Sinister Cinema – Drive-In Double Feature #92 – A Ray Dennis Steckler Double Feature

By Steve D. Stones

Sinister Cinema is a small mom and pop movie distribution business in Medford, Oregon, that sells many obscure and long forgotten science-fiction, cult, sword & sandal, horror, exploitation and juvenile delinquent films from a forgotten era of cinema. I am greatly indebted to Sinister Cinema for many of the obscure films in my personal film library. Many of the titles they sell cannot be found anywhere else, which is one of many reasons why I always purchase films from them. One of their most interesting offerings is their “drive-in double feature” series of two films with trailers and intermission clips inserted between films on DVD format.

A particular drive-in double feature favorite of mine from Sinister Cinema that I have in my collection is Drive-In Double Feature #92, which is a Ray Dennis Steckler double feature of The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living & Became Mixed Up Zombies (1963) and The Thrill Killers (1965). Director Steckler directs and acts in both films, and goes by the screen name of Cash Flagg.

If Steckler continues to be discussed for decades to come, it is likely that The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living & Became Mixed Up Zombies will be the film that he is most known for. The title of the film is a spoof-parody of Stanley Kubrick's film – Dr. Strangelove (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). In this film, Steckler plays an unemployed romantic named Jerry who takes his girlfriend Angela to a carnival on a double date with friends. Jerry becomes obsessed and falls in love with a gypsy dancer named Carmelita at the carnival and is later hypnotized into becoming a crazed killer by a fortune teller. In one scene, he murders an alcoholic dancer, played by his beautiful wife at the time – Carolyn Brandt. Cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond, who went on to become Oscar winners for other films, worked on this film. The film is also known as The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary, and its condensed title of – The Incredibly Strange Creatures. The film is regarded as the first “Monster Musical.

Next up on this great DVD double feature, we have Steckler's third film from1964 – The Thrill Killers. Here Steckler plays a thrill killer named Mort “Mad Dog” Click, who kills a man in his car with a gun while hitchhiking. Click is meeting with his brother Herbie (Herb Robins) and two escaped psychos from a local insane asylum. Meanwhile, struggling actor Joe Saxon (Brick Bardo) continues to promise his sexy wife Liz, played by Liz Renay, that he'll make it as an actor someday. Liz is tired of his promises, so she leaves him to go to her sister's diner nearby. Liz and her sister are held up and terrorized at the diner by Herbie and the two escaped psychos. The psychos have just come from killing a young couple – played by Steckler's wife Carolyn Brandt and Ron Burr. The closing fight sequences and chase sequence of Steckler being chased on a horse down a rough road by Titus Moede on a sheriff's motorcycle are amazing and well done for a low-budget film. Actor Herb Robins went on to direct his own cult film in 1977 – The Worm Eaters. Be on the lookout for actor Arch Hall Sr. in The Thrill Killers, who directed the caveman epic - Eegah in 1962 – starring his son – Arch Hall Jr.

If you're a collector of old, obscure and forgotten films like me – you don't want to miss the drive-in double features offered for sale by Sinister Cinema. Some of the other drive-in double-feature DVDs offered by Sinister Cinema are – Drive-In Double Feature #4: Attack of The Giant Leeches and A Bucket of Blood, Drive-In Double Feature #140: I Eat Your Skin and Beach Girls And The Monster, Drive-In Double Feature #163: The Split (aka The Manster) and Screaming Skull, along with many other double feature titles for sale. Many of these double features are paired up together as they originally played at drive-in theaters. Happy viewing!