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The screenplay was originally intended as a parody of horror films, but comedic scenes were edited out during production and new horror scenes added. Sachs claims that the producers decided during shooting that a straight horror film would be more financially successful, and that the film suffered as a result. The Incredible Melting Man was produced by American International Pictures, which also handled the theatrical distribution. The film includes several homages to science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Makeup artist Rick Baker provided the gory makeup effects for the film. He originally created four distinct stages of makeup design so the antagonist would appear to gradually melt, but the stages were ultimately cut from the final film.

The film received largely negative reviews and has ranked among the Bottom 100 list of films on the Internet Movie Database, although even critical reviews complimented Baker's makeup effects. The Incredible Melting Man was featured in the comedy It Came from Hollywood (1982) and inspired the makeup effects for scenes in the films The Return of the Living Dead (1985) and RoboCop (1987). It also featured in a seventh season episode of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

When Blake finds the bodies, he calls Nelson, who comes out to identify them. After Blake angrily demands an explanation, Nelson reluctantly reveals West's condition. Nelson believes West is somehow getting stronger the more his body decomposes. Back at Nelson's house, West attacks and kills Perry, although Judy is not harmed. Nelson and Blake arrive just as West escapes. West then stumbles upon the home of a married couple (played by Jonathan Demme and Janus Blythe). West kills the man and attacks his wife, but she drives him away after chopping his arm off with a kitchen knife. Blake receives a call about the attack and takes Nelson with him to investigate. They follow West to a giant power plant, and then up several flights of outside stairways.

Welch D. Everman, author of Cult Science Fiction Films, points to several homages in the movie to science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. The title itself is a reference to the Jack Arnold film The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), and the final scene when a radio report advertises another trip to Saturn, thus hinting that another accident could occur, was a common device in 1950s horror films. One difference, noted by Everman, is that in the 1950s films, government cover-ups and secret agendas were often ascribed to the good of the general public, whereas The Incredible Melting Man, like many late 1970s films of its genre, suggests otherwise. Variety describes the script, in addition to its horror elements, as "a human story attempting to leave a moral message as to whether society or the horrible creature it is chasing is really the most destructive." The script never fully explains how West's spacecraft returned to Earth from Saturn when West himself was so seriously injured and the other two members of his crew were both killed.