Despite the fact that it was never officially released, director Roger Corman’s 1994 Fantastic Four film holds infamous status among comic fans and movie buffs alike. Even with the incredibly low expectations (not to mention budget) and the rather suspect motives behind the movie’s creation, the final product is laughably, sacrilegiously bad. At some point in the near future, a documentary by Marty Langford and Mark Sikes, entitled Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four, will allow you to learn everything there is to know about the failed cult classic. The trailer is here for your viewing pleasure.
According to the legend, the film was made solely so Bernd Eichinger could retain the film rights of the Fantastic Four. Given the need to get literally anything made in time to meet the legal deadline, the movie was shot in less than a month for a mere $1 million. The limited constraints of the project explain why the film is just unspeakably horrible. Seriously, the 2005 Fantastic Four movie looks like Hitchcock compared to this one. Of course, there is a worthy story behind this movie, and Langford and Sikes sought to tell it with this film. While there is no release date for the movie, it has a website with more information and a trailer was released this week.
If you need any more convincing that this documentary is a necessary addition to our culture, please look at this scene from the film. In this video, the Four have just returned from their disastrous space journey and Ben Grimm has yet to find out that he has been transformed into a living piece of shit the iconic rock-like monster we all know and love.
Yeah, Forrest Gump may have won the Oscar in 1994, but we all know what the true best picture was. In case you just can’t wait, the entirety of Corman’s film is available on YouTube. Here’s hoping that the documentary comes out in the near future.
Have you ever seen Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four movie? What are some of your beloved yet terrible superhero movies? Share your thoughts in the comments!