Wednesday, October 3, 2012

MST3K: Episode 1010 - IT Lives by Night

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 1010: IT Lives by Night

First aired: Sci-Fi Channel on 18 July 1999
Availability: MST3KVideos.com fan copy

Emphasis on the "IT"
Remember the Nat King Cole song, "Unforgettable"? It wasn't written about this film.

This movie was released under the name The Bat People but got a different name by the time it made it to MST3K.

I'm not sure why it was ever called The Bat People to begin with. There's only one Bat Person, but he doesn't look much like a bat at all. Unless the title referred to his wife, who joined him in his cave at the end, but she never turned into a bat ... or into whatever that was he turned into.

Dr. Scientist and Mary Tyler Moore.
When I re-watched this episode for this project, little bits and pieces seemed familiar, but whole stretches of the movie seem completely unfamiliar. So, because of the little bits and pieces from both the movie and the Host Segments, I'm thinking I'd seen this episode before. But it wasn't unforgettable.

On his honeymoon, a scientisty fellow wants to go spelunking, and no, that's not a euphemism, so he takes his Mary Tyler Moore-like wife on a group tour (again, not a euphemism) but she gets all horny, so they run off to do some spelunking of their own (yes, that is a euphemism), but she falls into a hole and gets bugs on her, so Dr. Scientist jumps in after her and then a bat attacks and gets caught in her Mary Tyler Moore-do but Dr. Scientist gets the bat out (not a euphemism) but the bat bites him, and Mary Tyler Moore kicks the bat carcass away, so Dr. Scientist doesn't know if it's rabid or not, so he goes to see Dr. Groovy who give him a rabies shot, and Dr. Scientist goes all, well, batty, and then, when no one is looking, turns into a bat or something and kills people, so local sheriffy-type who's called "sergeant" suspects Dr. Scientist, but doesn't get anyone to believe him until Dr. Scientist steals an ambulance and kills Emmett Kelly but then the sergeant is killed by bats and the wife wanders off into the caves to be with her bat-husband. The end.

Dr. Scientist and Emmett Kelly.
There's really nothing outstanding about this episode. Well, Mike does a good Ted Baxter. So, there's that.

Oh, we do find out about many of Pearl's husbands. Yes, she had a few. Most died of natural causes, such as shotgun blast, which, naturally causes death.

This isn't a bad episode. It's just not a killer episode. Well, except for all the killing. But, you know what I mean.

A good episode, with lots of fun riffing, some lame riffing, and some pretty good Host Segments.

Still, I have the feeling that, in a year from now, if I call up this episode and watch it, I won't have remembered much about it.



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