TRACK OF THE MOON BEAST (1976)

Chase Cordell plays Paul, a geologist (or archeologist or something—he still lives with his mom, I think) who lives in New Mexico and pals around with a Native American college professor named Johnny Longbow (Professor John to his students). Paul, Johnny, some students, and a photographer named Cathy meet up in some hills where Paul has been digging. They all go off to Johnny's cabin where he makes them dinner. An asteroid is about to hit the moon, resulting in a spectacular meteor shower, and since Paul and Cathy hit it off (quickly but blandly), they head out to the hills to watch it. Rather improbably, Paul gets hit in the head by a small flaming chunk of meteorite but plays it off as nothing, though we discover later that a small fragment of the meteorite is actually lodged in his brain. In the midst of a multi-day courtship, Paul and Cathy visit a museum where a moon rock shoots a laser-like ray of light at Paul's head. That night, a sweaty, writhing Paul transforms into a giant lizard beast—like a human-sized edition of the dinosaur-looking monitor lizard that Paul keeps as a pet—and winds up mutilating and killing a drunk guy whose wife then dies of a heart attack when she sees his body. This keeps happening, and the only clue crops up when Johnny recalls some Navajo folklore about the moon causing a man to change into a giant lizard. Sadly, the folktale ends with the lizard beast eventually dying of spontaneous combustion—is this how things will end for Paul?

B-movie heaven and B-movie hell often coincide, as they do here. There are some delightfully cheap thrills on a low budget, with several moments that wound up getting mocked by the guys on Mystery Science Theater 3000, the funniest of which is Johnny's tedious recitation of the ingredients of his tasty stew: "Chicken, corn, green peppers, chili, [long bored sigh]… onions." There's a also show-stopping—in a bad way—moment in a bar of a folk band performing something called "California Lady." The acting is dreadful throughout, but an eye dulled by drink might come to see the acting as contributing to an almost surreal atmosphere. Some critics call Chase Cordell wooden and distracted, except when he's writhing his way through a transformation, but you could be inclined to say he's presenting a character who is socially inept, or anti-social, but hides behind his bland half-smile (and his several shirtless scenes made me judge his performance a little less harshly). Worse is Leigh Drake as Cathy, whose flipping between overacting and underacting makes it seem like she's in a totally different movie from Cordell. I was pulling for Gregorio Sala as Johnny, but his character is so inconsistent and underwritten that he comes off as badly as the two leads. The appearance of the Moon Beast, done by future make-up and FX superstar Rick Baker, isn't bad though it looks nothing like the fabulous poster art (looks like the work of Frank Frazetta but it probably isn't). The beast attack scenes are awkwardly staged and edited, but a scene of the Moon Beast ripping a guy's arm off works almost in spite of the way it was filmed. Fun for junk-movie aficionados but other should beware. [DVD]