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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