Banned in Vermont: 6 More Shocking Trailers

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The latest installment of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers features trailers that are too intense, too shocking, and too controversial for the new age hippies of Vermont.

1) Axe

This film was originally titled Lisa, Lisa. Isn’t that just a great title? Seriously, how can you go wrong with a title like Lisa, Lisa? Just say it a few times. Lisa, Lisa. What a great name.

Anyway, this trailer is just pure exploitation and the narrator really loves saying “Axe” repeatedly. Still, I think he would have been happier saying, “Lisa, Lisa…”

2) Snuff

“The film that could only be made in South America…where life is cheap!” I’ve never actually seen Snuff though I’ve read a lot about it. Apparently, this was originally a film called Slaughter. It was made by pornographic pioneers Roberta and Mike Findlay. Anyway, the film was bought by another distributor who tacked on some footage of one of the actresses supposedly being killed on camera. Snuff was then advertised as being an actual snuff movie and, of course, a bunch of dumbfugs believed that it actually was.

3) Olga’s Girls

This is a movie I’ve been meaning on reviewing for a while. Olga’s Girls is from 1964 and the trailer — like all good grindhouse trailers — makes the film seem a lot more sordid and explicit than it actually is. The actual film is almost quaint.

4) The Syndicate: A Death In The Family

“The Underworld touches everyone…even you.” I love the shameless melodrama of this trailer and the serious tone of the narrator. I also love the swinging crime music. This Italian film is apparently not available on DVD.

5) The Weird World of LSD

“To fly a giant bird!” MK-Ultra much? This is another film I haven’t actually seen and I’ve had next to no success in tracking down a copy. Why is LSD always so much more fun in the movies than in real life? Seriously.

6) Possession

As I said in an earlier post, Europe’s art films are often repackaged as America’s grindhouse and exploitation films. 1981’s Possession is a perfect example of that. People either love or hate this film. It gave me nightmares but I still think its one of the best (and most important) films ever made. Everyday, when faced with adversity, I ask myself — “What would Isabelle Adjani do?”

6 More Exploitation Film Trailers That I Love

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Back in May, I posted 6 old school exploitation trailers that I love. At the time, I said that even though I only posted 6 of them, I could have easily listed 666. While I don’t have the space to put up quite that many, here’s 6 more exploitation film trailers that I love.

1) A Black Veil For Lisa — There’s several things that I love about this trailer. I love the faux-noir narration. I love the teasing tone. I love the old school femme fatale attitude of lead actress Lucianna Paluzzi. But, to be honest, the main reason I love it is because it’s all about a redhead named Lisa. That and the line “Every man wants a Lisa…”

2) The Italian Stallion — This is the trailer for the re-release of Sylvester Stallone’s porn debut, A Party At Kitty and Stud’s. I’ve never seen the movie nor do I have much desire to see it but this trailer just amused me to no end. Whether its the awesomely phony line readings of Gail Palmer or the catchy and empty theme song, this trailer feels like a genuine time capsule.

3) The House On The Edge of the Park — Speaking of catchy but empty theme songs, Ruggero Deodato’s The House on the Edge of the Park features my personal favorite, Riz Ortolani’s infamous Do It To Me (Once More). It can be heard at the end of this trailer and once it gets stuck in your head, it’ll stay there forever. As for the trailer itself, it’s a perfect example of how a well-edited trailer can actually make a somewhat draggy film seem exciting (that said, this movie is one of my all-time guilty pleasures, as misogynistic and wrong-headed as it ultimately is). A few things I love about this trailer — the blue-tinted views of New York City, David Hess’s iconic psycho performance, the sight of my man Giovanni Lombardo Radice dancing, and the fact that the trailer actually manages to 1) get the movie’s name wrong and that 2) nobody ever bothered to fix it.

(Author’s note: Whoops! Before you watch this, I have to admit that I’d forgotten just how explicit, violent, and exploitive this trailer really is. So, consider this to be definitely NSFW — not that you should be watching any of these trailers at work, to begin with — and seriously, no joke, don’t watch this trailer if you are easily upset or offended. Honestly, if I saw this trailer without having any knowledge of how silly the actual movie really is, I would probably find this trailer to be deeply offensive. Well, no, actually, I probably wouldn’t. For the most part, I’m only offended by things that happen offscreen in the real world. — Lisa Marie Bowman)

4) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — Yes, I know everyone’s probably seen this trailer a hundred times but it’s still probably one of the best and most effective trailers of all time. Plus, I’m from Texas so you know I had to mention this movie at some point. (I may have mentioned this in the past, but seriously — try to imagine this movie being as effective if it was called The Vermont Chainsaw Massacre.)

5) Mindwarp (a.k.a. Galaxy of Terror) — I’ve been eagerly awaiting the chance to buy this film on DVD ever since seeing this trailer on the latest 42nd Street Forever compilation. Rumor has it that this film was actually directed by James Cameron, back when he was still interesting. Supposedly, this film features a very aggressive tentacle but, to be honest, I mostly just want to see Sid Haig’s arm get cut off. (Seriously, who doesn’t? Take that, Capt. Spaulding!)

6) Stage Fright — This is the wonderfully intense and claustrophobic trailer to the great Michele Soavi’s 1st film, Stage Fright, a movie I’m going to watch as soon as I finish up this post. So, with no further delay…

Paranormal Activity 2: Too Scary For Texas

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Lisa Marie Bowman

According to Variety, Cinemark has pulled the trailer for Paranormal Activity 2 from several theaters in my homestate of Texas because, apparently, filmgoers (the majority of whom were apparently in the theater to see Twilight: Eclipse) complained that it was too frightening.

Uhmmm….right.

I’ve seen the trailer for Paranormal Activity 2 online and, to be honest, the scariest thing about it is that it confirms that a sequel was actually made to Paranormal Activity One.

(As a sidenote, the PA 2 trailer recycles the old footage of viewers supposedly jumping in fright while watching the first film. I always wondered just who exactly these idiots were and whether or not they’d ever actually seen a movie before.)

This whole thing seems to be an old-fashioned publicity stunt designed to create word-of-mouth among the type of people who probably think that the obnoxious filmmakers in Cannibal Holocaust actually were eaten by cannibals at the end of the movie.

It’s especially interesting that these complaints supposedly came from Texas. I suppose that’s going to be the new advertising angle — Paranormal Activity 2: The Movie So Scary That Even Texans Are Afraid To Watch. I imagine that now filmgoers are supposed to say, “Wow, it’s got to be scary! I mean, we expect that sort of cowardly behavior from those new age hippies in Vermont but these are cowboys here!”

(By the way, I’m from Texas and I’ve never worn a cowboy hat and I don’t own a horse. I do say “y’all” on occasion. Seriously though, FUCK VERMONT. Sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that.)

I have to be honest, as much as I disliked the first Paranormal Activity, this publicity stunt has won the filmmakers a very small place in my heart. This is the type of shameless, silly stunt that would make the grindhouse proud. Hopefully, they’ll have a nurse present at all screenings of Paranormal Activity 3.

Anyway, if you think you can handle it, here’s the trailer that’s apparently too scary for Texas: