I came across this movie in an article in the New York TImes on the director, Craig Baldwin and his newer movie Mock Up on Mu.
I threw both of these movies into my Netflix queue and forgot all about them.
This movie was amazing fun. Told as if it is a documentary from a conspiracy theorist's vault, Tribulation 99 explores how an ancient race of aliens living under Central America has been actively working to destroy America.
The footage that makes up the entire movie is a pastiche of Mexican Wrestling movies, Japanese monster movies, 50's science fiction and standard American history stock footage. The mix of all these sources are forged into a new story that washes over you like the ravings of a madman.
It reminded me of the first time I read H.P. Lovecraft. It has that same weird sense of this is our world and yet not.
I would hesitate to recommend this movie to everyone. One problem is that you get the feeling that in order to get around copyright protections on his sources, Baldwin was forced to use so many short clips of his source material repeatedly. Also, the frenetic pace of the short clips staccattoed one after the other can get wearying at times.
If you are interested in movies at the fringes, check this out. I found it to ultimately be a riveting post modern experiment.