Zaat (1971)

A mad scientist transforms himself into an aquatic killer.

Director:

Don Barton

Writers:

Ron Kivett (story), Lee O. Larew (story),

Stars:

Marshall Grauer, Wade Popwell, Paul Galloway

Bottom 100 #47 | See the Bottom 100 movies as voted by our users.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marshall Grauer	...	Dr. Kurt Leopold
Wade Popwell	...	The Monster
Paul Galloway	...	Sheriff Lou Krantz
Gerald Cruse	...	Marine Biologist Rex
Sanna Ringhaver	...	INPIT Agent Martha Walsh
Dave Dickerson	...	INPIT Agent Walker Stevens
Rich Valliere	...	Deputy Sheriff (as Archie Valliere)
Nancy Lien	...	Girl Camper
Russell Holcomb
Gloria Brady
Del Galloway
Hal Nearhoof
Jim Merrill	...	Boy on porch
Elizabeth Barton	...	Girl on porch
Bob Knowles

Storyline

A mad scientist (and apparent former Nazi) unleashes his master plan: to transform himself into a mutated walking catfish, gain revenge on those who have spurned him, and kidnap nubile young women to similarly transform so that he can breed. Or something like that.

---

Plot Keywords:

mad scientist | scientist | catfish | laboratory | nazi experiment | 

---

Taglines:

Is the monster man... fish... or devil?

---

Genres:

Fantasy | Sci-Fi

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

January 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

Attack of the Swamp Creatures

Filming Locations:

Green Cove Springs, Florida, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Barton Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Marineland park location that was used for Dr. Leopold's lab was previously used for another monster film: Revenge of the Creature.

---

Goofs

After the Monster trashes the drugstore and walks out to the right side, a shadow can be seen moving around on the floor on the left side.

---

Quotes

Dr. Leopold: The formula they all laughed at - Z sub A, A sub T... ZaAt!

---

Connections

Referenced in Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)

User Reviews

Z sub A and A sub T

I actually really liked this film, but I am also a big fan of cheap, trashy, ugly little films from the 60s and 70s. This is one of the cheapest and ugliest, but it has a rough appeal to it nonetheless.

A nerdy, evil little scientist who looks like Elmer Fudd decides to turn himself into a giant fish monster, and succeeds...sort of. Actually, it looks like he slapped some mud on a gas mask and donned a suit made of out dirty Glad garbage bags. But if you like your monsters goofy, you'll like this one. Anyway, our bad tempered fish monster goes on a killing spree in remote Florida. When he's not killing, he's ogling a beautiful blond in a bikini and a conveniently beautiful scientist whose fatal mistake was to disrobe in front of the window and put on a pretty sun dress.

This film is absolutely ludicrous, but it's also a lot of fun. The unhappy ending was not something I saw coming, and was a shock since this film seemed to so very badly want to recapture the glory days of mad-scientist-making-monsters-in-their-basement-labs movies from the 50s. If you want to see a lot of truly stupid yokels getting killed, then this movie is for you. It's just bad enough to be entertaining.