MST3K (K09)

K09 - Phase IV - Ah, memories of 7th grade science class when the teacher, without warning, popped in a tape of The Hellstrom Chronicle and blew most of the class's mind. There was never any danger of that happening with this film. It's slow and, due to both the script and the MST3K crew's audio guy, hard to follow. The concept had potential as a kind of Cujo-Assault on Precinct 13 (the original) combo, but it wasn't executed anywhere near as well as those two films.

For the first time in any episode that I can ever remember seeing, the film gets a genuine compliment. "Nice photography, though," says Crow when we're presented with yet more footage of ants crawling around. He's right. The insect photography was very nice. Especially eye-catching were the shots that caught the light gleaming through the odd ant with the semi-translucent green abdomen.

Probably as a result of the slowness of the film and JatB not being used to tackling non-Gamera movies anymore, the riffing was light in spots and the guys felt out of practice at this sport. Still no callers in the host segments, either, but they advertised the phone number in huge letters this time, so I have hopes for K10. (5/10)

film d. Saul Bass (1974)
mst d. Vince Rodriguez (15 Jan 1989)