It’s bad. There’s no doubt about that. It is a perfect bad film. But it’s memorable for it’s ineptness. Torgo and The Master alone make this one bizarre and notable film. These two characters absolutely stand out. It’s no wonder that Torgo (played by Mike Nelson) made nearly a dozen appearances down in Deep 13. He made that much of an impact on them.

As terrible as it is, the Brains did in fact cover even worse films. There’s the Coleman Francis trilogy, each and everyone of them so poorly made and incoherent that Manos actually starts to look pretty good by comparison. Although “The Skydivers” seems to have some sort of story going on and even has somewhat of an interesting vibe to it, it’s still quite a bit worse than Manos, but by only a little. “The Beast of Yucca Flats” and “Red Zone Cuba” are on an entirely different level however.

And how about “The Creeping Terror”? It feels like half of the film is narrated when there should be dialogue (you see the characters talk to each other as narration is placed over them!) and the “Terror” is one of the oddest looking monsters ever created (not that that’s REALLY a bad thing, they did what they could, and that thing was the result).

Then there’s the utterly incomprehensible “Castle of Fu Manchu”, an episode despised by well over half of the fan base from what I can gather (I’m one of the few who thinks it’s pretty damn good). Manos may not make a whole lot of sense, but it’s a pretty linear movie with not a whole lot going on. Fu Manchu on the other hand practically starts off making no sense and stays that way.

And the worst of them all? That would be “Monster A-Go-Go”. Director Bill Rebane started it as “Terror at Halfday”, which was never finished. About four years later, Herschell Gordon Lewis attempted to finish it. As if the first half wasn’t bad enough, the second portion somehow manages to be even more incoherent and poorly shot. What little characters there were in the original film are all pretty much replaced, save for the “Monster” (who’s burns have disappeared when we see him for the last time). One of the actors was allegedly recast as his former character’s brother, having since gained weight and lost some of his hair.

The ending is truly one of the biggest cop outs ever. I wish I hadn’t spoiled it before watching the episode. Would I have felt legitimate anger over it if I didn’t know what was coming? Perhaps. As scripted as the show is, Joel and the Bots booing at the end manages to come off pretty realistic as does their near-despondence over the whole thing. Thank God it’s such a good episode (although not everybody feels this way).

Now, I’m not trying to say just because each of these films are all worse than Manos doesn’t mean they’re any less memorable. Save for maybe “Red Zone Cuba” (and “Fu Manchu” if you’re one of the many that’s probably either fallen asleep during it or given up on trying to watch it altogether), these are all still rather notable films (“Z”-grade as they all practically are) for just how awful they are, and are made even more-so by the talented folks at Best Brains for taking them on and providing us, the viewers, with an hour and a half’s worth of comedy. And remember:

THERE WAS NO MONSTER.