Monster a go go

Monster a go go

Monster a-go go

Monster a go go is a strange film with a strange history.  Pioneer indie filmmaker and gore guru, Herschell Gordon Lewis acquired a partially finished film from Bill Rebane and finished it so he could have a double bill film to show theaters.  In that era of film distribution, you increased your chance of actually getting paid by theater owners if both films were under your name. 

The film concerns an astronaut struck by mysterious radiation.  Since Lewis was filming scenes years after the partially finished film, one actor played his previous character's 'brother' as well as the iconic droning narration(in our era of high end sound equipment and EFX would not be a problem, but in the earlier era of indies, you could cover huge gaps in sound by music and/or narration).

10 foot tall monster astronaut from a tiny cardboard capsule!

 

The film is very disjointed in structure, and the ending is somewhat off kilter.  The radioactive astronaut monster causing havoc has a mysterious resolution.  The narrator (Lewis) announces that there was never a monster, and the real astronaut was safe miles away.  Add to this weird ending, disjointed acting and a chaotic film structure you have one of the strange films that was lampooned on mystery science theater TV show.  Did the monster happen or was it all a trick of the mind?

Monster a-go go was also lampooned on mystery science theater 3000

 Herschell Gordon Lewis would later be instrumental in the first gore film, bloodfest, and other slasher films.  It is ironic such gore feasts would have its roots with a strange atomic monster from a cardboard space capsule.