Zaat (1975)

Directed by Don Barton
My rating: 1.5 star out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Alone among walking catfish movies, Zaat is where it's at. A narrator channeling Ed Wood tells us the inner life of Dr. Leopold, whose quest to "conquer the universe" leads him to discover a way to turn man into fish. He promptly does so to himself, and the results are a cross between the Creature from the Black Lagoon and ALF. He spends the rest of the film in his monster rubber suit, terrorizing the residents of Cypress Grove, Florida. A good ole boy sheriff, college graduate researcher and a couple of employees in red jumpsuits from "INPIT" try to stop him. The film comes to a complete halt when a group of long-haired Jesus freaks are escorted to jail for their own protection, strumming an acoustic guitar and playing a flute along the way. Well, old Doc Leopold eventually decides he needs a mate to start his own walking catfish species, so he goes after the pretty girls in the cast. He accidentally kills one of them while trying to turn her into a fish. He almost gets the other one. There is actually some good underwater photography of fish on display, and a bubbly/eerie electronic soundtrack.