A bizarre low budget creature feature that seemingly wants to be anything BUT a creature feature. Theres a VERY clear reason why the ‘Godmonster of Indian Flats’ was a mainstay of the ‘Something Weird’ Library for so many years.

It’s plot, a bizarre mesh of 66% a somewhat ‘wicker man’ esq thriller about a rich businessman rocking up at a small previously abandoned town in the Indian flats thats been restored back to it’s 19th century ways by an eccentric land owner with intentions to buy the area. Only to then find out that theres devious goings on just under the surface and the town may not be all it seems.

Mashed together with a 34% plot (and I swear im not making this up) around a shepard who wins it big at a casino on his first ever attempt completley by chance, ends up attracting the attention of some of the folk who LIVE in the 19th century throwback town on the Indian flats, they take him back to the town and rob him, and while drunkenly returning to his flock, he gets hit with an extraterrestrial show of lights and gasses that mutates one of his sheep into a hideous blob of congealed cells.

This attracts the attention of some scientists who wish to study the creature as they work in cellular research. So, they incubate the specimine and within a couple of days, the blob has mutated into a hideous goat monster.

SOME HOW, these two plots connect and intertwine, but i’ll be damned if I know for sure how…But the results are QUITE far from dull it’s fair to say.

The scripts totally inconsistent, the main plot of a black businessman rocking up in an all white town and meeting the prejudice and weirdness that comes with that has it’s more racially motivated tones softened by the other subplot around the shady dealings of the town and of course the GIANT WALLOPING SHEEP MONSTERS larking about and…well not really doing very much. I honestly feel for the guy in the monster costume. wearing 100lb’s of wool in the desert is absolutely not worth the paycheque.

Despite the uneven pacing and strange plot structuring of this thing, I find it offers a unique texture that I can honestly say I havent really seen before in cinema. It’s kind of like a mash up of ‘Sssss’ and ‘2000 Maniacs’ it shoulnt work, it DOESNT work. and yet, I felt totally compelled to see this thing through to the finish to see just exactly how weird this thing would get (and the answer is VERY weird).

The directions nothing particularly to write home about, its a bit flat and aimless, theres no sense of a personal touch present and apart from the occasional flourish on the cine front it doenst particularly show itself to be a film that utilises the multiple aspects of it’s production particularly well. I can absolutely say it just about does the basics. But thats not really anything worth shouting about.

Same goes for the cine really, theres a couple of interesting uses of practical effects here and there, but compositions seem to be largely shot for function and barring literally 2 scenes in the 3rd act of this film which DID seem to get a bit of a bump in terms of production quality, the majority of the film could best be described as lifeless, bland and fairly by the numbers on a technical level. it’s not good, but there was nothing that jumped out at me as truely awful.

Sequences are edited together quite loosely, this thing could have easily been 10 minutes shorter, the lack of the actual Godmonster for most of the movies runtime is dissapointing and with so much going on, producing a cohesive edit that manages to tell the story effectively and coherently was always going to be a struggle.

as for the performances. TOTAL HAM. everyones playing it goofy, as well they should! But I do feel theres a certain lack of animation from most of the cast and the ones who do put the effort in, never really get the chance to really truely go out there.

It also has to be said that, while I absolutley sympathise with the guy in the Goat costume who was basically steamed alive for the half a day he filmed for. He doesnt really animate all that much, and he spends at least 2/3rds of this movie sat unmoving, in a tank. it would have been nice to have had a bit more of a lively creature and…y’know…the vibe that this creature feature ACTUALLY WANTED to have a monster in it wrecking up the place.

Mix in a score thats oddly melancholic and string arranged and you have a shonky but mesmorising feature that I didnt hate, didnt love, but I could absolutley see myself watching again. Your milage may absolutely vary on this thing. But if you like your cheesy movies, this thing would be prime MST3K fodder and is absolutely worth trying at least once i’d say.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/godmonster-of-indian-flats/