Rebuttal to the MST3k Soultaker Riffing
by Michael Rissi, the director
I directed this movie -- strange experience, strange range of
reactions., 28 July 2001
I'm
Michael Rissi and I directed this picture. I was fresh out of USC film
school and was brought on to direct SOULTAKER after the first director
was fired when I was 23 years old. Well, making this movie was both an
interesting experience and rather gut-wrenching, to be perfectly
honest.
I counted something like 3 or 4 catastrophes per day
while we were making the movie - from raging thunderstorms with
electrical blackouts to a picture car that WOULD NOT START (that's the
one that crashes in the movie) to a guy who climbed up into a huge tree
while we were shooting at the "SummerFest" location who would not come
down, but instead yelled obscenities for HOURS to disrupt us until a
fire engine crew showed up and tried in vain for several more hours to
get him down and take him away. Whole days during the production were
lost for reasons like this. It was truly crazy.
As you can
imagine, I have read reviews of SOULTAKER with a mixture of curious
interest, dread, and some puzzlement. You certainly take your jabs in
this business whether you like it or not and though I was hardly more
than a kid when I directed this movie, it has taken on a life of its
own.
Ironically, SOULTAKER actually won the BEST VIDEO of the
YEAR award in 1991 from the famed ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION FANTASY AND
HORROR headed by its founder Dr. Donald Reed. I have a Saturn Award
sitting on my mantel to prove it. All the official Video Guides gave
the movie 2 1/2 out of 4 stars (this was BEFORE the producers sold the
rights to MST3K to make fun of it.) MST3K then edited the movie for
their own ends, and ever since the movie's ratings have naturally
plummeted.
To backtrack, the SCI FI CHANNEL originally presented
SOULTAKER as one of its Planetary Premieres in its original form, UNCUT
except for commercial breaks, for many years.
After purchasing
the rights to mess with it, the folks at MST3K cut the heck out of it
(almost a third of the movie) so that it honestly had no chance of
making any sense whatsoever and "Re-Presented" it strictly for laughs.
Since
SOULTAKER had done very well in its initial release, with very positive
reviews in "Daily Variety" and several other major trade publications,
you might imagine how perplexed I was initially when I found out they
completely hacked up this movie to shreds and then lambasted it on
MST3K.
Poor Vivian Schilling was the subject of most of the
show's most vicious and acerbic barbs and having worked with her I can
tell you that running her down with a series of cheap shots really was
unfair. Cheap shots will get cheap laughs. But I doubt anyone reading
this would want someone to do it to them.
Frankly, I think the
cinematography and staging in the picture hold up fairly well, and
practically everyone (apparently including the MST3K folks) knew I had
only so much to work with, so they left me alone for the most part. But
it's still kind of a bummer to make a low budget movie and see your
best stuff hacked up or removed. It's like being a green comedian,
being handed some ordinary jokes, going out on stage and getting hit in
the face with tomatoes while someone offstage turns the microphone down
during the punch lines.
Basically, my job as director on this
picture, at least as I saw it, most especially throughout all of
obstacles which seemed to plague it from the outset, was to FINISH it
as best as I was humanly able, while simultaneously infusing it with as
much mood, atmosphere and yes, bits of silly humor as I possibly could
along the way.
If you've seen SOULTAKER on MST3K, you may have
gotten some good laughs, but you really haven't seen the movie. Of
course, ripping on movies and movie people has become part of pop
culture today.
Some of you might legitimately DISLIKE the
picture, the original version I mean. Fair enough. But the fact is,
audiences like members of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and
Horror certainly went for it and people like that were the target
audience. I autographed quite a few "Soultaker" movie posters at
showings like that one, along with the actors. Now I'm told they are
collector's items. Strange biz.
The MST3K treatment could make
comedies out of many genre movies. A movie like THE SHINING is a good
example. But Warner Bros. isn't likely to allow it.
SOULTAKER
was made on such a small budget, the sound man (who was one of the only
veteran techs on the crew) kept telling me it would be a miracle if we
managed to finish the movie. If we had used millions of dollars instead
of hundreds and made something like "Battlefield Earth" or "Howard the
Duck"...
On the bright side, "Soultaker" made a significant
profit, and in the end, for all filmmakers, that's what your job is --
to try to make sure the investors come out on top. At least we did that
-- long before it was sliced and diced and served up for breakfast.