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Rifftrax–Octoman: Open ThreadAn open thread for reports and comments on tonight’s Rifftrax Live.
30 Replies to “Rifftrax–Octoman: Open Thread”Commenting at Satellite News
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Well, that’s the last RiffTrax Live I ever go to. Nothing against the job Mike, Bill and Kevin did. I got a few laughs at the floppy costume. But I got pulled out of the show every time the @$$hole two rows in front of me blinded me with their texting. They couldn’t go five minutes without flipping their phone on. After the twentieth time I gave up and left the theater.
I know, it seems like an overreaction but I didn’t pay $15 to not be able to watch a movie. It’s also the last straw in a long string of bad experiences at the theater, including the RiffTrax Live showing that started with a horrible half-hour infomercial for weight loss and missed the first 10 minutes of the RiffTrax show before the staff fixed the problem. Not worth the money, not worth the frustration.
I expected better from RiffTrax fans, but it turns out we’re just as ****ty as the general population. So, from now on I’ll be enjoying all of the shows at home. I contributed to the Kickstarter so I’ll get the digital versions eventually. Sad, but this is why we can’t have nice things.
100 strong in Lansing, MI. Since Flint and Saginaw aren’t showing Rifftrax anymore (seems Car shows and Cage Wrestling rate higher here)- I drove the 50+ miles- and, it was worth it. The McGruff short was priceless and disturbing. The movie- which featured the actor who played Sinbad from the 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and, Exeter from This Island Earth- and, 1/2 of an Ocotman (really, he only had four tentacles.) The movie just sat on my head- made Manos look like Citizen Kane- yet, the riffing was good enough to pull me through. This was not their best(don’t get me wrong- better than 95% of entertainment out there), but, certainly worth the $12.50 or whatever I paid. I’m really happy they’re doing three this year- I thank Rifftrax for getting us through the lean years- and, continuing to bring us the best in bad movies.
Saw this one at the Rialto in Westfield, NJ. This used to be my site for RT, but they stopped showing them a few years ago. So, I moved to the Regal Commerce on Rt. 1 in East Brunswick, NJ. However, the Regal is temporarily closed due to a fire, and the Rialto is showing RT again. Anyway…
I got there early enough to see the test footage of the end of the “Space Mutiny” show. I even got to see it twice, when they rewound the footage and re-ran it. Then came the great pre-show title cards, and the official video of Kevin performing “Mutiny of Love”. The McGruff short was very funny, then came “Octaman”. Oh, dear was that movie bad. Mike’s riff about the makers of “Manos” feeling pretty good about their movie now was pretty accurate. This one was a real slog punctuated by some wonderfully goofy moments. I was kind of surprised they only did one Squiward joke. Oh, and did anyone else notice that “Octaman” is pretty much an uncredited, vastly inferior remake of “Creature From the Black Lagoon”? Great riffs, though.
I don’t think this is the worst movie they’ve ever featured live, but it’s close.
LoneZombie:
I’m sorry about your experience. Perhaps you could catch the encore presentation next week at a different theater?
By the way, I hate how addicted people are to texting. I especially despise those people who text from their cellphones while walking their dogs.
Perhaps this playlist will cheer you up? 0:-)
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2LByyx4-S56d3MO9Ffc_3v5UGI9uq6NL
By the way, the night before I was at the same theater for the TCM/Fathom revival showing of “Ben-Hur”. From the sublime to the ridiculous.
Oh, and has the edit feature for posts been switched off?
Hey, thank you for your friendly reply! I knew that we Riffies (what are we called?) are mostly good apples. Too bad there’s the bad apples that spoil things for others. I probably should have just stayed home to nurse my cold instead of heading to the theater in not the best mood (sitting far away from everyone else, as much good as that did).
I really hope that everyone else enjoyed the show. I sure wanted to!
I’d say about a half-full theater at the Century 16 in Mountain View, CA. Maybe less. I do recall the Krull show having far more people. Much to my surprise, someone in the same row I was came in with a Tom Servo. Never had anything like that happen back out east. Didn’t have a chance to talk to them about it, though.
Octaman joins the proud history of MST3K/Rifftrax movies that don’t really end, they just eventually stop. Didn’t we see Octaman shrug off hails of bullets earlier in the movie? So why did he just decide he’s dead when he got shot THAT particular time? Was it the whittled octopus that did it? And did the woman take a level in Commune With Cephalopods earlier in her life? Is THAT what was going on with her? And how did the Octaman spawnlings factor into anything? They didn’t take too long to drop that plot hook on the floor.
Add in a rather disturbing McGruff short that was never really sure if it was talking about poisons and hazardous materials around the home or the ever-looming specter of The Drugs, and this was a fun live show. Gotta love the bonus music video of Kevin before the main event, too.
Say the movie in a nearly empty theater in Atascadero California. Maybe the near zero advertising locally was a factor. Funny rifftrax, but good god what an awful movie. Along with the Manos crew, the makers of Blood Waters of Dr. Z are feeling better about their work. And has there ever been a more spastic, slow, ponderous and just plain stupid monster suit? I feel sorry for the poor dope inside that thing. It must have been hell. And for what? The rock climbing sequence from Lost Continent was action packed compared to the endless sitting at camp/sitting in a canoe/crawling around a cave bit. And these idiots kept getting surprised by something the size of an Oak tree and almost as fast. Great situational awareness. You’d think with Walter White showing up with a RV full of blue meth things would have picked up. I’m amazed the riffers could make comedy out of all that nothing. And is it me or does that beard make Bill look like Julian Assange?
Nice short. I like how the one kid just said that the 6th grader had drugs. Not pot, or pills, or coke, but drugs. Maybe they could ask him, “can I buy a drug?” That kid also seemed to think that drug dealing was some kind of spectator sport. We all know how much dealers like non-customers hanging around and watching.
It’s especially depressing when you know who worked on it; Rick Baker agreed to design and build the Octaman suit for the no-budget film on the reassurance that it would only be shown in darkness and quick cuts to obscure its shortcomings. As would be the case with Baker’s work for The Incredible Melting Man and ’76 Kong, the producers and director proceeded to do the exact opposite of what he advised. At least he didn’t have to wear the damned thing.
My first RiffTrax Live–at a nearly empty theatre in Clarksville, TN. (Maybe a certain number of Clarksvillians made the trip to the Belcourt Theatre in nearby Nashville, I don’t know.) Previous posters have already adequately commented on the incredible badness of the movie, but I will say that I LOVED the interminable, poorly lit scenes, first in the boat, and then in the cave. (Regarding the latter, I found myself longing for the dubiously lit cave in EARTH VERSUS THE SPIDER, and then thought better of it, since it would have involved seeing more clearly the singularly unappealing characters.) I’m glad I went, and I’m looking forward to the next one!
Sadly, just as one other has posted, this is likely my last Rifftrax live. Here in Wisconsin, Marcus Theatres has a long history of technical problems with Rifftrax. This time, the color was horribly off with all the blacks showing as purple. And the theater did not turn down the lights during for 35 minutes. I complained, but was told that the lights will stay on until the bistro service is done (this theater has food service). The server talked loudly to the other customers while taking orders.
We missed most of the short because of the noise and never got an apology for the color problem. For Space Mutiny, the sound kept cutting out. On several other showings, Marcus couldn’t get a connection.
I am done paying $15 dollars for a show only to miss most of it because of technical issues. If we had any real competition for movie theaters here in Wisconsin, maybe Marcus Theatres would actually care.
What I did see was funny. Hopefully they will issue a DVD.
Wonder how many gallons that camper gets to the mile.
Jeff Morrow (Exeter from This Island Earth) was listed in the credits, but I’m not clear who his character was.
Went to the usual theater in Bowie, MD, with only a small handful of people attending the event. The pre-show slides didn’t start until halfway through. However, the theater had a good excuse for that, as the other Fathom Events screening going on in there, The Pilgrim’s Progress, had major technical problems and eventually got cancelled, with the staff dealing with the huge crowd of people that needed refunds for this. Once the slides came on, everything went without a hitch in my area.
Film wise, yeah, it definitely was a mess with the long tedious scenes (with me using the bathroom during the cave scene) and the beginning being somewhat incohesive. Still, at least the film gives us the promised monster throughout instead of holding off the “ticket seller” until the final reel.
He was the professor who refuses to give them funding when they bring him the dead Octababy.
i thought there was going to be a when they are driving down to Mexico in the Camper, lets stop tonight at Valley Lodge (or something like that).
Sorry to hear people’s stories of bad experiences at the theater. I keep thinking Alamo Drafthouse would be a good fit for Rifftrax; I’ve seen the Mads there a couple of times.
But, absent a Drafthouse showing, I went to the Harkins at Tempe Marketplace. It was my second time seeing RT there; I’ve usually gone to Cinemark in the past, but I’m glad Harkins started showing them because it’s closer.
It’s not nearly as busy as the Cinemark, either; I’ve been to sold-out shows there, whereas this one had a pretty sparse crowd. (Maybe it’s the movie, or the time of year; I saw Krull at the same theater and remember it being better-attended.)
Nothing ruins a movie going experience like rude people, I’ve been lucky I guess… I’ve been to every Rifftrax show and everyone at the Marcus in Oakdale, MN are always really into the movie and I RARELY ever see a cell phone. If you can see them at an Alamo Drafthouse they have a no talking/cell phone policy and will kick out rude people. For some reason this go round the Alamo isn’t showing the Rifftrax 2019 movies, even the Alamo here is decorated almost exclusively with MST movie posters.
HI tomservo35, I also go to Marcus in Oakdale, usually in the back row.
I thought the McGruff short was the highlight. They started strong. The movie was plodding and dark for most of the first half. Pretty sure I dozed off for a few minutes during the canoe scene.
I believe this qualified as the shortest live event at barely 90 minutes. Would have loved one more short. I assume the length was because they filmed Star Raiders the night before and it was just too much content to write in a shorter time.
I also think this show had the most flubbed or missed lines of any that I’ve noticed. I also attribute it to fatigue from back to back shows. I wonder if anyone else noticed that too?
Anyway, already have tickets for June and August at the Marcus Oakdale (in the back).
Up here in the northern Greater Chicago area, I had a choice between two theaters within equal distance of my home: a Marcus that was about 3/4 full… and an AMC that was empty when I bought my tickets online.
I naturally assumed that between the time I bought the tickets and the day of the show, more seats would fill up. I was wrong – there was only one other person in attendance, and I suspect he may not have known what he was getting into, because he seemed utterly humorless and the show didn’t even elicit a chuckle from him.
In any event, the wife and I enjoyed it immensely. Best line of the night was during the short, a call-back to “The Room”: “What kind of drugs Danny???” Even my wife, who is only casually interested in these shows, got a big laugh from that.
Gare
Unfortunately, storms wiped out the first thirty minutes of the show, so I didn’t get to see the short or the beginning of the movie. However, 10 minute in I was actually glad I didn’t see all the film given how punishing it was. Bill leaving was definitely a highlight.
I got a free pass from the theater to see any other movie, but I won’t go back to this presentation if only because it’s a long distance away from my home and I’m getting the digital download.
Funny thing is, no one was complaining about missing the first thirty minutes. Everyone was calm and chatting away. Probably because Tulsans are quite calm to begin with and this sorta stuff has happened before, so it is expected.
Yes. Not sure what will disappear next.
Oh right, like stuff is just going to somehow suddenly dis
Saw the replay with a small crowd in Cedar Hills, OR. Enjoyed both the short (who keeps that many cleaners under their sink, anyway?) and the film, though it felt much longer than it actually was. Never knew you could light scenes with a couple of flashlights, and also enjoyed the random stock footage at times (a cheetah, really?). Also got to see Kevin’s “Mutiny of Love” video beforehand and noted he had not one but two St. Paul Saints caps at different points in the video; it’s time for them to call him up to do the national anthem at CHS Field sometime this season.
Hm, according to IMDB, writer/director Harry Essex also wrote the screenplays for “I, the Jury”, “It Came from Outer Space”, “Creature from the Black Lagoon”, and MST3Kdom’s own “Teen-Age Crime Wave” among others. Hm.
A cheetah? FROM Africa?
Essex also directed:
I, the Jury (1953) (Mike Hammer!)
Mad at the World (1955) (in which juvenile delinquents injure an infant, which seems fairly hardcore for the 1950s)
The Cremators (1972) (which I’d nominate for riffing)
Octaman has the comparatively unique distinction of receiving two metafictional alternate titles: In Fright Night (1985), Octaman footage is identified as “Mars Wants Flesh” while in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), such footage is referred to as “Revenge of the Octopus People.” So there’s that, anyway.
(okay, just one more and I’ll let other people talk for a while; you’re welcome)
The Brains managed to limit their more or less unfunny comments about the supposed improbability of Octaman being able to stab people with his tentacles to a mere two — ’cause, you know, that part, THAT they found hard to just roll with — and I appreciated that. :-)
I was mildly impressed that they let the scene of Octaman bleeding some very human-looking blood from his back entirely uncommented upon.
Incidentally, if one considers the lower tentacles of the Octaman costume and the visible feet of the Octaman actor to be two SEPARATE sets of feet then, yes, Octaman did indeed have eight limbs. So there, again, is that, anyway…
I thought I had missed my chance at this. I’m a 76ers fan, and the Sixers had a playoff games on Thursday and then Tuesday. Normally the repeat showing is on Tuesday,so the fact that there was a Wednesday showing was a welcome surprise.
As was the movie. It’s hard to recall a worse monster costume than the Octaman’s. And yet he somehow overcame a non-articulating mouth and fingerless arms to wreak havoc on the world. The image of the Octaman bursting out of the dingy RV, where he had been laying in wait for his adversaries, will stay with me for a long time.
As I watched the first part of the film, I gradually came to think that, yes, this might actually be it, the most ineptly made movie ever filmed.
Then the characters who’d been so determined to trapping or killing Octaman basically said, “Hell with THIS,” almost as though the characters were metaphorically speaking for the actors themselves.
And I was…bemused.
Then Octaman, who had spent the entire film up to that point conveying the impression that he just wanted these people to LEAVE HIM ALONE, trapped them and forced them to remain in his vicinity (a move that I didn’t at the time recognize as a direct lift from “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (although since the same guy wrote both films, there’s no real issue of “stealing” from another film)), in effect doing exactly what The Brains have accused so many films of doing, i.e. STARTING THE MOVIE ALL OVER AGAIN.
And I was…puzzled.
Then the characters pursued an aquatic menace into a frickin’ CAVE.
And I was…intrigued.
THEN the aquatic monster demonstrated that it was intelligent enough to hide in the camper and lie in wait for his victims.
And I was thunderstruck.
At last, the damsel in distress*, being carried away by the monster (without all that much previous buildup of Octaman’s interest in her; some, but not all that much), gutshot him with a hidden revolver. Even Jamie Lee Curtis never pulled a stunt like that.
And I finally understood.
This film was made by H.P. Lovecraft protagonists in a doomed but valiant attempt to convey the inexplicable forces that had driven them mad. Either that or aliens who comprehended humanity only just a little better than the Psychlos did.
;-)
===
*If actress Pier Angeli hadn’t died almost immediately after making this film, she might have been able to make a whole new start for herself as the prototype for the Monster Movie Final Girl (in contrast to the Slasher Film Final Girl). So it goes.
Yes, Dr. Willard. What a rat…
The-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the Eye Creatures thank you.
;-)