Are there some MST3K episodes where you find yourself getting caught up in the movie itself? After all, not every film here are slogs like The Skydivers and The Starfighters which are unwatchable without riffing. More than once I’ve gotten caught up in the storylines of Tormented and The Day The Earth Froze, for instance.
How about you? Any episode where the movie itself pulled you in?
Cards on the table here - I really got into Parts the Clonus horror. Almost tuned out the riffing in parts lol
The Magic Sword, for sure.
Kitten With a Whip is one for me. While some of the central characters’ decisions are pretty dumb, the story overall is compelling and I have a hard time extricating myself from the movie to enjoy the riffing.
I’m not necessarily saying that the movie is good, but I always find myself getting caught up in The Beatniks. It’s one of those “shout at the dumb characters for doing dumb things” movies.
Tormented is another gold movie to get caught up in. It’s genuinely absorbing and would stand well on its own, I would think.
In terms of the story AND visuals, I’m always into whatever’s going on with those Russo-Finnish movies, The Day the Earth Froze, The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, The Sword and the Dragon, and especially Jack Frost.
Great choices everyone! Those are some of the other ones I’ve gotten wrapped up in as well. And my mother really liked the movie Girls Town when she caught it with me, it’s a film from her generation.
This happens on occasion, but usually because it’s so bad I want to hear it in all its badness! Case in point: I was watching “X Marks the Spot” (the short ahead of ‘King Dinosaur’) and I actually said, “Shush, Crow!” out loud because the judge’s dialog was so bad I wanted to hear all of it. 
“This Island Earth” had me caught up. I thought it was a really interesting plot and they did some really fascinating things.
I find myself paying attention to the dialogue and not to the riffing all the time. The movie doesn’t matter, I just shift my attention span sometimes.
Catalina Caper. Simple, silly '60s beach movie.
That’s grown to be one of my favorite episodes, but they brutalize the movie. I mean, in terms of cutting things out. Consider that MST3K: The Movie is 73 minutes long whereas an unedited This Island Earth is 86 minutes long. With host segments and credits, there’s, like, a quarter or a third of the film missing.
Rifftrax has done both Casablanca and the non-copyrighted parts of It’s A Wonderful Life. I salute their commitment but I can’t even watch the trailers.
This.
There’s something oddly compelling about Teenage Crime Wave as well. It’s a pretty tense film.
I have always liked The Screaming Skull and The Brain that Wouldn’t Die.
I’m with you on this one, as well as The Beatniks (from a few posts back). Both are surprisingly engaging, especially Crime Wave. And both get pretty dark, bucking the happy-ending trend of the era. No one was skipping and whistling out of the theater after these movies. 
Also The Girl in Lovers Lane, come to think of it. I can easily get drawn into that one, and that ending is brutal.
Excellent choice, @Kaijugamera! The Screaming Skull in particular leaves you wondering where everything’s going.
Teenage Crime Wave is something of an outlier in how the tension and darkness of the movie almost overwhelms the riffing. It’s probably one of the most anxiety-inducing movies in the MST3K library.
Amen to that one, a film I really like with or without the riffing.
I keep calling The Screaming Skull a low-rent Rebecca. Which is why I like it.
Yep. It usually happens for me on the first viewing. Or if I haven’t seen the episode in so long it’s pretty much the first viewing again. Why is another question. Sometimes it’s the storyline, sometimes it’s the characters or acting and sometimes, like in Rofftrax’s Birdemic, it’s so fascinatingly bad (like a car crash) I just can’t look away and concentrate on the riffing.