Hi again!
I know I said I was done with horror- comedies, but in keeping with this last theme of Halloween- related films, I had to do this one.
As I mentioned a week or so ago, Rifftrax (The company run by the guys behind ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’) had for the last couple years begun occasionally doing live riffing events broadcasted to movie theaters across the country. This was one they did in late October of 2010, their Halloween special in which they riffed the old Vincent Price horror film ‘House on Haunted Hill.’ It’s the only one of their live events which I wasn’t able to attend in theaters (I had class that night), but I was able to see it for the first time this last summer when I got it on DVD. Just like the other one I reviewed, this one was recorded in Nashville, and featured the three guys behind Rifftrax (Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett).
Before getting to the feature, they riffed a couple old shorts. The first one, ‘Magical Disappearing Money,’ centered around a witch in a grocery store that kept scolding people for spending too much money on certain groceries (i.e. sugar- coated breakfast cereal instead of cheaper unsweetened cereal, fancy seasoned rice instead of plain white rice, etc.). The guys make a lot of good jokes off that one. The next short, ‘Paper and I,’ was about a little boy and a genuinely creepy talking paper bag he kept with him, looking at how paper is made and how important paper is to everyday life. For this short, they brought in an extra guest Riffer, comedian Paul F. Tompkins, who added a lot of funny comments to their riffing of this short (He did an awesome job imitating the talking paper bag’s voice).
Then, they got to the feature, ‘House on Haunted Hill.’ The movie itself, starring Vincent Price, concerns a wealthy man and his young wife who invite five people to an all- night party at their house, on Haunted Hill. Weird things happen, leaving you to wonder who’s conspiring against who, and if the house is actually haunted. The movie itself is one which must have been scary when it first came out, but it hasn’t aged well at all, and now feels more boring than scary (Even with the guys riffing it, I still had a hard time paying attention at times). At one point in the riffing session, the guys briefly ‘Fire’ Kevin Murphy for making too corny of a joke, have Paul F. Tompkins briefly return to replace him, then quickly fire him for the same reason and bring back Kevin.
About the only problem I had with this Rifftrax is in the ‘Paper and I’ short, one of the guys makes a rather inappropriate (Now, at least) joke about Amy Winehouse. Even though this event was recorded a few months before Winehouse’s untimely death, hearing that joke still feels a bit awkward.
That said, the rest of this Rifftrax event was awesome! First, even before they get to the riffing, they make some amusing dialogue exchanges. Two especially good ones are in the very beginning when the guys are talking about the Halloween costumes they’re wearing, and after Paul F. Tompkins is introduced, when he talks at length about a certain horror movie cliché that’s always bothered him. The actual riffing is hilarious, for both the shorts and the film itself. As in ‘Plan 9,’ there are several running jokes that they get a lot of mileage out of (i.e. loads of Vincent Price jokes of course, jokes about how the film’s protagonist Lance is both a klutz and a bit of a perv, jokes about how one of the characters resembles a leprechaun, etc.), and all kinds of pop- cultural references. An additional advantage it has over the ‘Plan 9’ riff is that it isn’t as bogged- down with extra stuff as the ‘Plan 9’ one.
And so, that’s ‘Rifftrax Live: House on Haunted Hill.’ A very funny DVD perfect for MSTies, available from the Rifftrax website and Amazon.com. Stay tuned later tonight when I’ll do another review.
