Cinematic Titanic vs. The Oozing Skull

I posted something about Cinematic Titanic, the new project from Joel Hodgson (the creator of “Mystery Science Theatre 3000”), a few months ago. Joel Hodgson and the rest of the crew (Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Mary Jo Pehl, and Frank Conniff) have just wrapped up their first movie riffing project, and it looks to be a real doozy.

Prepare yourselves for… The Oozing Skull. From the Cinematic Titanic site:

Originally titled “Brain of Blood” for theatrical release and “The Creature’s Revenge” for television, it was shot in 1971 and somehow perfectly catches the spirit of the seventies-schlocksploitation zeitgeist. Once we found out we had a chance to obtain the rights to this find, we became kinda obsessed.

We began negotiating with Sam Sherman, one of the film’s producers and story creator, who’s a really nice man with a great sense of humor. Once Sam realized what we were intending to do to “Brain of Blood”, he granted us permission to license it, with the proviso that we change the name of the feature to avoid confusion in the marketplace with the original, unTitanic-ed version. This is such a great looking film, with so many unbelievable situations, it was an easy decision to oblige Sam’s wishes, and so we came up with the title “The Oozing Skull”.

You can watch a trailer here. However, don’t be expecting anything radically different from Hodgson et al. The silhouettes are still there, but more importantly, so are the bad jokes, puns, wisecracks, and everything else you could want from a “movie riffing delivery system”.

You can order the movie on DVD here. A downloadable version may become available in the spring of 2008, once various rights issues are cleared up. Until then, you’ll have to watch it the old-fashioned way: on the TV with a bunch of friends. The way it ought to be.