[ comedy/movies ]

The news that the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew was reviving its greatest hit — skewering the unforgettably terrible 1966 horror film Manos: The Hands of Fate — should be music to the ears of the diehards. One thing though: There are two MST3K crews mocking movies these days. You’ve got the old heads (Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff) in Cinematic Titanic, and the slightly-less-old heads (Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett) in Rifftrax. And MSTies tend to think of 1993’s Manos episode as old-heads territory, aka A Joel Episode. True, Murphy was there as the voice of Tom Servo, and head writer Nelson popped up to play the film’s gnarly-kneed antihero, Torgo, but Hodgson was still the host and star of the show. So, this Thursday’s live performance, simulcast locally at the Rave and Riverview, is, if not a sacrilege, then a reboot, with all new jokes and mostly new performers (plus a remastered Manos print, just for the hell of it). 

Thu., Aug. 16, 8 p.m., $12.50, UA Riverview Stadium 17, 1400 S. Columbus Blvd., 215-755-2353; Rave Motion Pictures, 230 S. 40th St., 215-386-9800, rifftrax.com.