Now Available - Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders

[Pak-Man]

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders

Feature film · 2020

It’s very much like a Hallmark movie, but with slightly more hexes, death, and eternal damnation!

With Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

See it on RiffTrax

Merlin: if he's in a movie, it's almost certainly going to be terrible.

What's the reason for this lack of quality? Is it the character's complex and tragic backstory? The difficulty of capturing the emotional arc of someone cursed to age in reverse? The fact that he's in the public domain, so any idiot with a camera can slap him onto two unrelated movies he was never actually part of as a frame story? You know what, it's probably the last one.

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders tells the heartwarming tale of Merlin and his wife who run a small town antique store. It's very much like a Hallmark movie, but with slightly more hexes, death, and eternal damnation. We'll hear the tale of a small town newspaper critic who evidently wields Ozymandis-like power over the local economy. And there's also a father who buys his son a toy monkey and regrets it immediately because it's one of those damn wind-up toys that makes noise. Oh, it's also trying to kill him and everyone he loves.

Tying them all together is the all-powerful, doddering wizard Merlin. His shop may be more full of Unholy Jinxes than Mystical Wonders, but frankly, it's like the 78th most egregious thing this movie got wrong, so we'll let it slide. Please join Mike, Kevin, Bill for Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders.

Written by: Mike Nelson, Conor Lastowka, and Sean Thomason

Contributing writers: Jason Miller and Zach Shatzer

[CJones]

Whenever they do movies that were already done on MST3K, especially ones from the Sci-Fi era that I have pretty much memorized, it drives me nuts not hearing the lines I keep expecting to hear.

[The Lurker]

I wonder if there's any newer scenes they riffed in this that they didn't in the original.

[Edward J Grug III]

The only reason I'm not excited about this is I am one episode away from Merlin in my chronological MST3K rewatch.

[CHF01]

I'm sure there's a lot to analyze with this one (sales, fan reactions, etc.). Perhaps this could potentially be a good Rifftrax Live Halloween show? 

A HD upgrade would be needed, similar to The Giant Spider Invasion

[Darth Geek]

Whenever they do movies that were already done on MST3K, especially ones from the Sci-Fi era that I have pretty much memorized, it drives me nuts not hearing the lines I keep expecting to hear.

Me too. It seems so odd they keep reriffing classic later episodes like this. Reriff KTMA or Season 1 episodes that can be significantly improved.

[MrTorso]

Me too. It seems so odd they keep reriffing classic later episodes like this. Reriff KTMA or Season 1 episodes that can be significantly improved.

I agree.  I would like to see another take on Robot Monster!  I am also holding out for a riff of the FULL CUT of Mitchell and This Island Earth.

[Darth Geek]

Me too. It seems so odd they keep reriffing classic later episodes like this. Reriff KTMA or Season 1 episodes that can be significantly improved.

I agree.  I would like to see another take on Robot Monster! 

Yes! I've been saying that for years! And I think it's in the public domain, so I don't know why they haven't done it yet. Hell, it's such an infamous bad movie it seems like it would be a great choice for a Rifftrax Live show.

[Pak-Man]

I wonder if there's any newer scenes they riffed in this that they didn't in the original.

I'm through the bit with the small business columnist, and there are a few little scenes here and there that MST probably had to cut for time. One of the most interesting  answered a question I've had since seeing the original: If he summoned a spirit, where was the spirit?

[Pak-Man]

Honestly, this is probably my favorite Re-Riff. The new gags are all fantastic (The movie left plenty of opportunities for new jokes). It's cool seeing the scenes deleted for MST3K, and even though there were a couple moments where I was waiting for the joke from the MST3K version, that familiarity really helped me enjoy the riffing. Maybe I'm biased because Merlin was one of my top episodes of MST3K, but I highly recommend this one.

[pstokely]

I wonder if there's any newer scenes they riffed in this that they didn't in the original.

some scenes are missing in this version

[losingmydignity]

Not interested in more retreads. Not of the classic stuff anyway so I will skip.

[dbsommer]

Really liked this one. Now it's been long enough I don't remember the original Merlin's very well, so I can't compare the two, but I found this hilarious. There's a lot to work with in this as it's both low budget and cheesy as heck. I''m glad i bought it despite not being big on retreads.