Invasion of the Animal People (Rifftrax)

Film Year:  1959
Genre:  Science Fiction, Horror
Director:  Virgil Vogel, Jerry Warren
Starring:  John Carradine, Barbara Wilson, Stan Gester, Robert Burton
Rifftrax Year:  2018
Riffers:  Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

The Movie

Also known as "Terror of the Midnight Sun" or "Space Invasion of Lapland" (I think I streamed a porno with this title once), Invasion of the Animal People is a Swedish film directed by Virgil Vogel, who most MSTies will recognize as the director of The Mole People.  The film was re-edited and a prologue was added for a US release by Jerry Warren, who MSTies will recognize as the director of The Wild Wild World of Batwoman.

...

RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

The film is about a group of scientists and a figure skater heading to the snowy mountains of Finland to check out a meteorite that crashed there.  The meteor turns out to be an alien spacecraft piloted by a group of Coneheads lookalikes who unleash a giant hairy creature on the people.

It's kinda funny to read the Wikipedia synopsis of this movie after watching this thing.  The first paragraph boils down the first fifty minutes of this movie, while the last twenty minutes are covered in three.  That's also what it feels like watching this movie because for a long-ass time nothing happens.  Our heroes wander around in the snow for endless periods of time just looking around, without much character development or plot movement.  And when the big beast arrives in the climax it waddles around for most of its time.  And it grabs a woman and kidnaps her for...reasons.  Sexual reason?  Dunno.

It also doesn't help that the print of the film is pretty bad.  It's about as rough a shape as the films you would see in early first season episodes of Mystery Science Theater.  In fact there were many times in which I looked at the bottom of the screen and expected green silhouettes of Joel and the Bots.  At times, this washed out and dirty movie can be an eyestrain.

If I were to say something good about it I'd say once the beast starts terrorizing the locals some of the models and low camera angles offer a strong sense of scale.  The sequence where he tears up some cabins and tents is pretty solid.  I also think actress Barbara Wilson is very pretty.  I wish I could comment on her acting, but that would require the audio being listenable for me to critique her.

But if you're looking for a good 50's snowbound alien invasion I strongly recommend The Thing from Another World instead.

The Trax

Early on I found myself being extremely won over by this riff.  Bill reading the wrong spinning newspaper headlines is gold and there is a solid callback to Red Zone Cuba at one point.  But topping them all is a moment where Kevin reacts as if the male lead has stabbed the female lead through the abdomen with his skis, and the visuals of the film totally support it, that left me laughing so hard I had to stop the movie so I could catch my breath.  And then I rewound it and watched it again.  If the bar was set this high early on I was hoping the rest of the riff kept up.

And then the film slows down and the riffing starts to get repetitive.  Invasion of the Animal People is really at the mercy of the film its watching, because there are long patches where there really isn't a lot to riff on.  While gags do work, sometimes they rely on repeating jokes that were funny or just go to the generic "I'm bored" riff.  Riffing picks up for the finale, because the film is finally giving them something to work with.  It never reaches the heights of the first twenty minutes, but it does nicely.  They note that despite the title there is only a singular "Animal Person" in the film and ride on it a bit, and they enjoy dubbing over the beast as well as giving the angry mob chasing it a few choice rants.

However the damage has mostly been done and what promised to be a great riff teeters from being a good one down close to being a mediocre one.  I question whether this movie was properly riffable, but I won't deny the laughs I did have.  It also gave me a bigger gutbuster than I was expecting very early on, so kudos.

Good