MST3K 604 - Zombie Nightmare

604 - Zombie Nightmare
Air/Release Date	November 24, 1994
MST3K Director	Trace Beaulieu
Turkey Day(s)	November 24, 1994, 10pm
Movie Director	Jack Brauman/John Bravman
Year	1986
Cast	Adam West Jon Mikl Thor Tia Carrere Manuska Rigaud Frank Dietz
Preceded by	603 - The Dead Talk Back
Followed by	605 - Colossus and the Headhunters

“	"Okay, so he's mad that he's losing, but that's the way he likes it??"	”
	- Tom reacting to the opening song

The Movie

Synopsis

Adam West in Zombie Nightmare

A little boy named Tony Washington (Jesse D'Angelo) watches his father William Washington (John Fasano) play in a baseball game. On the way home Tony, William, and Tony's mother Louise (Francesca Bonacorsa) see a young girl (Tracy Biddle) about to be raped by two teenagers. William saves the young girl from being raped but is killed when one of the rapists fatally stabs him.

Years pass and Tony (Jon Mikl Thor), now a musclebound teenage baseball player, is leaving a small grocery store where he had helped disrupt an attempted robbery. As he steps out of the store and into the road, he is run over by a gang of reckless teenagers consisting of Bob (Allan Fisler), Amy (Tia Carrere), Jim (Shawn Levy), Peter (Hamish McEwan), and Susie (Manon E. Turbide) and is killed. After his body is brought to his mother, Louise, she contacts one of her neighbors, a voodoo priestess, named Molly (Manuska Rigaud) to save her son. Molly explains to Louise that although she is unable to restore her son back to life, she can keep him between a state of life and death long enough for him to avenge himself. After Louise agrees, Molly resurrects Tony as a zombie, then uses her powers to aid him in his revenge.

"Think I'll walk down Certain Doom Lane"

The next night, the now zombified Tony is able to track down Peter and Susie at an academy's gymnasium and kills Peter by breaking his neck then Susie by crushing her skull with a baseball bat. The night afterwards, he is able to find and kill Jim by impaling him with the same bat before the latter could rape a waitress. Police detective Frank Sorrell (Frank Dietz) is soon investigating both incidents and initially agrees with a coroner that a large built, drug-fueled man is responsible. Sorrell brings his suspicions to his boss, police captain Tom Churchman (Adam West) and is told by him that they have already managed to find a suspect responsible that matches Sorrell's description and closes the case.

Believing that the case has not been fully solved, Sorrell investigates photos that has Molly at both incidents and suggests to Churchman that they bring her in for questioning. However the captain quickly dismisses her as a "batty, voodoo palm reader that follows ambulances around" and sends him home to rest. Shortly afterwards, Churchman contacts Jim's father, Fred, and informs him of Molly's involvement in his son's death, then tells him to come to the police station. Before Fred could leave his home, he sees Tony approaching him and shoots him with a rifle. Tony quickly recovers and breaks Fred's neck, killing him.

Knowing that they will be next, Bob and Amy decide to leave town.

Tia Carrere in Zombie Nightmare

While at a garage getting money, Tony finds them and kills Bob by bashing his head against a car, then does the same to Amy against a door. While monitoring Tony's actions, Molly is held at gunpoint by Churchman to come with him and forced to show where Tony is going. The zombie makes his way to a cemetery with Sorrell following him. Molly and Churchman soon arrive, with both telling Sorrell that the priestess resurrected Tony to not only avenge himself, but also Molly herself as Churchman and Fred were the two that tried to rape her years ago, and that the captain was also the one who had killed Tony's father. Having learned that a zombie will lose its energy once it has avenged itself, Churchman shoots and kills Tony, then Molly as well. Before he could do the same to Sorrell to silence him as a witness, a second zombie rises out of a nearby grave and drags Churchman into the ground with him, presumably to Hell. A shocked Sorrell then inspects the grave and realizes the second zombie was Tony's father, then leaves.

Information

• Film debut of Tia Carrere. Director Shawn Levy (Real Steel, Night at the Museum and The Pink Panther) also made his film debut here.
• Never released in theaters, this film went straight to video.
• The opening song is "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead.
• Dean Hagopian (the crusty ME) was in a band called the Staccatos, after he left they changed their name and went on to fame as the Five Man Electrical Band.
• Top-billed Adam West does not appear in the first 45 minutes of the film.

The Episode

Host Segments

The SOL crew uses black magic

Prologue: Crow and Tom are Secret Service agents "protecting" Mike. Of course, they inflict more injuries than they prevent

Segment One: The Mads are really into voodoo, so they send a voodoo kit to the SOL. Mike, Tom, and Crow use black magic to do nice things for people. First, they give Jimmy Carter a hug. Then they give NPR’s Cokie Roberts a scalp massage. They then use it to taunt Dr. F.

"You know what me and Frank are into this week? Vodoo!"

Segment Two: Crow is sitting, reading quietly and enjoying chocolates, when suddenly Tom runs him down with his little red car, paralleling the action of the movie.

Mike and Servo put on Crow's Batman play

Segment Three: The bots are enjoying a hot tub until Mike surfaces wearing a snorkel mask and bearing a fish on a spear.

Segment Four: Crow has abandoned his Batman play, but he forgot to tell Tom and Mike, who are in costume. Tom doesn’t want to take his Batman costume off, as he believes it gives him special powers.

Segment Five: Mike and the bots have written letters to Adam West. Frank has inadvertently turned Dr. F into a zombie, and doesn’t know how to reverse the spell.

Stinger: As the voodoo priestess finishes her incantation, the zombie screams.

Guest Stars

• Cokie Roberts (voice): Mary Jo Pehl

Trivia

• Comedy Central held this episode back from television broadcast while showing it on their "Fresh Cheese" tour, in which premiere episodes of CC programming were screened on college campuses across the country.
• This episode finally premiered as the fourteenth and last during Turkey Day '94.
• Mike and the Bots use their voodoo kit to give Cokie Roberts a scalp massage. Right before "Movie Sign" Mike makes a voodoo doll "dance" while he and the Bots hum the theme music for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
• This was the first episode produced to feature Mike's new navy blue jumpsuit (though because episodes in this period were aired out of order, the first appearance broadcast was in The Violent Years).

Callbacks

• "I’d never touch you, Terry. You’re dirt!" (Teen-Age Crime Wave)

Obscure References

• "Pride of the Zombies!"

A reference to Pride of the Yankees, a 1942 biopic of baseball legend Lou Gehrig.

• "Well, I'm sure strolling in Howard Beach won't be a problem!"

A reference to a racially motivated attack on two black men that took place in the Howard Beach section of Queens in 1986.

• "A young Joe Pepitone ponders his fate."

Joe Pepitone was a first baseman and outfielder for the New York Yankees during the 1960s.

• "The age of Aquarius!"

A reference to the song "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" by the 5th Dimension.

• "These Young Life weekends are getting out of hand."

Young Life is a Christian youth organization.

• "Hey, how come there's no pictures of Italians on the wall?"

Mike is parodying a line from the Spike Lee movie Do the Right Thing.

• "It's the Kids in the Hall!"

The Kids in the Hall were a Canadian sketch-comedy troupe that had their own TV show from 1989-94. The footage, of asphalt and storefronts shot from a moving car, resembles the opening of their show.

• "Boy, things have really changed since Vatican II!"

The Second Vatican Council (also known as "Vatican II") was held from 1962–65 and resulted in significant modernizations of the Catholic Church's doctrines and rituals.

• "She's probably Missouri Synod, they're really hardcore!"

A reference to the Missouri Synod offshoot of the Lutheran Church.

• "Is she playing tennis with Kraftwerk?"

Kraftwerk is a pioneering electronic music group from Germany.

• "John Cage on the soundtrack!"

John Cage is an experimental music composer best known for his work 4'33", consisting of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of complete silence.

• "Enya!"

Enya is a New Age musician.

• "Grady! This fall on NBC!"

Grady was a short-lived spinoff of Sanford and Son revolving around the character of the same name.

• "What is up with Mark Trail?!"

Mark Trail is a long-running comic strip about an adventuring naturalist.

• "I see Garrison Keillor is laughing."

Garrison Keillor is an American author and humorist known for being the radio-show host of A Prairie Home Companion. Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota it airs across the states and usually provides music and comedy routines.

• "This giant..." "Like L.T.?"

A reference to former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

• "Stiv Bator is pissed!"

Stiv Bators was the lead singer of the punk band The Dead Boys.

• "This scene was cut from The Program."

The Program was a 1993 film about a college football team. A major controversy erupted when a few teenagers reportedly died imitating a scene in which characters lie down in the middle of a busy freeway.

• "Auditions for the band Fear!"

Fear is a punk band whose popularity peaked in the early 1980s. They played Saturday Night Live, at John Belushi's suggestion, and the mosh-riot that broke out resulted in several thousand dollars worth of damage to the studio.

• "The Three Faces of Steve!"

A play on The Three Faces of Eve, a 1957 film about a woman with multiple personalities.

• "I'm gonna go work on my M.A.N.T.I.S. script!"

M.A.N.T.I.S. was a short-lived superhero TV series from the mid-1990s.

• "Watchtoweeeer!"

A reference to The Watchtower, a magazine published by the Jehovah's Witnesses.

• "The zombie drives a K-Car!"

"K-Car" is a catch-all name for the many vehicles that were built using the Chrysler K platform.

• "'This spot reserved for Viper'?"

A reference to the TV series Viper, whose hero drove a Dodge Viper with high-tech weapons capabilities.

• "Garrick Utley..."

TV journalist Garrick Utley was a frequent substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News during the 1980s and '90s.

• "Miss Jane Pittman!"

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a novel in which a 110-year-old African-American woman recounts the events of her life, and was made into an acclaimed made-for-TV movie in 1974.

• "Sniff....You were the bestest Batman ever!...Goodbye Cesar Romero!"

A reference to Adam West and his co-star from the original Batman television series where Cesar Romero played The Joker rather than Batman. Cesar Romero also co-starred in a previous Mystery Science Theater experiment - Lost Continent. Romero died on January 1, 1994, the same year as the original airing of this episode.

Video Release

MST3K DVD Cover

• Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in July 2009 as part of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume 15, a 4-DVD set along with The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy, The Girl in Lovers Lane, and Racket Girls.
• The DVD includes Zombie Nightmare = MST3K Dream, a short documentary featuring interviews with Zombie Nightmare stars Frank Dietz and Jon Mikl Thor.
• Later re-issued as a standalone DVD with the same extras.

preceded by: Season 5		MST3K Season 6					followed by: Season 7
		1994 - 1995
601	Girls Town	1994-07-16	609	The Skydivers	1994-08-27	617	The Sword and the Dragon	1994-12-03
602	Invasion USA	1994-07-23	610	The Violent Years	1994-10-08	618	High School Big Shot	1994-12-10
603	The Dead Talk Back	1994-07-30	611	Last of the Wild Horses	1994-10-15	619	Red Zone Cuba	1994-12-17
604	Zombie Nightmare	1994-11-24	612	The Starfighters	1994-10-29	620	Danger!! Death Ray	1995-01-07
605	Colossus and the Headhunters	1994-08-20	613	The Sinister Urge	1994-11-05	621	The Beast of Yucca Flats	1995-01-21
606	The Creeping Terror	1994-09-17	614	San Francisco International	1994-11-19	622	Angels Revenge	1995-03-11
607	Bloodlust	1994-09-03	615	Kitten with a Whip	1994-11-23	623	The Amazing Transparent Man	1995-03-18
608	Code Name: Diamond Head	1994-10-01	616	Racket Girls	1994-11-26	624	Samson vs. the Vampire Women	1995-03-25