September 9, 2010 16:01
Because I’m not real certain that I’ll be online this weekend (well, that plus the fact that I love you), I’m posting the latest installment of Lisa Marie’s favorite grindhouse and exploitation trailers a few days early. Enjoy!
1) Scream and Scream Again — This is actually a pretty good British horror film from 1970. It even has a political subtext for those of you who need your horror to mean something. I love the whole “swinging” vibe of the trailer.
2) The Spook Who Sat By The Door — This 1973 film apparently used to be something of a legend because it was extremely difficult to see. It was sold, obviously, as a blaxploitation film but quite a few people apparently saw it as being a blueprint for an actual revolution. I’ve never seen this movie though, believe it or not, I did find a copy of the novel it was based on at Half-Priced books shortly after I first saw this trailer. I bought the book but I haven’t read it yet.
3) The Black Gestapo — This is another one of those old school blaxploitation trailers that, to modern eyes, just seems so wrong. I’ve actually seen this film. It’s surprisingly dull, to be honest.
4) Sunset Cove — This one of the many trailers that I first came across on one of Synapse’s 42nd Street Forever compilations. I’ve never seen the actual film and probably never will as apparently it’s like the uncut version of Greed — lost to the ages. That’s okay because the film really does look really, really bad. However, the trailer fascinates me because it has got such an oddly somber tone to it. Just from the narration and one or two of the clips shown, you get the feeling that this movie ends with the National Guard gunning down a lot of teenagers while the tide comes in. However, I think that might just be my own overactive imagination. The film was apparently directed by Al Adamson who, in the mid-90s, was apparently murdered and buried in wet cement.
5) Autopsy — This 1975 Italian classic is one of my favorite examples of the giallo genre. I can’t recommend it enough. This is one of the most intense and disturbing films ever made. The trailer’s pretty good too.
6) Visiting Hours — I don’t know much about this movie, other than it appears to be a slasher film from the early 80s. I’m posting it here for one reason and one reason only — the skull.
Posted by Lisa Marie Bowman
Categories: Film, Film Review
Tags: 42nd Street Forever, Al Adamson, Autopsy, blaxploitation, Film, giallo, Greed, Lisa Marie Bowman, Lisa Marie's Grindhouse Trailers, movie, previews, Scream and Scream Again, slasher, Sunset Cove, Synapse, The Black Gestapo, The Spook Who Sat By The Door, trailer, Visting Hours
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You gotta love Italian gialli of the 70’s. They either had some very extreme violence, extreme nudity and graphic sex or, when the stars align, both together in the same flick. 🙂
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By Arleigh on September 9, 2010 at 17:04
I have been aware of “Scream And Scream Again” for many years, but have not seen it. I didn’t know that it had Price, Lee and Cushing. This probably is not their finest hour, but anything with those three horror icons together is worth checking out. Looks like a good plot.
I have not heard of any of the blaxploitation films for which you have posted trailers (except “Blacula”), which surprises me. I was a kid in the 70’s, and I remember some others, but they were not quite so militant (or silly). Pretty interesting stuff.
I don’t know how I’ve missed Autopsy”, either, but it’s on my list now. Thank you.
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By KO on September 9, 2010 at 19:44
With Scream and Scream Again, Cushing only has a cameo and a rather minor one at that. Lee is only in a few scenes but he’s still an important part of the plot and he does a pretty good job at being sinister. I mean, I guess it’s the epitome of a typical Christopher Lee in the 1960s performance but since it’s Lee, it’s still fun to watch. Price has the largest role and he actually gives a pretty good performance, there’s only a few times that he gives in to the temptation to go over-the-top. Plot-wise, the film starts out seeming like it’s telling 3 different, unrelated stories at once. It’s only towards the end of the film that it becomes obvious that the 3 stories are all part of the same story. Some people have had a problem with this because it requires a little bit more concentration than the typical 1960s/1970s B-movie but I loved it. It’s a really good film. 🙂
I’ve seen a lot more Blaxploitation trailers than I have Blaxploitation films. lol. I think the main reason I like that genre’s trailers is because every time I see them, I’m just like “That’s sooooo wrong!”
Glad that Autopsy is on your list. To be honest, it’s one of those films that people seem to either love or hate. But it’s definitely worth seeing.
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By Lisa Marie Bowman on September 9, 2010 at 20:11
I think it’s true with more grindhouse and exploitation films that the trailers created for them tend to be better and more entertaining than the full product.
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By Arleigh on September 9, 2010 at 20:23
That makes sense, considering that the most intense or action-packed scenes can be condensed into a 2 or 3 minute stream. What surprises me about the ones Ms. Bowman has posted is the explicitness – violence, gor, and sex. It makes me wonder what viewing situation they were designed for. They are almost all R-rated. I guess the audience in the theater screening “1001 Dalmations” didn’t see the trailer for “The House On The Edge Of The Park” or “Burial Ground”.
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By KO on September 9, 2010 at 21:04
Actually, it wasn’t unknown for some of these trailers to “accidentally” get attached to G to PG rated flicks that were being sent down to dollar bargain theaters which also happened to be the home for most of these films.
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By Arleigh on September 9, 2010 at 21:09
That could have created some awkward experiences when Grandma took the grandkids to the matinee.
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By KO on September 9, 2010 at 21:31
The majority of these trailers were meant to be shown before X-rated and R-rated movies in Grindhouse Theaters. Back then, most exploitation movies would have several different trailers made in order to appeal to as many different markets as possible. For instance, The Candy Snatchers has both an R-rated trailer and a PG-rated trailer. The only difference between the two is that the R-rated trailer features a shot of Tiffany Bolling’s bare breasts while the PG-rated trailer, the shot is edited so that, while it’s obvious the Bolling is topless, nothing “explicit” is seen.
With all that in mind and despite the fact that I’ve seen the film over a dozen times at this point, I’m still somewhat surprised by how explicit the House on the Edge of the Park trailer is. Actually, I’m not so much surprised at the trailer as I am at the fact that it’s managed to survive on YouTube for as long as it has. When you consider that I personally had my twitpic account suspended simply because I posted one picture the featured an exposed nipple, I think it just goes to prove once again that media sharing sites like YouTube, Twitpic, and others don’t really censor themselves to comply with any sort of “policy of standards” as much as they just do it to placate a minority of self-righteous people who don’t have anything better to do with their lives than play morality police and post complaints.
Or at least that’s my opinion. 8)
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By Lisa Marie Bowman on September 10, 2010 at 15:02
I guess it’s a matter of perspective. I have absolutely no problem (and I mean none) with female nudity imagery. In fact I encourage it…nay, I demand it! Ahem…sorry. Advocating for the devil for a moment, I really would not want to see male genitalia while innocently (or otherwise) perusing a site. So maybe the complainants who got your profile suspended were women (or gay men – not that there’s anything wrong with that 🙂 ).
However, if the content is embedded a bit, such that one must purposefully seek it to see it, then what’s the harm? Men could avoid rogue penises but still find breasts, if so inclined.
But I agree with you. I liked a bumper sticker that I saw occasionally in the 80’s. It read, “The Moral Majority is neither.”.
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By KO on September 10, 2010 at 19:56
Oh yeah, it was a jealous woman who went by the nom de twitter of CPiaf who did the complaining and who got my account suspended. However, she did not take in to account the fact that I have friends and family on twitter as well. heh heh heh. She may have gotten me kicked off twitpic but then she got ran off twitter and I simply opened up a new account at tweetphoto. Final score: CPiaf — 1, LMB — 2. 🙂
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By Lisa Marie Bowman on September 10, 2010 at 22:32
Boo-yah!
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By KO on September 10, 2010 at 23:04