If you’re a fan of rampaging monster/sci-fi movie tributes like “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra,” or “Stomp! Shout! Scream!” then you’ll definitely love what David Cornelius has cooked up for film lovers. “Inhumanwich!” is a fun and sharp black and white send up of classic sixties monster movies that embraces its low budget working around the limited scenery and small cast to deliver one really fun and funny seventy five minute film. David Cornelius who wrote and directed the film obviously has a keen knowledge of the space exploration horror films, as he conjures up films like “The Blob,” “Robot Monster,” and “The Creeping Terror” for some really good material.
Reminiscent of the Zucker Brothers quite often (this feels like it would have played in the middle of a “Kentucky Fried Movie” sequel), “Inhumanwich!” is centered on a space expedition gone wrong. After an accident involving radioactivity in space, an astronaut merges with his sandwich. Crash landing on Earth, he emerges a half man, half gelatinous monster made of beef that is hell bent on eating Earths denizens. With the meat monster getting larger, the military and a bunch of inept scientists rush to stop the monster. Cornelius covers so many classic tropes of old fashioned cinema that it’s surprising how meticulous he tends to be.
One of my favorite scenes involves the staging of a phone call where the wife of the ill fated astronaut is told about her husband. As with a lot of old fashioned sitcoms, she feels the unusual need to re-iterate everything the scientist says for the audience. There’s even an inexplicable rock and roll musical number that completely derails the momentum of the narrative. David Cornelius does a bang up job of creating this goofy mayhem and wacky premise, injecting some very decent special effects, and great editing by Matt Grey. Cornelius even subverts conventions by making quick work of many characters, and staging some rather hilarious deaths by way of the meat blob.
The cast all do great jobs in their roles, playing lunk headed military men, or pompous scientists, and director Cornelius knows how to direct his cast to where they’re terrible, but not terrible by conventional standards. Just sixties horror movie terrible, and that allows “Inhumanwich!” to be so much funnier. Director and writer David Cornelius obviously seems to be having fun making “Inhumanwich!” and that energy thankfully translates in to an entertaining and hilarious love letter to the Z grade drive in movies of yesteryear.
Screening Friday June 16th, at the Hobnobben Film Festival, at Ft Wayne’s Cinema Center. Tickets are On Sale Now.