THE BEING (1983)

 I know I had seen this tale of a melty, radioactive, ALIEN-esque creature at least once before but I'll be damned if I could remember any of it even while re-watching it recently. That is a bit weird because it has such a crazy hodge-podge of a cast including Martin Landau as a scientist, Jose Ferrer as the mayor and disgruntled alcoholic husband of Ruth Buzzi(from 60s T.V.'s LAUGH-IN), The Unknown Comic without his mask on and fellow comedian Kinky Friedman as bumbling Idaho-hicks. Also it's directed by Jackie Kong whose other big film BLOOD DINER I have an irrational love for. In this one, despite there being a handful of comedy pros that appear, there's nothing very comedic that happens. This is not necessarily a bad thing since, god knows, there are more than enough silly 80s attempts at horror movies(for example every NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET movie). What you do get is  a pretty straight-ahead monster-on-the-loose epic where a young boy gets his head ripped off, some drive-in patrons get snatched and offed by our one eyed mutated freak who can seemingly melt and reassemble himself when the situation calls for it and a backstory that I wasn't too clear on concerning a ladies(old-timey actress Dorothy Malone) little boy becoming the monster. While this isn't the worst I can't help but think this needs a couple of those insane wacky touches that Kong put into BLOOD DINER to make this one stand-out more from the rest of the more standard 80s creature features. AKA EASTER SUNDAY, FREAK, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE POTTSVILLE HORROR