Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXV (DVD Review)

• Reviewed by: Tim Salmons
• Review Date: Mar 16, 2016
• Format: DVD
• 

Review

WE’VE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!!

Here we are again with Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Shout! Factory’s Volume XXXV DVD set. These boxed sets are released tri-annually with some nice extras and better quality episodes than what you might find floating around online or on bootlegs. The price is kind of steep, but if you’re a fan of the show, you know that these sets are definitely worth picking up.

I’ve gone into a good amount of detail about MST3K plenty in past reviews, so I won’t bother getting into that. We’ll keep things short and sweet instead and just cover the set itself. With this release, you get the following four episodes: Teenage Cave Man (Season 3, Episode 15), Being from Another Planet (Season 4, Episode 5), 12 to the Moon (Season 5, Episode 24), and Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell (Season 7, Episode 3).

The episodes in these boxed sets usually feature two hosted by Joel and two hosted by Mike, which is a good balance. The quality of each episode varies, with some episodes being better than others. With this set, we get three Roger Corman titles, as well as a title from Columbia Pictures (now Sony). Starting things off is Teenage Cave Man, which is American International Pictures’ answer to what might happen after a nuclear fall-out. Robert Vaughn stars in this story of a supposed prehistoric tribe that discovers a strange creature lurking about and their attempts to stop it before it kills them all. An alien disguised as an Egyptian mummy on the loose gets things going in Being from Another Planet, which tells the story of a Californian Science professor (Ben Murphy) that must stop the murderous mummy as it goes on a killing rampage across campus. In 12 to the Moon, a group of international astronauts land on the aforementioned satellite and discover a group of underground beings who threaten their existence. Deathstalker and the Warriors From Hell (the third in the Deathstalker series) is your rather standard, low-budget swords and sorcery “epic” with kooky characters and a leading man who is far from appealing.

As far as image and sound quality, everything is sourced from the original master tapes, which were on video. The episodes look generally good, especially in the latter years of the show, with an occasional minor green band or video-sourced anomaly here or there. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles. Short of Shout! Factory putting some extra money into producing these sets in high definition, these are definitely a major step up from circulating bootlegs of the show.

As for the extras, you get a few from disc to disc, most of them newly-produced just for this set (courtesy of the great Ballyhoo Motion Pictures). For Teenage Cave Man, you get the original version of the movie. For Being from Another Planet, you get the original version of the movie entitled Time Walker, the Richard Band Remembers interview, and the original theatrical trailer. For 12 to the Moon, you get the featurette You Are There: Launching 12 to the Moon. For Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell, you get the featurette Medieval Boogaloo: The Legend of Deathstalker III. Also included (as is standard with all of the MST3K boxed sets) are 4 paper insert reproductions of the artwork from each DVD in the set.

All in all, this is another solid boxed set release of MST3K from the good folks at Shout! Factory. If you’re a fan, you’ll definitely want to pick it up. Now push the button, Frank.

- Tim Salmons