Well, he had to stand there. He was tied to a pole. I guess the director just really liked hearing women plead and yell while they were attacked by puppets…?
My favorite moment of non-heroism was when Thong finds Ravini dying and hidden away from the rest of his crew. Instead of running out of the tent to sound the alarm and call for help, he just futzes around and then strolls off like he’s half-baked at the County Fair on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe in another, earlier movie Ravini never got his name right, either. So Thong figured he had it coming.
I also love how this film was shot only two years after The Fighting Eagle and yet that Ator is supposed to be much younger and more callow than the Ator here. But they don’t bother to try and make him look any older. Also, poor Sunya. She didn’t get to do much of anything in the first movie. Then she died off-screen. Maybe the actor was grossed out by having to play a lady in love with her own foster brother and gave up showbiz to open a restaurant or something.
I’m sure a guy who can slap together a hang glider could have thought of something in that situation. A pocket laser cutter or a miniature assault robot or something. But, yeah, that scene does make you think the director had some… issues.
I’m gonna get killed here but I’ve tried this one multiple times…and it just doesn’t do it for me. The never ending flashback kills and and I have a hard time finishing this episode. I know, many love it. But, it’s just not a favorite of mine. (Sorry)!
The new season starts with their initial foray into the Pecs & Pulchritude fantasy films that spawned in the wake of Conan the Barbarian and its box office success. Though I suppose some might argue Robot Holocaust would count as their first. However, in spite of the superficial use of that genre’s trappings, I personally see Robot Holocaust as more of a post-apocalypse movie. The basic plot involves a scholar names Akronos who has created something called a geometric nucleus and the evil warlord Zor wants it. So, he sends his daughter (at least that’s what he claims she is) Mila to fetch the heroic warrior Ator.
While technically there are cave dwellers in the film, they’re more of a random encounter. The cult that worships a giant snake is more relevant to the plot by far. Though the hang glider sequence is notorious for its absurdity, a subtler oddity occurs during the scene where Ator treats Mila’s arrow wound. A dog is hanging around in the background, and I’m not entirely sure if it may have wandered on the set and no one bothered to shoo it off. Otherwise, the movie consists primarily of tepid actions sequences mixed with scenes of Akronos and Zor engaging in flowery badinage.
Fortunately, this makes for excellent riffing targets and Joel and the Bots are firing on all cylinders. A good thing too, as the host segments are a touch underwhelming. Though there’s an interesting development regarding Magic Voice. She first cropped up in the middle of the first season and, up to this point, all she did was announce how long it was until the commercial break during the prologue. While she still does this, now she adds in personal interjections, which saves her from a one note character status.
This show remains one I favor utilizing as a gateway episode for new viewers. It’s a guy and two puppets riffing the heck out of a cheesy sword and sorcery flick. Proof that season 3 is when everything in the classic show clicked into place.
1000 percent on this! Season 3 is where it blasted into space and Cave Dwellers (1984) was my gateway episode and I can’t think of a better intro. Pod People (1983), The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962), Reptilicus (1961), Cry Wilderness (1987), and Mac and Me (1988) are others though Cave Dwellers has such a magic I’d hardpressed not to use it.
That’s probably the most shocking thing about this movie, coming back to it after watching The Fighting Eagle. We don’t even know how she died, just an offhanded remark in the flashback sequence, “Later, when Sunya died…”
Ahhh timeless gag. I can’t help but chuckle. Jokes like this are what made me a fan. Cave Dwellers (1984) was my Gateway Episode. And the Miles O’Keefe humor had me from the start.
As usual with my bi-monthly visits to the boyfriend, he continues his indoctrination of me into the MST3K cult by showing me a complete banger of an episode. I kind of enjoyed the movie despite how cheesy it is. The host segment in-between is one of my personal favorites. I think it just landed more as we just finished watching Master Ninja 1 and 2.
I do wish the gang riffed on the first movie of Ator? I know they released a Rifftrax of it.
They riffed it in Season 12 with the new crew, so your wish is granted.
This is a great “introduction” to MST for folks and is in my top 10 list of all time MST episodes. It is a good example of the premise of the show which is not only making fun of bad movies … but explains WHY they are making fun of them.
In the first host segment they (of course) have the iconic mockery of the terrible opening credits and make fun of the movie’s bad costumes to boot. In the second segment they go over the bad fantasy conventions of giving pointlessly long names to things to make them sound important. In the next they give a master class in Foley while pointing out the movie’s lousy sound effects. And of course in the final exit segment they go over several of the movie’s cheap / bad / lame aspects.
So we as the viewing audience are brought in to the experience a bit. We know this movie is cheesy. The costumes, effects, dialog, plot, props, and everything else are low-grade to the max and we can see with our own eyes just how much on a shoestring this production is. MST3K swerves right at it, and justifies what we are all thinking in our heads. We were all wanting to throw popcorn already, and MST3K is patting our shoulders and saying, “You’re right to feel this way and here’s why…”
And always remember … if you can sound bored and speak haltingly then you’re IN!
