Directed By: Arch Hall Sr.
Starring: Arch Hall Jr., Marilyn Manning, Richard Kiel
Tag line: "The Crazed Love of a Prehistoric Giant for a Ravishing Teenage Girl!"
Trivia: Arch Hall Sr. claimed that he came up with the idea for this film after meeting 7'2" Richard Kiel
Eegah is believed by many to be one of the worst films ever made, and to be sure, it’s a miserable failure as both an adventure and a teen romance. But as an unintentional comedy, Eegah is a laugh-out-loud riot.
One night, while driving down a secluded stretch of highway, Roxy Miller (Marilyn Manning) nearly runs over a giant (Richard Kiel), dressed in caveman garb and standing in the middle of the road. She tells her father (Arch Hall, Sr.) about the incident, and the old guy sets off on his own to investigate it, only to be captured by the giant and dragged to his cave. Worried about her father, Roxy and her boyfriend, wannabe rock star Tom (Arch Hall, Jr.), head out to the desert to conduct their own investigation. But before long, Roxy herself is also taken prisoner by the primitive behemoth, who’s so enamored with the young girl that he plans to keep her locked away in his cave forever.
The moment we’re shown the opening titles, which are sprawled across the mummified corpses of the giant’s long-dead relatives, we know Eegah is gonna be a treat. And the laughs don’t let up, from the nail-biting sequence where our heroes flee in Tom’s dune buggy (sometimes driving towards the pursuing caveman, who’s following on foot), to the mysterious line of dialogue, “Watch out for snakes”, which we hear despite the fact nobody was talking at the time. Even the film’s basic premise, that a caveman has been wandering the desert of Southern California since the prehistoric age without being seen, is hilariously inept, as are the musical interludes, performed by co-star Arch Hall Jr., who at one point belts out a sappy love song titled Vickie (even though his girlfriend’s name is Roxy).
What started life as a piss-poor fantasy/adventure has, over the years, slowly transformed into comedic gold. On par with Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space, Eegah is an uproarious example of how total incompetence can occasionally lead to something very special.
I can rarely sit through an unintentionally crappy movie. Even for laughs, because the humor of the sadness eventually wears thin. I've tried to watch this movie and, yes, some of it is so pathetic that it's funny; but after a very little while it awfulness of it is just too tedious.
ReplyDeleteThe sappy love song is actually "Valerie". Just heard it and saw the lip sync. Lol
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