“If looks could kill, she’s dead meat.”

Justin’s rating: TV will rot your brains, but that’s intentional

Justin’s review: If a movie could be designed to be a time capsule of the ’80s, it might well be Remote Control. You’ve got New Wave hairstyles, ridiculous costuming, so much neon, constant smoking, a lead character named “Cosmo,” and a video store setting. It does my heart good to know that something, at least, has been preserved of this era. Well, and in the other few thousand movies from the time as well.

Remote Control is a gem of a horror-scifi-comedy from that decade that’s flown very low under the radar. But if you know, you know — and we here at Mutant Reviewers know.

Video store clerks Cosmo (Kevin Dillon, The Blob) and Georgie (Christopher Wynne, Back to the Future Part III) discover that a new free movie called Remote Control is reprogramming people’s minds… to MURDER. Subsequent deaths cast suspicion on the clerks, so to clear their names, they look into the mysterious film and find out that it’s being distributed by aliens looking for a budget-friendly way to clear out the planet.

It’s not going to be easy for the pair to reveal the truth, since they’re on the run from both the police and a mind-controlled psychotic boyfriend of Belinda (the insanely adorable Deborah Goodrich, April Fool’s Day).

The trio end up investigating a movie production studio — ground zero for the aliens’ dastardly scheme. Cue cat-and-mouse stealthing, frantic gunfights, and a dawning realization that if they don’t get every single copy of Remote Control, humanity is doomed. It’s not all fun and games, either, as one of their number falls by the wayside in a rather sad moment.

Most of the shipment is stopped, but a few copies still exist in local rental stores — and a dance club, for some reason — so the survivors have to outwit video zombies and nip this invasion in the bud.

Remote Control marked the end of a decade run for cult movie director Jeff Lieberman (Squirm, Blue Sunshine), but what a way to go out. It takes the theme that TV is harmful to your impressionable little brain (which was a major debate at the time*) and it views it through a colorful blender of retro futurism and schlocky adventures.

Lieberman later said in an interview that he felt the movie was doomed from the start because it only had a $3M budget when it needed, at a minimum, $10M to pull off right. Yet he must’ve had a soft spot for it, because he paid to have it put on DVD and Blu-Ray for its 25th anniversary.

I think Lieberman was a little too hard on his own flick. It’s certainly not perfect as it jerks between genres, but it’s well-told, has a flashy sense of style, and contains moments of genuine comedy, real horror, and fun scifi thrills. If you’re looking for something in the vein of Night of the Comet or TerrorVision, this would do just fine.

*TV raised me and I turned out TV.

Intermission!

• “Earth 1987”
• Finishing an exercise session with some smoking — yup, it’s the ’80s!
• The satirical ’50s movie predicting the ’80s is pretty fun
• DEATH BY AUTOMATIC KNITTING NEEDLES
• Absolutely loving the hair styles in this movie
• “What’s it about?” “Non-provisional love.”
• Hey, it’s a Teen Wolf poster!
• “Close your eyes when you pass the adult section!”
• Weird bully really, really wants to see a random movie he’s never heard of before tonight
• Jennifer Tilly’s never had such an amazing hairdo
• If you work out, you’ve got to wear a very bright, flashy, and reflective outfit
• Stealing cars from valets is remarkably easy
• The soundtrack going “doot doot doot”
• Hey it’s a Freddy Krueger cardboard standup!
• Hitting people with your fist kind of hurts
• All of the aliens suddenly looking at them was a freaky moment
• “There’s no bullets in there. You think we’d let you in here with a loaded gun?”
• “I serve the Master Controllers!”
• Yeah we just set a dude on fire
• “I need a REAL hammer.”
• “No, WE win, Cosmo!”