GAHHHHH!

Munchie sits at a weird confluence of films. On the one side, there were a series of “little monster” movies, like Gremlins, Critters, Troll, Hobgoblins, and more. On the other end there were the magical best friend films, like E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and Mac and Me. And somehow, in the middle of all that, there was Munchie, a film about a magical best friend that looks like a hideous little monster. Oh, and he’s voiced by Dom DeLuise. Normally I’m not one to subscribe to the idea that all films are made, first, on a giant bed of cocaine, but you have to wonder just how much of the special marching powder they were taking when the producers dreamed up this film.

When you go and watch the film, it seems absolutely shocking that a film like Munchie could exist. For starters, the puppet in this film is hideous. Most of the films listed above feature creatures that are, in one form or another, cute. Even the “scary” monsters, like the gremlins and the critters, had a toy-like quality to them. They were toyetic, designed so they could sell merchandise should their films become that popular. In the case of the gremlins, it did work out. For other films, not as much, But even by those standards, the creature in Munchie is hideous. He looks like a monster from a horror movie, not a cute little creature for a PG-rated family scare fest.

In fact, as Mystery Science Theater 3000First aired on the independent TV network KTMA, Mystery Science Theater 3000 grew in popularity when it moved to Comedy Central. Spoofing bad movies, the gang on the show watch the flicks and make jokes about them, entertaining its audience with the same kind of shtick many movies watchers provided on their own (just usually not as funny as the MST3K guys could provide). It became an indelible part of the entertainment landscape from there, and lives on today on Netflix. points out in the fourth episode of the third season, the critter in Munchie has more in common with the look and design of the mean, green baddie of Leprechaun than with any of the cute and cuddly family-friendly beasts. In fact, when you’re watching the movie it’s hard not to imagine a darker, more sinister version of this film, one where the creature at the center of it all kills his way through the populace of a high school all to suit the whims and desires of the kid he’s bonded with. While that wouldn’t have suited the family-friendly vibes of Munchie’s final product, it certainly would have been a far more interesting film than the dreck we ended up with instead.

Munchie focuses on Gage (Jaime McEnnan), the new kid at a middle school who isn’t liked by anyone else there. He wants to be popular, and friendly, but the cool kids at the school hate him, and while the popular girl, Andrea Kurtz (Jennifer Love Hewitt), seems to like him, she doesn’t speak up. So Gage is bullied at school, and also at home by the boyfriend (Andrew Stevens) of Gage’s mom (Loni Anderson). No matter where he goes, he always seems to get crapped on by everyone.

Things take a turn, though, when Gage stumbles into the ruins of an old mine and finds a magical box. Inside is a creature (voiced by Dom DeLuise) with seemingly unending magical powers. He can make anything happen, pretend to be anyone, and cause all kinds of cool events. He bonds to Gage and immediately decides to help the kid out. The only issue is that every time he helps Gage he only seems to cause more trouble for the kid. Everyone at school suspects Gage is the troublemaker behind their problems, but they can never prove it. But if anyone ever found out about the creature, it would be a big problem for everyone.

To be honest, I don’t think Munchie is that terrible of a film. It fits into the very family friendly genre, and it’s a low-budget film, and when taken with those factors in mind, it’s actually not all that bad. It’s a simple bit of wish-fulfillment media designed to make kids laugh while it steals elements from other, better movies. It works, in the context of itself, and if certain factors had been changed, I actually think this could have been a marginally successful release in 1992. It’s those specific factors, though, that absolutely sink the movie.

Those factors are, of course, everything tied to the Munchie. The puppet is an unending sideshow of horrors, from the way it looks, to how it moves, how it talks, and everything. It was a creature effect made on a tiny budget (as was the whole film, really) and while I’m sure they spent every dollar they could on it, this was not money well spent. You want a creature that’s cute, and cuddly, and toyetic and Munchie is about as far from that you can get. He is the stuff of nightmares, the hideous hobgoblin you put on a shelf to stare down at children and scare them when they wake in the middle of the night. He is childhood PTSD personified.

Not helping matters is Dom DeLuise’s voice performance. He was a comedian who hit the height of his popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. By the time 1992 rolled around, no one was sitting there going, “you know what I want to watch? The new Dom DeLuise film.” I’d bet that the producers hired DeLuise because they heard that Disney was making Aladdin and they figured, “if they can get Robin Williams to do a wild, improvisational voice performance for their family film, maybe we can get a comedian to do ours as well.” So they got DeLuise who makes corny, seriously outdated (even by 1992 standards) jokes while the hideous puppet mugs for the camera. It was the worst of all worlds.

MST3K, naturally, plays the jokes hard on that angle. The Munchie is creepy as hell, and the guys all play up the laughs based on just how hideous the monster is. They can mine laughter just from saying, “gah!” everytime is shows up on screen. It works every time because Munchie really is its own joke. Just looking at the thing, you sit there going, “wait, someone thought this puppet was actually a successful creation? They weren’t revolted by it, immediately throwing it in a salt circle before lighting it on fire?” That’s obvious, and the crew has great fun mocking it.

Honestly, I feel like this film has the right balance of material for Jonah and the crew to handle. As I noted in my review of Beyond Atlantis, the right MST3K-able movie is just good enough to sustain the interest of the audience, but with the right, obvious flaws that can be mocked ruthlessly. Munchie has that flaw, the creature effect at the center of it all, with just enough other material that can be picked on by the guys. And when there’s a lull in the jokes you don’t actually mind it because the movie isn’t a mind-numbing chore. This film is balanced just right, successfully bad and perfect fodder for MST3K.

I mean, the film is actually just watchable enough that I wasn’t even surprised it had a sequel: Munchie Strikes Back. Realistically, a lot of the films that MST3K covered have sequels (or are sequels) because low-budget video store fodder naturally leads to more low-budget video store fodder. Munchie, though, is the rare film where I could see some kids actually being excited to see another one. I’m sure it was terrible, and no one loved it, just like I’m sure the puppet at the center of it all continued to fuel the nightmares of children everywhere. But still, this is probably one of the more successful films MST3K ever tackled. It’s bad, but not, like, the worst of their lot which makes this episode actually a pretty fun watch.