Sins of the Fleshapoids (1966) User Reviews

What is that music??

[jonathan-osborn · 7/10 · 22 February 2006]

If anyone knows what the melodramatic piece of music is that keeps being repeated throughout the movie, please let me know.

It sounds like the closing theme to Alien, but this film is 15 years older than that.

By the way, ignore the negative comments that others have recorded about this film. This is a campy underground movie, not some mass-market film. Judge it on what it is, not what you think it should be! I wouldn't criticize Scorpio Rising because it's not Easy Rider!

And who keeps going on about Plan 9 From Outer Space in this day and age anyway?

This was the greatest movie ever made, bar none!

[tmc-7 · 7/10 · 31 March 2006]

Basically there are only two movies you have to watch. One is Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane." The other is, of course, "Sins of the Fleshopoids." While Welles took around 2 1/2 hours and about a hundred scenes to define his genius, Kuchar did it in about 12 seconds in less than one. The shot in which mankind's ultimate utopia is described by an Adonis like man with wearing a futuristic Roman style abbreviated tunic (to show off his muscle-man physique) and 50's flat-top (think brown-haired counterpart to Kirk Douglas as Spartacus) lays on a divan surrounded by faux Greek columns contemplating the simple , understated beauty of a Clark Bar. "Sins of the Fleshopoids" in my mind, was better than "Citizen Kane," but hands down, everybody must agree that given the choice between watching it, and "Gone with the Wind," (an unwatchable movie - no joke here) you've got to go with the Clark Bar.

The truth of the matter is that Kuchar knew exactly what he was making here, and did a pretty great job of winding some satire throughout his homage to the idiom.

All time worst, worse that Plan 9 from Outer Space

[alsandor · 8 November 2000]

It would appear the only point of this movie is to show a large breasted woman handling Christmas ornaments supposed to be jewels while a space pilot wears a football uniform in a palace which looks like a run-down house. The climactic birth scene has to be seen to be believed. Lots of wafting breezes.

Sleaze Fest at Its Finest

[SenjoorMutt · 6/10 · 5 December 2015]

'Sins of the Fleshapoids' is the first film Mike Kuchar, little lesser known twin brother of George Kuchar, directed himself. The film tells a story set about million years in the future where people have become lazy and selfish, so they have human like robot salves to serve them, who are called Fleshapoids. Two androids develop feelings towards each other.

'Sins of the Fleshapoids' is deliberately campy and sleazy that was produced on minimal budget. The film became quite a success of midnight movies. 'Sins of the Fleshapoids' (along with other Mike Kuchar film 'The Craven Sluck') became a mayor influence on John Waters' films.

A true treasure in the vault of campy films

[weaselvulture · 8/10 · 27 March 2007]

In order to judge a campy film, you have to use an entirely different rubric than to judge something more... high-budget. It is obvious which genre this film falls into, and if you're using the right rubric, it's hilarity all around! This movie has everything: CHEAP sets, props, and costumes; garish colors; weird music; hilarious actors; a ridiculous plot, and finally, dialog that is only enhanced in campiness by actually being WRITTEN onto the film itself, rather than spoken.

My only complaint really concerns just one scene, near the end of the movie, that seems to go on forever, along with really repetitive noises. But, I have a "thing" about repetitive noises, and it probably bothered me more than most. So if I can get past it, I bet you could, too! Anyway... this is possibly the most low-budget film I've ever seen. I am even taking into account Pink Flamingos (John Waters is my favorite director, if that gives you some insight as to how I judge movies), the budget of which was a mere $300.

The bottom line is, if you aren't already a big fan of campy movies, then you're going to think this is just a bad movie- a really, really bad movie. But if you ARE such fan, I think you'll appreciate it- very, very much.

Remnent of a lost film movement is best viewed in a historical context.

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 28 November 2008]

Underground film from the 1960's that plays better in the context of history rather than in present. The story has something to do with fleshapoids, robots in the future that go berserk and develop feelings. Made about the same time as Andy Warhol was turning out his early films and Andy Milligan was abandoning off Broadway for cinema screens this is an odd film that has been compared to the works of Kenneth Anger. I think the connection is tenuous at best since Anger had a little bit more going on then whats on screen here. (Frankly I think people who make the connection simply because Anger is a name people know.) Campy, I'm not sure intentionally so, the film isn't bad, but its not really good with the stupid motions of the fleshapoids making this the sort of film that will have you asking if they were serious. I'm guessing that the film played better in the basement cinemas where it was first shown. I decided to pick the film up because I had read about it over the years as being an "important" work in the history of underground film. Watching it some 45 years after it was filmed I was struck by how of the time it was, unfortunately its time has passed. Worth a look for people interested in the underground films of the 1960's. All others are advised to look elsewhere

A Masterpiece!

[tbale · 10/10 · 21 August 2006]

The theme that recurs throughout "Fleshapoids" is Howard Hanson's Second Symphony ("Romantic"). And yes, it's the same music used in "Alien." This film is a brilliant amalgamation of cinema rhetoric, fairy tale, pop art and cartoon. The typical Hollywood "love" scene, for example, is distorted way beyond familiarity. I can't think of any film that has such wonderful art direction on such a modest budget (Kuchar used his own crayon drawings, plastic fruit from Woolworth's, murals made with interior paint, etc.). As with many films from the Kuchar brothers, it's the original blend of music, voice-over and image that stuns you, leaving you either in tears of laughter.

Underground novelty of historical interest only

[jamesrupert2014 · 3/10 · 11 February 2021]

A million years in the future, the few survivors of a nuclear holocaust lounge decadently amid plastic fruit, eating Clark bars and Wise-brand potato chips while being waited on by flesh-covered electronic slaves, the titular 'fleshapoids'. Mike Kuchar's amateurish satirical underground film will only be of interest to non-film students as novelty-item - a throwback to the 1960's often overrated 'counterculture-movement'. The 16mm production features crayon drawings for backgrounds, 'word bubbles' instead of dialogue, and too little story for even its brief 45 minute running time. A parody of the 'robots discovering their humanity' trope, there is little particularly unique, clever, or innovative in the film and the payoff - the scene with the fleshapoids 'making love' and the consequence of their illicit passion is barely worth sitting through the first half-hour. The soundtrack is an experimentalist mix of atonal musical-noise and neo-classical (Howard Hanson's "Symphony No. 2, Romantic") - annoying or diverting, depending on tastes. Barley watchable, even when judged for what it is.

Sins!

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 9 April 2021]

John Waters claimed that this movie showed him what an underground movie was, so we have Mike Kuchar to thank. This is the first film he made without his twin brother George, financed from his day job as a photo retoucher. It actually paid off well enough that he was able to become a filmmaker.

A million years in the post-nuclear war future, androids called Fleshapods fulfill every desire human beings have, making them even lazier than now. Two of them, Xar and Melenka, have decided to fall in love and woe be to any human who gets in their way. Also, there's a prince and a princess who have fallen out of love just as our heroes discover that robots certainly can find romance.

Keep in mind that all of this futuristic magic is being told inside an apartment, with a soundtrack of slowed down records predating the chopped and screwed aesthetic, with word balloons appearing on screen for some of the dialogue. Space pilots with football helmets, nude princesses with Christmas ornaments, male on male longing, snack food that somehow makes its way to a million years from now, neon everything and the gaudiest make up this side of a drag show.

The end of the world has never looked so fabulous.

Cannot put into words how bad this movie was

[imdb-16001 · 1/10 · 28 December 2013]

I truly am at a loss as to why this movie has such a high rating. Campy is one thing. Bad is totally another. I thought I had seen all the horrible movies. I thought I had seen all the really bad ones. I was wrong. This film easily takes the spot in my worst movie category. The plot, the acting, the set...who am I kidding? There wasn't any! The soundtrack was horrible. The best way to watch this movie is with the director's commentary on. By far, it is funnier than the movie. He even says that the people in the film can't act. And that there was no script; the lines were all made up on the spot. Don't waste your money renting this one, but if you do, definitely turn on the commentary.

One man's art is another man's garbage...

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 4 December 2009]

Wow. This movie gives all new meaning to the word 'bad'. This is an absolutely stupid and nearly worthless film, yet I also know that when it debuted the 'with it' people loved it for its brilliance--the same types who fawned over everything Andy Worhol produced at the time as well. This group of devoted fans make up .01% of the population (give or take .01%) and the rest of us (the normals) look at this film with disbelief--disbelief that a film manages to be much worse than Ed Wood's famed PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. Just watch the insane birth scene at the end of the film or the Grecian sets and you'll know what I mean.

Now this does not mean that the film is 100% bad. The basic story idea of robots becoming more human over time isn't bad (though you really see none of this on film--just in the narration) and some of the color home movie shots are a bit sexy, but otherwise what's the point?! This is like a home movie of total strangers and weirdos that you are forced to watch! The film has no dialog (other than cartoon bubbles that are scrawled sloppily onto the film) and the acting is, to put it charitably, amateurish.

So why did I see this film? Well, recently John Waters talked about various films that influenced him--including SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS. Well, I can see how this film encouraged Waters to show his rough home movies about Baltimore and the cheapness of his early films (like MONDO TRASHO and THE DIANE LINKLETTER STORY) clearly was inspired by this Kuchar Brothers film. However, unlike the early rough Waters films, FLESHAPOIDS isn't the least bit funny or entertaining. Waters' early movies, though crudely made and cheap and garish, were oddly fun. SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS is fun--in pretty much the same way a root canal is fun!

Overall, a complete waste of time. Instead, ask grandpa to show you his old super 8mm films from the 1960s--they can't be any worse than this.