Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Anchor Bay Clams...

...(minus Mania) arrived today:


Earlier today I bought an app for my phone - "Movies" from Flickster" - that organizes all of the movies you own/have seen. If you don't already have it, I highly suggest it. I'm using it to keep track of all of my tapes.


I got mine off of the android market, but I'm pretty sure you can get it for the iPhone as well.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

VHS Gifs

Just for the hell of it and because they're kind of mesmerizing.

Fourth of July Jackpot

Before the 4th of the July festivities yesterday afternoon, I got bored and headed to my local "Half-Priced Books" store. They have a rotating rack of vhs tapes for a dollar a piece set up front. I was browsing through them, putting the ones that interested me in my basket when I came upon some cover art that caught my eye:


Recon Game AKA Open Season (NOT the animated adventure with the giant bear). I had never heard of this movie, but grabbed it just because of the cover. I mean, look at those man boobs...

Anyway, I came home and looked the tape up on ebay and saw that it was going for ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. I couldn't believe my eyes, so I went to amazon to check it out. Once again, a copy going for $92. After asking around on a VHS collectors facebook group I belong to, I come to find out that this tape is indeed super rare and worth the amount that it's being sold for. It was copied from a European version (poorly copied at that) and scarcely distributed throughout the US.

I can't really find much more about it plot-wise, but from the description on the back I think it's about three guys that get back from Vietnam and end up hunting women??? I'll probably watch it soon and find out - in which case I'll end up writing a review for it. You can watch the whole thing in parts on youtube if you're interested:


Nothing better than buying something for a dollar to later find out that it's worth 100 times that.

Here are some of my other grabs from yesterday. The Undead Rising box is a hologram, which is pretty cool and I was also really excited to find Dolemite.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Newest Arrivals

Just got back from a long week in Mexico and came home to these waiting for me:


I seriously need to catch up on my viewing time, though. Along with these, I probably have about 8 other movies to check out when I have spare time. I sometimes wish I had no responsibilities so I could just have a 72 hour movie marathon including some beer, some unhealthy food, and a comfortable sofa and/or reclining chair. Someday....

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Snuff

Last night I watched the infamous interview of producer Mark. L Rosen from the documentary "Snuff: A Documentary About Killing On Camera." I had seen the whole film about a year ago, but was reminded of that interview from the Film Vault podcast on the ACE network. I forgot how disturbing the story he tells is and it's really stuck with me all day.


Some background: Rosen was a big-time horror film producer, credited for producing classics like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was called by some men from the Phillipines about an unbelievable film they had to show him...looking for some funding and means to distribute it. They flew to Chicago to meet him and this is what happened...(follow the link to see the interview):

Link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2eb_1259144640

Pretty disturbing stuff. The legitimacy of the interview has been questioned by skeptics, those who say that the whole interview was scripted. I really can't decide what I personally think though. He delivers the story with such emotion and fear that it really is believable at times. I think the reason why I, and others, don't want to believe it's true is for the reason that Rosen himself brings up...that we don't WANT to believe that it's real; that we don't want to imagine a world where something like that exists. In reality, however, it probably does...

Here's the full trailer to the documentary:

 

Of course, the full doc can be found in parts on that Liveleak site...

My VHS Wishlist...as of now.

I'm hoping that I can find some of these for dirt cheap at the local thrift stores or the flea market...if not, looks like I'll be saving up to bid on them on Ebay in the future.

- Mondo Cane 2
- Mondo Violence
- Carnival of Souls
- Class of Nuke-Em High
- Robotrix
- Shock Waves
- Alien Dead
- Chopping Mall
- Just Before Dawn
- Sgt. Kabukiman
- The Toolbox Murders
- Cannibal Ferox
- Driller Killer
- Bad Taste
- Lady Snowblood
- Snowbeast
- Satan's Supper
- Plan 9 From Outer Space
- New York Ripper
- Tenebrae
- The Stuff
- Re-Animator

Sunday, June 19, 2011

"Dance of the Dead" and "House of the Devil"

Spent last night checking out two movies - two VERY different movies. The first, "Dance of the Dead" is a fun, fast-paced zombie flick about a group of teens trying to rid their town of zombies. The citizens, of course, turned into zombies because of some hazardous run-off from a local power plant. Most of the movie takes place on the night of the high school prom.



Although it started off a bit slow (and also filled with some forced gags), I quickly came to love this movie once the zombie ass-kicking started. A few of my favorite scenes include: a zombie battle in the basement of a funeral home (I bet you can assume why this would be awesome), the Rambo-esque high school coach pulling a female zombie by her hair across a lawn and killing her with his bare hands, and the zombie on zombie make-out scene which ends probably how you'd imagine it ending...messy.


The next movie I checked out was "House of the Devil." I LOVE the way this movie was shot...it looks identical to the classic slasher flicks from the 80's - specifically, Halloween. The actual image is grainy and washed out, the camera angles are 80's-esque, and everyone and everything fits with the time period. Now, as far as the story goes...I was a bit disappointed.



It focuses on a young college girl strapped for cash who responds to a babysitting ad she sees on campus.  She gets to the old house out in the middle of nowhere and learns that she is actually babysitting an elderly woman. From there, things go downhill pretty quickly. I really enjoyed the beginning and even middle of the film. It moves slowly, methodically, making your stomach churn as you watch the suspense rise. The end, however, was kind of a let-down. As realistic as it may have been, I was kind of expecting an all-out gore fest (based on a brutal scene early in the film). Even if you agree with me and don't enjoy the ending, at least check it out for its artistic direction.

Here's a trailer to highlight the visual style:

Flea Market Finds (06/18)

Nothing too special...although, I really like the cover art for Krull.