than excruciatingly dull." Robert L. Jerome from Cinefantastique, while noting the movie had the right ideas in it, called it a "fiasco" for its implementation. VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever by Jim Craddock gave it zero stars. Keith Phipps for The A.V. Club described the film as being simultaneously "Awful" and "Awfully charming". Critic Jeffrey Kauffman said, "this is the sort of film Ed Wood, Jr. might have made—on a bad day" and added, "Lovers of fantastically bad films rate Zaat one of the worst". Patrick Naugle of DVD Verdict stated, "The acting in Zaat is below subpar. Actors seem to be whispering their lines and trying hard not to fully comprehend that they're in one of the worst films ever made", while Michael Rubino of DVD Verdict also claimed, "Zaat may be one of the worst films ever created". NPR called it a "sci-fi fiasco" when it became "the winner — er, loser —" on IMDbs Bottom 100. Mystery Science Theater 3000 Cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured Zaat in a season 10 episode under the title Blood Waters of Dr. Z. The episode, which originally aired May 2, 1999, mocked the film's low-budget effects and general tepidity. Director Don Barton was reportedly annoyed with MST3K for mocking his movie, but later clarified that the only reason he was annoyed was that Syfy (then known as the Sci-Fi Channel) had failed to secure the proper rights to the film. Barton issued a cease and desist and a lawsuit, so Syfy pulled the episode, and only reran it twice two years later when they had cleared the issue with Barton out of court. In 2010, Shout! Factory released the MST3K episode as part of the "Volume XVII" DVD collection of the series, along with The Crawling Eye, The Beatniks, and The Final Sacrifice. The boxset was later discontinued and the episode was repackaged with "The Lost and Found Collection" in 2018. See also List of American films of 1971 List of films considered the worst Creature from the Black Lagoon References Citations Bibliography External links MST3K version on ShoutFactoryTV 1971 films American science fiction horror films 1970s English-language films Films shot in Jacksonville, Florida Mad scientist films American natural horror films 1970s monster movies 1971 horror films 1970s science fiction horror films American monster movies 1970s American films