Film Year: 1974
Genre: Horror
Director: Jerry Jameson
Starring: Stewart Moss, Marianne McAndrew, Michael Pataki, Paul Carr, Arthur Space
MST Season: 10
The Movie
Oddly enough, Mystery Science Theater 3000 has done very few vampire movies in their tenure. Wild, Wild World of Batwoman and Samson vs. the Vampire Women are as close as they have gotten by this point, and those aren't quite traditional by any means. It Lives By Night isn't quite a vampire film either, if anything it's a hybrid with the werewolf picture, but in some ways it's one of the most true vampire films they've ever done.
Initially titled The Bat People upon release, this film is the married couple of Johnny and Cathy (played by real husband and wife duo of Stewart Moss and Marianne McAndrew) touring bat caves. Instead of finding Batman like they were hoping, they find real bats and one of them bites Johnny. In the aftermath Johnny slowly begins transforming into a human bat and murders people, leaving his worried wife in the wind not understanding what's going on (as well as the audience).
It Lives By Night was directed by Jerry Jameson, who went on to a career of TV work including the TV film Superdome which was featured on MST's KTMA season. Knowing this one might assume It Lives By Night might be flatly made but it isn't really. The film does keep an atmosphere about it that is quite genuine. Dull performances are what kills it, as well as a lackluster script. The movie never quite reaches it's potential because it feels underdeveloped.
And it did have potential. I actually quite like that the film is trying portray a man turning into a monster as a horrific tragedy and adore the melancholy ending. This could have been something special, and at times the movie does work, which makes it even more frustrating. I admire the film It Lives By Night is trying to make, but desire and achievement are two separate things.
Initially titled The Bat People upon release, this film is the married couple of Johnny and Cathy (played by real husband and wife duo of Stewart Moss and Marianne McAndrew) touring bat caves. Instead of finding Batman like they were hoping, they find real bats and one of them bites Johnny. In the aftermath Johnny slowly begins transforming into a human bat and murders people, leaving his worried wife in the wind not understanding what's going on (as well as the audience).
It Lives By Night was directed by Jerry Jameson, who went on to a career of TV work including the TV film Superdome which was featured on MST's KTMA season. Knowing this one might assume It Lives By Night might be flatly made but it isn't really. The film does keep an atmosphere about it that is quite genuine. Dull performances are what kills it, as well as a lackluster script. The movie never quite reaches it's potential because it feels underdeveloped.
And it did have potential. I actually quite like that the film is trying portray a man turning into a monster as a horrific tragedy and adore the melancholy ending. This could have been something special, and at times the movie does work, which makes it even more frustrating. I admire the film It Lives By Night is trying to make, but desire and achievement are two separate things.
The Episode
Well, just when I thought I couldn't be more tepid about an episode than Track of the Moon Beast, MST takes that bet and brings up It Lives By Night. Not to beat around the bush on this one, this is one of my least favorite episodes of the series.
If I were to note anything about the riffing the one distinguishing feature I can think of is that they make a lot of effort to take bat attributes and projecting them onto Johnny. I'm not entirely charmed by it and it gets old after a while. Here's the thing though, I don't really have any genuine critiques on what went wrong or how to improve this episode. Maybe I can point out that they say the word "Squeak!" maybe one too many times. There are a few jokes in this one I think are cute (the innuendo of "It must have been a bad one." "I've had better." is probably the biggest laugh of the episode), but I'm not entirely convinced there is riff potential in this movie. It's bad, but it more of a boring kind of bad without any sort of distinguishing personality to it. There is a certain tone here, and the counterweight by the riffing isn't strong enough to make it fun. This episode is as long as any, but somehow it feels longer, because there is little enjoyment in the theater segments.
I can't help but think to myself if this is the feeling other fans get when they watch Hamlet. But the difference between Hamlet and It Lives By Night for me is that there is an experimental playfulness to Hamlet that makes it enjoyable and the crew really pushes themselves to make it work. This is a film that is closer to any other that they've done and it feels workmanlike and ho-hum. Maybe doing something closer to the series identity is exactly what most fans wanted after the previous episode, but in my eyes watching it after Hamlet makes the humdrum nature of It Lives By Night stand out even more. Even out of chronology there is just something too drab about it.
The host segment end has a few delights. I enjoy the opener in which they check out various colors they could paint the Satellite (and I love that Servo thinks "dried blood" is "perfect for the can!"). The Mary Tyler Moore segment is quite funny, fueled by Mike's dead-on impersonation of Ted Baxter, and the crop dusting mutation segment is fun. I also quite enjoy Pearl's slides of her dead ex-husbands. But there are a few duds, like Mike potentially having rabies or Mike, Crow, and Servo having mustaches.
I can watch It Lives By Night, but generally it always feels like an episode to cure nights of insomnia. There is just no enthusiasm for this movie and they just kind of trudge through it. If anything it feels like a "filler episode" (if such a thing is possible with this series) where they just tossed it in to beef up the episode order. It's most likely the worst episode of the entire Sci-Fi run.
I have no clue how other fans react to the episode. I haven't heard it discussed that much, to be honest. One thing I do know is that when Rhino had started putting MST on DVD they teamed with Satellite News to poll fans on what ten episodes they wanted the most (Manos and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians were the top picks, resulting in the Essentials collection) It Lives By Night came in dead last. That's right, even below Hamlet. I'm not going to pretend that this is proof that it's a bad episode, because all it proves was that very few people had it in their top ten. It does however point to a general lack of enthusiasm for it, and I think that describes this episode from top to bottom.
The host segment end has a few delights. I enjoy the opener in which they check out various colors they could paint the Satellite (and I love that Servo thinks "dried blood" is "perfect for the can!"). The Mary Tyler Moore segment is quite funny, fueled by Mike's dead-on impersonation of Ted Baxter, and the crop dusting mutation segment is fun. I also quite enjoy Pearl's slides of her dead ex-husbands. But there are a few duds, like Mike potentially having rabies or Mike, Crow, and Servo having mustaches.
I can watch It Lives By Night, but generally it always feels like an episode to cure nights of insomnia. There is just no enthusiasm for this movie and they just kind of trudge through it. If anything it feels like a "filler episode" (if such a thing is possible with this series) where they just tossed it in to beef up the episode order. It's most likely the worst episode of the entire Sci-Fi run.
I have no clue how other fans react to the episode. I haven't heard it discussed that much, to be honest. One thing I do know is that when Rhino had started putting MST on DVD they teamed with Satellite News to poll fans on what ten episodes they wanted the most (Manos and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians were the top picks, resulting in the Essentials collection) It Lives By Night came in dead last. That's right, even below Hamlet. I'm not going to pretend that this is proof that it's a bad episode, because all it proves was that very few people had it in their top ten. It does however point to a general lack of enthusiasm for it, and I think that describes this episode from top to bottom.
Not Recommended
The DVD and Blu-Ray
Shout Factory released this episode as a part of their Volume XXX collection. Picture was crisp and quite good, audio was great. The only special feature is a trailer for an independent film called The Frank, featuring Bill Corbett, Mary Jo Pehl, J. Elvis Weinstein, and Frank Conniff as the title character.
Shout Factory also included this episode as a bonus feature on their blu-ray of The Bat People (the film's original title), making it one of the handful of classic episode in the blu-ray format. The presentation is still in standard definition (the series was shot that way), but it looks sharper than ever. The uncut film looks pretty good as well. The special features involve primarily promotional material such as trailers and the like.
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