Greetings from The Edge,
Today the crew of the satellite of love will be riffing on Cry Wilderness, a smorgasbord of stock footage, child endangerment, and what is either the world’s creepiest Bigfoot or a disturbingly silent furry that stalks a young boy for ninety minutes trying to make “friends.”
Once again the cast is on point with snark and verve but, I have to admit, I had more fun with Reptilicus. But I think that’s more my unhealthy love of Kaiju movies than any failing on the crew’s part. If anything, I can tell that the cast is beginning to come together. Their delivery seems a bit smoother and less studied, more like friends just sitting around watching a bad movie.
The Invention Exchange features a Theremin, an instrument that almost everyone who has watched 50’s sci-fi has heard (click to listen), and is played by moving one hand through a field controlling the instrument’s volume and one through a field controlling its pitch. Jonah’s Theremin is imbedded in a roast turkey….which tells you just about everything you need to know about MST3K, really.
As far as Cry Wilderness goes, I’m very glad to have Jonah and the bots providing some on point riffs, between the Native American stereotypes, transcontinental child hitchhiking, Coca Cola product placement, and mystical Bigfoot talismans, I understand why the Mads would think this wilderness romp has sanity-destroying properties.
Certainly a highlight for fans of the classic series, Perl ( Mary Jo Pehl ), Professor Bobo ( Kevin Murphy ), and Observer A.K.A. Brain Guy ( Bill Corbett ) make a cameo appearance, still pursuing mad science and galactic conquest from Perl’s star-spanning VW mini-bus, the Widowmaker.
Kinga ( Felica Day ) and Max ( Patton Oswalt ) also introduce us to Perl’s possibly defective clone Synthia, played by Rebecca Hanson, who seems to care much more for Kinga than Kinga does for her.
A solid follow up to the revival’s premiere, Cry Wilderness has the classic charm of the original series and hints at where the characters and series are heading……..and a Bigfoot that will haunt your nightmares for years to come…..or at least mine.
Join me next time when we’ll take a look at episode 3, The Time Travelers! And always remember, “Keep circulating the tapes!”