Zaat! (1971)

Often cited as one of the worst films ever made, Zaat! (1971) is actually a fine example of regional film making, being shot and performed by residents of Jacksonville, Florida in and around Jacksonville, Florida.  When I say 'fine', I don't mean to imply that the film is, in any way, actually good in a cinematic sense, but it does represent a robust example of the regionally made low budget film, a genre that flourished in parts of the US in the sixties and seventies, made primarily for local cinema circuits, primarily drive-ins and often not seen outside of their States of origin.  Zaat!, naturally, makes great use of Jacksonville's coastal location, with its story of a local mad scientist who develops a substance (the titular zaat) that can mutate people into amphibious monsters, (apparently half-man, half catfish - a species he is obsessed with).  Zaat! opens with him injecting himself with the serum and turning into an utterly ludicrous looking scaly creature, (even the scientist himself has to admit that it doesn't look much like a catfish).  He then goes about avenging himself on the former colleagues who had dismissed his work.  The first of these he kills while they are on a fishing trip with their family and in a burst of ruthlessness rarely seen in low budget films, also kills his wife and child.  The local Sheriff and a local marine biologist are baffled by the killings and the plague of catfish infesting the town and its waterways, call in help from a vaguely identified agency, which sends a couple of agents to the town.

The creature/scientist makes an abortive attempt to create a female monster, kidnapping a female camper for the purpose.  The scientists start to close in on his lab, with the Sheriff finally recalling that crazy scientist and his fish experiments who used to operate out of a local premises.  In a frenzied climax, the monster kidnaps the female agent with a view to turning her into a creature, but sees his plans derailed when the Sheriff and the biologist turn up and interrupt him, saving her from transformation into a scaly beast.  It all ends with most of the cast dead or incapacitated and the monster, filled full of lead by the wounded male agent, staggering into the sea, followed by the female agent who, while not transformed, seems mesmerised.  Now, all of this would have made for a decently entertaining, in entirely derivattve seventy five minute B-movie.  Unfortunately, though, Zaat! runs for a staggering hundred minutes, dragging out every scene interminably, its leaden pace emphasising the wooden performances and poor dialogue.  The sad thing is that, in terms of productions values, monster aside, Zaat! isn't as ramshackle as many other low budget productions of its era.  The cinematography, though not inspired, at least makes the most of the sunny Florida locations, captured in bright and vibrant colour, while the sound quality is excellent for a low budget film, (highlighting the atrocious dialogue).  Even the mad scientist's lab, with its antiquated switches and flashing lights, at least looks like the sort of thing a lone madman might be able to construct.  But the whole thing is just drawn out to such excessive length that it becomes tedious, the viewer becoming too bored even to be able to enjoy the film on a so-bad-it-is-good level.  Which, at a shorter length, it would have been.