703 - Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell Air Date February 17, 1996 MST3K Director Trace Beaulieu AKA Deathstalker 3: The Warriors from Hell Movie Director Alfonso Corona Year 1988 Cast John Allen Nelson

Carla Herd

Thom Christopher Preceded by 702 - The Brute Man Followed by 704 - The Incredible Melting Man

“ This movie is like playing Doom when there's no monsters or opponents. ” — Mike





The Movie

Synopsis

John Allen Nelson plays Deathstalker, a medieval adventurer who meets a princess. She dies, then he meets her identical sister. They have to find a stone and save all creation from the villain.[1]

The Episode

Host Segments

Prologue: Mike introduces Tom and the Satellite of Love as we wait for Crow to show up. Crow has a new lease on life as he has traded in his net for a toupee.

Segment One: Dr. Forrester is accosted by his mother who has a parasite and is begging for attention. The robots egg him on by pretending to work for a fast-food burger joint.

Segment Two: The Bots throw a Renaissance Fest for Mike and fleece him for all he's got. Mike loves every second of it because he had never been to one on Earth.

Segment Three: Mike comes back for more, but Tom and Crow have lost interest. They do humor him a little, but in the end they all try to go and pet the dead camel.

Segment Four: Dr. F goes to the store to get Mother some Robitussin and she is in need of entertainment. Crow/Art happens to be walking by the view screen when he is nabbed to read Love's Sweet Throbbing Gondola.

Segment Five: Mike reads a letter and Tom eventually succeeds at hammering out a new Great Ring of Power, a la Lord of the Rings. We jump cut to Dr. F walking a glass of tainted milk out to mother (in homage to a famous scene from Suspicion). At the last second, Clay turns on himself and chugs the beverage himself.

Stinger: Trashy Chick's mother saying, "Potatoes are what we eat!"

Trivia

Crow's net is referred to sometimes in the series as a Lacrosse helmet, when it is in actuality, a Canadian Cooper XL7 fg Hockey Faceguard.

Note that Crow and Tom’s name tags say "Mary Jo" and "Paul."

The background music in Deep 13 when Crow reads to Pearl is the opening choir music from Days of Our Years in The Amazing Transparent Man .

. This is the favorite episode of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures founder Daniel Griffith. When Shout! Factory acquired the rights to release it on DVD, it was his intent to produce an epic documentary on the film. However, he had to scale back his plans when it proved that Thom Christopher was the only person attached to the film who was willing to take part.[2]

Callbacks

Obscure References

"These two? The Merchant and Ivory of Mexico."

A reference to Merchant Ivory Productions who are well-known for their British period films, and William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice.

"Hey, can we jam a lime wedge in his mouth?"

The director's last name is the same as Corona, a Mexican brand of beer often served with a lime wedge stuck in the neck of the bottle.

"Looks like they're shooting a Men Without Hats video."

The sequence with peasants running around at the festival resembles the music video for the Men Without Hats song "The Safety Dance".

"So... Michael McDonald is fighting the guy from Loverboy!"

Michael McDonald was the lead singer for the Doobie Brothers during the late 1970s. He has thick hair and a beard. The Canadian rock band Loverboy is best known for its 1981 hit "Working for the Weekend" and for their long, flowing hair.

Later, during the fight, Servo sings lines from the Doobies hit "Takin' It to the Streets" whenever 'Michael McDonald' appears on screen. At the end, Mike cuts off Servo as he launches into "What a Fool Believes".

"Go Blaze!"

A reference to American Gladiators, a TV show where contestants compete against bodybuilders in a series of events, created in 1989 and revived in 2008; Blaze was one of the Gladiators in the original version. The practice fight in the film resembles the event "Joust" from the show.

"A Power Rangers coin, everyone!"

A reference to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, specifically the first three seasons, where the heroes derived their powers from special coins infused with mystic energy.

"Andy Travis, hero!"

Andy Travis was the southern, feathered-haired radio station programming director on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.

"Why does he have Bjorn Borg trussed to the wall?"

Bjorn Borg is a former world tennis champion from Sweden, with long, blond hair.

"So Douglas Brackman rules their kingdom...?"

Douglas Brackman Jr. (played by Alan Rachins) was one of the attorneys on the TV drama L.A. Law. He was bald, with short dark hair on the side of his head.

"We're the knights of the round table..."

Opening lyrics to the "Knights of the Round Table" song from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

"Lodac, are you talking to the toilet again?"

Lodac was the villain played by Basil Rathbone The Magic Sword (from Experiment #411).

"Nick and Nora Charles!"

The Charleses were an erudite husband-and-wife detective team created by Dashiell Hammett, portrayed by William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man movie series.

"The fog cruises in on little cat feet!"

Parody-paraphrase of the opening line of Carl Sandburg's poem "Fog" from Chicago Poems.

"I should be playing canasta with Saruman!", "I've got to tell Radagast, he won't believe it!", etc.

References to the various wizards of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

"She got it from a man who said 'Brandy ... my love and my lady is the sea'"

"A port on a western bay that serves a hundred ships a day..."

Lines from the song "Brandy" by Looking Glass.

"Conquistador, your stallion stands!"

A quote from the Procol Harum song "Conquistador".

"He's Hasselhoffing it big-time!"

Deathstalker is sucking in his gut, a la David Hasselhoff on Baywatch (John Allen Nelson was later a recurring performer on Baywatch).

"Answer unclear, ask again later."

A misquote of one of the twenty stock answers on a Magic 8-Ball toy.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine...!"

The chorus to a children's hymn (and church camp sing-along standard) by Harry Loes.

"It's the Judean People's Front! Or the People's Front of Judea..."

A reference to the in-fighting revolutionary groups in Monty Python's Life of Brian.

"Our long national nightmare is over."

U.S. President Gerald Ford's words upon pardoning former president Richard Nixon.

"Get to the choppers!"

A play on the "Get to the Choppa'!" quote from the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Predator. (Said film would later be one of the first popular film titles riffed by RiffTrax)

"Is my Aunt Minnie in there?"

Reference to a famous Marx Brothers skit, where people are continually knocking and entering an increasingly crowded room, including one woman who says this line (to which Groucho replies, "If she isn't in here, you can probably find someone just as good").

"I gotta start the smoke, stir the sauce -- all the time watching the helicopter."

Reference to Henry's narration in the "paranoia" sequence near the end of Goodfellas.

MST3K 703 Promo

Video releases

References



