RiffTrax is continuing to release “three riffer” commentary tracks for movies that were released by Legend Films with solo commentaries by Mike. On the heels of “Reefer Madness,” “Little Shop of Horrors” amd “House On Haunted Hill” comes “Night of the Living Dead.” As with the others, if you previously bought the Legend DVD, all you need is to download the commentary and you’re all set.
If you didn’t buy the DVD, you can also download it as a video-on-demand file that includes the movie and the riffing.
Updated: Two important items were brought up in the comments that I probably should have included:
1. The number-one question people ask about these is: “Is it new material, or the same stuff Mike said solo?” The answer is, yes, these riffs have all been re-written from when Mike did them solo.
And in the case of this movie, it would pretty much HAVE to be, since, if you’ve heard Mike’s solo outing, he didn’t so much riff on the movie as just sort of comment on it.
2. Coming next in this series: Missile to the Moon (previously riffed by Mike and Fred Willard), Feb. 17; Carnival of Souls, March 3 (ESPECIALLY looking forward to THAT one!) and Swing Parade (with the Three Stooges!), March 10.
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I posted on our forum, but this is probably the most re-written of all of the recent 3-riffer PD titles. Very little is the same as the original commentary Mike did way back when.
They also announced int he email:
Missile to the Moon – 17th Feb
Carnival of Souls – 3rd March
Swing Parade – 10th March
“They’re coming to get you, Bar-bar-a.” :twisted:
Glad to see this one re-done. I wasn’t impressed with his first one, and this movie has so much potential.
This brings up a suggestion for a future weekend discussion (assuming it hasn’t already been done):
“What movies from MST3K and its spin-offs deserve a re-riffing?”
Why re-do Missle to the Moon? The Fred Willard-Mike version was GREAT!!
I thought there could be a better riffing of NOTLD, too, but seeing the preview I’m not sure this is it. Someone post a review!
This strikes me as a somewhat odd choice.
Sure Night of the Living Dead is a bit cheesy by today’s standards but it isn’t bad. And, all in all, it’s still fairly terrifying movie.
Castle Monster: Just finished watching it, and the riffing is much better than before. The only thing I really recall about the original was Mike’s zombie recipe; far and away the least funny thing about it, but it did make for a damn good cocktail.
Not quite top notch, but having all three of guys in the studio definitely helps during the glacial first half-hour of the movie. Here, they can play off each other and wisecrack amongst themselves while Ben pulls an entire Home Depot lumber aisle out of the cupboards and Barbara is busy farting around. Whether the jokes are solid is a matter of taste, but there are very few quiet spaces this time around. I’d say get it.
wasnt swing parade already with all three? i dont have my dvd on hand to check but im pretty sure.
@ gojikranz – Nope, just Mike.
Lucas D.: Much obliged. Might as well get it, I reckon.
@Sampo
Regarding these recent 3 riffer redos: Not all of them have been rewritten from the ground up. Some of them have decent amounts of the original mike commentary intact, it depended on the original commentary and how closely it resembled what RiffTrax has since become. Sometimes comments fit in with what a normal RiffTrax would sound like, other times (like the zombie recipes) it didn’t. That’s why we’ve tried to indicate on the product pages the level of rewriting. Since Missile to the Moon was originally written as a RiffTrax, it isn’t much different content wise, as a 3 riffer. But ones like Reefer, NOTLD and Carnival of Souls are almost completely different.
@Lucas & Castle Monster
If you have a better idea for a sample section after checking the riff out, let us know over at our forum.
Maybe a sample with zombies in it? It’ll be a couple days for me, anyway…
Is it normal for my pancreas to be purple?
Just wondering.
No modern-day Rifftrax until April? I can’t say I’m happy about this. I’d prefer they do one old, then one new, and so forth. But I guess once they finish these it’s back to the good stuff.
Conor–thanks for the clarification!
I appear to be in the minority, because I actually love Mike’s solo commentary for NotLD and think it’s the best of the six Legends films. It sort of bridges a gap between riffing and actual informative commentary, giving enough in the way of tidbits that you actually feel somewhat informed about the flick, while still bringing the funny (the “I’m from Wisconsin” bits kill me every damned time.)
@Htom Sirveaux
I believe we have a “proper” RiffTrax release coming out some time in February, stay tuned!
I digress a little. Actually, I thought the original commentary wasn’t too bad. I remember hoping at the time that he would talk about the actors a little, but I didn’t know about Rifftrax back then since it was just in the formative stage, and I figured he didn’t have to strictly riff. Mike just seemed a little awkward on his own. Like mildly apologetic, even.
A good example of a commentary that is both humorous and informative is the one for The Monster Club by Luke Y. Thompson and Gregory Weinkaul. Even though it was undoubtedly inspired by MST3K the structure was unique. All the name-dropping made them sound like industry insiders, which I suppose they are.
Do the folks at RiffTrax ever sleep? I’m not complaining; I just watched the new versions of House on Haunted Hill and this release, and loved ’em both, especially the former. I’m just a bit blown away by how much stuff they release and how often they do it. It’s a kind of scary.
Thanks, Conor!
Do the folks at RiffTrax ever sleep?
All that bacon keeps a person up at night.
I’ll get all of these — since I’ve complained about RT doing post 80’s films I’m very excited to at least see them release this group.
Perhaps Conor can answer, but I’m curious now as to whether this is just a “finish up all the old stuff we had” move or an actual effort to see if doing old movies will sell. I know there has been a lot of comments to the effect that the newer films outsell the old stuff by a wide margin (I guess mostly due to folks not wanting to track down the old films) but if this is indeed a sort of “marketing test” I’m hoping it gets supported.
There’s certainly room for Mike and Co to do enough stuff to satisfy those of us who like the older films as well as the (mostly younger, I’m guessing) fans who like the current film riffing stuff.