Thank god it’s not just me with that problem. I had to miss the first few minutes of the episode, and I was wondering why the episode itself wasn’t available in the replay. I’m hoping this will be addressed soon.
To answer your question, they did do viewer mail and show some fan art during the intermissions. Crow did a little sketch reading one of the letters.
I really dug the return of the old MST3K tradition of grabbing a crew member and making them into one of the movie characters for the sake of a host segment, and the panicked landlady was an awesomely strangely specific choice. Cracked me right up.
That was Rebecca Hanson i.e. GPC.
Another one of those movies that was one or two steps away from actually being good. Like Devil Doll.
A lot of quality riffs. The Jamiroquai one made me laugh out loud as I’m a fan of his music. Plus a good callback to Munchie
Watched this in 2D as my glasses didn’t arrive, but the “3D stuff” works well in that version too.
I have some anaglyph 3D clip-ons for my glasses, but decided to have my first viewing in 2D.
Now that I’m familiar with the flick, I’ll be going “threed” next time.
First half is being re-encoded and re-uploaded! Should be up later today. There was a viewer mail segment and a couple backer thanks segments, but no extra host segments. Aside from I think Munchie, those typically don’t appear in episode premiere livestreams.
It made for some good riffing, but I also found the director’s choice of having characters repeatedly address the camera directly really fascinating. It makes it personal on a very uncomfortable level and I think that’s what the point was.
I completely agree. I felt like looking behind me to see if the other guy was there. I wanted to break eye contact.
The junkie aspect/parallel in the movie was well done but uncomfortable too, at least for me. The scene where he’s trying to force the mask on the woman… during my music/touring days I knew a musician who had an addiction, who (unsuccessfully) kept trying to get me to use with her. And I’m like, “Why are you trying to drag me to hell with you? I thought we were friends?” So that scene gave me the willies and made me squirm in my seat.
BTW - the after-show was fantastic, especially enjoyed the behind-the-scenes photos and video.
Speaking of uncomfortable, the guy who blew his brains out, later showing up in the 3D world with his eye off to the side of his face -shudder- damn gruesome… the movie really embraced the darkness (the noirish lighting helped with setting that dark and freaky mood)
Good movie choice for a Halloween episode I say.
You know what really stuck out to me on this one? How good Baron Vaughn’s Servo is.
This felt like one of Baron’s strongest episodes, if not THE strongest episode he ever did, and his Servo was an absolute dang joy to watch, as it was with his impromptu Jamiroquai performance. Like @Stephen_Hunter, I’m a fan of Jamiroquai, too, so I was absolutely overjoyed at that riff.
As for the episode itself? Loved it to pieces. I could see this becoming a Halloween standard, easily.
The “They Couldn’t Come” song stood out to me as one of the best uses of the Jetscreen in the show. I love horror movies, so to see them work in all those horror movie character references… just the best. And then when the show came back after Intermission Sign, the song THEN goes on to talk about inviting all the villains for Turkey Day. I loved the hell out of that, that little nod to that most sacred of MST3K days, Turkey Day!
All the horror references were wonderful, like Jonah referring to the Mads as “Leatherface and Chop Top,” Crow bringing up Mrs. Voorhees, and Max paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
I had a blast with the 3D effects, but I was really jazzed about how THE SHOW worked in a 3D host segment with Yvonne giving voice to The Skull! It really made the whole thing feel special (as did the capper with the photo taken from the theme park ride).
The movie itself was something special, and I’m not just talking about the 3D effects. The movie was actually engrossing and intriguing, and I was so enthused about MST3K getting to do its first black-and-white movie since the end of the Sci-Fi Channel era. If MST3K continues on after Season 13, I hope that The Mask represents a return to the occasional black-and-white movie (and maybe some black-and-white shorts, too!).
Oh, almost forgot!
LOVED THE SOL GANG’S HALLOWEEN COSTUMES! 
Servo made for a terrific Pinhead, and his silhouette as Pinhead looked great!
Crow wearing a cheap store-bought Crow costume? Absolutely on brand for the character and a total hoot!
Jonah’s Tom Atkins was hilarious, not just for Jonah going as Tom Atkins, but for Crow and Servo giving him so much guff about it.
If MST3K Halloween episodes become a new tradition, I hope that we’ll see the host and the 'Bots engaging in costume shenanigans again!
And this doesn’t get into the episode proper, but it bears mentioning: I really loved the aftershow for this! (I mean, I’ve been digging them all throughout, but this one was def sharp.)
To have all the aftershow guests in costumes was terrific. I dug the behind-the-scenes snapshots and footage of the making of this episode, too.
That, and there was this great sense of joy and cheer with the MST3K Halloween Cosplay Contest results. Halloween is my favorite time of year, and it felt like this episode and Gizmoplex event were wonderful ways to celebrate this special day/season.
If I sound like I’m gushing over all of this, it’s simply because I am!
Yeah, I just watched this one and the audio was a huge problem. I’m a guy that hates captioning because all I do is stare at it and not the actual action. I had to turn captioning on. I cranked my receiver way up to the point that Jonah and the Bots were blowing my ears off and I could still barely hear the movie. This all took me way out of it. My focus was all mixed up. I really hope something can be done about the ragingly different audio levels.
Something will be done. It was acknowledged and apologized for in the livestream aftershow. Might take a few days or a week, but at the latest, there will be an improved version by the time the episode is downloadable, which is two weeks after the episode premieres.
I wonder if MST3K riffing a silent film is a plausible idea…
Incidentally, in the realm of “I saw it on the show and now I want one” if someone were to actually produce some throwback store-bought Crow costumes, I would absolutely buy one.
Considering I’ve seen actual Ben Cooper costumes recently…
My thoughts on 1311:
Thanks Tim! I posted that after I watched the episode and before I watched the aftershow. I felt stupid when Joel apologized and said it would be fixed. I look forward to watching this again. I always download the episodes/shorts at the 2 week mark to load into my Plex server so I will definitely check it out again then.