Mystery Science Theater 3000: IT LIVES BY NIGHT

April 18, 2018 10:21 PM - Season 10, Episode 10

a.k.a. The Bat People. "No matter how hard you pray or how loud you scream there is no escape... no escape... no escape... no escape..." A guy on a research honeymoon gets bitten by a bat and starts transforming into some kind of... bat... person as a result, sure that happens. Look out for the special surprise ending where we find out bat-person-osis is also an STD. Pearl has fun mutating the SOL crew, and Tom Servo has way too big of a mustache. An okay episode. Episode 1010 is available on YouTube. Premiered July 18, 1999. Three episodes left.

Episode 1010 IT LIVES BY NIGHT

Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review - War of the Colossal Fan Guide - TVTropes

Kevin Murphy provides recollections, from the online supplement to the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide:

For those of us my age, and you know who you are, there is a style of filming which is unmistakably TV Movie Style, either from Universal or American International. Maybe it's the irrepressibly bad acting, or the up-to-the minute clothing and hair styles which date the film in an instant, unwittingly providing us with a valuable service. Or maybe it's the squat title graphics, the giant cars, the Flockhartian thinness of the actresses, the lack of anyone likable in the films, or the fact that they seem to have been written and produced in about an hour. But they remind me of those nights when my dad would fall asleep in front of the TV with his chin tucked in his turtleneck, snoring with apnea, waiting for Johnny to start. So a painful thing evokes a rather fond memory, sort of like an infectious disease or a broken limb can remind you of a gentler time. So, bring me more David Hartman and Tony Musante films. I can take 'em.

Movie (most entries are under the title "The Bat People.")
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Rotten Tomatoes (Critics N/A, Viewers 5%) - Wikipedia - TVTropes
IMDB (1974, 2.3 stars)
"After being bitten by a bat in a cave, a doctor undergoes an accelerating transformation into a man-bat, which ruins his vacation and causes considerable distress for his wife."
Directed by Jerry Jameson. Written by Lou Shaw. Starring Stewart Moss, Marianne McAndrew and Michael Pataki.

posted by JHarris (12 comments total)

Look out for the special surprise ending where we find out...
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:15 PM on April 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

A solid episode, and it also first introduced me to the term "baliwick", which I have been using in everyday conversation ever since.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:46 AM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

...it was Earth all along.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:58 AM on April 19, 2018

And it was a sled.

A sled named Keyser Söze.
posted by JHarris at 12:07 PM on April 19, 2018

So this was like a prequel to It Follows?
posted by valkane at 12:29 PM on April 19, 2018

Just think: there's a timeline where this movie, Squirm, and Track of the Moon Beast explicitly take place in the same cinematic universe, and where eventually, a la Marvel, the three leading man-monsters join forces, fight aliens and robots, and crack wise.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 12:59 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

It's time again for MST Club, where we get together to watch a couple of episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 each week, at https://cytu.be/r/Metafilter_MST3KClub. Bad movies with good friends! Join us, and bring snacks, it'll be fun! Tonight's (Thursday's) show begins at 7 PM Eastern time and typically goes to at least 10:40 (that's 4/7:40 Pacific).

Tonight's show? We're getting close to the wire, so let's do some prominent ones this time and the next three encore episodes....
7 PM: 512 MITCHELL
9 PM: 1010 IT LIVES BY NIGHT
posted by JHarris at 1:18 PM on April 19, 2018

MITCHELL!!!
If we're going Joe Don Baker, should our refreshments be baked goods (pies and cakes and pizzas)? Or should we just get baked?
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:06 PM on April 19, 2018

You guys watch Joe Don Baker movies?
posted by valkane at 3:20 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Only ironically.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:39 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

>If we're going Joe Don Baker, should our refreshments be baked goods

Or MEATBALLS FRIED IN LAAAARRRRRD
posted by tchemgrrl at 4:29 PM on April 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

Only ironically.

I'll be sure to mark that down.
posted by ckape at 5:03 PM on April 19, 2018 [2 favorites]