Godmonster of Indian Flats has just about
everything you could possibly want out of a movie. It has dope fur vests, sheep
farmers, old-west-style prostitutes, racist land barons, a racist sheriff who
used to be a Wall Street player (?), pie throwing children, faking a dog’s
death as a means of blackmail, black-hood-wearing lynch mobs, and, of course,
an eight-foot-tall rampaging mutant sheep monster. If that doesn’t make you
want to watch this oddity from 1973, nothing I can say will change your mind.
Just know you’re missing something truly strange and wonderful.
Noted cinematic oddball Frederic Hobbs (Alabama’s
Ghost) delivers this slice of outsider chaos about a small Nevada mining
town desperately clinging to the past thanks to a despotic mayor who rules his
fiefdom like a lunatic monarch. When a small-time sheep farmer discovers a
hideous mutation amongst his flock, he teams up with a scientist from the
university—whose lab appears to located in the skeletal ruins of an old
building—to say science words and watch it grow into a monster. All the while, the
townsfolk go to great lengths to repel an outsider who wants buy up all their
land for…some unexplained reason.
Godmonster of Indian Flats offers a kind
of Frankenstein style parable about messing with the natural
order. At least, I think it does—I’m not 100% sure what’s going on, though I
wouldn’t be surprised to learn it influenced Black Sheep,
especially when it comes to creature design. Strains of the cultural revolution
of the 1960s creep in, and it’s a jumbled mess of a plot with no real steady
protagonist or central narrative drive. But what the hell, the town is full of
weirdos of all stripes, from psychics to crazed rednecks, and it’s a deeply
bonkers entry the canon of American cinema that you need to experience for
yourself.
The new 4K restoration just so happens to play this weekend at
Seattle’s venerable Grand Illusion. It screens Friday, July 6 and Saturday,
July 7, as well as Tuesday, July 10. It’s something to behold if you like
watching crazed monsters blow up gas stations and invade children’s picnics.
If you’re not in Seattle or can’t make it, don’t worry. The
fine folks at the American Genre Film Archive will release a special edition
Blu-ray of Godmonster of Indian Flats on July 10. And one of
the special features just so happens to be the full restoration of The
Legend of Bigfoot, so, you really should add this to you collection.
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