Movie: (1964) A slow-moving alien rug monster manages somehow to catch and swallow many people in a small town with no dialog.
First shown: 9/17/94
Opening: Tom is a security guard
Intro:It’s laundry day in Deep 13, Dr. F. makes the bots pretentious poseurs
Host segment 1: Crow makes a flag for the SOL, and M&tB raise it
Host segment 2: M&tB stick it to “Love American Style”
Host segment 3: Mike sets up his stereo system
End: Crow and Tom want Gypsy to swallow them, Mike reads letters, Dr. F. “presses” Frank about the laundry
Stinger: “My God! What is it?”
(252 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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• I like this episode a lot. The host segments are lots of fun, the riffing is great and while the movie is gray and tedious, at the same time it is TOTALLY OUT THERE. The questions it raises are endless. What’s chained up in the spaceship? Why does the creature look like a Chinese parade dragon? Why did that guy swallow a basketball? Why a full ten minutes of dance hall footage before the the monster arrives? And on and on.
• This episode appears in Rhino’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 1.
• References.
• I love how they added a little drool to Servo’s mouth when they show him sleeping.
• There’s lots of narration and little dialogue, but don’t believe the commonly told story that the soundtrack dropped off of a boat into Lake Tahoe. The movie was shot without sound, with a plan to dub in the dialog later, a la “Manos.” But there wasn’t enough money for that when the time came, so the narration was used instead.
• I’m a little surprised that they chose this movie, and I’m very impressed that they did with it, for this reason: this movie easily ranks in the top 5 of The. Most. REPETITIVE. Movies. Ever. Show some dancing. Show the monster. Then some dancing. Then the monster. Over and over and over. I would rank this right up with “The Starfighters” and “Neptune Men” in terms of a movie that shows you the same thing over and over and over. That they managed to stay funny and come up with a different joke (more or less) every time the movie presented them with the EXACT same image again and again and again, is a real achievement.
• I’m doing these in episode number order, but this was not the next episode fans saw after episode 605- COLOSSUS AND THE HEADHUNTERS. Comedy Central ran episode 609- THE SKY DIVERS the following week, then 607- BLOODLUST the next week, then there was a week break before this episode ran. Then there was another two-week break before the network ran 608- CODE NAME: DIAMOND HEAD followed a week later by 610- THE VIOLENT YEARS. At that point the episodes got back into order.
• This episode aired the same weekend as some 2,000 MSTies from all over the nation were encamped at the Raddison Hotel in Bloomington for the first CONVENTIOCON EXPOFEST-A-RAMA. Unfortunately, the hotel’s TVs did not get Comedy Central, which meant that fans had to find another way to see the episode. I went to the home of a friend who lived in the area.
• This movie has the infamous baby-temperature-taking scene, one of its most commented-upon aspects by bad movie buffs.
• The “Love American Style” bit in segment 2 is sort of meta: a sarcastic premise surrounding a second, intentionally lame, premise. On the plus side, Mike kisses Servo and Crow.
• As Servo notes, it’s a good guess that the director got a pervy little thrill by the image of a woman’s legs (preferably still kicking) being pulled into the monster. I’ve since been told (and I wish I hadn’t) that this is a thing, and the thing is called “Vore.”
• In the ACEG they mentioned that segment 3 was written mostly by Frank, who loves sketches where nothing happens for long stretches. Is Mike’s using a green magic marker on his CD something audiophiles did (or still do?)
• Mike’s line, “another frustrated IBM PC user!” became a widely traded sound file.
• Very neat image with the wringer at the end. Very Joel-like.
• Cast and crew wrap-up: Story and screenplay writer Robert Silliphant also worked on “The Incredibly Strange Creatures…” Special effects guy Clifford Stine also worked on “This Island Earth,” “The Mole People,” “The Deadly Mantis” and “The Thing That Couldn’t Die.”
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Jim Mallon. Jef Maynard is added to the “set design” credit, along with Joel and Trace. Ken Fournelle gets a lighting credit, or any kind of credit, for the last time. He had been involved with the show since season one. Crist Ballas is back to do hair and makeup.
• Fave riff: “We’re the special unit! Helloooooo!!” Honorable mention: “Now, cough, honey.”
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“What guitar player would use his guitar as a weapon?”
Sampo, you’ve never heard of The Honky Tonk Man or Double R Jeff Jarrett from the WWF? :lol:
Great episode, I was so fascinated by the film that after seeing the MST3K version I hunted down the un-Mstied version.
Click on my name for my FULL review!!
I thought I like this episode just because it was part of the first boxed set. But the host segs are hilarious and the movie is totally bizarre. PERFECT riff material!
Sampo – I too LOVE the flag raising segment. Mike’s YES is great because A) we expect him to say it, B) Crow asks him so innocently and he can’t refuse, and C) Tom is standing there with a gun. Great!!!!
Okay, what is the green magic marker thing supposed to do for a CD? I’ve heard many rumors, but I seek the truth!!
( another call for an answer to the markers and the CDs. I’ve asked audiophiles and even they are flummoxed… is it some kind of primitive copy protection ? )
Terrible subject film making for a very good ep ( I’ll give it 5 ). It’s so…. EMPTY that there is plenty of room for good riffs and lots of them. Especially movie themed riffs….
Wild Strawberries
Kurasowa
The unbearable whiteness of being
Silent movie music
At this point the director tried an arty kind of shot ( my fave riff ).
And what about Senior Deputy Gordo’s SWEET RIDE… We only see it for a minute or so at the beginning but that’s a hot car. Is it a Jag ? Any gear heads out there know ?
All the host segments purr.
Laundry Day : Once a year full load or not
Coffee House : [movie sign] Oh this, I guess I’ll run.
The Flag : Our founder ( undecipherable French name ) : Farmer, Claims Adjuster, Rebel !
Love American Style : For you kids out there, this was less a satire then a word for word transcription of a show that looked and sounded JUST like that.
Was there a movie based motivation for the Love American Style bit ? There was for the flag and the Hi-Fi segments of course, but I can’t nail one down for this… the young marrieds coming back from their honeymoon ?
Other great stuff… the soldier whispering sweet nothings to the space ship.
Alan Sherman : Action Hero !
E Pluribus Join Us !
Keith Carradine lapping up the booze
Too many good riffs to count.
OK 20 seconds of research…
black magic marker around the ‘spindle’ hole was an old cheat to get around copy protection on pre-recorded CDs.
Green magic marker along the outside edge was supposed to improve the sound or make the disk run smoother on recordable CDs. May be more of an urban legend though.
$0.02
The green magic marker thing was an urban legend from the early days of cds; somehow people started believing that using a marker on the edge of your CDs would improve the sound quality:
http://www.snopes.com/music/media/marker.htm
This one was kind of a sleeper, I guess. When it first came out on Rhino tape, I could barely make it through, but it’s since become a real favorite.
“I was afraid the monster was gonna be goofy!”
“Bobby REALLY does not want to go fishing anymore!”
“Rump! Rump! Plenty of Rump!”
Great, now I’m gonna have that song in my head all day!
Devin #5. Agreed. But wasn’t Mike marking the inside edge, around the hole ?
This is definitely one of my faves and very rewatchable. I have a pair of boxers identical to the Mickey Mouse ones they have in the laundry sketch. I got them when I went to Disney World as part of a high school band trip that was just a few months before this episode aired. I’m not sure if this was any kind of national trend (probably not – ha!), but me and all my other girl friends would wear men’s boxers around the house like they were regular shorts when we were in high school so that’s why as a chick I had men’s underthings. :oops:
I love the segment where Mike is listening to his bitchin’ stereo system :cool: . I laugh so hard I run out of breath and my face turns all shades of red. I’m getting tickled now just thinking about it. That music is pretty catchy and probably the best thing about the film.
Fave riffs:
“Why’s he crab walking?” (I don’t really know why, but the crab walking jokes always crack me up!)
“I’ll give it the creeping, but the terror part just isn’t happening.”
When people keep crawling under the ship and they make jokes about crawling under the movie to see what’s going wrong with it.
The narrator’s weird statement that the young couple would have assumed the professor guy who shows up would be older. That was strange and unnecessary (of course you could say that about the whole movie!).
When a monster and a car love each other very much…. :lol:
Favorite riffing moment. The Log on the road scene.
Colonel: Let’s get going.
Crow: There is a branch. This is not a drill.
Colonel: Let’s go. Let’s go. Move it over. Let’s get going. Let’s go.
Tom: Ah, yes. The days of rampant military spending.
Colonel: Alright, back on the truck. Let’s go.
Mike: We push more logs before 9am than most people do all day!
I also love how the Colonel is talking non-stop even when we hear him stop talking. I also love the “ok” command he gives his troops. No more “CHARGE!”, “Proceed”, “secure the area” just a simple ok.
I’m not sure what it is about this movie and its riffing that I like, but I do. I guess the similar vibe to Monster A-Go-Go (whatever that means) keeps me coming back every now and then to watch it. The chinese dragon monster(s?) are hilarious as are the inept actors and narration.
The premise of a very slow monster that can be killed by hitting it with a car actually managing to eat people is something I find very worthy of an MST3K treatment and they did their jobs with the riffs here.
Am I the only one who really likes the terrible dance music from this movie? I can’t get enough of it.
The green marker bit was indeed an urban legend according to the fine snopes link Devin posted. Too bad I wrecked a CD by doing it improperly before I figured that out. I’m such a dork.
Speaking of dork, I loved that segment.
The movie, on the other hand, just sat on my head.
I like how the monster carpet couldnt eat the characters, so they jumped into his mouth. Mike made a great riff to that. I enjoy this episode and love the music dance scene. All the movie guides I have read say that the dialog was lost. That one girl in the sleek pants was hot, and loved how she shaked her booty during the 2nd dance # before the “monster” appears… :mrgreen:
This is the closest thing to a silent movie they ever did. i think this episode was great. favorite riff, the fat guy in the stream and mike says he’s making his own gravy. i alwyas wonder what the making of this film was like.
I love this episode. My favorite part of the Sweet Spot Stereo Sketch is the look of pure, relaxed bliss on Mike’s face and he stands and listens to that horrible music.
I usually love the incomprehensible ones, but since ‘Creeping Terror’ is hard to follow mostly because of the lack of sound, it’s not quite up there with ‘Pod People’ or ‘Red Zone Cuba’ for my taste.
What’s the exact line again?
“Well you see Tom, sometimes when an outer-space carpet monster and a mid-sized sport convertible love each other very much…”
My subconscious probably embelished that, so I apologize for being too lazy to rewatch the scene. That’s just the part that sticks out most in my memory.
I also love their speculation about the fight at the dance being some sort of lost subplot. It’s right up there next to the horseshoe in ‘Batwoman’.
Yes, I understand that it was always intended to be post-dubbed, but I can’t shake this feeling that there was some sort of accident that caused them to run short on time rather than money. Maybe I just want to believe that someday we’ll find the original soundtrack in some cinemaphile’s vault, next to the missing footage from ‘Mr. B. Natural’, the real ending to ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’, that one Hitchcock movie with no known surviving copy, and the quartering scene from ‘Transformers the Movie’ (yes, I know that last one was never even animated).
Don’t we all WANT to believe that? Hell, they just found the original extended cut of ‘Metropolis’ down in South America, so anything’s possible, right?
I always feel bad for the grandfather. I dunno why, he just looks like he’d be much happier sitting in a chair with a thing of scotch than rolling around in a stream after yelling “Bobby” umpteen times. Also, I’m convinced its the directors father or something.
#17 and Sampo,
It wasn’t the director’s father, and the fisherman wasn’t “picked,” per se. The director came into town posing as a bigshot Hollywood filmmaker and convinced the locals to not only help with the film, but to PAY to be in it. He was something of a swindler, that guy.
For the full story, I highly recommend checking out “The Golden Turkey Awards: The Worst Achievements in Hollywood History”, by Harry and Michael Medved. (Or it might have been in “The Son of the Golden Turkey Awards” — I can’t remember for sure.)
The movie’s fine, with a lot of funny bits, up until the last section where the carpet monster attacks one car after another… very… slowly. Then the riffs’ originality dries up and the movie becomes tedious.
I don’t know about the host segments, either. Around this time the MST guys started writing winking sketches about how lame the sketches were (Tom’s stand up routine in Beginning of the End, “My Own Private Idaho Potato”, etc.) which didn’t make the sketches any less lame.
Still, the mother’s “love deprivation experiment” with the baby is hilarious. (“Well, that’s done. Now I have the rest of the day to myself!”) The rather pathetic romantic couple at the center of the film is good for a few laughs, as well as the dance with the tedious music. Still… if I’d had my druthers, they’d have cut the whole overlong scene near the end in “Lover’s Lane” and replaced that time with another short.
Yeah, supposedly the director got the actors to invest in the film in exchange for a percentage of the profits, but of course there were no profits. As for the soundtrack, another story is that the movie was mostly filmed without sound, like Manos the Hands of Fate, and they didn’t have the money to dub it properly.
The movie was written by Robert and Allan Silliphant, who were related to famous TV and movie writer Stirling Silliphant, and supposedly the director used Stirling’s name to attract investors even though he had nothing to do with the movie. You might have also heard that a meeting with Stirling inspired Hal Warren to make Manos, so yes, Oscar winner Stirling Silliphant is indirectly responsible for the creation of two of the worst movies ever made.
Yes, you wouldn’t believe how popular this movie, even the non-MST3K version, is with “vore” fetishists (people who get sexually aroused by the idea of women being eaten).
Creeper … creeper … creeper … you give me the creeps.
Oh wait, that’s a later episode, haha.
Technically, this was the first appearance of the “new” Deep 13 set (though the in-show explanation was in 606). This was the first time the SOL bridge set had its new lighting style, the darker take to it (which made 604, the last with both old Deep 13 and the brighter SOL lighting, all the more jarring when it debuted months later).
I recently watched this episode. I enjoy the whole thing.
Laundry Day: More femminess from Frank and Dr. F. Not because of doing laundry itself, but they way they act and things they say. They also reference detergent commercials.
Flag of the SOL: Very good. I like it when the ‘bots turn against Mike.
Love American Style: Stupid, not the sketch the show. It really deserved it.
Mike’s Stereo: Not much happens, but that’s okay. It helps that I too actually like the music. Still, the ‘bots have a point and make a larger comment about how technology is only as good as how it’s used. I always thought the marker around the CD’s center hole was some attempt to give the CD a little extra grip when it’s spinning inside the player.
Last segment: Am I the only one who finds it very disturbing to see Gypsy swallowing Servo? It’s just wrong.
The movie itself isn’t the worst thing on MST3K. It’s still better than Manos and The Beast of Yucca Flats. The riffing does help, but the movie is also odd enough to be interesting.
Favorite Riff: “Maury Fierstein, Kosher Game Warden!”
This is kind of a bittersweet episode for me. Here we go.
Movie:
* This one is up and down since I love the first half and most of the 2nd half, but the portion in-between just drags for me (the dance hall and Lover’s Lane).
* Some “special unit.” It can’t even get into any type of reasonable attack formation. They all just stay clumped together in one big, easily devoured target. I think those guys are more pathetic than the national guard unit in Beginning of the End and Coleman Francis’ unit in Red Zone Cuba.
* Favorite riff, “Another frustrated IBM PC user.”
Host Segments:
* “Once a year-” became a favorite amongst my college friends.
* My dad is a similar audiophile. His extremely loud quad setup annoys everyone else in the family to death.
* Favorite Segment: Raising the flag.
The scene with the neglected baby having his temperature taken really gets me, too. I can’t recall the exact comment but wasn’t it like:
“Ah. The first director to realize the dramatic power of a rectal thermometer.”
I also love it when they recognize David Carradine as the drunk at the dance party.
I agree with the statement that the deputy’s wife is hotter then that town deserves. Meow!
I first saw this movie on a UHF channel many, many years before it was done on MST3K. I thought it was the worst science fiction or monster movie I had ever seen at the time, but I enjoyed it because it was so laughable. Years later when I saw it on MST3K, my opinion didn’t change and I really enjoyed seeing what professional riffers did to such a bad movie I had made fun of myself. I still enjoy this episode and think it is one of the best, most enjoyable post-Joel era efforts.
The Creeping Terror isn’t one of my favorites, but it’s one of the episodes that impress me the most.
Here we have one of the worst, most awful films they’ve ever done. It’s almost Coleman Francis bad, and that’s saying something. Usually that kind of movie makes me suffer even as I laugh at the jokes, but the riffing on this one takes the pain away completely. They really went above and beyond the call of duty here, making this film far, far funnier than it deserved to be.
“What guitar player would use his guitar as a weapon?” That’s easy. Pete Townshend, at Woodstock 1969, swatted Abbie Hoffman off of the stage with a Gibson SG as Hoffman attempted to grab Pete’s microphone to make some statement during The Who’s set.
Love this one! Caught it during it’s original airing and laughed hysterically as the monster humped the car, followed by Mike’s explanation…and the scene with the grandpa fishing–hilarious every time. “Don’t make me stand up!”
Great great episode. The narration in place of actual dialog proved to be riffing gold. It’s almost like the whole episode is a short.
This was one of my late mothers favorite episodes. No matter how many times she saw it it always made her laugh.
“Oh no! The monster made a dodo!”
“eeh watch the hair.”
“he died with his bowling shoes on.”
“thier about to be killed by a point-of-view shot!”
were some of her favorite riffs. Also she enjoyed the several comments about not running in the oppisite direction of the monster. As well as how they killed the seconed monster by simply running into it with truck (the speed up film made her laugh out loud every time).
Favorite riff:
“A ‘Clothes Encounter’ of the third kind.”
Mysteryman says: “Yes, you wouldn’t believe how popular this movie, even the non-MST3K version, is with “vore” fetishists (people who get sexually aroused by the idea of women being eaten).”
That can’t possibly be a genuine fetish…can it??? :shock: That is just a tad bit scary if genuine!
Awful movie, but a fun experiment. It does make me feel a bit old, though, since I remember watching “Love, American Style” when it was first run on ABC. And, yes, it was pretty much just like the sketch.
sorry Graboidz #33 but it’s real. And It’s freaking me out even as I type this :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vore
Yikes!!
Thanks for clarifying I’m not a medium, I’m a petite……(I think).
JLH #22: “This was the first time the SOL bridge set had its new lighting style, the darker take to it…”
I’m glad you commented on this. I love the season six/seven look of the SOL bridge, taking more chances with lighting schemes. You’re right in your comparison — it makes the Joel and early Mike-era set seem too bright. A little too television-y.
Great stuff, another awesome episode.
Is it just me, or does it seem that all of the riffers are at their best (then and now) when confronted by films with disembodied, authoritative, nonsense-spewing narrators? It seems like those films fit the MST approach best of all.
One of my favorite episodes.
Bad movie but bad in a fun way–perfect for MST3K to riff.
Why did Trace’s fans like the closeup of his foot? That’s creepier than the movie.
JJK #39 – Since we’re on the topic of fetishes, perhaps some of Trace’s fans have a foot fetish. Now, if only the alien would eat Trace’s foot…
“MikeK says: Last segment: Am I the only one who finds it very disturbing to see Gypsy swallowing Servo? It’s just wrong.”
I’ve only seen 3 season 1 eps, but didn’t Gypsy routinely eat things/characters like Enoch the Devil Dog, and one of the bots while dressed as the black scorpion back then? Having read about that in ACEG, I thought having her eat Tommy here was a nice bit of continuity.
And as for vore fetishists, I’m guessing it’s a sort of Freudian-symbolic turn-on only if a creature inhales/sucks/swallows the woman whole as opposed to graphically/bloodily chewing up or dismembering her, right? I mean, they wouldn’t necessarily enjoy cannibal movies, but stuff like when Audrey 2 almost eats her namesake at the end of “Little Shop of Horrors (’80s)” and the Dragonball Z ep where Cell absorbs Android 18? Of course that last example is more of an inverted…um…
Okay, gotta rember what board I’m on. I’ve seen posts by people who claim to find coat hangers “sexy”, so although I’ve never heard of ‘vore’ before, I don’t find it at all shocking.
I do hope that if Shout! ever releases a Gypsy figure, it’ll have jaw articulation enough that we can insert Tom or Crow partway in. My Trypticon’s mouth just doesn’t open wide enough.
I think Gypsy swallowing Servo is made creepy by the context of the movie. And, what with her being designated as a female, well, it’s just unwholesome.
Re ( sort of ) Gypsy swallowing Tom : Wasn’t Gypsy the other end of the umbilacoidalacular thingy for a few eps ? But nobody used for an escape tube….
Its just the sight of Gypsy with a vaguely Tom Servo-shaped lump in her neck that was disturbing to me. Also I got the impression that Tom and Crow sort of forced her to do it which made them look creepy too.
The local TV stations used to show this “movie” a lot in the 70’s. I watched this once with the whole family and my mother kept saying “This is the worst movie ever made!”. Well, 20 years later someone agreed :mrgreen:
I always wondered why people just stood around waiting for the glacially slow monster to catch them and eat them. In the dance hall scene especially, everyone crammed into one corner, getting gulped one by one when there were plenty of exits all around. And the two idiots who just stood there and waited for it to finish before they decided to react, and even then they didn’t think to just run. My guess is that the monster emitted a stupid ray that negated the flight response in humans. But, I’m putting more thought into this movie than the filmmakers did.
My favortie bit, the fat guy yelling “BOBBEEEEEE!” in his high, nasally voice. My brothers and I annoyed each other for days with that.
Funny as hell episode that stands the test of time, definitely one of my favorites.
Any time that Mike and the bots imitated the narrator was hilarious. They really captured the ineptitude and high-and-mighty tone of the whole thing.
The Bobby/grandfather scene was a riot, too, especially for the “most challenging scene in this movie” riff.
The riffs during the dance scene were also hilarious. The Jerry Lewis jokes were dead on and Mike’s “his date has gotta be SO embarrassed ” riff hits the nail on the head.
The skits were enjoyable enough, but the dance music host segment was just a real treat.
And of course, this stinger might be one of the best ones that the Brains have ever chosen.
Hmmm…yeah, maybe that goofy head appendage WAS some sort of neural distruptor. It was bioengineered to attack humans, so its creators could have given part of its anatomy such a specialized function.
There was disappointingly little speculation about what sort of alien masters would create such an awkward terror as a scouting animal. I envision them being a far less competant version of the aliens in “TO SERVE MAN”, but that’s probably just because I saw that ep of the Twilight Zone last night.
I also love how in Trace’s ACEG monster stats, he includes the terror’s carpet price and implies that the Rug Doctor could’ve taken it down. I remember those commercials, and miss the good doctor almost as much as Sog-Master and that giant Bonkers fruit.
One of my all-time favorites, I think the one I chose to have if I could only have one episode (though there are one or two others I might choose instead).
Love the bizarre, unnecessary scenes, the lame monster, the endless dance music (I agree w/you, MattG #11). Great host segments, especially Mike just…listening.
“They’re just downwind from Los Alamos.”
“Let’s see, stick, sharpened…Grandpa!”
Another perfect movie to be riffed, five stars. Didn’t this movie have more dialogue, but it got thrown in a lake or something and the director had to narrate most of the movie? There was actual dialogue in parts(and M&TB did point it out when it happened), so that was jarring too. Most of my fave riffs have been mentioned, except the one at the end where Tom says, ‘Keep watching the skies, but watch what you eat, and eat all you take!’ Also, re:Graboidz, it’s not Double R, it’s Double J Jeff Jarrett; or, as he called himself, ‘J-E-Double F, (Ha! Ha!) J-A-Double R, E-Double T, Jeff Jarrett!’