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RiffTrax: they don't make movies, they make them funny

RiffTrax/Legend Films 2009

 

Stuck at home with the office cold? Swine flu got you down? They say that laughter is the best medicine, and if that's the case, consider Mike J. Nelson "Dr. Feelgood".

 

Nelson, best known for his stint on the beloved Mystery Science Theater 3000, is still delivering laughs by the dozens with his new project, RiffTrax. What is RiffTrax, you ask? It takes the premise behind MST3K and applies it to newer big budget Hollywood stinkers (and some certified GOOD movies!) via an mp3 track that you sync up and play along with your dvd. It's a little like Wizard of Oz vs. Dark Side of the Moon, but without all the acid rock and little people. There are a few different options when it comes to setting it all up; you can use either the RiffTrax player, available to download onto your computer, or you can go the low tech route and play the dvd on your tv like normal and stream the audio over your computer. The low tech route leaves you with audio coming from two separate locations in the room, which may be a little disorienting for some, but it works just as well and gives more options for adjusting the volume of either the movie or the RiffTrax. You can also purchase video-on-demand titles, which gives you the movie with commentary already synced up and ready to go. This would be handy if you don't already have the movie you want to see, or don't feel like going out and renting something as awful as, say, Twilight.

 

 

But what does this have to do with horror, you ask? Everything! Nelson and crew have RiffTrax available for horror classics, new and old. Night of the Living Dead, the original Halloween, Cloverfield, the horrible Wicker Man remake, Sixth Sense, and more have been riffed on by the best. The Grudge is a good example. Billing it as 'the scariest thing to come out of Japan since Pink Lady, The Grudge tells the story of a young woman who travels to Japan with her under-wear sniffing boyfriend...' Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy (MST3K's 'Tom Servo') took the incredibly slow, lack luster American remake and turned it into a delectable little treat complete with Buffy the Vampire Slayer jokes, stabs at Japanese baseball, and plenty of humorous insight about the film, its actors, Asian cooking, and more. Sure, it's not scary in the least, but it is incredibly funny, and well worth the price of a download. Any fan of MST3K will love it!