Genre: Horror
Director: Gene Fowler Jr.
Starring: Michael Landon, Whit Bissell, Yvonne Lime, Guy Williams
MST Season: 8
The Movie
Quite possibly one of the most relatively successful movies ever featured on the show, I Was a Teenage Werewolf was actually a pretty big hit back in 1957. The film wasn't a huge critical darling and the passage of time hasn't been too kind to it, at least not compared to timelessly beloved contemporaries such as Bridge on the River Kwai, 12 Angry Men, Old Yeller, and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. At the very least, I Was a Teenage Werewolf delivers on its title, which is that it has a teenage werewolf in it. Said teenage werewolf is played by Michael Landon, who plays a troubled boy who has issues controlling his temper, and is told to see a psychologist to help calm him down. But his psychologist has other plans, using hypnosis and an experimental serum to bring out Landon's primitive nature, which just happens to be a werewolf.
See, this is why I don't trust shrinks.
I Was a Teenage Werewolf was an early hit in the career of Michael Landon, who would go on to a lengthy career in television in hit shows such as Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, and Highway to Heaven, which were each successive to each other. There was a Michael Landon show consistently on the air every year for thirty years straight! This made him on of the most successful television celebrities of all time, right up there with the likes of Johnny Carson and Lucille Ball. In Teenage Werewolf, Landon isn't really given much to shine with, as his charming smile and winning personality take a backseat to him being very needlessly angry at everyone. His character here is all too one-dimensional, as his anger really is the only trait the movie seems interested in defining him with.
As a 50's horror movie, Teenage Werewolf is a bit on the limp side. Using hypnosis as a means to unleash the beast is interesting at the very least, having the monster be a "werewolf" seems unnecessary. The film's most confident aspect is likely what led it to box office success, which is its youth appeal. I Was a Teenage Werewolf is an early example of unleashing the horrors that go bump in the night upon unsuspecting teens and tapping the youth market that goes crazy for horror films (as was its double bill partner Invasion of the Saucer Men, which MSTies will know as the film that was remade as Attack of the The Eye Creatures). This is a formula that is pretty much mimicked through the rest of horror history, especially during the slasher movie craze of the 70's and 80's. Teenage Werewolf may not have been the first to do such a formula (better historians than myself would probably throw a dozen titles at me), but it sure as hell was one that caught on.
The Episode
Pearl has shut off the Satellite of Love's protective systems so she, Bobo, and the sole surviving Observer can go camping, which leaves Mike and the Bots fending for themselves against alien infestation. These segments delight with their parodies of the Alien franchise, featuring Servo with a facehugger before going full space marine and climbing into the ducts to fight more creatures (before breaking down and crying), while Mike tries to deal with all the alien eggs by making a giant omelet. These segments are really fun and a genuine highlight of season 8's story arc.
"I thought it was alright if I picked a little fight. Bonanza?"
As fun as the host segments are, the movie segments can seem a little muted. The most I can say about the movie segments in I Was a Teenage Werewolf is that they're funny, but they're a little vanilla. Not helping things is that we had just come off of a string of similar films this early on in season eight, though even watched on its own, I Was a Teenage Werewolf fails to make any large impression on me. That being said, I do laugh quite a bit during this episode, as it offers a fun heckling at a bizarre movie. Riffs tend to target the crazy screenplay, mostly. Michael Landon's needlessly angry character gets a few jabs, as well as his odd romance with a girl who is crazy about him even though he snaps at her on a whim just because she's present. The generic-teenage-students-having-generic-teenage-fun do work up some good quips, while the stiff police characters and required old man who knows it's a werewolf because of folklore get solid attention as well. And of course, Michael Landon/Bonanza quips abound (as well as a few for Lost in Space's Guy Williams in his supporting role).
I Was a Teenage Werewolf does just enough for me to consider it a good episode. I enjoy it and I get some good laughs from it. Yet in the grand scheme of things it's one I tend to rack my head about, trying to remember details of. It's a very one-night stand sort of episode. Fun in the moment and it gets the job done, but I have no real commitment to it and it doesn't really matter to me the next day.
Good
The DVD
I Was a Teenage Werewolf is one of the episodes that is unlikely to ever see DVD release. Because of this, Shout Factory compiled the episode's host segments as a part of their Satellite Dishes compilation on Volume XXXIX.
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