We talk about VHS quite a bit here on the blog and today, I’m very excited to review the new VHS for HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. Yes….I said that and I can hardly believe it myself. I’m reviewing a new release VHS!
There are a lot of “throwback” products these days. Lunchboxes, toys, t-shirts with the worn look, etc. Most of them are complete trash, so I’m really going to put the screws to this. I’m actually going to go into my collection and pull some VHS out from that era and compare them to the HOUSE OF THE DEVIL release. Let’s see what we find, shall we?
FRONT COVER
VHS tapes have a long history of amazing covers. Entire books have been written about them and movies were even banned in the UK based just off the imagery on the covers alone(called Video Nasties). To this day, artwork is a MAJOR part of what makes people rent or buy your film. HOUSE OF THE DEVIL understood that and made some of the best poster and box art I’ve seen in a long time. It was even recognized as having the best horror poster of 2009 in Rue Morgue magazine. I really appreciate the fact that they didn’t try to make the art EXTREME or SHOCKING. The people that did this must have a real knowledge and love for the genre.
The HOUSE OF THE DEVIL VHS is packaged in a white clamshell VHS box and has faux weathering on it which I normally despise, but it really works for this project. They added a cool “New Release” sticker on the box like so many other VHS in my collection have, too. Even though they reused the poster art (great choice) the format and layout of the box totally works. They kept everything really simple, didn’t over think it and it came out great.
Here is the VHS next to another big box of DOCTOR GORE. Notice the real wear at the top of DOCTOR GORE compared to the “wear” at the top of HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. From the pictures and even in person, you’d never tell it was designed that way.
Here it is compared to the HALLOWEEN rip-off, THE NIGHT AFTER HALLOWEEN. It totally matches the feel and tone of the old VHS. So far, so good.
BACK COVER
The back cover is inspired as well. There are lots of different styles for back covers and they went with text only which I kind of prefer. Some of my favorite big box VHS’ have went this route, too. Many tapes went with the notion of more is better and threw a shitload of images on the back cover of monsters and women. Don’t get me wrong, that’s cool and all, but I much prefer the simpler text. Also, click on the image to zoom in and read the write up. It’s pretty incredible. There are actually some write ups simliar to this that actually give away the entire movie. So much so, that it will end with a line like, “Then Jim killed the demon and got into his car and rode away. The End.”
As you can see, the back cover is almost exactly like the back cover of DEATH DREAM (minus UPC code). It’s also worth mentioning that they were both released by Gorgon Video which was one of the biggest distributors back in the day. Gorgon still carries a lot of weight and get lots of respect from cinephiles and VHS nerds. I thought that they might’ve put the Gorgon logo on the new tape as an homage, but I think it’s an official release.
ACTUAL VHS
It’s uncanny! I keep on looking for something they slacked on with this and I can’t find it. IT’S JUST NOT THERE. Even the inner label has been recreated EXACTLY, just inversed.
The video played fine all the way through. I was kind of terrified by the thought of them adding in tracking issues or making the image all fucked up, but thankfully, they didn’t. The video is clean. Speaking of Gorgon Video, they even put the old, AMAZING animated Gorgon intro before the movie. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the video:
I don’t know about you, but watching that TOTALLY puts me in the mood to watch a movie like HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. The only thing better than the Gorgon Video intro was the 80’s HBO intro. I swear to you that the music in the HBO intro is WAY more inspiring than anything in ROCKY. I want it played at my wedding, funeral and at any other major even in my life. Rant over.
SPINE
When I pulled it out of the package this afternoon, the first thing I thought was, how will this look next to other titles on the shelf? Observe:
It’s totally legit. I guess if I had a bitch at all about the VHS, it’s that I would’ve liked to see the Gorgon logo on the back of the tape instead of the spine, but that’s like saying I’d like 2 cherries on my sundae instead of just 1. The fact that I’m reviewing a new release VHS in 2010 has not been lost on me. It’s kinda unbelievable this exists. The final test…this VHS in with the general population!
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a dream come true. I did NOT expect this thing to be as quality as it is. From it being a Gorgon release to the design to the goddamn inner label, this thing is perfect. You’ve seen the pics….it totally goes toe to toe with almost any video in my collection and it looks great on the shelf. I hope they sell a billion of these so that maybe Gorgon can start putting out limited runs of VHS tapes for movies in the old style. I know I’d buy them. If MOON came out on VHS with a cool sci-fi case or something like that, I’m in line. Speaking of selling a billion, you can help with that. We’ve actually had a lot of people asking where they can get one and I just looked on Amazon and you can get the DVD and this VHS for only $23.99. Click HERE to buy. That’s pretty nuts. A truly great deal.
Seriously, even if you don’t have a VCR, be ironic and buy this….this is one of my favorite things this year, for sure.
THE OTHER HELL is the U.S. title for L’ALTRO INFERNO (1981), a nunsploitation flick directed by prolific Italian genre director Bruno Mattei (credited on the back of VHS box as Stefan Oblowsky) and co-written by Mattei and Claudio Fragasso (he of TROLL 2 fame). Interestingly, Mattei and Fragasso were shooting a second nunsploitation film – THE TRUE STORY OF THE NUN OF MONZA (1980) – at the same time, in the same building, and using most of the same cast and crew.
The Other Hell - Full Artwork
THE OTHER HELL infamously features a scene where a nun boils a baby to death. But don’t worry… the baby gets even:
Goblin provided THE OTHER HELL’s score, albeit inadvertently: Mattei and Fragasso lifted most of it from Joe D’Amato’s BEYOND THE DARKNESS (1979). Still, it’s put to good use, as seen here (wait for the catchy groove to kick in at the 30-second mark):
This VHS was released by Inter-Light Video, and primarily uses just four colors (white, black, blue, and reddish-orange) to achieve a simplistic but striking end product. The blood-splattered nun in the bottom right corner is clearly terrified, and I like that it’s unclear whether the nun in the center of the box shares – or is the source of – that terror. The lightning bolt off the tip of the enlarged sword is another nice touch. Incidentally, the artist’s depiction of the terrified nun is a fairly accurate rendition of the source material, as shown below:
The Other Hell - Nun Comparison
More information about THE OTHER HELL can be found at the excellent (but NSFW) Nunsploitation.net.
This is the Swedish VHS boxart for PINBALL SUMMER, aka PICK-UP SUMMER, aka FLIPPER GIRLS. Or, as the Swedes like to call it, GÄNGETS HÅRDA SOMMAR, which as near as I can tell means “Hard Gang Summer.”
As you might gather from the artwork, PINBALL SUMMER is an ultra-specific pinball-based teen sex comedy. When I reviewed the film three years ago, I had this to say:
What makes Pinball Summer different than other teen sex comedies is that even the clichéd teen sex comedy scenes all have at least a tangential connection to the world of pinball. You’d think it’d be hard to come up with 100 minutes of pinball-related activities, but director Mihalka somehow manages to do it. It’s pretty amazing actually. There’s pinball challenges to determine who pays for dinner, make-out sessions in a pinball factory, strip-pinball parties, alpha-male demonstrations of pinball prowess… there’s even pinball-related double entendres like “I wanna tilt you on the machine!”
Yeah, it’s a pretty enjoyable film.
We’re all about the learning here at Mondo, so here’s your Swedish lesson for the day. According to Google Translate, the phrase “FULL RULLE! BRUDAR * BILAR * BÅGAR * FLIPPER” means “FULL REEL! BABES * CARS * ROLL * PINBALL” in English.
Click here for a shot of the back of the box, which contains bonus excellent-sounding Swedish words like knutte-gänget (biker-gang), sammandrabbningar (clashes), flipperturner (pinball tournament), and flipperdrottningen (pinball queen).
Just to pipe in on the ‘VHS covers I love‘ post earlier, be sure to check out Video Heat, the very awesome vhs cover art Flickr pool. Also spotted this week, on the awesome-graphic-design-for-movies tip, this effing excellent Hausu shirt made by Janus Films. (sadly not for sale online yet)
Lots of new stuff for sale today. Let’s get right into it!
When we had the idea to create a poster for STREET TRASH, we knew we needed someone that was 1. a fan of the horror genre and 2. someone that could tackle the imagery and color palette of the film. So, who better to do it than Rue Morgue artist Ghoulish Garry Pullin?! Raise your Tenafly high and salute this poster!
Ghoulish Garry Pullin. 24″x”36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Edition of 70.
Not only are we putting the STREET TRASH poster out today, we’re putting out this incredible shirt! Check out the back:
We are so proud to offer this shirt celebrating one of the grimiest movies EVER to come out of New York….therefore putting it in the running for grimiest movie in the world! The front of the shirt features the aftermath of a shot of Tenafly Viper expertly illustrated by Jon Vermilyea.
We’re also proud to be releasing this new shirt…STORMS WARNING!
Thunder, Lightning and Rain…THE THREE STORMS. Without a doubt, the hardest dudes in the Chinatown underworld. The only one more diabolic is the dark, all seeing overlord trapped in time searching for his true love that can bring him back to youthful prominence.
This year, a movie played at Fantastic Fest that did what dozens of other movies tried to do, but ultimately failed…THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL is a movie that harkens back to the days of when movies were released on those little plastic rectangles. Ti West made a movie that delivers the goods and I’m ecstatic that it is opening at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar tomorrow.Check out the trailer:
Oh and by the way, it stars exploitation legends Mary Woronov and Tom Noonan! Check out tickets and showtimes HERE.
Welcome to a new regular feature on the World of Mondo, the Weekend Triple Feature! I’m Tommy and each week I will be suggesting a thematically linked series of films for your viewing consideration. Thanks to Justin for inviting me onto the blog. I hope to recommend some interesting, undiscovered and entertaining stuff. Enjoy!
THIS WEEKS THEME: THE CHINATOWN UNDERGROUND
The passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 stands as a political testament to the rampant and pervasive anti-Chinese racism of America’s past. But while a passionate and hallucinatory fear of the “Yellow Peril” gripped the nation and picaresque police reports of mysterious Tong Wars captured people’s imaginations, the overwhelming fear and fascination with Chinese culture found its most lasting expression in the sordid pages of the pulps. From Fu Manchu in his Limehouse lair, diabolically plotting world domination (not to mention his many literary clones like the Mysterious Wu Fang, the Yellow Spider or Wu Chung Fu) to the “slant-eyed immigrants” who practiced “nameless rites in honor of heathen gods” in the notoriously xenophobic stories of the otherwise brilliant H.P. Lovecraft, the Chinese were generally presented as a bunch of sinister fiends. Philip Francis Nowlan’s first Buck Rogers story, Armageddon 2419 A.D., is an example of pure Yellow Terror; and even well respected authors, like Jack London in Unparalleled Invasion, sometimes wondered at the awful fate which could befall America at the hands of the “heathen chinee.” But there was also a certain allure to the far East and its mysterious, possibly occult secrets which can be seen in characters like Milton Caniff’s seductive Dragon Lady or that great practitioner of Buddhist magic, the Green Lama. The detective Charlie Chan was created, with all his fractured-English wisdom, as a rebuke to the negative portrayals of Chinese in popular storytelling and he, of course, inspired his own thinly veiled rip-offs, among them Mr. Moto and Mr. Wong (the Mr. Moto movies with Peter Lorre are especially good, in my opinion). So it is out of this convoluted melange of attitudes and imaginings that a sort of mythic and fantastical notion of what secrets might be hidden beneath the crowded, foreign streets of Chinatown is dreamt up. Each of these three movies takes us further down into those perplexing passageways hidden beneath Chinatown in search of the many ancient and mystic secrets of the Orient.
The Secrets of Chinatown (1935, Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer)
Cultists hidden beneath black hoods, deadly knife-throwing assassins, men hypnotized to kill, coins of death, and a mystic cabal of evil opium smugglers are just some of the excitements to behold in this super entertaining but rickety, Z-grade programmer. A man dining in a Chinese restaurant discovers an ominous coin in his soup moments before being mysteriously murdered. The police investigate, but their top detective also turns up dead. The case is left in the hands of Donegal Dawn, an amateur sleuth with a strong imperialist inclination. He shows up at the Mayor’s office offering to take the case while, for some unimaginable reason, disguised as a Hindu (he’s even wearing blackface!). None of his many crime solving techniques are any less inscrutable than his ostentatious and misguided disguise but he somehow manages to get all the pieces in place. The movie is rich with atmosphere and somewhat surprisingly doesn’t try to explain away any of its supernatural elements. The opium smugglers actually are practitioners of black magic! It wasn’t just a Scooby-Doo style ruse. Another unique thing about this movie is that the Chinatown is question is actually in Vancouver, B.C. The film was shot in Canada with Hollywood money by a bunch of mavericks looking for loopholes on the limited import quotas for American movies in Britain. Since Canada is technically part of the British Commonwealth, Americans were able to covertly shoot movies there and pass them off as authentic “British” product, circumventing the cap on American imports. The somewhat disreputable films briefly made under these circumstances before the authorities caught on are, today, either totally forgotten or unfairly reviled. But this movie is true pulp of the most purely entertaining kind. Also it’s barely an hour long, a running-time more movies should aspire to.
Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962, Dir. Albert Zugsmith)
Vincent Price, in a treasured non-horror performance, is an international adventurer who arrives in San Francisco during a Tong war at the turn of the century and discovers an illegal trade of slave girls inside a maze of chambers and passageways beneath the streets of Chinatown. This eerie, somnolent film has nothing to do with the Thomas de Quincy book from which it gets its name and is actually pretty difficult to explain. It has the claustrophobic intensity of a fever dream. People are caged, beaten, drugged, and disappear through secret passageways, trapdoors and sewers. As Price descends into a miasmic, opium-induced stupor, he’s lead on a chase through a seemingly endless procession of twisting corridors and underground rivers. Spouting a steady stream of pulpy philosophical platitudes, his nightmare culminates in a whole hallucinatory five minute sequence shot entirely in slow motion. Directed by Albert Zugsmith, who’s responsible for producing a number of excellent films in the 50’s including several Douglas Sirk movies and Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, Opium Eater is one of the most strangely poetic and unnervingly fatalistic pieces of genre exploitation ever made.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986, Dir. John Carpenter)
No need to explain this gem. And no excuses if you haven’t ever watched it and are over 10 years old. Kurt Russell goes deep down underground and gets mixed up in some dangerous Chinese mysticism. One of the many things that’s entertaining about this movie is its knowing use of blatant stereotypes. Once again there’s some evil Oriental shenanigans afoot and a heroic white guy there to save the day. But where the film gets its satiric edge is by making this main character an arrogant, hubristic, smart-mouthed idiot. The crucial strength of this movie is in Kurt Russell’s swaggering, obliviously insensitive performance. The frantic, live-action cartoon pacing and non-stop gags and effects make it into an eternal 80’s classic and a bittersweet reminder of when John Carpenter was a totally infallible filmmaker. A perfect end to the triple feature.
Mondo is super happy to announce that Tyler Stout has once again teamed up with Quentin Tarantino and produced this amazing poster for QT’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS!
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS by Tyler Stout
24″x36″ 4 color screenprint, hand numbered with an edition size of 450. We only have super limited numbers of these for sale as we gave Cinemapocalypse attendees first crack. LIMIT 2 PER PERSON.
Also available is this gorgeous variant edition.
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (VARIANT) by Tyler Stout
The edition on this particular poster is only 80. LIMIT 1 PER PERSON. Both were printed at D and L Screenprinting.
Print Mafia also got to take a shot at Hitler and as you can see…mission accomplished!
Hitler Target (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) by Print Mafia
4 color screenprint. 17.5″x23″. Hand Numbered.
Last but not least, the movie that started the “men on a mission” genre…THE DIRTY DOZEN!
THE DIRTY DOZEN by The Silent Giants
Edition of 90. 18″x24″ Signed, numbered and hand screened by the artist.
Cinemapocalypse was IN-SANE! My first show ever at the Alamo Drafthouse was the Best of QT Fest so Saturday night brought back a whole lotta memories for me. One of my favorite moments of the night was getting to sit next to one of my favorite living actors, ROBERT FORSTER!
In between movies we chatted about Wings Hauser, his hair loss and how he was pals with almost everyone in THE LOSERS. Truly nerdy stuff. Both of his Q&As were oustanding as well! If you ever meet him, ask him to do his Jon Huston impersonation. GOLDEN!
He came out as a special guest as we were showing VIGILANTE as part of the show.
Everything about VIGILANTE is PERFECT…especially the score which I found HERE. Vulcan and I Luv Video have this for rent in the Austin area. You can buy it on Amazon and it’s for rent on Netflix. However you swing it, SEE THIS MOVIE!
-Justin
P.S. In case you were wondering, the full line up of CINEMAPOCALYPSE was:
I’m super excited to announce that we have two new posters for all of you! They are on sale NOW!
Alien by Ken Taylor
Australia’s Ken Taylor comes through once again with a mind-blowing poster for Alien. 24″ x 36″ screenprint. $30
We are also offering a VARIANT where we made all of the green inks glow in the dark! This thing will be like a nerdy nightlight. 24″ x 36″ screenprint. Extremely limited. $60
This Is Spinal Tap by The Small Stakes
A massive metallic silver homage to Spinal Tap. In case you’re wondering, these dials go up to 11. 24″ x 36″ screenprint. $30
