Welcome Back, Joel! MST Takes On Homemade Horror

 

It's been more than 20 years since a guy named Joel, not too different from you or me, saw some cheesy movies with his robot friends on TV.

Yet, Joel Hodgson shows he hasn't lost a step (also thanks to two live tours) when he returned to the show recently in the latest episode, "Demon Squad". It's the first time the show took on micro-budget movies. Rifftrax has done this a few times, such as Lycan Colony and Things.
It's also the first time the show has not shown the credits.

To be fair, these are the ones behind the movie, director Thomas Smith and his wife Erin Lilley Smith. They explained how they tried to make the movie on a third of a shoestring in Mobile, Alabama (the little Big Easy). It was a pretty good discussion of how they really had to make do with less than less. You get the idea that with more money and an actual movie company behind them they'd have something close to Blumhouse. 

The movie is about Nick Moon, a PI who investigates supernatural crimes. He has a secretary named Daisy, and it seems they have some spooky powers. As mentioned at a special thread in the forum, a lot of their backstory was left out  (a shorter version is here). 

Anyway, a very comely client wants them to find a special dagger that, combined with a power source, creates a powerful weapon, Not only that, a guy who seems to be the demonic version of Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark needs the weapon to make a super demon to destroy, well, anything.

The movie has the typical detective stuff including two demonic bars. Actually, the demons looked interesting, and (of course) needed more funding.

This episode, as mentioned before, marked the return of Joel, but also Dr. Erhardt (J. Elvis Weinstein). He used the Time Bag to get Joel from the past, except he didn't. He got Joel from the year 3000, and he looks pretty good. 
Yes, there may be ways how he lasted that long, or he's a clone or such. We'll take this guy.
He's soon joined by Emily's SimBots. He's impressed by how they look, and he's OK with SimCrow's voice. He later changes SimServo's voice back its original form. It was nostalgia for some fans, and not much of a distraction for the newbies. They even threw in a new version of the first door sequence, and it's done pretty well. Maybe this will get Mike to the Gizmoplex, too.

If there's anything big from the reunion, it's Pearl trying a bit too hard to meet Joel. Remember, she wasn't "invented" until the "Bloodlust" episode. However, she admits Kinga was four years old then Joel "came along". This means Kinga is a grouchy yet attractive 38. It would be great if this bothers her sometime...maybe yelling out "NEVILLE!!!"

Now, time for the riffs. This time, we'll add pictures to a couple of them
First, evil Belloq...

Watch out, he's going to ska!

Nick meets his client for a date
You ordered a sweaty Alabaman

Nick kills a cute demon, then casts a spell to ease her death
Wow, that's real Latin. This guy's legit.

Nick finds the super demon

Was this guy possessed by a Cadbury Creme Egg?

There's also riffs on Groupon, Johnny Depp, Little Shop of Horrors, LinkedIn and Snoop Dogg.

The new season has hit the halfway point, and people are happy with the riffs. The only controversy so far has been Kelsey Ann Brady as SimCrow. Some like her voice, some don't. Thing is, Joel didn't complain. The season has already been done, so she may not have a chance to "revise" her delivery (via Emily's adjustments) until next year at least. Let's be patient.

When July rolls around, the Vault Picks will look at monster movies. That means a Gamera film or two, some Bert I. Gordon stuff (spiders or Glenn Manning) and maybe a giant Gila monster. It's a longshot any Netflix titles will be taken by Synthia, but let's hope. 

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MST Enters A Movie of Madness...but Doesn't Blame the Screenwriter

 I AM THE WATCHER....
and I have seen countless realities from countless words, but I must not interfere.

Still, aside from the Ultimate Ultron thing, I wish I tried to fix this universe.

Season 13 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is almost at the halfway mark, and it took on a movie that was almost a Marvel movie from 30 years ago. It's called Doctor Mordrid, and features Jeffrey Combs. He's familiar to horror movie and Star Trek fans. Here, he's a sorcerer above average battling an evil magician named Kabal who sadly is a merger between Ric Flair and Lex Luger.

                                    

Thing is, he's also familiar to Buffy fans. Brian Thompson was both Luke (Buffy's first tough vampire rival) and the Judge (who doesn't do well against missles). 

Here, he's a guy who steals platinum and diamonds as part of his plot to destroy the world. He also has to get a magic stone from a museum, then pour hand sanitizer and Vitamin Water to free demons.

Mordrid gets help from a researcher who works for the Dumbest Police Department Ever, run by a lunkhead who finished dead last in the Joe Piscopo contest.
He also seems to have a boss who is just two eyes in space, called the Monitor.

Would have been better if the boss was called Bette Davis Eyes.
Of course, Mordrid wins, and the police still think he's guilty of something. He wisely goes away for a while but returns for Christmas. You think he'd bring some reindeer, or be part of a pathetic romance. 

However, the best part of the show was an extensive interview with screenwriter  C. Courtney Joyner. He talked a lot about how Jack Kirby was part of the movie, and that B movies aren't what they used to be. Anyone who rents the full version (with long intro, commercials and the movie) is in for a treat. The post-game shows are clearly a great addition to MST.

                                       

As far as the show itself, it had some great host segments where Emily shows how tough it can be to be a magical landlord, and her versions of Servo and Crow try to hypnotize each other. It ends with what would have happened if Kevin Feige chose a different career path.

As for the Mads, guess who's back.

The OTHER Kabahl has decided to get one of the original hosts back for another go-around. Fans already know its Joel, but they're surprised how quickly he'll return to the show.

A bigger surprise:  who's going into the Time Bag to get Joel (although it would have been easier to just call him)...

Now, riff time:

Mordrid wakes from a vision

I was going to play Dr. Strange but we lost the rights to the character and then we went ahead and made the movie anyway.

He wows people with his latest lecture on the mystic arts and how they're better than idiot cops.

Paging Dr. Awesome, there's a call for on on the "Nailed It Phone"

Samantha, the female presence, tries to get to Mordrid's place

Do I hear geography?

He's later in full sorcerer mode

James Brown wants his cape back. 

Mordrid gets to his castle in another dimension

I think this movie is having a near-death experience.

Two dinosaur skeletons fight, while Kabal laughs

Harryhausen and the Philosopher's Stone

There's also riffs on Van Wilder, K-Mart, Zardoz, Brazil, Eiffel 65 and MC Hammer.

Oh, and did Dr. Erhardt succeed?

Well, there will be a sale on brown vests soon. He'll take on Demon Squad, a three year old movie about a guy who battles evil but also thinks he's Mike Hammer. Not a good mix. 
It's like Lycan Colony but with three more dollars in its budget. 

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