Recently I was reminded of my love for KISS. I love their showmanship, and ability to entertain stadiums full of fans. Often when I come back around to the band, I am drawn to KISS meets the Phantom of the Park from 1978. Like Wrestling, KISS is like watching a comic book come to life. Don’t get it twisted, as my Brother would say, this movie is really bad… but I love it! I remember watching it when I was eight and just lapping it up.
In 2015, Warner Bros. released “Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery“. It has an EPIC opening credit scene that transported me back to 1978. KISS was something that I had never heard of before, then I saw the make-up, the costumes and the superpowers, they had me! I was eight and this was the most awesome shit I had ever seen on TV at this point. For some reason NBC decided that they should jump on the Superhero band wagon. I am glad that they did.
I “found” a copy of “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park” and re-watched it. It still holds up. Now, I am not some die hard KISS fan. I had a poster and an album because they looked bad ass and I really did dig the movie that NBC put out. Sure it’s late 70’s style cheesy but it is a good kind of cheesy, a nostalgic kind of cheesy.
The story is simplistic, and the VFX are horrible, but that was the style for a movie of the week back then and that is where it retains all of its charm. Only KISS could pull this off.
The story is, roughly… Stuffy old scientist dude get’s the boot from him job at an amusement park for being stuffy. Dude vows to remain stuffy and bring stuffiness back to the park. He creates KISS robots, among other robots, captures the band, to cause a riot at the concert. KISS escapes and kicks all the robot ass that they can find. KISS, and their fans, WIN
Oh and the bad guy dies. Did I mention he was stuffy? Anyhow the final words of the movie were, “He created KISS to destroy KISS and he lost.“. Well said, guy who started this shit over the bottom line and the dollar sign, well said.
The End. 🤘
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