1102-Cry Wilderness

Film Year:  1987
Genre:  Fantasy
Director:  Jay Schlossberg-Cohen
Starring:  BIGFOOT!  Eric Foster, Maurice Grandmaison, John Tallman
MST Season:  11

The Movie

Cry Wilderness is about a boy named Paul who claims to be friends with Bigfoot, but nobody believes him because fantasy movie logic:  kids know everything and adult skepticism equates stupidity.  Bigfoot comes to Paul to warn him his father is in trouble and Paul seeks to try and prevent his father's fate who is tracking an escaped tiger in the forest.

I wish I could say Cry Wilderness is an oddity of a children's fantasy from the 80's, but as someone who was born in the 80's and watched a lot of kids movies, I can safely say Cry Wilderness is not unique.  It's a crap movie with a crap concept made by people who make crap for kids because they think kids like nothing but crap.  It's true I watched a lot of crap when I was a kid, though in retrospect I wonder how much of that was because of the saturation of films like this.

At Cry Wilderness's core it's a movie about man's relationship with nature, choosing to take a fantastical nonsense approach because...kids like crap.  Bigfoot is pretty much Smokey the Bear in this movie, while he sends Paul messages that just basically makes the child wander around and bump into random animals and people who also like animals.  It's not really a plot and more of just episodic things that are set into motion by a big hairy man.  One of which even sees the child hitchhiking cross-country to find his dad.  That's just fucked up.

Strangely enough the movie is bookended by scenes between Paul and a teacher who initially scolds him for believing in Bigfoot and spreading lies, then at the end of the movie (after we haven't seen this guy at all since the beginning of the movie, I might add) he believes him and can see Bigfoot too.  I'm not quite sure what the idea behind this is, and in the hands of a better filmmaker it might have been some interesting subtext about being a child at heart or believing in more than what you see.  Instead it means nothing and it's just random nonsensical crap.  Kids love crap.

The Episode

"Bigfoot believers use THOSE stairs."

The sophomore episode of the relaunch season finds us given yet another A-plus movie selection that is just perfect for the format.  The riffing keeps pace with the feature quite well, though Crow seems to get quite testy with the film just before it concludes.  And who could blame him?  Jonah and the Bots take on quite a bit from this movie, from idiotic scenarios, to constant whimsical scenes of laughter, and an very silly Bigfoot costume.  We also have to make do with an obvious villain who adds nothing except really he isn't very nice and does bad things.  His first scene in the episode is hilarious, as he is dubbed "a Stallone" who has infested the house and the riffers try to shoo him off.

"Lets keep this a secret between you an me."
"Okay, it's never good when an adult says that to a kid."

It's also fairly established in this episode that in the new revival of the series they won't play the end credits of the movies.  I suppose it makes sense from an entertainment standpoint, because credits can be seen as dead air and it's probably a pain in the ass to write around, but I'd lie if I said I wasn't a little disappointed.  Often during the end credit sequences the riffers showed off some astounding creativity and played with some interesting in-theater skits.  It's really sad to see them go.

Outside of the theater, the big talk of the episode is that Pearl, Bobo, and Observer pay a visit to Kinga and Max.  The segment is okay at best, but it's good to see the trio again if nothing else (though Kevin's Bobo makeup looks off and Observer's brain is missing).  The segment also takes the time to introduce a new Mad that we briefly saw in Reptilicus, Synthia, a clone of Pearl's who is played by Rebecca Hansen.  I don't really know what to make of Synthia based on this segment.  She's given two lines and her personality changes between both of them.  It's really not a very good intro to her character.

Other host segments involve a cute segment where Jonah explains the movie to Servo and Crow and also a segment where the Bots are raccoons which is a waste of time.  The Invention Exchange didn't really tickle me that much, as both inventions are more funny looking props than gags.  It's during this Invention Exchange however where the revival shows off a weird editing trick, where cuts between takes of Kinga and Max are edited together with bubbles floating across the screen, seemingly excused via the "liquid technology" that Kinga is sporting.  It looks horrid.

Speaking of this "liquid technology," we're told in the opening sketches that it "doesn't record" so Jonah has to repeat the intro for Kinga over and over again to start every show from now on, which is just the musical number from the previous episode recycled.  Now granted the idea of this liquid technology is fictitious, but it seems to me the idea of it not recording is horseshit.  It's recording the episode, aint it?

"Just repeat to yourself 'It's just a show...'"

Cry Wilderness became an instant fan favorite of the revival series, so much so that it became the first revival episode used in a Turkey Day marathon in 2018, which is probably the highest honor an episode could be given.  I definitely agree it's a good episode full of laughs, but it doesn't really go that extra mile for me.  But it's definitely an episode to check out for those who give the revival a fair shake.

Good

The DVD and Blu-Ray

Cry Wilderness was released on Shout Factory's Season 11 DVD and blu-ray sets.  The one I own is the #WeBroughtBackMST3K Collector's Edition blu-ray set, which was offered to Kickstarter backers.  Picture and audio are both dynamite and the disc contains no special features.  It does however share the disc with the previous episode, Reptilicus.