Last night, Joseph Kahn dropped a ’90s themed atom bomb on my consciousness. He released what he called a “De-Boot” of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. If you haven’t seen it: here’s the video.

(*Author’s note: after multiple edits to this story, it appears that the company with the rights the The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has demanded that YouTube and Vimeo pull down the video due to copyright restrictions. Here is their website if you’d like to complain. I’m going to.)

It’s got James Van Der Beek playing Rocky DeSantos, or as I called him while stuffing my mouth full of knock-off, store-brand Lucky Charms on Saturday morning: The Red Ranger. Katee Sackhoff stars as Kimberly the Pink Ranger, or as I called her while I was still cramming that cereal into my mouth: “The One I was Madly in love with”

Kahn is mainly known for his work on music videos but also has directed one of my all-time favorite movies, the thoroughly weird, completely insane, and pop-culture packed Detention.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch Detention yet (*Author’s note: and literally no one I know has) you need to make sure that you check it out. It defies description in such a perfectly absurd way that I won’t even waste any further text on it, nor distract from the task at hand: namely, praising this intensely badass 15-minute movie.

Kahn’s deboot of The Power Rangers is bleak, kind of terrifying, and packs in so much fascinating backstory that I found myself re-watching it almost immediately.

Highlights include:

— A trailerparked up Bulk and Skully selling out Kimberly, and her freshly-married Green Ranger lover, Tommy, and the two once-comic foils watching as both rangers get mowed down in a hail of gun fire a la Kill Bill Volume II. (*Author’s note: Bulk and Skully later OD in their trailer park. I’m a sick man, for enjoying this so much, aren’t I?)

— The always-racist Black Ranger doing blow and killing a room full of North Koreans

— Incredible special effects that look like they were hijacked off the CGI-studio for (______Insert Michael Bay Movie Here).

— The reappearance of Rita the Space-Witch, replete with her insane head gear and the laugh that used to haunt my Saturday morning day-mares.

Unfortunately, Kahn issues a disclaimer in the print underneath this short-film masterpiece essentially making it well known to all of us that this isn’t an attempt to make this into a feature-length film. He doesn’t want our money (*Author’s note: which is weird and cool) and he isn’t looking to stretch this out. He’s, apparently, just like the rest of us and has always wanted to see The Might Morphin Power Rangers kick more ass and take more names as grown ups.

Anyway, I’m done writing. I’ve got to go re-watch the Black Ranger shoot some guys in the head after having a three-way with two chicks.

(*Okay, so remember how I said I wasn’t going to do anymore author’s notes? I lied. It looks like Vimeo took down the video and Kahn is not happy. Check him out, sticking it to the man. #freejoekahn, ya’ll!)

1. @vimeo Everyone is noticing you took down the short but youtube didn't. Tons of fan films exist online. Free speech/fair use. — Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) February 24, 2015

2. @vimeo Every image in POWER/RANGERS is original footage. Nothing was pre-existing. There is no copyrighted footage in the short. — Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) February 24, 2015

3. @vimeo I am not making any money on it and I refuse to accept any from anyone. It was not even kickstarted, I paid for it myself. — Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) February 24, 2015

4. @vimeo This was made to be given away for free. It is just as if I drew a pic of Power Rangers on a napkin and I gave it to my friend. — Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) February 24, 2015

5. @vimeo Is it illegal to give pic I drew of a character on a napkin to someone for free? No. The world is watching your actions right now. — Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) February 24, 2015

FIN