God Monster of Indian Flats — God Monster of Indian Flats (Blu Ray)
Released in 1973 God Monster of Indian Flats was the third & final feature from filmmaker & outsider artists Fredric Hobbs. And really it’s a tricky film to try & describe- as there are so many elements/tones blended together here….let’s start with the setting, it’s basically a 1970’s Nevada small town, which is running a re-created western cowboy town- with the town people randomly slipping in & out of character, and at times these get complete blurred. On top of this, we have Mayor Charles Silverdale( played by the wonderful Stuart Lancaster) acting like a 19th-century plantation owner, as an African American businessman comes into town wanting to buy up land. Next we have a dopey & rather tripped-out young sleep herder- one night when drunk & asleep in the cattle shed, he awakes to the birth of large mutated sheep Embryo….fairly soon embryo & herder are whisked off to secret lab of a local scientist, and within time we have an eight-foot sleepman monster rampaging the town- attacking local kiddies picnics & blowing-up gas stations. Along the way, we get a host of oddness- like fake dog funeral in a church, custard pie fights, wild western like hanging, campy gunfights, and more than a sprinkle of hippy surrealism. It ‘s a film that darts all over the place, and really you don’t know where it will go next- so you certainly won’t get bored- though at times it does become a bit too wacky.
Extras wise we get a fairly nice batch weird of bits ‘n’ bobs linked into the monster theme- first & longest of the extras is The Legend Of Bigfoot. This is from 1975, and offered up as a new 2k scan…though don’t get to excited by that, as the print still rather line & wear bound. This is a 75-minute documentary /mockumentry- which sees wildlife tracker Ivan Marx voicing over a series nature footage talking about searching for & encounters with Bigfoot- the footage goes from long shorts dense & eerier woodland, wildlife, vast wood-lined lakes, etc. I’ve always had a real soft spot for this film- I recall first seeing it as a child, then later on one of those budget B movie collections. Marx has a rather pleasant & comfy Disney-style nature doc voice, you get some beautiful 70’s film grained nature footage, and from time-to-time, there are a few almost creepy moments- though sadly,& not surprisingly, we never get any actual footage of Big Foot. On the whole, it’s a charming & rather relaxing watch- though not for those looking for reseached & serious big foot doc, but if you in the mood
for 70’s conform-ness it’s great.
Next, we get a selection of three shorter extras- first up is Strange Sightings- which comes in at 36 minutes- it brings together a series of very flat, monotone, and stilted interviews with people who claimed to have had UFO/ alien encounters. Added to this we get some decided yawn inducing roundtable discussion between suited men- who claim to be doctors/ experts. This had moments of quirky fun, but for the most part, it felt a rather dull oddity. Next, we get School Bus Fires- this is a twenty-five-minute safety/ PIF, about you guessed it bus fires…this is very amusing & campy shot slice of late 60’/ 70’s PIF- perfect for watching after a few beers, with a few buddies. Next, we have The White Gorilla- this is a black & white nine-minute short from the 50’s( I’m guessing)…it finds hunters looking for a white gorilla, which is a man in a monkey suit…again campy fun. And lastly, we get nine minutes of rampaging monsters trailers.
All in all this Blu Ray is a great journey back into weird & wonderful retro monster fun- I’d never seen the main film before, and as mentioned early on it really is a one-off experience. It was great to revisit The Legend Of Bigfoot, and most of the other extras are good fun too. So another worthy release from AGFA.