Netflix just released a trailer for the upcoming Mystery Science Theater 3000 and besides revealing the show’s new size and scope, it offers a few glimpses into two of the upcoming episodes — or experiments — new test subject Jonah Heston (Jonah Ray Rodrigues) will face.
If you closely as Jonah is dropped into the new Mystery Science Theater, you can clearly see a poster for Reptilicus, a 1962 American International production about an ancient reptile creature wreaking havoc in downtown Copenhagen. But perhaps more telling is the strange metal colossus woman seen later in the trailer. The creature is unmistakably from one of the greatestest, yet terrible Star Wars rip-offs ever made: Starcrash.
Starring Caroline Munroe and David Hasselhoff, Starcrash tells the tale of Stella Star, a smuggler press-ganged into saving the Prince of the Universe (Hasselhoff) and watching as the evil Count Zarth Arn and his hand-shaped space station are defeated by repetitive shots of cheesy spaceship models. It also features Marjoe Gortner as Stella’s sidekick with awfully convenient powers and an awfully familiar laser sword. Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer also appears the Emperor of the Universe, who can stop the flow of time for exactly three minutes.
If these are the sorts of movies the new season of MST3K will be tackling, hopefully they’ll hit other delightful hits of trash cinema like Blood Freak — the world’s only anti-drug, pro-Jesus vampire turkey flick — and the best of the Conan rip-offs, Yor: The Hunter from the Future. What other cheesy flicks would you like to see Jonah and the Bots riff on when the show returns on April 14th? Post your thoughts in the comments below.
