Bloodtype Online
For the best of the Horror/Cult/Exploitation film experience
Stephen Romano presents Shock Festival (2010)
Over the last few things there have been some trends in the film world as well as on DVD. One of them has to be a resurgence in grindhouse films and culture. The other has to be the rash of DVD’s that are compilations of the trailers from that time period. We’ve managed to see the wonderful series of DVD’s entitled “42nd Street Forever” that have really set the standard for this type of thing, but that’s all about to change. Thanks to Stephen Romano (the man behind the book “Shock Festival” which was a collection of fake posters and artwork for films of the grindhouse era) we now have the Shock Festival DVD which serves as a companion to the book of the same name. This collection features trailers for real films as well as for the first time having trailers made for some of the fake films that were featured in the book. It’s a project I’ve been dying to see and it was completely worth the wait.
The first disc in the collection is titled “The Ultimate Shock Festival Experience” and comes complete with a feature length collection of old school titles such as:
Treasure of the Four Crowns
Vice Squad
Cornbread, Earl and Me
Black Samurai
Grimm’s Fairytales
Flesh Gordon
Conquest
Amazon Jail
Beyond Atlantis
Sadomania
Challenge to be Free
Venom
Raw Force
Gone with the Pope
Black Heat
Starstruck
Last Days of Man on Earth
1990: Bronx Warriors
Avalanche Express
Cinderella 2000
Titillation
Flesh and Lace
Mysterious Island
Circle of Iron
Smithereens
Fantastic Planet
The Loveless
The Sexy Dozen
2069: A Sex Odyssey
Raiders of the Letye Golf
Scum of the Earth
Venus in Furs
The Female Animal
7 Dwarves to the Rescue
The Fighting Rats of Tobruk
Fight for Your Life
Fast Company
Grand Slam
Space Raiders
The Final Countdown
Captain America
Cannonball
Killer Force
King Kong vs. Godzilla
Africa Blood and Guts
Now as you can see this is quite the array of grindhouse related goodies that would easily fill up a two hour period of your life and is totally worth it. The trailers all look great and there are some ones on here that are guaranteed to have you looking for movies to check out no matter who you are!
The other portion of disc one features never seen before trailers for the fake films in the “Shock Festival” book that are pretty impressive as well. They feature trailers for:
Attack of the Sadistic Killer
Tentacles in a Twisted Deathdream
Toolshed of the Living Dead
Girlkiller
Ghost of the Raven
Evolver
Devil Sister
Dark Night of the Demonhouse
Warpmonster
Dead Bugs on the Carpet
Dead Bugs on the Carpet Part 2
They Made Me!
I Hate Your Guts
Now I won’t say that all of these original trailers are masterpieces but there are some on here that are pretty damn good. First off “Toolshed of the Living Dead” is a great riff on the cheapie zombie movies that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing over the years and I was laughing my ass off during it. “Girlkiller” was made my Fangoria’s own Michael Gingold and I have to say that I was impressed with it. “Ghost of the Raven” was probably the first one of these original trailers that I thought should be made into a real feature length movie. Great idea! “Evolver” was one of the most fun I had with anything on the entire disc and count it in with the ones that I’d love to see made into a full length movie. Now “Warpmonster” was a completely different thing altogether. Seriously from the trailer you’ll have no idea what the movie is about, but it looks downright scary. Honestly out of the whole collection I wanted to name Dave Hartman specifically as he directed “Warpmonster”, “Evolver” and “Dead Bugs on the Carpet Part 2" and these were easily the best of the bunch. He’s an incredibly talented filmmaker and specifically because of this set I can’t wait to see more stuff from him.
Disc two on the other hand is completely loaded and jam packed with trailer goodness for your grindhouse loving asses! This disc is titled “The Ultimate Horror Marathon and Television Spectacular” as it has tons of horror trailers and obscure TV commercials that they actually remastered from the TV station 16mm film. It’s an extremely impressive collection as well. The horror trailers are:
The Stuff
Pieces
Beyond the Gate
Pranks
Burnt Offerings
Dead and Buried
Blood Spattered Bride/I Dismember Mama
The House by the Cemetery
Great White
Cat O’ Nine Tails
Saturn 3
God Told Me To...
The Crazies
The Toolbox Murders
Q
Grizzly
Don’t Look in the Basement
Hell Night
Satan’s Black Wedding
Black Belly of the Tarantula
Invasion of the Bee Girls
Maniac
Banana Monster
Dead of Night
Carnival of Blood/Curse of the Headless Horseman
Mark of the Devil
Bloodsucking Freaks
Deep Red
The Comeback
The Curse
Autopsy
Daughters of Darkness
Shock Waves
The Illustrated Man
The Fifth Cord
7 Doors of Death
Blood of Ghastly Horror
The TV Spectacular Vault contains:
Cry of a Prostitute
The Wrestler
Don’t Open the Window
The PYX
Mondo Cane 1 and 2
The Killing Machine
Dracula vs. Frankenstein
Old Dracula
The Last Survivor
Angel’s Wild Women
The Last Man on Earth
Doctor Phibes Rides Again - Cut
The Crimson Cult/Horror House
Doctor Jeckyl and Sister Hyde
The Shape of Things to Come
And Now the Screaming Starts
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Eye of the Cat
The House that Dripped Blood
Berserk
The Devil’s Rain/The Virgin Witch
Rollerball
Massacre at Central High
J.D.’s Revenge
Evil in the Deep
Rabid
Tentacles
Suspiria
Beyond the Door 2
Shock Waves
Slithis
The 5th Floor
The Brood
The Changeling
Comin’ At You
Not only that but there’s also another vault on here as well! It’s the Sam Sherman Independent International Trailer vault and it comes with:
Mad Doctor of Blood Island
Brides of Blood
The Blood-o-Rama Shock Festival
Satan’s Sadists
Angel’s Wild Women
Horror of the Blood Monsters
Girls for Rent
Naughty Stewardesses
Brain of Blood
Blazing Stewardesses
Blood Drinkers
Even though I feel like a guy on a infomercial I’ll say it again, still there’s more! There are commentary tracks from Stephen Romano and Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton on there too. There is also image galleries, Easter eggs and more.
Overall Stephen Romano presents Shock Festival is a must own for any genre movie fan. It’s the absolute best trailer compilation DVD set I’ve ever seen and pretty much knocks the socks off anyone ever released before and that’s saying something. You simply get an exhaustive set of great trailers with excellent special features as well as the all new original trailers which is more than enough for anyone. It’s a great companion to the book (which is specifically why it was made in the first place) and it’s perfect to add to your collection weather you have the book, seen the book or if you’ve never even heard of it before. This collection is PERFECT!
Rating - ****
-Ed Demko
