MovieChat Forums > Zaat Discussion > Not That Bad, a Decent Low-Budget Film

Not That Bad, a Decent Low-Budget Film

posted 13 years ago by global_global
5 replies | jump to latest

I finally watched this the other day. I had recorded it off of TCM nearly two years ago and just forgot about it. After seeing it, it's not as bad as people here make it out to be.

At least it didn't waste time getting to the creation of the monster. So many movies would slowly build suspense, and while this can be an effective plot device, it can also get very pretentious. Zaat didn't waste time, the monster was created in the first 5 minutes.

Also, the ending was pretty good. The colored guy prevented the girl from being dipped in the water that would turn her into a monster. However, she'd already been injected with the fluid, so although she didn't physically transform, she was mentally in-line with the creature and followed him back into the ocean, even though her boyfriend tried to stop her. I'm giving this all away because anyone reading has either seen it, or will probably never see it.

I didn't understand the part with the hippie sing-along, I guess that was just filler material. Maybe they were a local Jacksonville band and the director promised them screen time.

While low budget, it was fairly well written in the sense that there weren't too many unexplained plot shifts or choppy plot line. So on the whole, I say this film was decent.

I think people are being overly dramatic about it because it was featured on MST3K.

Also, I wanted to mention that there were some pretty good shots of marine life at the beginning of the film. It may have been stock footage, I'm not sure. Despite the low budget, however, I have to give the underwater cameraman credit. Perhaps the underwater filming was where most of the budget was spent, because it was well done, and it was nice seeing that one chick swim around freely before the creature got her. Never really explained why she failed to transform.

[–] jhray8417 13 years ago

wow dude...this was a pretty horrendous film. but good for you if you thought it was more than that.

[–] global_global 13 years ago

What I was trying to convey is that it's not as "horrendous" as people make it out to be. I've seen much, much worse films than this. I think this is one of those low budget films that gets a notorious "it's terrible" reaction specifically because it was on MST3K.

In fact, I'd wager you've only seen the MST3K version and it's creating a bias in you. This film wasn't nearly as horrible as the drama queens here make it out to be.

[–] theimdbid 13 years ago

I would probably place this a tier above the worst movies ever made, I don't think it quite belongs in that conversation. And it's true that many MST3K movies are thrown in the bottom 100, but many deserve it on their own merits. This one doesn't, but it's still pretty terrible. The monster was laughable, not just the cheap costume, but how pathetic he was as a monster. He was lumbering and clumsy in the water and on land, basically the equivalent of a one-man zombie attack. He would have been much more dangerous as a human.

The movie's very thin on plot developments so we're treated to such boring events as watching someone listen to the radio (which gives out information we already knew) and a 15 minute "chase" scene where they're just looking for the monster. Aside from the underwater camera work, the rest of the film is shot horribly. Long zoomed out shots of the car, Stevens walking, the girl by the lake; a shot filmed through a bush; etc. I admit the ending was fairly clever, and might have even been moving if we actually gave a damn about any of the boring characters.

[–] lianzantoro 10 years ago

I actually like Zaat. It's got a cool looking monster, some good underwater photography, and nice Florida locations. I rated it 7/10.

Like you say, part of it's bad rep comes from the fact that it was on MST3K. Any movie featured on that show is automatically rated 1/10 by many of it's fans.

[–] drunkbear 8 years ago

There are two different versions of this film - both of which are pretty awful. At the moment, I can't recall which one MST3K did up, and which one I saw on the midnight movie, but in one version, we hear the scientists thoughts after he transforms himself into the monster. As I recall, almost the first thought we 'heard' was when he looked into the mirror: "What? It doesn't look anything like the walking catfish!" Which is about as lame a cover-up as I can think of for your FX department failing on the monster suit design. One version also has a scene where the sheriff leads the hippies to the jail, and they're all following his truck, singing and dancing.

I think the MST3K version lacks the dubbed-in thoughts, and the hippie parade.

"You may have come on no bicycle, but that does not say that you know everything."