Plot: Worms in a small Georgia town are electrocuted, and this turns them into angry mutant killers.
Famous for:
Soooooo many southern redneck jokes.
"Imperial Grand Dragon and I still gotta drive a bus."
"We shape our hair into waves down here, boy."
My favorite riff:
See below.
Overly Southern Mom: I just don't want you to be too
disappointed if he doesn't come.
Crow: Mother, that's private!
Comments:
Okay, now THIS is a fun episode. Which makes
sense, because Squirm is actually a really fun movie. In fact, to
this day,
Squirm
is still the only episode of MST3k where I actually
saw the movie first, long before they ever riffed it. It was one
of those movies that was considered a video store staple back in the
day, so any kid who grew up as a horror fan in the 80s (like me)
probably would have seen it at some point.
Is
Squirm a great film? Of course not. But as bizarre little regional
horror
films from the 70s go, it's perfectly fun and watchable just on
its own, even without the riffing. And to be honest, when it comes to
movies they've featured on Mystery Science Theater, you could find a
lot worse.
"Ahhh! The worm had a shiv!"
By
the way, the director of Squirm (Jeff Lieberman) once famously
criticized MST3k for mocking his movie, stating "You can't
goof on something that's already a goof." But I don't think
that's
necessarily true. I love Squirm as a goofy little horror movie
just on its own. And I
love the riffing of Squirm by the MST3k guys even more. So I
believe they CAN both co-exist. Yes, even if Squirm was a parody of
horror movies to begin win, you can still take digs at it.
I know I say this about a lot of my favorite episodes but, to
me,
this is one of those episodes that would be PERFECT if you wanted to introduce
a
first-time MST3k viewer to the show. Because they're bound to get a kick out of all
the
overly-Southern accents, and all the over-the-top cartoon characters and
antiquing jokes.
Squirm isn't the funniest episode that MST3k
ever
did, but it's easily one of the most watchable.
"We thought you'd enjoy reading your movie."
Other
personal favorite things about this episode: I
could watch this episode a hundred times, and I will never, ever, EVER get tired of
all the riffs about the characters constantly searching for Mr. Beardsley.
"Mr. Beardsley?"
I
will also never stop laughing at them cutting to the giant six-foot-two
sister. And every time they do, Mike imitates her by going into a
deep baritone Richard Kiel
voice. It happens a bunch of times in the movie, and it's one of those
things that even when you know it's coming, it still cracks you up.
Geri: "You ready?"
Mike (in the deepest possible human voice): "YEAH I'M READY."
Trivia:
Squirm is one of the rare movies featured on MST3k that was
actually rated R. And because of this, the unriffed version is SIGNIFICANTLY more
graphic and bloody than the version we see in the episode. So be warned.
The
reason I know this is because Squirm is one of the rare MST3k movies
that I actually own on DVD, so I'm familiar with both the R-rated
theatrical version and also the PG-13 rated riffed version.
In the unriffed version, when the guy go'n be da worm face, he really go'n be da worm face.
Note: The Surgeon General recommends that you not be da worm face
