Zaat (1975)

Attack of the Swamp Creatures
Blood Waters of Dr. Z
Dr. Z
Hydra
Legend of the Zaat Monster

Cast:

Marshall Graueris Dr. Kurt Leopold
Wade Popwell is The Monster
Paul Galloway is Sheriff Lou Krantz
Gerald Cruse is Marine Biologist Rex
Sanna Ringhaver is INPIT Agent Martha Walsh
Dave Dickerson is INPIT Agent Walker Stevens

What the IMDB says about the plot:

A mad scientist transforms himself into an aquatic killer.

Plot:

With stock sea footage, the all omniscient narrator or mad scientist Dr. Zaat extols how he wants to rule the world by becoming a shark. In his lab, he's growing some giant walking fish that hungers for human flesh. Zaat is sure he's ready and injects himself with the formula

Why, yes, I'm doing a Dr. Herbert West, Re-Animator impression... which turns him into the aquatic monster.
I'm not Gill Man from the Black Lagoon

Sheriff Krantz and Rex, the state inspector, have to contend with walking catfish. Rex finds a strange radiation detected on the fish.

Zaat wants revenge on the various scientists that scorned his project years ago.

You didn't think an army of amphibious fish monsters to conquer the world was a good idea. How about now? Yes, the mad scientist will hunt down those who doubted his genius. Zaat is moving onto his next target.

Sheriff Krantz and Rex investigate the dead scientist. Rex is told to contact INPIT, some scientific investigative agency.

Aquatic monsters also love the ladies. Zaat grabs a camping lady and takes her to his lab. However, the process kills her.

Just be glad I've devoted my plastic surgery skills to other people... Zaat needs a female version who will be the mother of his aquatic super-race.

That night, the INPIT agents and Rex check one of their traps and are attacked by Zaat.

The townsfolk are hounding Sheriff Krantz about the deaths.

Zaat heads into town and rampages in a drug store for some chemical.

Krantz tries to get everyone to stay inside but brings a group of hippies into the jail to keep them safe.

As INPIT gets data on Dr. Z; the sheriff has heard the stories of the strange scientist at the closed lab. As they split to investigate, Zaat grabs agent Martha. Walker will track after them. Krantz and Rex will head straight to the lab.

Krantz fights Zaat but gets killed. Rex goes after Martha. He finds Zaat's notes and tries to rescue Martha. Rex gets clobbered by Zaat easily. Zaat heads back to his work of a fish-woman. The mortally wounded, Rex, is able to pull Martha out of the pool.

Zaat heads for the ocean. Walker finally reaches the lab after being bitten by a snake. He opens fire on Zaat who goes into the ocean. Martha walks past the Walker and into the ocean.

What I say:

One thing that almost automatically includes a movie to possible review material is if it starts with the letter "Z". We've seen what happened with the truly Sean Conneriffic Zardoz and the foreign Zeram. Zaat is mainly known for being one of the last movies on MST3K.

Good to know hippies can be lured around a small town by leading a singer around.

Can't shake the idea that this movie is a cross between the sheriffIn the Heat of the Night having to team up with someone from out of town and must contend with some sort of Creature From the Black Lagoon. 25 years later this would have been a Sci-Fi Channel original movie. A couple of movies about genetically engineered fish have popped up since the late 90s: Frankenfish and Snakehead Terror.

We get more narration from the scientist and when he turned into the monster than dialogue. Dune is the only movie I can think of that has more narrationthan Zaat. OK, who wasn't expecting to hear "Dune...Arrakis...Desert Planet..."? Our mad scientist doesn't say anything at all in the entire movie. It is all narration. All mad scientists just want to genetically alter themselves into an amphibious fish-monster to rule the world because science has never really gotten a fair shake in movies. From Dr. Frankenstein to Herbert West, Re-Animator, we've seen that the scientists all crave involve tampering in realms of knowledge best left unknown.

OK, ZAAT is the name of the chemical formula that mad scientist, Dr. Leopold used. ZAAT is such a weird word, I've got to use it as much as possible.

Most low budget monster movies try to avoid showing the monster. For example, most ape movies have so much stock footage or ape costumes that would be overpriced at the "Everything a $1" store. Zaat is determined for everyone to get a good look at its monster. The monster's face looks likeTrumpy from Pod People. Body-wise, I may haven't seen the Creature From the Black Lagoon in so long as to help Zaat's appearance.

Typically, a movie like this would have barely mentioned ZAAT with the way the townsfolk kept complaining about the walking catfish. The movie had to keep mentioning the walking catfish or snakehead fish. On their own, a fish that can survive out of water for 2 days and is also omnivorious isn't the best fish to have around.

The ending could only have been more confusing had it ended with the "is it a nightmare or not" dream ending. Martha after being saved from being turned into a fish-monster runs off to spawn with Zaat. How does a woman who is still human and still has lungs is able to run off under the sea is the great mystery? It seems the director got to the end of a reel of film and decided to end the movie at that point.

Quotable Dialogue
"And together we'll conquer the world!"
"You can't battle people only 2 feet long!"
"A mutated sea creature of some kind."
"Why does any monster want to come to this town?"
Morals of the Story
Octopii are fish.
Monsters love to use spray bottles.
Pools need Geiger counters.
Conquering the world IS NOT a mad scientist plot.
Monsters love 1970s Folk Rock.
Aquatic monsters wear lipstick.