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Nov 24, 2014 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Traditionally, Thanksgiving is about gathering together with family and friends to give thanks for the year’s bounties. For many, it’s all about the food: the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and the pumpkin pie. For some, it’s about parades, holiday shopping, and lousy pro football games. For others still—and if you’re reading this review, we imagine you’re one of us—it also meant Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Turkey Day marathon.

Beginning in 1991 and continuing through MST3K’s Comedy Central era, Turkey Day presented 24 straight hours—a dozen episodes—of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Joel or Mike, the bots, and the Mads would appear in special holiday-themed bumpers and interstitial segments between episodes, making the series of episodes feel like a truly special event. MST3K Volume XXXI, the 31^st (!!!) set of DVDs collecting the show, is a tribute to the series’ long-missed (but recently revived) Turkey Day tradition, and includes a cornucopia of extra features tied into the holiday marathon on top of the usual quartet of new-to-DVD episodes.

The four included in this set are reviewed individually below, ranked in the order we enjoyed them most:

The Screaming Skull: Two newlyweds honeymoon in an empty mansion, where the young bride is haunted by the “ghost” of her husband’s deceased first wife in this late Mike-era episode. The movie – from 1958 – is almost painfully slow-paced and low on tension; the scariest moment is the cheesy, William Castle-esque introduction, where the producers offer to pay funeral expenses for anyone who dies of fright while watching The Screaming Skull. Other highlights include a grimy, Torgo-esque gardener and of course the skull itself, which rolls around and materializes in closed cupboards to terrorize our heroine. (One of our favorite MST3K shorts—the early Gumby cartoon, Robot Rumpus—is also part of this episode.) Extras on this disc include a documentary that lays out the jumbled production that resulted in The Screaming Skull, as well as a short doc on filmmaker Art Clokey and the creation of Gumby.

The Painted Hills: A western-set Lassie picture, where the heroic collie and her little boy companion seek revenge on the crooked thief who murdered her gold-mining master. The Painted Hills is one of the rare films MST3K would occasionally tackle that could probably stand well on its own, minus the riffing. Joel and the bots—this episode hails from season five—still have some good fun at the expense of the villain’s clumsy plot, a curiously-named traveling pastor, and the surprisingly bloodthirsty Lassie. Also lambasted is a black-and-white educational short promoting good hygiene for young men and women. The main bonus material on this disc is a lengthy marathon of the series’ Turkey Day television bumpers.

Jungle Goddess: A rich, blonde, white woman survives a plane crash only to find herself stranded in a jungle where the darker-skinned native tribe immediately worships her as a goddess. Yes, it’s a movie that’s jaw-droppingly racist, probably even by 1948 standards. A reward has been put out for the young lady’s safe return home, and two daring adventurers—including golden age Superman, George Reeves—fly into the jungle to save her from the savages who really don’t seem all that savage. (That is, until Superman’s wingman with an “itchy trigger finger” starts shooting them dead left and right.) This was an early episode of MST3K—second season—but deep enough into the show’s run that they’d hit their stride, riff-wise. The host segments are particularly strong, as well; Joel gives an explanation to cinematic go-between (or gobo) effects that’s both informational and funny. Also included in the episode is the first part of the Bela Lugosi serial The Phantom Creeps, a mad scientist/amok robot/gangster movie short feature that hardly makes any sense. The primary extra feature is a documentary where Joel, Trace Beaulieu, and Frank Conniff lay out the history and origins of MST3K’s Thanksgiving marathons.

Squirm: Everyone’s favorite mid-1970s, killer earthworms flick. In backwoods Georgia, a storm knocks over power lines, which sends high voltage currents into the ground near a bait farm. Naturally, of course, this gives the worms an insatiable taste for human flesh. One of Squirm’s best elements was the early special effects work by legendary make-up artist Rick Baker, who would go on to design memorable (and award-winning) effects for An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome, Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, and countless sci-fi and horror films. Sadly the MST3K version cuts a lot of Baker’s best tricks, including a graphic, unforgettable worm attack scene, where earthworms make short work of eating a hillbilly’s face. Otherwise, the film is actually decent and the riffing is alright, but the feature is completely overshadowed by the bizarre short that precedes it: A Case of Spring Fever. In it, a grumpy old man wishes that springs—as in, metal coils—didn’t exist, and a spring-shaped elf grants his wish, showing how horrible the world would be without springs. It’s like It’s a Wonderful Life, but George Bailey is replaced by every spring in the world, and Clarence the angel is replaced by an animated, strangely menacing, anthropomorphic spring. It’s bizarre, and hard for Mike, Tom, and Crow to top. The extra feature on this final disc is an interview with Squirm’s lead actor, Don Scardino, who would go on to be a pretty prolific television director.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXI is yet another great set from Shout! Factory, who have gone out of their way over and again to provide well-produced bonus materials. This volume comes in festive, Thanksgiving-themed tin packaging, making it a particularly nice holiday gift for the MSTie in your life.

www.shoutfactory.com/film/action-adventure/mst3k-volume-xxxi-the-turkey-day-collection-collector-s-edition-tin

Author rating: 8/10