Tonight, Jose and I NERDED OUT and saw Plan 9 From Outer Space at Garden State Plaza. For those of you who don't know, RiffTrax is the new project from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000, or MST3K as it's colloquially known. Starring Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, the crew basically continue the mission of MST3K to "riff" on all new and popular TV shows and movies. RiffTrax has a bit of a cult following with previous MST3K fans, or "Misties," and fans of satire alike.
Last night, for one night only, the RiffTrax crew broadcast live from a theater in Nashville, TN and riffed on one of the worst (or possibly, the worst) movie of all time, Plan 9 From Outer Space, directed by Ed Wood and "starring" Bela Lugosi in his last role. The movie features "aliens," "zombies," and some of the most terrible special effects that side of the 20th century, which makes the movie ripe for riffing. Apparently, the RiffTrax crew has already released their RiffTrack for the movie, but this time, they wanted to do it live.
The night was hosted by amiable Veronica Belmont, the so-called "Queen of the Internet" and featured John Coulton, geek musician extraordinaire. He played two perfectly appropriate songs for the event- "The Future Soon" and "Re: Your Brains" (the second of which was a bit of a sing along) (you can purchase his mp3s here). Rich "Lowtax" Kyanta from Something Awful provided "sponsored ads." When Queen Belmont announced the first ad, oh, we boo'd; but as soon as the ad for the THREE DAY MILL EVENT started up, we all started hooting and hollering for the next one. Then came the moment we were all waiting for- the three Rifftrax crew started riffing. The first was a short called "Flying Stewardesses" ("One of the only shorts in the mid-century that wasn't about personal hygenie or communism!"), then Jonathan Coulton and the RiffTrax crew sand and nose-whistled a tune about the other eight plans that came before Plan 9, and then: the movie. As I said before, Ed Wood's masterpiece of terrible special effects and worse acting is ripe for the crew's picking. To rehash the show wouldn't do the crew justice. You can buy the mp3 off of the website.
Before last night, I hadn't realized just how popular the RiffTrax/MST3K crew was in this area. The only way too see a show like that- one with such a cult following- is to see if live, surrounded by your fellow nerds. There was such an uncynical love for the three men that walked on stage. When you felt like clapping and cheering, they wanted to clap and cheer. It's like when I went to see the first of the new Star Wars trilogy and when Yoda pulled out his lightsaber, the entire audience stood up and cheered. You can't get that kind of energy and enthusiasm out of a normal crowd (especially becaus that's pretty much the only good part of the movie. Am I right?!)! It's like seeing a midnight performance of Rocky Horror Picture Show and everyone sings along and dresses up in costume- it's so hard to capture that energy, that positive energy, and when something like that comes along, it's so hard to describe to someone not in the know. That's what the RiffTrax crew, Jonathan Coulton, Veronica Belmont and the guy from Something Awful managed to capture that night- the sheer joy of laughter with your fellow nerds. I can't wait until September 23rd, when The Wizard of Oz comes out in theaters nationwide, and seeing that with fellow movie nerds. Maybe I'll dress up in costume. Who knows? It's just that kind of night.
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