801 - REVENGE OF THE CREATURE

Genre:  Low Budget ’50s Monster (1955, B&W)

Synopsis:  Watching this movie brought back memories because it was the first movie I saw in 3D!  Way back when I was growing up in central Florida, a local independent station had a promotional campaign for its showing of Revenge of the Creature in 3D. Anyone could pick up free 3D glasses (the red lens, blue lens type) at any 7-11 convenience store.  So we got glasses for everyone in my family and we all watched the movie together when it came on.  Well, not all the way through, though, because most of my family gave up on this rather dull monster movie but I was one of the few to make it to the dreary end.  Anyway, this movie is the sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon and bares some similarities to the much later movie Jaws 3D – both were sequels, both were shot in 3D (with a lot of the same “stick something into the camera” cheesy 3D scenes) and both plots depict a dangerous creature being captured and taken to a “Sea World” type park for the enjoyment of tourists.  And, oh yeah, both suck.

Don’s Review:  This was the first Sci-Fi episode I saw, and I think the host segments with the Planet of the Apes stuff are far too silly for my tastes (I’m glad they abandoned that plot line after the first few episodes of the Sci-Fi run).  But this experiment is saved by the riffing, which once again was pretty good.  Now if MST had only shown this in 3D – that would have been something!

Don’s Rating: 

Forrest’s Review:  This one had to grow on me.  I’ve owned the uncut version of this film since I was a little kid, and I knew the whole thing by heart.  However, though the uncut film didn’t age with me (although the original film Creature From the Black Lagoon grows on me every year) this episode ages like wine.  Bill Corbett’s puppet skills are not-so-good for this episode, though he vastly improves within the first five of six episodes.  However, he’s still as hilarious as the hard-to-match Trace Beaulieu.  I could never in a million years, think that anyone could ever make a Crow as good as Trace, but Mr. Corbett did just that.  Dunno how, but he did.  The riffing was enjoyable throughout, and inspired many big laughs.  Though not quite up to par with Laser Blast,  Bill Corbett quickly picks up the Trace’s best within the next few episodes, and then, matches Trace’s hilarity in one of the funniest episodes ever The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies, which proves, for me at least, that MST3K had reached it’s height yet again, even without Trace and Frank.  Speaking of the absence of Trace, we now are at the mercy of Mary Jo Pehl as Pearl Forrester.  Although Pearl reached an all time low in Deathstalker, I came to like the character more and more as the show progressed.  She’s like the trailer trash aunt I never had, with a gentle and goofy side.  Good start for the Sci-Fi Era, and though Don thinks this was where the decline began, I believe that this is where the brilliance lives on.

Forrest’s Rating: