Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH
September 20, 2017 9:33 PM - Season 8, Episode 17 - Subscribe

"WEIRD Atomic Beasts Who Live Off Human BLOOD!!!" "The First Horror Monster Musical!" Suspeciously old teens gyrate while radioactive waste dumped off-shore creates mutant monsters, in what appear to be laughable costumes, that lumber ashore to eat straggers from their barely-clothed herd, until their special weakness is found: SODIUM. Another of those laughable 60s monster movies, with particularly ineffective monsters. In the subplot, the guys arrive in ancient Rome to spend a few episodes bumping around. YouTube (1h32m) Premiered September 6, 1997.

Episode 817 THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review - War of the Colossal Fan Guide - Annotated MST3K - TVTropes

Paul Chaplin's take in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide:
The Del-Aires gradually seduced us all with their playing ability, song-writing talents, and wry self-aware dorkiness. I mean it -- they were a darn good band, and if anybody out there knows anything about them we'd be interested.
Reflexively, of course, we made fun of them anyway. Sorry.
This movie could be viewed as an allegory on the dangers of over-regulation. Sure, the dumping of radioactive waste would seem to be a bad thing, especially since it resulted in hellish monsters that ate people. And yet, didn't the free market stand ready to correct this mistake? Weren't there an endless array of sodium supply houses, efficiently providing exactly the stuff needed to kill the creatures? Who's to say that stifling regulations against waste dumping wouldn't result -- albeit indirectly -- in even more deaths, what with the loss of jobs and innovation?
The leading man, Hank, seemed genetically compelled to verbalize the name "Eulabelle" with a plantation owner's resonance and southern patois. Sadly, it was the only time he ever put any sort of spin on anything he said.
Movie
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer: 0%, Viewers: 25%) - Wikipedia - TVTropes
IMDB (1964, 2.8 stars)
"Sea creatures created from radioactive sludge terrorize a beach community."
Directed by Del Tenney. Written by Richrd Hilliard. Starring Jason Scott, Alice Lyon and Allan Laruel.

Notes
Daddy-O notes that one ad gimmick of the movie was to make movie-goers sign release forms claiming the theater would be held blameless in case of "death by fright."

Although the advertising claims to be the first horror musical, THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES came out the year before.
posted by JHarris (6 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This week's MST Club show is tonight (Thursday) at 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific, at https://cytu.be/r/Metafilter_MST3KClub. As usual, come early and stay late for extra weirdnesses and YouTube Potluck. I hope you can make it!
posted by JHarris at 9:37 PM on September 20, 2017


Another in a string of very solid episodes.

The "Sodium Song" is one of the top Mike-era musical numbers. Also, Crow's rant on the lack of sodium knowledge among today's youth ("with their hula hoops and their colored chalk and their listening to the Beck").
posted by Chrysostom at 9:37 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Chances are...I'll kick your scrawny, little ass...
posted by wittgenstein at 5:30 AM on September 21, 2017


On the day this episode first aired, my three friends and I were at Epcot Center in Florida on a high school trip. We were all MSTies and were annoyed that we would miss the show, but then we found in one of Epcot's "wonders of technology" pavilions several small glass soundproof rooms (out in the middle of everything, so everybody passing by would see you) with a huge TV inside (that is, a 42" rear projection screen in a giant block of a TV; pretty big and impressive for 1997) hooked up to cable programming inside each. Well, you know what we decided to do.

We staked out the place and returned around ten minutes before Movie Sign to take up residence in a glass box to watch the show. Despite essentially camping out in a spot intended for a few minutes of occupancy at most, no Disney staff asked us to move on. We stayed and watched the first hour, but then had to meet up with the rest of the class group to catch the bus back home. Still, what an hour.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:21 AM on September 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


Semi-Exactly 20 years and 2 weeks ago.

In the subplot, the guys arrive in ancient Rome to spend a few episodes bumping around.

So when do they meet the ancient Roman who later becomes the 12th Doctor? Or the 2nd Becky? Or the 5th most popular late night TV host? I get so confused...
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:22 PM on September 21, 2017


That beach fight is one of the all-time classics. "You have defeated me, sir. You and your noble band of choreographers."
posted by praemunire at 2:52 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


« Older Movie: Leap! / Ballerina...   |  Star Trek: Voyager: Year of He... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments