Monster a Go-Go

Monster a Go-Go (also called Monster A-Go Go) is a 1965 American science-fiction horror film directed by Bill Rebane and Herschell Gordon Lewis (who remained uncredited in association with this film).

The film was famously featured on mh:besttvshows:Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1993, being shown alongside a short film called Circus on Ice, and has been declared one of the worst films of all-time since then.

Plot
An army astronaut's capsule returns to Earth, but he's not in it. However, there is a mutant monster wreaking havoc nearby. Could there be a connection?

Why It Should Go-Go Away

 * 1) The plot (or lack thereof) is incoherent and nonsensical, and is only made worse by the ending.
 * 2) All of the characters in the first half of the movie disappear around halfway through, being replaced by different people in the second half.
 * 3) The editing is really poor and disjointed.
 * 4) At one point, a telephone rings, and its sound effect was clearly dubbed in by a person, which is pretty confusing, as some previous scenes used a proper phone ringing sound instead of imitating said sound.
 * 5) The pacing of the movie is slow, and feels like it's going for an eternity.
 * 6) The monster looks terrible, and looks like a person suffering from a bad case of acne.
 * 7) Horrible twist ending: It turns out that there was no monster after all and the astronaut was rescued days earlier, making the film a complete waste of time.

Reception
"I recall this episode as being the first time we decided explicitly to write sketches having nothing to do with the movie. Really, we had no choice. (...A)ny topic that is about something (that is, any topic that exhibits "topicness") cannot, by definition, have anything to do with this movie."

- Paul Chaplin, The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide

Critical reception for Monster a Go-Go has been predominantly negative, with the film regarded as being one of the all-time worst.

When the film was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, nearly the entire cast of the show and Best Brains stated this was officially the worst movie they had ever seen up to that point.

Allmovie gave the film a negative review, calling it "an incoherent concoction brewed solely to fill space on a double bill" while TV Guide panned the film, calling it "garbage".

Dennis Schwartz from Ozus' World Movie Reviews gave Monster a Go-Go a negative review. In his review on the film, Schwartz called it "One of the most incoherent films ever made because the plot line can't be explained rationally nor are the characters clearly defined." When reviewing the film, Horror News.net also noted the reason behind its negative reputation: "The film itself falls into the "worst" category with not only a lethargic presentation but with its odd-pieced editing style. Some scenes pop in out of nowhere that really don't seem to have much to do with the previous scene. Others are typical conversation scenes that are just edited back and forth in a haphazard way. I think the film stands better as a piece to be mocked and laughed at than as a real piece of important cinema. In fact, you may find humor in just those elements alone that make the experience one to look for mistakes, continuity errors and ridiculous logic at times. Why they felt the need that it needed some hipster dance scenes thrown in to sell more tickets is beyond me. But the result is so odd that it also deserves a laugh. It's classic B-grade miss mash that only has appeal in its disjointed effort."

Trivia

 * Director Herschell Gordon Lewis needed another movie for his own one, called Moonshine Mountain, to round out a double-feature, so he bought Bill Rebane’s unfinished Terror at Halfday which Rebane had completely abandoned in 1961 due to running out of money while making it. Lewis filmed extra scenes, added some dialogue, used a prerecorded narration from Rebane, and released it as Monster a Go-Go. Lewis did not finish the film until 1965, so he was unable to gather all of the original cast, resulting in almost half the characters disappearing midway through the film to be replaced by other characters who fill most of the same roles.
 * The appearance of the actor playing Dr. Henry Logan changed so dramatically that his character was changed to be Dr. Conrad Logan, Henry's brother.

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