Island of Terror

Book your return flight to the Satellite of Love and join Joel, Mike and the 'bots for another fearful foursome of flops in this collection of episodes from the Peabody Award-winning series Mystery Science Theater 3000. First up on Volume 11's menu of muck is Season Two's Ring of Terror, with Joel, Crow and Tom Servo riffing furiously on a half-baked story of fraternity pranks gone wrong; it's partnered with another interminable episode of the Bela Lugosi serial The Phantom Creeps. Next is Season Four's The Indestructible Man, in which Joel performs a frightening imitation of the movie's star, Lon Chaney Jr.; an episode of The Undersea Kingdom is also celebrated with a parade that goes predictably awry. Season Four's Tormented features headless ghosts, a guilt-ridden Richard Carlson, and Joel stuck in a ventilation shaft, plus a day-rescuing round of happy thoughts. And last but not least is Season Ten's Horrors of Spider Island, a German-made monster movie about dancers on a deserted island and a giant spider than transforms their manager into a hideous creature; Mike also undergoes a man-to-spider switcheroo after getting trapped in the 'bots' homemade spider web. For veteran MiSTies and pop culture fanatics, it doesn't get funnier than this. Extras include theatrical trailers for all of the films save Ring of Terror; a brief interview with Tormented director Bert I. Gordon, his daughter Susan, and star Joseph Turkel, and wrap-arounds from the syndicated Mystery Science Hour, with Mike Nelson as an obsequious Jack Perkins, are also included. However, the best supplement is the second MST3K Jukebox, which compiles some of the show's funniest and most memorable musical numbers, including "Sidehackin',"Joel and the 'bots' garage-rock tribute to The Sidehackers and the incredible "Patrick Swayze Christmas" from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. --Paul Gaita