway, because he becomes the monster in the first 20 minutes, which is one of the silliest looking monster costumes I can recall; it looks like if the Gill-Man and Groot had an offspring with a skin condition. He spends most of his screen time swimming in ponds, stalking women, awkwardly walking around bumping into things, and killing people by barely touching them, all the while keeping the inner monologue, which is basic mad scientist jargon. Oh, and he also makes drawings of the women he comes across; it’s a pretty hilarious contrast of such a gruesome-looking beast and this surprisingly detailed sketch. By the way, the name “Leopold” does not convey the vibe of a scary monster, but rather that of a symphony conductor.

The actors are all unknowns, and as you might expect, most of the performances are weak, with the exception of Paul Galloway as the Sheriff and Gerald Cruse as Rex. They have believable chemistry that helps you take their scenes a little bit seriously. The experts they bring in are Martha (Sanna Ringhaver) and Walker (Dave Dickerson) from an agency called INPIT—I don’t think they ever clarified what INPIT stands for—and there’s an occasionally cute moment with them. Most of their scenes are repetitive and their actual conversations relating to the plot are dull, but they have their moments.

However, what really makes this movie such a memorable stinker is its overall craft; the editing, staging and cinematography are Ed Wood levels of awful. Any time there’s an action scene, the shots seem cobbled together at random, showing little to no sense of where the characters are in relation to each other; when Leopold attacks his old colleague Maxson in a boat, it cuts from both of them swimming in the water to the Monster just standing there as if he missed hearing the director yell “Action!” Sometimes the opposite happens, where a shot will linger on something for a long time, like showing Lou and Rex walking to the former’s car without saying a word after Walker suggests they scout the perimeter. Shots like these add absolutely nothing and only result in the pacing being unbearably slow; this is not a movie that needed to be 100 minutes long. There are a few typical B-movie oddities, like the Monster being seen wearing tennis shoes; those I can live with, but did they have to make the music so insufferably obnoxious? It ranges from misplaced, like a suspenseful track with the INPIT agents just walking in to see the sheriff, to these horrible buzzing, droning effects; in some cases, it’s so awful I end up turning down the volume on my TV.

Don’t get me wrong; “Zaat” is pretty much what you think it’s going to be, just a stupid little B-movie about a catfish monster. But I have to admit, from what I saw in the trailer, I thought I was going to have a lot more fun with it. Granted, I was still laughing off and on just from the inept fight sequences, cheesy dialogue, and even just how uniquely pointless some of these scenes are; there’s an entire song routine by candlelight during a town lockdown where Lou eventually escorts a group of people to the sheriff’s office and locks them in a cell to keep them safe, and everyone just goes along with it. This part of the movie is so strange, I don’t even know what to think of it; it’s like the story just took a five-minute intermission. There’s not much else to say; the film has its moments of enjoyment, but also irritation, and the story just staggers along until it stops without an ending that makes any sense. I’d say it’s worth checking out if you’re curious how dumb it looks, but have the fast forward button ready.

My rating: 4.5/10