So, apparently I’ve been infected. I wasn’t aware of just how large a cult following this dire, mindrottingly bad sequel had until I was searching for images and info after the end credits rolled. Trying to find some kind of explanation for what I’d just seen, you might say. This one is truly, truly bad. It’s the kind of movie that leaves me trying to remember the other movies right down the bottom of my bad list that it might be in contention with. Thing is, I can’t deny, the phrase touted by its fans – “best worst movie” – really is kind of fitting. I can’t put this right at the bottom of any list, for the simple reason that it kinda blew my mind so much by its badness.

At its centre for me is the girl pictured above, Deborah Reed as the witchy character Creedence Leonore Gielgud. Now, I know, I’m weird, but there is something about a hellish woman like this able and willing to transform people’s bodies in weird and wonderful ways that appeals to my strangest inner child – the one that would’ve gone to Ursula after watching The Little Mermaid even knowing that she’d ultimately turn me into one of those funny slime things just ‘cos she might turn me into something else beforehand, lol. And this character serves perfectly. Reed revels either knowingly or not in the trashiness of the movie and was surely an inspiration for Uma Thuman’s Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin. For her alone, the movie is more than worth watching. It’s worth watching without her though – you just come out of this thinking one word questions like “how?!” “why?!” … the effects and make-up are hysterically awful. Yet you just can’t keep your eyes off. I’m sure I’ll watch this again some time … but I have no idea why …