The advertisement below I found on eBay a while back. It came form the May 1990 issue of "Video Software Magazine", which from what I can tell, was a periodical that was somehow tied-into a video distributor. It promoted the video releases of the upcoming month. Each film was accompanied by a brief description, the date it would be made available and an ordering number. I couldn't find any info online about "Video Software Magazine" other than it was published by "Chilton Publications" and marketed toward film nerds and retailers. I payed twenty bucks for this damn thing which is nothing ..read more

"A TREASURY OF FILMS IN BAD TASTE, FROM DRIVE-IN KING JOE BOB BRIGGS" May 17, 1990 | By Andy Wickstrom, Special to The Inquirer | Original Source "Two thumbs up." "A perfect 10." "Five stars." One glance at these superlatives and you know you're going to see a movie that's someone's idea of good entertainment. But there's one critic who has no patience with conventional ideas of good entertainment: Joe Bob Briggs, the syndicated humorist who has achieved notoriety as the connoisseur of drive-in movies. Now he's lending his name to a video-collection series known forthrightly as "The Sleaz ..read more

"NO SLEAZE, PLEASE" September 22, 1990 | By Dan Webster, Staff Writer for The Spokesman Review | Original Source Joe Bob Briggs says ‘check it out,’ but maybe you’d be better off to chuck it out Truth in advertising is a curious concept. The purpose of advertising is to present a product in its best light, presumably so that people will buy or rent it. That means overlooking any shortcomings the product might have. Which means being less than honest. Which, essentially, is lying. Truth in advertising, then, is a contradiction of terms. Until now, that is. For there is one series of video ..read more

Using the “fish out of water” to introduce a movie going audience to a new setting and characters is easy to achieve. This is why it’s so commonly used in horror. Not only are the main characters out of their element, but this juxtaposition also illustrates just how strange, or dangerous their new surroundings are. We see this in flicks like; “Deliverance”, “Arachnophobia”, “The Conjuring”, “Amityville Horror”… Come to think of it, just about ANYTHING with a haunted house. The new film “The Wretched”, from the brother filmmaking duo Brett and Drew Pierce (“Dead Heads”), dabbles in “fish ou ..read more

The true classics of horror cinema never rest long before their grave is disturbed. Exhumed for a remake to cash in on it’s notoriety, or to be borrowed from, in part or in whole, for a new, younger storyteller and filmmaker to put their own spin on the subject matter. To modernize it, or to fit elements of it into a very different narrative – reinventing the use of the tropes that made that classic a classic in the first place. Whether writer Michael Mahin and director Julian Richards realized it or not, this is just what they accomplished with “Reborn” - the supernatural thriller that de ..read more

There comes a time in everyone’s life when a drastic change must be made, hopefully for the better. For some it’s quitting a job, ending a troublesome relationship or returning to school. For Richie, the protagonist of the new Chris Bavota, Lee Paula Springer film “Dead Dicks”, this means suicide, but that’s just the beginning. “Dead Dicks” chronicles the rocky relationship between Richie, a chronically depressed and suicidal 30-something year old artist, and Becca, his younger medical student sister who has spent the past few years juggling work, school and keeping Richie alive. Recentl ..read more

If you’ve watched horror movies at all for the past few decades, it is very unlikely that you are not familiar with the works of special effects legend, ambitious director, prolific actor and renowned stuntman Tom Savini. From "Dawn of the Dead" to "Friday the 13th" to "Maniac" to "Creepshow", the man is this century’s Ray Harryhausen or a modern Jack Pierce, and possibly on the same level as Chaney. Tom Savini, the King of Splatter himself, is a man who needs no introduction in the world of horror, but I found the documentary "Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini" to be just as ente ..read more

Horror has always been the genre of outsiders. Since its early days, horror movie monsters were treated as misunderstood outcasts or beings that needed to stay hidden away from the outside world. As the genre evolved, the films themselves became associated with all that was decidedly outside the mainstream so naturally, outcasts and misfits were the people most likely to gravitate towards it. But what happens when a film appeals to outsiders who are even excluded from the larger horror community? People in the gay community for example? What happens when a film's Queer subtext is so overt t ..read more

IT MIGHT EVEN HORRIFY YOU - A Look Back at the 1983 TV Movie "The Horror of it All". I recently came across this documentary while looking up silent movies in the public domain. I was in the mood for something elusive and ethereal, such as infamous Lon Chaney works such as "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", or one of the seven versions of "Nosferatu" that exist (eight, if you count the unofficial one that replaces the original soundtrack with Type O Negative songs). There are times where I find myself wanting to watch the classics, with their allure and their charm st ..read more

Two years ago I reviewed the first part of "Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellraiser Part II". In the review I mentioned that it seemed unfair to criticize a documentary that only covers half the story. Well, now Shudder has finally released the second part and I can now say with all certainty ... that I have a lot of the same problems that I had with the first part. Like before, this film covers the various stories and anecdotes that went into the making of "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" featuring interviews with several actors and technicians who worked on the film. Plenty of the in ..read more