MST3K Raw is strictly for hardcore fans of the Mystery Science Theater show. It’s a series of raw clips and behind the scenes footage of the entire crew of the show filming the final episode in which Mike and his friends are accidentally sent back to Earth. As one final bit of pain, Pearl makes the guys watch “Diabolik.” I remember watching this last episode on the Sci-Fi Channel, and still wonder why the show had to come to a close. It was fine the way it was.
The Last Dance – Raw Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1999)
Neither a Man nor Incredible. He’s barely a “The,” director William Sachs’ science fiction horror doubles also as a melodrama featuring characters you really don’t care about. How many times can character Ted Nelson mention his wife having a baby, or his efforts to have a baby, or his aspirations to father a baby? What importance does it have to the overall premise of “The Incredible Melting Man”? Nothing, really. It’s an effort to garner sympathy for a series of lifeless characters.
Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s short zombie film is a masterpiece. It’s mature, beautifully told, and I was teary eyed by the final scenes. “Cargo” is set during a zombie apocalypse, and both directors only garner eight minutes to tell a story teeming with epic potential. It could be a feature film, but as a short glimpse at a world of the undead, it’s a slice of humanity set amidst monsters in a rapidly decaying land.
Things didn’t quite turn out well for Peggy Sue. She spent most of her teen years alienating her parents, and running around with Francis Ford Coppola’s creepy nephew, and grew up to be a very bitter divorcee whose only good friendship is with her daughter. Now appearing at a high school reunion, she has to face her old friends and her ex-husband who is now a creepy business man. After collapsing at the reunion, Peggy Sue awakens to find herself a teenager once again.
Part of the “Withered World” web short series, director Jon Davis offers his own harrowing tale of humanity and horror with “Vows.” A short that pictures two people trying to gain a year’s worth of marriage in only a day, director Davis sets down on a young couple anxious to seal their vows. Only because someday soon it won’t mean much.
Director Matt Mamula’s “Die Like an Egyptian” is a bittersweet and gripping short documentary about our attempts to control our own death’s in a manner that allows us the illusion of control in the after life. For us, old age and mortality can be horrifying and harrowing a prospect, and director Mamula spotlights an older man who is racing against time to build himself a prominent memorial that will not only give him relevance after death, but perhaps help him garner a sense of control.