October Contest: WINNER ANNOUNCED!

[sirhamhat]

Its October!  My favorite month!  Why?  That's none of your business!  Oh wait...  Well, I guess it is, since I'm hosting the contest.  Its my favorite month because its my birth month, but mostly because its Halloween time!  And, for me, that means I start watching alot of schlocky horror and sci-fi movies!  THAT'S why...  And you don't want to miss out on entering the contest this month cause the prize is super special and is once again being provided by the awesome riffers over at Incognito Cinema Warriors XP!!!

The Contest (couldn't be simpler):  Find a Horror or Sci-Fi movie (please pick ONLY from those 2 genres--its Halloween for cryin' out loud) that you think would be perfect for MST3k, Rifftrax or ICWXP to riff.  Then post a link to the trailer via Youtube (or some other similar video streaming service).  Then provide a reason (at least a short one) why you think it would work so well.  The winner will be selected by me from the top 3 that I think are ripe for riffin'.  I know things have been slow around here lately, but please, due to the simplicity of the contest, only ONE ENTRY PER PERSON and make it count.  What are my criteria for selecting a winner?  The more obscure, the better!  I've seen so many weird movies, that I will be impressed if you find one I haven't seen.  But the main thing is pick a good one that truly would be good for riffing...  The ones that won't even be considered:  if you can't provide a video link, don't bother.  I need to see a trailer.  Obviously, don't post a movie that has been riffed before...  it needs to be a riff-free movie.  Duh...  This is a simple contest and I'm only asking for 3 simple things.

The Prize:  The awesome team at Incognito Cinema Warriors XP have been kind enough to provided a collection of their Season 2 episodes as this week's prize!!!  These guys are great riffers and the show is really cool!!!  Check out the links provided below if you don't believe me! *Note prize revision below!

Example (of what I expect):

The Brain From Planet Arous (1957)



Two words:  John Agar!  He's extra smug in this horrible movie from 1957, because he is A MAN POSSESSED... by alien brains!  That proves aliens only pick on dumb guys.  Don't worry, the aliens haven't stolen any of John's smugness.  In fact, they're using it to try and take over our world...  those jerks!

The movie also features Joyce Meadows from 509 - The Girl in Lover's Lane, and she's just as frail and depressing in this movie...  Aside from her bringing everyone down, John provides plenty of laughs and the movie provides plenty of unnecessary close-ups of John.  The dialogue in this movie is so stilted, you'll think EVERYONE is possessed by aliens from planet Boredom.  Its perfect for riffing, because the movie itself is packed with laughs...  and just seeing John Agar beat a giant brain to death with an ax is worth the price of admission. Woops... maybe I should have said "SPOILER ALERT", before I typed that last line. 

* Special bonus treat courtesy of last month's winner, Tarantulas. He happens to be a huge ICWXP mark who already has all their releases. Due to his kindness, this month's winner can expect to receive BOTH season sets. Still sealed for your protection!

[Mike Flugennock]

The Phantom Ship, 1936
The only trailer I could find wasn't really the original 1936 theatrical trailer, but one put together five or six years ago by a British cheesy film buff and DIY riffer.



The Phantom Ship is one of those lost Lugosi classics, made after Dracula made him a star in 1931. Instead of a vampire or a creepy type, he plays a rather tragic character in this film retelling of the story of the ill-fated Mary Celeste. While the movie itself is a grim, dark, depressing shipwreck, I couldn't look away, as Lugosi himself manages to turn in a compelling performance. You gotta say one thing about Bela Lugosi: he may have chewed the scenery, but he did it in a good way. He may have been over the top a lot of the time, but he never phoned it in.

As a little added bonus, here's the full movie -- long since lapsed into public domain, and available for download from archive.org:

[Triple_sSs]

Night of the Lepus (1972)



I recently brought this one up in the "Movies you thought would've been good for MST3K" thread (though I'm probably not the first), so I think I'll submit it here, too.
It's a monster movie about a genetic experiment that goes wrong which leads to giant killer....bunny rabbits. Yup. Big killer bunnies. I can imagine the riff references to Monty Python's Holy Grail already.
Apparently this wasn't a joke, they really were trying to be dead serious about this being scary. But uh, sorry guys, bunnies just aren't scary. All I see here is something that could make for great riffing material.
Plus DeForrest Kelly was in it, so I bet some good Star Trek jokes could come from that.

There's also a bit more info on the movie from this guy's video if your interested:
moviebob.blogspot.com/2011/10/big-picture-night-of-lepus.html

[ashleyann20]

Frankstein Meets the Spacemonster.



Spacemonster is one word.
The "spacemonster" is basically a guy in a gorilla suit with rubber monster mask.
The Martians have a machine that appears to tell if women are virgins or not.

In the midst of searching for Frank and stopping a Martian invasion, our heroes go sightseeing on a Vespa.

[sirhamhat]

Already some great entries! And that's a good point, actually Triple_sSs... I meant to mention that in my original post... As I was telling Sky, I honestly forgot about the Movies you thought would have been good for MST3K thread when I was coming up with the contest. I just wanted to see some great suggestions for fun/schlocky Sci-Fi and Horror movies that would be great for riffing. I haven't read any of that thread, so if you've posted a great, riffable movie that fits the criteria for this contest in that thread, feel free to use that as your entry for this contest. Again, make sure its your best one, because I only want one entry per person. Thanks!

[dph]

I thought about posting "Warning from Space" again, seeing as how that won me a similar contest a few years ago, but I thought I could be a little more creative. I can't seem to find a trailer for this film, but this video sums it up pretty well. It suffers from Monster a Go-go syndrome in that there is actually a SEVEN year gap between the beginning and the end. The movie starts out with a couple of secret agents in 1968 (a portion of the film that was actually made a some film students) and the last part of the movie was made in 1961, and the difference in picture quality as well dress and even vehicles is glaring! Not to give too much away, but the ending is hilarious! Our heroes managed to destroy Hitler's brain only because his car won't start!.





Here's the full film.

It starts out by using the Crown International logo from "The Devil's Hand" and even starts to play that electric guitar song, and then is abruptly interrupted with the movie's actual theme.  This movie actually borrows two things from out beloved "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "Revenge of the Creature".  It stole the music (what cheap 50-60s scifi/horror flick didn't use that music?) and even has a slightly more over weight Nestor Paiva (Lucas the boat caption/Load from Mole Men).

EDIT:  I did find a trailer for the film's original tittle "Madman of Madoras".  Apparently the film was released to theaters under this name and bombed.  Later the tittle was changed and the 1968 footage was added in to release it for television under the name "They saved Hitler's Brain".

[mstiegyrl]

Who doesn't love a good sci-fi movie about time travel?  OK, how about a bad sci-fi movie about time travel?  For your viewing enjoyment or pain, I present G.I. Samurai aka Time Slip, from 1979 and starring Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba.  It's about a squadron of Japanese soldiers somehow transported back in time hundreds of years to the Shogunate era.  Fortunately (I guess), they were able to bring along a tank, a helicopter, jeeps -- you get the idea.  Oh, and lots of guns and ammo.  Will the squadron leader be able to realize his dream of becoming leader of all Japan?  Will samurai swords be any match for machine guns?  Do you care?

The trailer for some reason has twangy country-western music:


And the only full movie I can find of it is dubbed in German:


I think it would be good for riffing because it's got that cheesy 1970s ambience that made every movie look like a bad TV sitcom.  It's got loads of horrible music.  It's got gun battles and sword battles and bow & arrow battles, often at the same time.  It's got Sonny Chiba.  It's got romance.  It's even got bromance!  (Cue the slow-motion scene of two guys riding horses along the beach, with flute music, crashing waves, symbolic spears, and.... WHAT?!?)  Anyway, the juxtaposition of ancient and modern make it mildly interesting but, still, pretty bad.

[Mr. Atari]

I've been trying to convert people to this movie for years around here, so apologies for the repetition. But you gave me an opening...

Ice Cream Man (1995)




Let's see...Clint Howard is the lead. I can already hear Trace's Crow throwing in some "BEN!" riffs at that, or any variety of the "You're not as talented as your brother" riffs (cf. "Operation Double 007" or "Master Ninja"). Plus, it's freakin' Clint Howard!

Okay, moving on. It also stars MST favorite David Warner. Here, he plays a militant reverend, straight out of the "Touch of Satan" mold. There's also Warner's "Delta Knights" castmate and the original Juliet, Olivia Hussey, embarrassing herself in every frame. We also get the thespian talents of David "I'm a Pepper & an American werewolf" Naughton, Airwolf himself: Jan-Michael Vincent, and from The People's Court, Doug Llewelyn. And is that the Six-Million Dollar Man? No. It's his son, Lee Majors Jr. because of course it is. If that's not the greatest awful movie cast there ever was, then let's seal the deal. Yes, that's Dodgers legend and serial adulterer Steve Garvey playing the dad of one of the terrorized children.

Then there's the children, seemingly plucked straight from the Millard Fillmore Elementary School drama interest society. One of the characters is supposed to be the fat kid, so they stuck a cushion under the shirt of a skinny child actor and he waddled while he walked. That's not a joke. The plot flashes between Howard's suspicious activities as the local ice cream man and his time at a mental institution years before. There are some twists before it's all resolved, but who cares? It's cheezy, dimly lit, poorly acted, pseudo-horror from the mid-'90s. "Ice Cream Man" will fit perfectly between "Werewolf", "Future War", and "Soultaker" on your MST shelf.

Oh, one more thing- the film was partially financed by Converse, so there are many (MANY) pointless and lingering shots of the kids' Chuck Taylors.

[ddierker]

The 1974 "It's Alive":



John Ryan actually seems to be taking this role seriously, but the baby's cry/screech is hysterical. The viewer gets only brief glimpses of the killer baby who takes refuge in the sewer. Some might argue that this movie riffs itself, but I detect an intention of quality.

[reaperg]

Hey, I liked "Time Slip" a.k.a. "G.I. Samurai". Of course I have the Japanese version.

My submission is "Mystery on Monster Island"


Directed by J. Piquer Simon of "Pod People" infamy, and starring the "It stinks" guy. Also an embarassingly bad scaredy-cat comic relief professor, Terrence Stamp and Peter Cushing doing things they're not proud of (like reporting to the set), and the most laughably bad monster suits ever -- and they found a way to justify the monsters' fakiness.

I saw this on the Sci Fi Channel many moons ago, and haven't seen it since, but some things just stick with you.

[redmans]

"Star Odyssey" from 1979, an Italian cheesefest with an intrepid space crew (most of whom were apparently required to grow bad mustaches) which includes a guy nicknamed Hollywood, another guy who wins a boxing match against a robot, a hero that wears a glittery spider shirt, two little suicidal robots (You can tell which one's a girl because she has long eyelashes), a bunch of other androids that look like Jackie Rogers Jr. impersonators, a theme song that sounds like it was played with one finger on a Casio, and a villain with a face you could play Minesweeper on. How could you go wrong?

Here's a preview:



and here's the entire movie:

[Mirkwood Lodge]

I submit for your approval "Deathbed - The Bed That Eats".  Long, awkward silences, terrible acting, and general 1970's weirdness. Where could you possibly go wrong?

[revlillo1963]

I would like to suggest a double feature. This is a double feature based on a number of things: 1) They are two movies I regularly watch around Halloween, 2) they share an actor taking on radically different roles in each movie, 3) they are chosen because the MST3K guys have proven themselves as adept at riffing good movies as they are at riffing bad movies, 4) the first movie has a really cheesy monster (inserted against the better judgment of the film maker), and 5) the second movie is based on a real person from world of Christianity and I've always appreciated their religious references (as my screen name indicates, I am a Lutheran Minister).

Submitted for your approval, then are 1) "Night of the Demon," a 1957 movie from England which stars Dana Andrews as a skeptical reporter looking into alleged occult activity and Niall MacGinnis as Dr. Julian Karswell, an occultist based on Alleister Crowley. Dr. Karswell attempts to unleash the worlds lamest looking demon on Dana Andrew's ass. Here's the trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCp-c_buFlw

Also submitted for your approval: "Martin Luther," a 1953 feature based on the life of the famous church reformer. It stars Niall MacGinnis (the satanist from "Night of the Demon") as the 16th century reformer. I grew up watching this movie projected in our church around Halloween every year (that's Reformation Day for you Lutherans). It's viewing was enhanced by the lousy projector sound system -- a single speaker. The "Here I stand" speech where Niall appears to go insane is worth the price of admission. There isn't a trailer online for the movie, but here's the "Here I Stand" speech:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuQdO7bbOQM

[bryang]

Beware the Blob (1972)

youtu.be/wPx0sDWA1SI


The little-seen sequel to one of the most beloved horror movies of all time, Beware the Blob is the directorial debut of cigarette quitting wrist band wearer, Larry 'JR' Hagman. BtB is chock-a-block with sexy 70's cameos, your Gerritt Graham's, your Cindy Williams, your Shelly Bermans, your Carol Lynley's, and the coup de coup, Dick Van Patten as a Boy Scout Leader. Finally, a chance to burn off that stockpile of 'Dick Van Patten's Hobo Chili is dog food jokes' you've squirreled away for years. Can you spot The Hag's cameo with improv founder Del Close? An eyepatch is involved.
Other selling points, it's in washed-out color. Kids love color. A cat is eaten. Aging comedians run naked. Indoor tents. Inappropriate carnival music. Everything you wouldn't want in a movie is in there. Joe Bob sez to check it out.

[kalidor2000]

Ok, first off, I LOVE this contest! It has brought some really awful looking movies to light and the creative juices are flowing with what Joel, Mike & The Bots could've done with these...pieces of crap!

My entry is the 1988 absolute $&!#-Fest called...Slaughterhouse Rock.

I actually saw this movie, err, celluloid sludge in the theaters. I was 16 and knew then...it was crap. My friends and I ridiculed this movie to NO END. For years.

The scene where someone gets punched THROUGH the head is Toxic Avenger worthy...

And it's got Toni Basil in it. Oh, Toni, you're so fine. You're so fine you blow in this movie.



I am thinking I hate myself for even bringing these memories back up...

Without further adieu;