Blu-ray Review: Godmonster Of Indian Flats

Godmonster Of Indian Flats is a strange and kind of goofy, yet enjoyable film about a sheep herder who discovers a strange creature among his sheep, and about the corrupt town nearby. It’s sort of a horror film, but it is the citizenry of the town that is more frightening than the actual creature. It was written and directed by Fredric Hobbs, who also made Alabama’s Ghost, and was released in 1973. It is now getting a Blu-ray release, thanks to the good folks at American Genre Film Archive, Something Weird, and MVD Visual, and the disc contains a lot of special features.

The film has kind of a wonderful opening. It starts out in the country, with shots of sheep being transported. And a man is riding in the back of the truck with the sheep. Then suddenly the truck stops and the man, wearing a furry vest and cowboy hat, gets out. The truck drives away, revealing that the man, Eddie (Richard Marion), is in Reno. The music and tone suddenly change to let in the sounds of the city. Eddie steps into a casino, and the music and tone change again, with eerie, creepy sounds dominating the soundtrack. But on his first try at a slot machine, Eddie wins, and so the sounds of the casino begin, as if the city has now welcomed him, accepted him. And soon Eddie is also welcomed by a group of people at the casino, who take him to another town. This entire opening sequence is done really well, with a style and expertise you might not expect from a movie like this.

The place they arrive appears to be an old west town that progress forgot, and in a saloon Eddie has his pocket picked and is roughed up. Fortunately, Dr. Clemens (E. Kerrigan Prescott), a college professor with a laboratory on the outskirts of town, comes to his aid and drives him back to his sheep farm. And as Eddie goes to sleep with his sheep, well, things get weird. When Clemens and his assistant, Mariposa, check in on Eddie the next day, they find him in shock next to a strange creature in the hay. They take both Eddie and the creature back to the lab to study the creature and take care of it. As the creature grows, we see that it is part sheep, part humanoid, which makes us wonder just what Eddie has been doing with his sheep. Eddie isn’t the only one with perhaps unnatural tendencies with regard to sheep. Though he and Mariposa seem to have become an item, Mariposa looks to be more interested in the creature, swooning and trying to engage it in some weird sort of dance. “I’ve been following you all the way from the Glory Hole,” she tells the creature.

But as I mentioned, it is some of the people in the town that are the real weirdos here. There is Mr. Silverdale, who restored the town so that it could become an historical landmark, and who hates tourists. There is Philip, his associate, an anxious, egotistical man. There is a crooked sheriff, a fortune teller named Alta, and a guy who lives at the dump, poking through garbage. Joining them is Mr. Barnstable, a man who has come to town with instructions to purchase the land, and who is mistreated by the town leaders. We also get a funeral for a dog that isn’t really dead, a seemingly racist vigilante squad, and strange and dangerous gases rising from the mines.

Yes, the acting is uneven. Yes, there are some ridiculous and goofy moments, like when Clemens finds those bones easily in a pile of dirt. And the ending is crazy and unexpected. But it’s an enjoyable movie nonetheless.

Special Features

The Blu-ray contains quite a bit of bonus material. There is a short film about studying UFOs that is narrated at the beginning, almost like the movie is being read to us. Hey, one guy was beamed aboard a craft, just like in Star Trek. And remember: “Abe in 1860, Gabe in 1960.” This short is approximately thirty-six minutes. Just In Case: Suppression Of School Bus Fires is an educational short film on how to set school buses on fire, and about how children are horrible. This one is approximately twenty-five minutes. White Gorilla is a short film about an expedition that comes across a white gorilla. It is approximately ten minutes.

There are also trailers for films like Creature From Black Lake, Grizzly (“the deadliest jaws on land belong to Grizzly”), The Mysterious Monsters, South Of Hell Mountain, and Man Beast.

But the main special feature is actually a second feature-length film. Titled The Legend Of Bigfoot, this 1975 film was directed by Harry Stuart Winer, and is about a tracker who becomes obsessed with finding Bigfoot. It’s an odd film, featuring some excellent nature footage. At one point, the tracker is called to Alaska to hunt down a bear that was supposedly killing cattle. But he knew immediately that the bear wasn’t responsible. There is some nice footage of bears, by the way. One of the people there claims that Bigfoot was responsible for the deaths of the cattle. And this is the beginning of the tracker’s interest in the legend. The tracker narrates the film.

Godmonster Of Indian Flats is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray on July 10, 2018.