Rifftrax Revisits a Zombie Nightmare

 

It's been nearly 28 years since Mystery Science Theater 3000 took on a little Canadian horror film best known for having in its cast a future member of Wayne's World, a former TV super hero, and a guy who'll wind up as a popular director. 

That movie was Zombie Nightmare, and Rifftrax decided to take a second look at that cheesy movie.
It's been done several times before with Jack Frost, The Magic Sword, Angel's Revenge, and Final Justice.
While some scenes were cut from the MST version (maybe due to music rights), it does include the scene where one of the teens gets a much deserved fate.

The story is about Tony, a muscular teen played by Jon Mikl Thor (Rock 'N Roll Nightmare). Several years after his dad was stabbed to death after softball practice, Tony breaks up a robbery at the local store. Meanwhile, some rowdy teens are on their way to some dance or other. They wind up running over Tony, killing him. They shrug this off a bit too quickly, especially their leader Jimbo (Shawn Levy, future director of Deadpool 3).

Tony's mom gets Molly, a local voodoo priestess, to resurrect Tony as an act of revenge. One by one, the teens in the car that killed him get killed themselves.

There's a sub-plot, where Police Captain Churchman (Adam West) approaches the series of murders in an odd way. It becomes more clear when he has a bizarre connection to it all.

The Rifftrax version seems to be a bit darker with fewer Batman jokes, but it did comment on bad accents and the low-budget look of the whole thing. They also recycled several jokes from the old version.

So, riff time:

Tony's at bat

MST:  His hair's bouncin' and behavin'
RT:  Valerie Bertinelli at the plate

He's about to be run over

RT:  A car's coming. I better stop right into its path
MST:  Don't worry, his area will protect him

Molly turns him into a zombie

MST:  resurrecting Neil Young
RT:  Like Dracula waking from a wild night in Vegas

Jimbo laughs after two of his friends were killed by "angel dust" aka Tony

MST:  Did you see Russell Baker's column this morning?
RT:  I just stole Jennifer Beals' hair

Then Tony kills Jim's dad

MST:  No need to linger
RT:  Snap into an '80s guy, oh yeah!

Churchman's literally dragged into Hell

RT:  Just don't hurt my mustache
MST:  So Hell is just right there. Yeah, that's you should call before you dig.

There were also jokes on Olive Garden, Alfred Hitchcock, Wayne's World, Tim Horton's, West Side Story, Four Non-Blondes and Encanto.

Both versions of Zombie Nightmare are currently at the Rifftrax website.

MST3K: All Hail Cabal, Then Wonder About Robot Wars

 

This ain't your uncle's Mystery Science Theater 3000, because now the Mads have a boss.

His name is Cabal, who claims he's from the future and is paying Kinga and Max's bills.
He's probably a high-tech fraud, but at least he suggests they get a second host (which is where Emily Marsh comes in). Cabal is played by Baron Vaughn, who also voices Tom Servo. So, is Kabal the second coming of Kevin Murphy except with a aerodynamic hoodie? We shall see.

Aside from that, the second half of the "soft open" gets underway with a showing of Robot Wars. It's about a guy named Drake who operates a scorpion robot that shoots at tanks while carrying passengers. It takes place in 2041, so it's more depressing than, say, Warriors of the Lost World. 
Anyway, he flirts with a passenger who suspects something is hidden under a ghost town called Crystal Valley. It's supposed to be a relic of 1993 (when this movie was made). An Asian guy and a "journalist" get involved, and it's revealed a long-forgotten robot is buried under the town. It soon emerges, setting up the "Robot War" which barely lasts a couple of minutes. The terrible stop-action animation doesn't help either. 

The riffing, however, is a little better than the Santo vs. Dracula movie. The host segments were good, too. It featured Jonah in a dress (yikes), a tour of a 1990's theme park, and a Ted Talk about Drake's buddy Stumpy

Then Kinga and Max wonder how they can get a second host. Thanks to Synthia, they get a solution:

It looks like her first movie will happen in a few weeks.

So, let's get to the riffs:

Drake tries to charm Leda (the nosy passenger)
What's the opposite of a meet cute? Beat you?

Stumpy the sidekick:  What would John Wayne do?
Say something racist?

The buried robot emerges through a parking lot
So that's how Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Balloons are born

Then it's about to fight the Scorpion robot
I'm gonna walk down to Electric Avenue

To their credit, Jonah and the bots riffs through very long closing credits.
Best Boy, why isn't there a Best Girl?

There were also riffs on Scottsdale, Home Depot, Dukes of Hazzard, Joe Frazier, Hamilton and This Island Earth (the MST version). 

Afterwards, there was a pre-taped discussion about the Gizmoplex and why Joel decided on a "soft launch" first. He was joined by Matt McGinnis, Lesley Kinzel and Ivan Askwith. They made some great points about how backers got a chance to see them build the Plex while getting it ready for the grand opening on May 6th. Joel compared it to a basketball team getting some practice time before the season starts. They also wanted the fans to see the process and how that can be very interesting. So far, it's led to some valuable feedback that can be used once everyone else can get a chance to check out the Gizmoplex. 

They also say it's not like Netflix, and that's not the goal here. It's a place where people can be part of MST3K as a fan or backer, or just someone who wonders what they heck it is. They can go with subscriptions or just buy or rent an episode. It's also a chance for other MSTies to share their love for the show, and spread the word. As Joel says, it's kind of like buying a season ticket to live plays or a Best of Broadway series. He also admits he's not trying to compete with other sci-fi franchises like Star Trek, and he shouldn't. MST is all about mocking the genre, especially the low-tech attempts, and that makes it a unique part in our lives and America (AMEN!).

There was also some discussion on how the show changed over the years. It started as a nice way to spend two hours on the Comedy Central, to something really different on SyFy. That channel treated the show as a sci-fi series with plot and stuff, never mind the movie mocking. Now that the show is its own boss, it can be the best of all of its incarnations.

That makes sense. After all, Broadway shows have previews and out-of-town tryouts before Opening Night. This is the same thing.
It's already had an effect. The intermission for the second episode was much shorter compared to Santo, which was basically a long host segment.

Anyway, the next show will be Emily's first with Beyond Atlantis, made in the Philippines. That'll be on the 29th.
Oh, and look who came back...

Gizmoplex Salutes The Ultimate MST3K Episode...and Finally Riffs a Short

 

The Gizmoplex's "Soft Open" continued this past Friday by riffing a short for the first time since the summer of '99, followed by a tribute to the ultimate episode, Manos: The Hands of Fate.

Not enough has been said about this odd ultra-cheap horror film made in El Paso in 1966 which was buried and forgotten until TV's Frank unwittingly allowed the curse to escape into an unsuspecting world in 1993
As Crow points out to Jonah and Servo, it's the one episode MST3K will forever be linked. Never mind stinkburgers like Castle of Fu Manchu, Monster a Go Go or Being From Another Planet. A movie that features a doomed family, a demon guy with an odd robe, a bellhop with suspect motor control and full-contact nightgown wrestling can curse anyone.
Just ask the Rifftrax guys, The Original Mads when they presented an HD print, and even Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. An episode of her seeing the movie (and realizing her mistake) is at Shout Factory TV.
Then again,  the revival of the movie led to an interesting book by the youngest cast member, odd adaptations, a documentary (on the MST special edition DVD by Shout Factory) and an unexpected sequel.

                                     

Before that, Pearl and Synthia introduce the Short of the Month Club, where Gizmoplex Pass members were recruited the same way Putin "recruited" an audience to a recent rally where he tells people the War with Ukraine is a big success (or else).
No matter, though. Fans have been wanting the MST gang to riff shorts again, and they started with Pipeline to the Clouds. It's a General Electric short about the importance of water distribution. It showed what happens when we don't get enough rain, and how building better water plants will solve everything. Still, they show about half of the film because it gets tedious at 24 minutes.

The riffing, though is pretty good. 

"There's no such thing as really pure water"
Ooo, rain, you nasty, girl

"We must have safe water, wherever and whenever we want it"
Brought to you by Nestle (really sharp comment here)

The short ends with lots of flowing water
Crow:  I didn't even have a bladder and I gotta go.

There are also comments on TLC, Kool-Aid and beer.

This was followed by the showing of Manos, complete with half a short and very unexpected apologies. In between, Jonah and the bots just shoot the breeze like suggesting what kind of demon hunters they'd have.

Then the post-game show, with Joel and Mary Jo recalling how they encountered Manos for the first time, followed by a deep uneasy feeling about seeing it. Remember, this was AFTER Deep Hurting.

                                  

That was followed by a new interview from Jackey Neyman Jones, who played Debbie in the movie.
Although she has been in several recent interviews, including one with the Mads last December, she had some new details for everyone. 
She says the cast, including her dad Tom (aka the Master), actually were in a local performance of Henry IV before the movie. The "wives", meanwhile, came from a local modeling agency.

Also, she found out the movie was on Comedy Central thanks to, of all people, her dad. Seems he's a big MST fan, and was as surprised as anyone the movie got on the show. She even called the channel to ask if she could get a copy, and the person who talked to her slowly realized he was talking to Debbie.

The episode was taken off the website for a while because the Gizmoplex bosses thought it had to be edited. That included removing a 20-minute countdown that featured the Mads in odd spacesuits while plugging some major contributors and featuring a recipe for Torgo's Pizza. This tweet from Frank gives fans an idea of how it worked. 

The plan is still to feature a movie every month or so, then a short two weeks later. The next edition will be Robot Wars on April first, but it's not certain if this is Emily's first Gizmoplex movie. Thanks to the live tour, she will be ready.

By the way, the episode revealed "The Bubble" will likely be the last episode of season 13 just before the Christmas show...and proof Growler's still on the show (as music director, possibly).

Learn more at gizmoplex.com.

Is 2022 The Year of the Big Riff? Here's Why

 As Spring is about to come in 2022, the two Riffing Super-Powers are about to dominate our souls. 

Rifftrax, which has been mocking movies for 15(!) years, has a new Kickstarter campaign, but it's only one movie instead of two of three. Yes, we can blame COVID for this. Either than, or getting terrible movies to humiliate is getting tougher every day.

In any case, this is the next target:

Yep, someone brought their evil there, and Mike, Bill and Kevin have to respond.

This is the follow-up to the DC Comics series featuring a scientist who becomes a swamp creature and provides programming for independent channels and the USA Network.

The first movie featured his origin story and a topless Adrienne Barbeau. Here, both Swamp Thing and the guy he thought he killed, Dr. Arcane, are back. Heather Locklear is now part of things as Arcane's niece, who of course falls for the mean green hero. She has to avoid being the latest evil experiment, and some new monsters called UnMen (a term that would be a lousy way to describe women or anyone who really wants lefty things like easier voter registration and like that).

This is actually putting Rifftrax Live at a level between Anaconda and, well, Hobgoblins. It's actually a step up compared to what they've had to work worth in the past couple of years. 

The only disappointing thing is that we have only one Rifftrax Live show instead of at least two movies. Let's chalk this up as a transitional year, followed by a full slate (if you call two movies a full slate) next year. We have this from one of the organizers, Erik Peterson. Actually, he has a point:

Yeah, because we're not back to 100% normality yet, and for the safety of our fans and crew, we're playing it safe this year and focusing on producing one fantastic show. We do have some other fun things in store, but it's pretty unlikely that we'll be able to add another live event at this time

Anyway, the usual goal is 250 thousand has been reached in 19 hours. The real feature will be the stretch goals, including more cheap short films, VOD titles or mp3 tracks, This would be a good idea to offer a "Just the Jokes" version of It's a Wonderful Life. We deserve to mock Jimmy Stewart for refusing to accept the idea of a multiverse.
Heck, let's go after The Batman in six or seven months. That'll be perfect for Halloween.

The link to the latest Rifftrax project is right here. Still, let's make it official..

Meanwhile, at Mystery Science Theater 3000, the new season aka "Screw You, Nexflix, and your Oscar nominations, too" is almost here. They start the new independent era Friday with El Santo and the Treasure of Dracula.

Basically, it's the wrestling star against the vampire women he didn't get to kill a few years before, plus Dracula. It's also in color.
The "tickets" to all of the shows, including shorts, can be found here. The home page is here, with "previews" of the new season. As you notice, they're actually going to take on Manos again just after Saint Patrick's Day, but add a post-game show. They'll have a show every two weeks through early 2023. In fact, all shows will have discussion at the end, mainly how were these movies or shorts allowed to exist. Take that, Talking Dead.

The codes for the Gizmoplex passes are also out, and for the most part are working well. That includes "vault codes" where people can see six shows per month. 

The show also has a very popular comments section. You can join at https://forums.mst3k.com/. You can literally talk about other things aside from MST. 

MST3K Live Is Making Contact With Bad Movies Again

 

The Mystery Science Theater Live tour is underway, and stopped off at the Pioneer Center in Reno recently. It presented a movie that was made out of leftover bits from every Spielberg movie, while the newest Mad tried to show she was supreme.

Someone was supreme:  the new "victim", Emily Marsh. She is more than a match for MegaSynthia's schemes and is probably more of a heir apparent to the experiment than Jonah. She clearly knows the show and how to riff even the cheesiest movies. As we told her in this post, she is the Kate Bishop of MST.
Was she pleased? VERY!

I will say one thing: fans should know not all stops in the live tour are the same. They're saving the "meet and greets" for the bigger cities, and not everyone who gets the premium seats get even a lanyard. This was the case in Reno, but I was glad to find out they had the face mask set. A bit pricey, but it's one of the models I will keep once the $@#!! Covid thing is over. 
Besides, I still got a great view of the whole thing. Thing is, I was the only guy with a jumpsuit.

So, what's the live tour theme?
Well, since MegaSynthia is still relatively new in the MST-verse, she thinks weird hair and scary behavior would be enough. She even showed pictures of the other Mads, and made sure they weren't flattering at all. After all, this is HER show.
Then Emily Connor (her name on the show) and the bots arrived, and let's say her version of the theme reveals she became the test case a bit too willingly.

Then the caper:  Meg "traps" everyone in a Time Bubble so we go 33 years in the past and be forced to see every episode starting with The Crawling Eye...which aired in 1989.
First off, true fans can do that themselves by any means necessary. Also, some of the past experiments have been shown elsewhere (but certainly not Monster-a-Go-Go).
She's new. She'll do better in her third live tour. Maybe better hair. She should be more well-known once she gets her turn in the Gizmoplex next Spring.

They took on an early Roland Emmerich movie, Making Contact. When you get mad at Moonfall next year, blame this movie. It's about a kid named Joey who just lost his dad. However, thanks to a toy phone, he can talk to dad...or does he? 
Then he acquires strange powers, like moving stuff with his mind and having toys do his bidding or something. Then, an evil dummy causes even more chaos.
Mix in some annoying kids, a cute girl with pigtails, and a bunch of scientists who have enough gizmos to set up an "avant-garde production of Jesus Christ Superstar", and you have a disaster. 
Well, at least it didn't stop him from making Godzilla look stupid by mixing him with Sleepless in Seattle. 

Emily and the bots approach the movie by looking at the surprising amount of licensed items, and commenting a lot on the evil dummy. There's also the fact the plot was Spielberg's Greatest Hits, only knockoffs of the best parts. At one point, she compares the dummy to Paul Williams.
Even GPC2 got into the fun, just like Jonah's version does sometimes. They also had two great musical spoofs in the riffing, including one that was perfect for the season.

The host segments were very good, as they talked about knockoffs of familiar toys (including one that might be a bit inappropriate) and compared the movie to a familiar brand of pasta mix. The best was Emily singing about how buying stuff makes one happy...like maybe at a nearby souvenir stand at the lobby.

One thing they especially noticed is that the movie had a lot of slats everywhere, from Joey's door to the decaying house where his "friends" were planning an attack on him. It seemed annoying, until one came in quite handy during the end of the show.

The fourth live tour holds up quite well compared to the previous three editions. The first one was just like the Netflix show, while the next two depended on the presence of Joel Hodgson to pull in the fans and pass the baton to the next generation. With Emily, the future is now, and Mega should fine-tune her evil eye to "intimidate" Emily. It's clear Emily Connor is more than prepared to riff away (and maybe because she's looking for an easy gig). 

Unlike my Rifftrax reviews, I'm not listing any riffs because the tour will be going until February, as it prepares to move back east after the New Year. They'll be heading soon to Denver, Dallas, Kansas City, Atlanta and New York City. Check the schedule at mst3klive.com/events.