Blu-ray, DVD Release: Zaat

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Feb. 21, 2012
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $19.99
Studio:
Film Chest


Zaat movie scene

A scaly sea creature gets to know the local in the 1972 cult horror favorite Zaat.

The cheesy 1972 monster movie Zaat became a cult favorite when it was mercilessly skewered on TV’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1999. But now the movie is ready to be taken seriously!

Co-written, directed by and produced by Jacksonville, Fl., resident Don Barton for $75,000 back in 1970, Zaat tells the story of a ridiculed scientist, Dr. Kurt Leopold (Marshall Grauer), who is convinced he can transform humans into fish. In his isolated backwoods laboratory, he proves his hypothesis by turning himself into a horrible, vengeful creature (played by Wade Popwell) that is part man, part walking catfish … and all idiotic!

Armed with his mutagenic chemical compound known as ZAAT, the monster is bent on revenge and determined to turn the tables on humanity by making his fishy friends the dominant species on Earth. All that stands in his way are a small town sheriff (Paul Galloway), a dedicated young biologist (Gerald Cruse) and a couple of swinging agents (Sanna Ringhaver, Dave Dickerson).

After its resurgence following its MST3000 rendition, Zaat received limited distribution to theaters in the Southern U.S. in 2009, where it was received more as a novelty than as the serious horror movie it wants to be regarded as.

Available on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time (legally) on Film Chests’s CULTRA and HD Cinema Classics labels  in a digitally restored edition, the discs feature a heap of bonus materials including the following:

  • commentary by cast and crew
  • outtakes
  • radio interview
  • before-and-after restoration demo
  • original movie art postcard

Check out the memorably moronic trailer:


 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.