Movie: (1996) A man develops lycanthropy when he’s injured by werewolf bones unearthed at an archeological dig.
First shown: 4/18/98
Opening: Mike thinks he’s James Lipton
Intro: After being de-Liptonized, Mike attempts to escape down a ladder to Earth, only to arrive at Castle Forrester
Host segment 1: Mike and Tom present who would be in their werewolf movie, but Crow isn’t as good at it
Host segment 2: M&TB sing “Where, o, werewolf”
Host segment 3: Mike has become a werecrow!
End: Mike is still Crow, Tom has become Mike; in Castle Forrester, Bobo ruins Pearl’s attempt to create a werewolf
Stinger: “This is absolutely fascinating!”
(391 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
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• Bill’s take is here.
• Now THIS…this is MST3K at its best. I would stack this episode up against any other one from any era. Even if you’re a total Sci-Fi-era naysayer, you’ve still got to love this one. The riffing is brilliant, the segments (well, most of them) are fantastic and the movie is, oh, so very ripe for riffing. It’s just great in every way. Did I mention how much I like this episode?
• References.
• Obscure reference not in above: King Timahoe, Richard Nixon’s dog.
• I think I told this story once before, but it needs to be told here. Sci-Fi Channel threw a little wingding in New York City just before this season started, to drum up some publicity. They invited all the major TV press people and most of them came (including my pal and former mentor David Bianculli). In front of a packed amphitheater were Mike and Kevin and I can’t quite remember who else. I don’t think Bill was there and I don’t recall Jim being there, but I could be wrong on both counts.
In any case, in the audience was none other than James Lipton. I suspect he had been put up to it, but during the press conference, he rose and attempted to ask Mike some of the Bernard Pivot/Marcel Proust questions he famously asks his guests on “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”
Now, I can’t say for sure what was going on with Mike, but I strongly suspect he was having one of his famous headaches. I’ve been around him when he’s had one, and in general he is, at best, quiet and cool, and at worst surprisingly short-tempered. I think that explains what happened. The other explanation would be that Mike simply has no use for James Lipton, especially at an event where the purpose was to focus media attention on his TV show, and not Mr. Lipton’s.
Anyway, Lipton asked Mike: “What is your favorite curse word?” and Mike, slowly and with a pained expression his face, replied something to the effect of “I would have to say that it’s: ‘Go to hell, Mr. Lipton.'” Lipton didn’t attempt to ask him any more questions.
• This was the episode Sci-Fi Channel submitted for Emmy consideration. It was not nominated.
• Host segment 1 is one of those “bit about not quite being able to manage to do a bit” bits. They’re a bit wry for my taste.
• The song in segment 2 became an instant classic.
• M&tB are still wearing their girl group hair as they return to the theater.
• Segment 3 is a gem featuring the instantly beloved line: “Well, your voice is going to change inexplicably every seven years…”
• Mike is still a werecrow when he returns to the theater
• At the end of the movie, just when you think they can’t possibly top what they’ve done so far, we get the brilliant closing credits song, in which they chime in with an eclectic mix of songs that they think fit the song’s rhythm. Don’t recognize them all? They’re all identified here and here.
• Ya know, considering that Kevin is the most musically experienced of the three riffers, it’s kind of surprising that Servo messes up the tempo a couple times during the song.
• Of course, the cocker spaniel seen in the final segment was Kevin’s beloved Humphrey. Humphrey lived a long and happy life and has, um, “gone to live on a farm upstate.”
• Cast and crew roundup: Joe Estevez was also in “Soultaker.” That’s it.
• CreditsWatch: Directed by Kevin. Intern Dan Breyer took a one-episode break after this show, then returned for three more episodes. That’s Beez as the peasant.
• Fave riff: “Okay, stop. Everyone go up a shirt size.” Honorable mention: “I’m still in this movie, ya know! You might not think I am, but I am!”
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Oh man, I can’t believe I’m this late on one of the top 3 episodes of this season, but here goes.
Movie:
* Has anyone ever done an interview with the guy who plays Yuri and asked why his hairstyle is constantly changing? I do have to admit that he does have a pretty good villainous presence as long as he’s not talking.
* Someone on imdb submitted the plot hole idea that it’s unknown how Natalie becomes a werewolf at the end… not in the uncut version.
* Too bad the additional scenes with Miss Carrie were also cut. She’s the best-looking woman in the whole movie (out of all 2 of them, I know).
* Sam is one of those characters you can’t help but like, and riffing even helps add to his image, rather than tear it down.
* Archie Comics reference: “Reggie Mantle, no!” “But Veronica.”
Favorite riffs:
“‘Dear sir, send pants at once.'” – Mike
“That was the sound of the director giving up and leaving.” – Crow
“He’s Winnie the Pooh.” – Servo
Host Segments:
* For me they start out pretty slow on this one until the “Where, Oh Werewolf” and they immediately kick into high gear.
* Favorite line, “He’s a wereCrow! A wereCrow!”
Things I Learned From This Episode (Abbreviated TILFTE from now on):
* Werewolves have skeletal ears.
* The moon is always full in Flagstaff, Arizona.
* Playing pool in a bar causes everyone’s shirts to shrink.
* A shotgun is an effective tool in killing flies.
* Cocker spaniels are suitable substitutes for a wolf.
I also liked all the host segs, even thought the girl-group thing seemed oddly non-sequitur. Last person I showed it to briefly thought that Mike actually tripped on his way out of the theater and they kept the take, so I’d say the were-crow thing was executed perfectly.
I wonder if any english teachers play the part where Paul claims he was “running through the streets…doing things…” evoking the response: “NO! Not THINGS!” I recall that rule of writing being repeated a lot in high school, so that’s probably my favorit riff.
“Thanks for turning the annoying soundtrack off…”
I’ve been a fan of MST3k since age 8 (1st year Comedy Channel) and I never realized how much it had permeated my life until I decided to start watching as many eps as possible a few months ago….
My only kid’s name is Elgin, he’s 1 and I have had that name in my head for a long time now, could never remember where I first saw/heard it -definitely never knew anybody with that name…
Then I watched this ep again for the first time since it first aired on scifi and my question was finally answered! Can’t love this show too much
Here is an example of how up-and-down Season 9 was for me: here we have a legendary episode, along with Puma Man and Hobgoblins, one that rivals any from any era in MST history, and yet there were duds (imho) like Space Children and Deadly Bees. I definitely never knew what I was going to get in terms of show quality at this time.
That said, let me show how much I loved this ep with one statement: in spite of woning this show on both VHS and DVD, I also paid the full price to download it once it became available on iTunes. Yes, it’s THAT good!
for my money Spike Knotts and Chip Hitler were highly overrated as actors and would NOT make good werewolves. now Joe Esteves, THERE’S Oscar material yes sir!
Dis is obsolutely fussinating.
I’m pretty sure this is my favorite episode 5/5. There are so many great lines, with all the strange accents, and all the other problems with the movie. I never found Natalie as attractive as some here. She’s got a nice body, and there is the deleted scene you can find on the internet…
Favorite Lines:
Servo: I don’t know, you had him last!
Noel: Make sure none of the Indian workers see this
Mike: Like Rajipur or Amir.
Servo: It’s not a bunny.
Noel: At the risk of sounding crazy…
Crow: I’ve replaced all my toes with grapes.
Joe Estevez’s character throws a beer can on the ground
Crow: Hey! An ancient beer can!
Servo: It’s a gorilla! With a dog mask on!
Servo: You’ll… See… That… I am… Stalling…
Crow: I’ll kill your whole family if you call me that again!
Crow: Call me a psychopath… I’ll carve all their heads into ashtrays.
Describing he habits of werewolves.
Crow: Wears toast in his pants
Noel: Sleeps nose to anus…
Servo: What? It’s fun!
A overweight biker with long, black hair and a leather jacket is shown.
Mike: Chubby Ramone
Crow: Bikers love harpsichord music.
Natalie: You and Noel is in it for fame and fortune?
Crow: Yes, we is.
Crow(as Natalie): Poll! You is being a wahrwilf!
Tusk!
how is it that i have never commented on this episode?
man, i is a jerk…
Werewolf fails the Bechdel Test. There is no instance of two female characters interacting.
At the breakfast table, Pearl is eating Crunch Berries, Observer is eating French Toast Crunch, and Bobo is eating Banana Nut Crunch. They sure do like their crunchiness.
Noel goes on about how the skinwalker is not like a Hollywood werewolf. Yet that’s exactly how it’s portrayed in the movie (passed on by infection, transforms during the full moon), only lamer (since apparently any random passerby can kick one’s arse).
Anyone else think that Yuri looks a bit like Jeff Conway?
Speaking of which, my best guess as to why Yuri gets away with his psychotic behavior is that he’s not an archaeologist but their financial backer. It would also explain why he’s driving a Mercedes.
So where was the intense observation of the patient? Yuri seemed to have little trouble gaining unauthorized access.
Does the unedited version of the movie explain the presence of Dictator For Life Santa?
High gas prices? How I wish $1.34 a gallon for regular was still feasible.
@ #6: I imagine it’s just as simple as Bill mangling the pronunciation.
MigelDotCom #61: So WHY was he carrying around the sedative powder he poured into the drink… does he normally carry that to parties?
Judging from his pick-up technique, I’d say yes.
Favorite riffs
We’ve got the worst tree farm ever.
During the course of the fight, they stomped all over the Ark of the Covenant.
“Like sleeping like a coyote, nose to anus.”
What??? it’s fun!!!!!
“Legends have to begin somewhere.”
Like the Keebler Elves.
So they put suspected werewolves in the neo-natal unit.
“I’ll drink to that.”
But I’ll drink to lint, so it’s nothing special.
Welcome to my Flagstaff, if you know what I mean.
The dead sheep was here when I moved in.
“What happened at the lab wasn’t your fault.”
You wet your pants and ran and that’s fine.
“You’re a hustler.”
No, I vas in Hustler.
Not a good sign when the action in your movie is upstaged by a mural.
Oh lovely, it’s two-for-one brainhammers tonight, Martha.
Would you mind eating this jar of meat tenderizer before I kill you?
Last guy she dated turned out to be the Loch Ness Monster.
Surprise ending written and conceived by a tubeworm.
For more about skinwalkers, Wikipedia is your friend (it also mentions this film in the popular culture subheading). It was also a prominent feature of a novel by Tony Hillerman called (wait for it) Skinwalker.
Tusk!
When Mike assumes the role of someone he really assumes that role. Here he is James Lipton. It’s in stark contrast to when Crow has his identity crises as a Bellarian or some such.
Tusk
I love the escape attempt. Pearl, Brain Guy and Bob play this just right. This is the ultimate in nonchalance delivery. They barely pay the situation any attention at all and just trust Mike will go back to the SOL.
So why exactly did Mike return? Why not climb back up the castle roof and find another way down from there? And does Pearl really strike you as the Cap’n Crunch type?
What was that? This is just a show and I should really just relax? Got it.
Tusk
Joe Estevez really is a bad actor. I realize he has some pretty famous/talented relatives, but still…
Tusk
The werewolf movie casting host segment was one odd duck. If I didn’t know better I’d say the Brains were taking a side in the Great Flame War. But at the end of the day I’m sure it really was nothing more than a riff on a season two Joel host segment.
Tusk
I love the tusk ending and there are some very good songs they work in there. I think we can all identify a favorite or two as well as some guilty pleasures. But this past year the tusk thing has taken on a whole new meaning. If there is anybody out there who also follows North American sports car racing and/or the British motor sports podcast Midweek Motorsport with John Hindhaugh they know exactly what I’m talking about. The right people will get this new meaning.
Tusk
Favorite Riffs:
During the opening fistfight: Crow “This is a production of Road House in the park.”
Joe Estevez tosses a beer can in anger at the dig site. Crow as an off screen voice, “Hey look an ancient beer can!”
Sam the Keeper makes his first appearance. Crow “Dictator for life: Santa.”
Sam “Mr. Niles…” Tom “We’re sharing a bed.”
Tom as Yuri to Natalie “I couldn’t help noticing you weren’t having sex with me.”
The security guard starts transforming into a werewolf. Crow, “Merle Haggard is looking pretty good these days.”
Crow, “You know it’s economical not having a storyline because then you can just film people saying things.”
Pantless Lady is through down the stairs. Mike “Live from New York. It’s Saturday Night.”
Something else that I forgot, when I commented earlier: Does anyone else think that “Last Kiss” by Wayne Cochran and others sounds a lot like and may have inspired “Where o Werewolf”?
As I’ve mentioned many times before, this is my all-time favorite episode. Since it’s Mike, Kevin and Bill riffing on a then-recent movie, I consider it the unofficial birth of Rifftrax.
How I love this episode. A fistfight between archaeologists at a dig site for no reason whatsoever. A female lead with a vacant expression and atrocious English. A villain with an offensive Mexican accent and randomly shifting hairstyles. Eagle screeches on the soundtrack. Joe Estevez looking poofy. A grizzled militiaman who makes an offensive joke about Dracula. A werewolf driving a car. A werewolf driving a car. I almost hyperventilated laughing at the singing werewolf skull, not just because of the “aahs”, but because the movie cuts to that shot five times.
This is easily a top 5 episode for me, and my friends who prefer Joel episodes or the Comedy Central episodes in general are unanimous on this one: it’s a winner.
I is ebzolootly fessinated with this episode. One of my top five, for sure.
He’s Winnie the Pooh!
Man, Cher has really let herself go.
P.S. If anyone is interested, there’s a discussion thread over at IMDb started by the guy who played the other security guard at the lab (no speaking lines). Apparently the director didn’t care that the guards’ uniforms didn’t even remotely look similar.
Great episode. I see that the director is nicknamed the Persian Ed Wood. Maybe Rifftrax needs to investigate his catalog.
Fave riff: Rock ’em Sock ’em archeologists.
I liked the extension of the Marshall Tucker riff when the guy gets back from taking the bitten worker to the hospital, he stops and looks at Joe Estevez, then walks away and Mike says “Heard it in a love song. Gotta go.”
Also, for those who don’t own the DVD and want to see a sharper version than YouTube and have Netflix Instant, Werewolf just became available — along with Devil Fish, Beginning Of The End, I Accuse My Parents, and Gamera vs. Guiron.
I have a lot of love for this one but host segment 3 always seems off to me–i think because if you compare Crow’s self description here with the one from his convo with Gypsy in 421-Monster-a-Go-Go, they are describing completely different characters.
167–i did try the DVD Netflix had a couple of years ago. Not much more to it, and none of the Paul/Nathalie love scene that was on the trailer. A little more skin and a little less skinwalker could have sold this one to cable TV back in the day!
Somewhere in the Top 5 for me. One of the many things I love about this movie is how the actors’ accents get worse as it progresses. They must have shot the scenes in roughly reverse order or the script…. assuming there was a script. I liked the werecrow bit, but it went on too long. And Mike sitting in the theater with his net got a bit annoying. Other than that, it was a near-perfect example of MST3K at it’s greatest!
The only thing special going on in this episode is the end credits. That was funny. The rest of the episode, ehhh. No idea why this one is held in such high regard. It’s a typical direct-to-video movie of the mid-nineties, movies like this were a dime a dozen then. But, to each their own.
I think the next two episodes are far superior to this one, and they are always overlooked.
Hands down one of the best ep’s ever. My favorite riffs have been covered, but one riff never fails to completely crack me up: Yuri’s looking up at Paul’s house. Warwilf-Paul comes crashing through the window. Cut back to Yuri, who still blankly stares up at the window. The riff is proof that brevity is the soul of wit: “Huh.”
#168:
Well, Comedy Central Crow and Sci-Fi Channel Crow pretty much ARE completely different characters, so it works out. :-)
CC Crow was like a chipper little kid. SFC Crow is like a bitter (nay, like a “warped, frustrated”) old man. 500 years mostly alone on a satellite/spaceship can make quite a difference.
@62, wow I just went through all of the comments, and it looks like you and me are the only ones who don’t like this episode. Huh. I guess we really are the outcasts of the MSTie community. I swear, the more I watch this one, the less I like it. Oh well, JJK, let’s start a club lol. (I do like it more than Space Mutiny, though.. :) )
Kevin had the cutest, kissiest dog ever. “Hmm, you’re wearing an ape mask and wig. Okay. I will kiss you now.”
#161 I guess Pearl considered herself the Captain of her small crew, and like me, she enjoyed sugary cereal.
In fact! The first time I saw this episode and the guys made a reference to Fruit Brute, my ears pricked up. When I was a kid, I had a rubber Fruit Brute toy; I guess I mailed in some boxtops to obtain this (obviously awesome) prize. I had forgotten all about it. I felt like one of the kids in “Neptune Men.”
“He’s real! I didn’t just imagine him!”
I like when that pool cue falls over, and is standing up immediately afterwards when Paul returns to that side of the table. (I guess it had tiny legs, and stood itself up so it could continue to see Natalie’s breasts.)
Well, anyway this is a classic Sci-Fi episode and is in my top 10 for sure.
You might want to add that this episode is available on DVD as a bullet point on the episode guide.
Definitely a Top 5 episode for me. Waaay too many riffs to list so I’ll go with one that got to me after I had already seen the episode many times. “Yeah, I’ll take a walk… to Kirk Douglas’s house”
I thought this was good, but not great.
The real problem is that it’s just a dull movie. It’s about as predictable as it gets. Despite the accents, it doesn’t have any sort of that zaniness you find in most foreign movies
This film takes place in an enchanted land where research grants are handed out to homicidal lunatics with manic depressive hair stylists. The full moon is out all year long. Nobody can find a shirt that fits. Werewolves are common but not feared since they are wusses. I suppose they would be common since this movie along with It Lives by Night establish that lycanthropy is an STD as well as being spread by bites, scratches, sharing needles, and poor hygiene. You can even shape shift in the middle of a bar and no one will notice.
This movie does have that cool actor who was in The 9th Configuration. Are you paying attention KillerKane?
Did Scifi submit MST3K for Emmy consideration in the eighth or tenth seasons?
Also, that Mike/Lipton anecdote is sort of amazing. Someone needs to ask Mike about it on Twitter.
This one’s okay, but I don’t understand the love. The movie for me is just grating. I hate 1990s direct-to-video films. They’re just such an unremarkable kind of lousy. The riffing is fine, but the movie is just annoying. Most of those 1990s direct-to-videos should just be buried and forgotten. Blah. The credits song is legendary, however.
Good riff: “Cinematography by Haskell Wexler…’s cat.”
#177 – This movie is predictable? WHAAAAT?
Look man, I’ve seen werewolf movies. We ALL have. We’re probably not proud of it. But I would NEVER have told you, before sitting down to watch this one, that it would PROBABLY play out that a dude would engineer a guy into a werewolf, and then pursue him relentlessly until the werewolf drives his car off a suddenly appearing ramp into some exploding barrels. NEVER could see that one coming.
I think I’ve mentioned it somewhere before, but will do so again now because I have no original thoughts.
If you like Yuri in this movie (and why shouldn’t you?), you owe it to yourself to track down a copy of Lucio Fulci’s bizarre Conan/caveman riff “Conquest.” The dude playing Yuri is one of the two protagonists in that film, and his acting is actually pretty good. Plus, Conquest is just such a deeply bizarre movie, every American should see it.
It is obssolutely fussinating.
#178 – Sir, Richard Lynch should properly be referred to as the guy who was in Invasion U.S.A.
@183: YEAH! Yuri is in Conquest! That’s great. When I was watching that for the first time a few months back, I knew I recognized him from somewhere. I totally agree; Conquest is deeply bizarre, everybody should see it.
Yuri is one of the biggest jerkasses in MST history. His evil plan is less “evil” and more of him just being a huge dick. He does have lots of nice hairstyles though.
TUSK!
Werewolf is a terrible werewolf movie (and there are some wretched werewolf movies out there), just epically bad, but as an episode of MST3k, this is some classic stuff, the first 5 star ep of Season 9. There are so many bad things to love about this movie, but I think my favorite has got to be the driving werewolf. I know, everybody loves that scene, but it slays me every time.
The Host Segments in this episode are pretty good. I like them. Castle Forrester is used sparingly (I love Mike dropping in on the rope ladder) and up at the satellite we get a James Lipton impersonation in the opening, Chip Hitler in HS#1, a great song in “Where, oh Werewolf” in HS#2, and the novelty of Mike as a werecrow in HS#3 thru the end of the episode, which provides some nice moments. Does anyone else think Mike’s “Crow” voice sounds almost exactly like his Andy Rooney impersonation from two episodes ago?? Cause I do…
TUSK!
Fact: There are no less than four “bleeps” in this movie, and these are bleeps where the sound completely drops out when some character swears. Just something I noticed.
“Whoopi Goldberg told me you smell like apples. True?”
TUSK!
–
RIFFS:
Crow: “They’re excavating a Tira-mi-su.”
Mike: “We’ve found another stratum of ladyfingers.”
Servo: “Man, they’re establishing the HELL out of this building here.”
Crow: “The least successful werewolf of all time.”
Mike: “Suddenly I miss my dad.”
Crow: “A loud mumbling broke out.”
Crow: “I wish my face could be tighter.”
Mike: “An American Werewolf in Traffic.”
Servo: “Action Paul!”
Mike: “Weasels ripped my flesh again!”
Mike: “It’s the Red Shoe Diaries all the sudden.”
quick shot of skeleton,
Servo: “Ahhhh!”
Crow: “Butterfly kisses gone horribly wrong!”
Mike: “ButerDIE kisses!”
Crow: “Ok, stop. Everyone go up a shirt size.”
Paul grabs stomach,
Mike: “Oh, my were-tummy.”
Crow: “Freddy Kruger…..Hellraiser……Paul.”
Crow: “Can you help me get these Bugles off my fingers?”
–
Classic MST.
You got to give it
5 out of 5 TUSKS!
One of my absolute favorites from the first time I saw it. Someone beat me to mentioning the two-for-one brainhammers line, but here’s another no one has mentioned yet.
Natalie: …they say they saw him turn into a beast!
Servo: Turn into BEETS?! That’s horrible!
Definitely one of my ‘desert island’ episodes.
Let’s assume Ray Liotta smells like apples. Well, is that a positive or a negative thing? Inquiring minds want to know. (And if it’s positive, is the apple scent offered in designer cologne form? I read in “GQ” that there’s a men’s cologne that’s meant to smell like books, of all things. I think that actually sounds…kinda nice.)
@ #172: I must disagree with your assessment regarding Crow. There were “bitter old man” elements in his character during the CC era. Consider his remarks regarding the snow in the final host segment of Santa Claus. Or consider his editorial essays (which occur during the Joel era no less). And these are just the ones that I can come up with off the top of my head. I imagine I can come up with more if I actively dug. My point being that this personality trait was always there. It’s just more pronounced in the SF era.
I just watched the beginning and I can’t stop laughing. The way Yuri goes berserk reminds me of the whole “We just came to beat everybody up” bit from Operation Double 007. The crack about stomping all over the Ark of the Covenant is just about what I was thinking myself.
And my god Paul is one of the worst protagonists in any movie. The Pumaman may have failed almost everything he attempted, but at least he tried to do things. Paul just gets beat up, turns into a werewolf, gets beat up, and infects his friend-with-benefits with a bad make up job.
And did the bad guys think they would get a Nobel Prize for digging up and failing to quarantine an infectious disease?
Why was the militia guy praying for the police instead of calling 911 or for that matter just leaving?
This might be the strangest werewolf movie I’ve ever seen.
I wonder if Yuri gave interpersonal skills coaching to Chris Brown. Yuri would later go on to excavate the Holy Grail and immediately use it like a melon baller to disembowel 3 people.
Those scientists in Silent Rage thought they wouldn’t get a Nobel Prize for mass murder. At least those guys did create something remarkable, even if there were some kinks to be worked out. And what military wouldn’t like a substance that created indestructible killers. All the bad guys in this movie did is dig up a disease vector and recklessly expose the public to it. This is one of those movies that would be hysterical to watch even without the riffing. I love it.
“Hmm… Sam got himself some seamless gutters… Nice.”
188 – another “bitter crow” from the CC days is the pregnant woman/anti-baby rants in the “Night of the Blood Beast” non-turkey day host segment-version
>>>“Like sleeping like a coyote, nose to anus.”
I wonder how many takes that line required. Wasn’t much point to it since, among other things, this wasn’t a movie about a wereCOYOTE.
Next time you want to bring a conversation to a screeching halt, if not actually clear a room, just say: “Hey, did you know that coyotes sleep nose to anus?”
“Because I *can*, by the way, if you must know.” — Mike, as the rat from “The Projected Man”
True Story, @ 2001 I got a brand new pc with a dvd player. I didn’t have any dvd’s so a friend lent me one he got free from the rental place because he claimed it was defective. I thought it was that werewolf movie with jack Nicholson. So, I pop it in annnnd, indian chanting and joe Estevez pop up. It was freaking Whurwulf! I laughed so hard. Not only did my friend think he made out because he scammed a movie out of the rental place, he rented Whurwolf to start with. And, he rented it without any knowledge of the mst version.
One day while driving through Hollywood (CA) I turned and saw a guy who looked a lot like Sam “the keeper” on the bus stop. I looked closer and it was him. I stopped, introduced myself and took a picture with him. Then I actually gave him a ride. Very nice man.
Werewolf is the show that got me back into MST. The show had dropped off my radar around the end of season 6 and the Movie. I foolishly felt that I had graduated from this puppet show and seeing as how I was running off to college, I could move into other “grown-up” things.
So I never really thought about the show. Sure I still had the shows that I had taped off of TV, but I didn’t dig them out and have a nostalgic jaunt watching them.
Then a friend of mine at college my sophomore year asked me if I had ever watched MST. I said yep, it used to be my favorite show, but I didn’t really follow it anymore. He then provided a recently taped episode of Werewolf and asked if I wanted to watch it. I was apprehensive as I hadn’t watched any of the Sci-Fi era to that point. I had heard that they were on that network and that Trace had left, but that was about I knew about the show. But hey, there are far worse things to watch in college, so I said why not.
It was great! Perhaps it was the drought of MST in my life, perhaps it was reuniting with those old puppet faces, perhaps I realized that I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was, perhaps it was my being stuck in a not that great college in the wilds of Minnesota that struck a chord. Regardless or with regard for all those reasons and more, Werewolf was just flat out hilarious and brought me back into the MST fold.
Timing is everything and I thank my good friend Mr. Weiss for being there at that time and at that place so he could be a great friend and a wonderful vehicle for a renewed interest in MST3k. After that, I was back in and have stayed in ever since.
It’s occurred to me before that, if this or that set of Brains riffed Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, they’d greet the appearance of the bearded foreman with:
“Dictator for Life: BLUTO!”
The overall grim hopeless look of the factory or whatever it was might prompt something like:
“Ohh, they must of made this movie before they knew about the importance of worker place environment.”
“Oh yah.”
Also, she was already partially nude the minute Paul walked in the door, so she had that in her favor…
Regrettably, doing that properly would have required pre-existing knowledge of who that is. I instead had to look him up which just isn’t the same.
He looks like Arabianus Snape…
Well, he has an excellent point. The village is presumably FULL of peasants. Meanwhile, wolves get rarer every year.
“The Ladies.” Some women have such cute nicknames for their breasts…
Well, she was brutally attacked by a werewolf so I’m guessing she…died?
I presume that the riffs don’t get into the script by accident so, yeah, “on purpose” would be the obvious alternative.
Is it really “drag” if no dresses are involved, though? Although I suppose skirts might be kind of a drag…
Well, this one sort of DIED, that’s gotta cost him a few points…
Actually, even a casual perusal of other comments indicates that that’s but a single piece of the puzzle. Don’t look for easy answers…
The Moon works cheap.
Whoa! Out of nowhere, total slam on Cuba.
That was just a lie he made up when Noel arrived. He punched his own workers because he was a jerk. At least, that’s what I took from that scene.
Well, he went to grab something to hit Paul with and it was RIGHT THERE…
Prove that werewolves don’t look like bears. I dares ya. ;-)
People who throw coins into fountains where they can later be easily acquired by destitute film directors? This movie didn’t strike me as having much of a budget.
1. Capture werewolf
2. ???
3. PROFIT
Wow, what a PERFECT segueway for this totally non-Werewolf material that I came across a mere three days ago. THANK YOU, Random Citizen, who/wherever you are. :-)
Here it is, a review of the ORIGINAL version of Prince of Space:
http://tarstarkas.net/2012/08/yusei-oji/
http://tarstarkas.net/2012/08/yusei-oji-kyofu-no-uchusen/
And here’s a review of the version we know bestest:
http://tarstarkas.net/2012/08/prince-of-space/
Did anyone ever ask Mike about the “James Lipton” incident on Twitter?
Because they have accents? Natalie’s actress is originally from Germany and Yuri’s actor from Mexico (so says the IMDB, anyway). Although they could very easily be naturalized US citizens and thus no longer actual “foreign people.”
Anyway, IIRC we never hear Noel say his own name so we don’t really KNOW how it’s pronounced. Really, the things some of you folks fixate on…
“…in a huff? I wish *I* could afford one of those little foreign cars!”
“LIKE” an idiot…?
;-)
Manos did it better. And when you can say THAT about a movie…
I didn’t get that one. Not a big deal, of course.
That’s actually an approach that some contemporary directors might benefit from following…
Never ask a question you don’t really want to know the answer to…
With over 200 films on his resume? Well, yes, so it would seem.
Well, that can happen anywhere…
At the risk of sounding condescending (then again, why stop NOW?), you “get” that California (like every other American state (except Hawaii, I suppose)) originally has or had had Native American tribes of its very own, right? We learned that during Season Four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
It’s about Ninevah: Ninevah f_cking business.
;-)
Ultimately, most if not all legends are made up by human beings and, like the song says, “People are all the same.” :-)
Well, he quit the dig and he got the hell OUT of there.
Or maybe he and the other guy were arrested for killing Tommy. Sometimes werewolves revert to human form after death, and sometimes they don’t. Even if Tommy remained in werewolf form after death, though, it’s obviously the corpse of SOMEBODY (what with the clothes and the fingers and so on). Maybe they checked his dental records. OSLT.
Notice that Joe (Estevez) referred to Tommy having a “lair.” Maybe he was quoted in the newspapers and THAT’S why Yuri later said the exact same thing about Paul. :-)
(Because a car chase was so essential to the old 30’s Lon Chaney films…)
“It’s B.O. Plenty!”
As far as “strangest”, Neil Jordan and Philippe Mora say hi, but Werewolves Behind the Wheel (why don’t they look?) certainly puts it up there. Not much else, but that’s certainly 30 for this movie.
Again, like most fans who grew up on more than one MST3K, I confess I’m a bit puzzled by the Space Mutiny-ism of “The second greatest MST3K episode of the series!”, as the movie seems like it came out of the same package-deal Joe Estevez 90’s bargain-DVD bin, but the Native chanting medley puts it up with the great MST3K movie-response rehearsed-in-theater-sketch bits. (Along with the Norwegian Sketch from “Day the Earth Froze”‘s credits.)
See, guys, you CAN do great movie-related three-minute credits-filler sketches, and still notice the movie!
James Lipton jokes, however, for all our frustration with him at the time, mercifully did not age well out of the 90’s. (Try watching the CGI animated “Igor” sometime.) Fortunately, Lipton didn’t either, after Bravo Network eventually came Out.
As the Mike anecdote demonstrates, Lipton was just too annoying to become the next Leonard Maltin or Miles O’Keefe.