Dive into the toxic oddity that is “The Being” (1981), Jackie Kong’s gloriously gonzo, slime-soaked, creature feature debut.
As we celebrate the gloriously unhinged legacy of BLOOD DINER on its anniversary (July 10, 1987), it’s only fitting we crack open the radioactive time capsule that is Jackie Kong’s first foray into horror mayhem: the mutant-laced, slime-soaked fever dream known as THE BEING.
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
In the radioactive wasteland of early ’80s horror, few films ooze quite like The Being.
Written and directed by Jackie Kong (yes, that Jackie Kong of Blood Diner infamy), The Being is a strange little mutant in the horror genre’s long, overcrowded family tree. Shot originally in 1980 under the much drearier title Easter Sunday before a producer-mandated rebranding, this low-budget curiosity shambled into theaters in 1983 after an extensive (and chaotic) reshoot process.
Set in the sleepy Idaho town of Pottsville, The Being follows a series of disappearances tied to a slimy, acid-dripping creature birthed by local pollution. Our ostensible hero is Detective Mortimer Lutz (Rexx Coltrane, aka Martin Landau’s doppelgänger from a much shabbier dimension), who investigates the mounting body count while battling small-town apathy, corruption, and his own glacially slow sense of urgency.
At its best, The Being is a grimy, surreal slice of environmental horror, tapping into the Reagan-era fears of industrial rot poisoning the American Dream.
Jackie Kong, in her feature debut, shows flashes of the gonzo energy she would later wield more expertly in Blood Diner and The Underachievers. Her direction is chaotic but strangely confident, fusing scenes of stomach-churning gore (melting faces, disembowelments, you name it) with baffling tonal shifts into slapstick comedy and small-town satire.
There’s an undeniable punk-rock spirit here: a refusal to play by conventional horror rules.
Critically, The Being was swiftly buried in a toxic pit of its own. But among certain horror circles, the film has since been excavated and dusted off as a cult oddity: a bizarre artifact from a time when independent horror was wild, weird, and willing to drown itself in gallons of green goo just to make a point.
The creature effects are gloriously rubbery and grotesque, a wet fever dream that makes no anatomical sense but plenty of visual impact.
Themes of environmental decay, small-town denial, and governmental negligence bubble just beneath the film’s slime-coated surface. In a way, The Being feels like a cousin to C.H.U.D. (1984), another Reagan-era horror film about marginalized people being transformed and destroyed by urban neglect. Here, the monster isn’t just an accident — it’s the logical end result of willful blindness and unchecked greed.
It’s daring, messy, and weirdly sincere. Jackie Kong may not have stuck the landing, but she leapt into the abyss headfirst — and horror is better for it.
If you like your horror with a thick glaze of radioactive slime, bizarre tonal whiplash, and a genuine punk soul, The Being belongs in your mutant movie marathon.
ABOUT THE SHOW
The Spookshow is a collection of guys (and, now, one incredible lady!) with varying degrees of Horror fandom. Since 2018, we’ve reviewed Horror, Cult, Action flicks, and, of course, total crap, so you don’t have to, but we encourage you to nonetheless. If you’ve listened to us before, thank you! If you’re new to our brand of stupidity, then welcome. We want you to enjoy watching these films with us; join us in having fun with them & learning about them as well.
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Son of Frankenstein (1939)
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Part of the Morbidly Beautiful Podcasting Network! Go to www.aaspookshow.com & join our Patreon for bonus episodes & content over at https://www.patreon.com/aaspookshow & follow us on X @AASpookshow as well as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Slasher, Threads, Bluesky & our YouTube channel by searching All-American Spookshow Podcast.
Email us at [email protected] with questions & comments, and be sure to leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify!
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