Godmonster of Indian Flats

Did You Know?

• The film was shot on location in Virginia City, Nevada, where director Fredric Hobbs owned the Silver Dollar Hotel.
• Hobbs described his earlier film Roseland as a metaphysical skin-flick and philosophical fuck film.
• The film's director, Fredric Hobbs, also directed Alabama's Ghost, Troika, and Roseland.

Plot

In a mine outside Reno, Nevada, a rancher named Eddie finds a large, mutated sheep embryo. Professor Clemens and his assistant Mariposa take it to his lab. Clemens says he came to investigate the mines because of a local legend about a monster. He discovers phosphorus vapors from the mine may have caused the mutation.

He places the embryo in an incubation chamber, where it grows into an eight-foot-tall mutant sheep. Meanwhile, Barnstable, a wealthy Black man from the East Coast, tries to buy land for mining development for his boss Rupert Reich. Mayor Charles Silverdale, who wants to preserve the town for Old West tourism, frames Barnstable for killing a dog (actually sent to a nephew) and gathers a lynch mob. Barnstable escapes.

The monster escapes the lab, frightens children, scares locals, and causes a man to blow up his gas station. After capture, the mayor plans to display it as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The townspeople, angry that Silverdale sold their land claims, push cars over a cliff onto a garbage dump, including the caged monster. The Godmonster explodes.

Barnstable flees. The final scene shows more mutant sheep being born as Silverdale rants about violence and justice, shouting at Barnstable.

Reception and legacy

Godmonster of Indian Flats had a small theatrical release but gained cult status through home video releases by Something Weird Video on VHS in 1996 and DVD in 2001. It is often reviewed as so bad it is good, with critics noting the strange relationship between its intertwined plots, which barely intersect until late in the film, and its hectic final scene that ends abruptly. Some reviewers praise it as a well-written look at race relations in the 1970s western United States alongside its B-movie horror elements.

Jerry Renshaw of The Austin Chronicle called it bizarre and stupefying, describing the monster as resembling Snuffleupagus with Joe Camel's face. Annalee Newitz of Gizmodo termed it a terrific entry in the pollution mutant genre and good political satire. A 35mm print archived by the American Genre Film Archive was scanned and released in 4K on Blu-ray in 2018. RiffTrax, featuring former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni, riffed the film in 2018, calling it one of the weirdest movies ever made.