At last! The Incredible Melting Man comes to Blu-ray

If you've held out on upgrading from the DVD player because nobody's bothered to reissue The Incredible Melting Man on Blu-ray yet—it's time to hit Future Shop!

Originally released in 1977, William Sachs' film had an impact well beyond its actual quality, almost entirely thanks to Rick Baker's cartoonishly awesome make-up effects, something the film's producers gratuitously used in any and all advertising material for the film while loudly trumpeting that they'd come up with "The first new horror creature."  

This wasn't entirely true—Vincent Price actually decoagulated 15 years earlier in Tales of Terror, but once we got into the '80s, people were liquefying all over the goddamned place (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Street Trash, Sophie's Choice), suggesting that TIMM had some wider impact beyond those of us who had stared in grossed-out wonder at astronaut Steve West's fucked up face on the cover of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Originally intended as a comedy, the film's weird tone—including a lyrical sequence in which a severed head floats placidly down a river—is explained by the fact that it was re-edited against Sachs' wishes into a straight-up horror movie. Consequently, it works as neither, but The Incredible Melting Man still exerts a powerfully shitty fascination all the same.

The Incredible Melting Man is coming to Blu-ray this summer, courtesy of Shout! Factory