Slasher, Horror, Gore, Cult, Bloodthirsty, Gruesome; Arrow Video 2 disc (Blu-ray and Video) + 28 page booklet
Although the slasher film was in decline by the mid-1980s, there were still some grisly delights to be had... and they don't come much grislier than writer-director Buddy Cooper's sickening stalk-and-slash classic The Mutilator! When Ed receives a message from his father asking him to go and lock up the family's beach condo for the winter, it seems like the perfect excuse for an alcohol-fuelled few days away with his friends. After all, his dad has forgiven him for accidentally blowing mom away with a shotgun several years ago... hasn't he? But no sooner are the teens on the island than they find themselves stalked by a figure with an axe (and a hook, and an onboard motor) to grind... Originally entitled Fall Break (watch out for the incongruous theme song of the same name!), The Mutilator has earned a reputation amongst horror fans as one of the 'holy grails' of 80s splatter mayhem due to its highly inventive (and not to say, decidedly gruesome) kill sequences, courtesy of FX wizard Mark Shostrom (Videodrome, Evil Dead II). Finally making its long-awaited bow in High-Definition, The Mutilator has returned to terrorise a whole new generation of horror fans!
Gore, Horror, Splatter, Cult, Strange, Comedy; Arrow 2 disc (Blu-ray and DVD) + 22 page booklet - Ex Used condition
"It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters".
What a tag line. Motel Hell is one of those movies that could only have been made in the eighties. It is an incredibly twisted and often hilarious ride into the macabre. The further along the movie goes, the more sick and crazy it gets, which in turn makes one even more engrossed in the weirdness on screen. The movie is set in a fictitious town in the deep south of America, where people come from far and wide to sample the delights of Farmer Vincent's distinctively flavored produce. One might ask the question why do so many of these visitors not stay in the nearby motel the family also runs? Affectionately named Motel Hello (the neon 'O' on the sign seems to be constantly on the blink), some visitors do choose to stay there, although after checking in, they never seem to check out again! Could it have something to do with Farmer Vincents amazing fritters? Is that why they taste so darn good?
Arrow really have pushed the boat out with this release, and the awesome double sided cover and pristine transfer of the movie are only the beginning, and believe me, the transfer really is incredible. There is so much depth in the picture, so much clarity, it really is incredible. You get an insightful commentary track from director Kevin Connor that is moderated by Callum Waddell and four incredibly interesting featurettes which feature an interview with star Paul Linke and an interview with co-star Rosanne Katon amongst others.
There is also a collectors booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by Kim Newman, illustrated with archive stills and posters, plus Motel Hell comic extracts and an exclusive interview with Chris Moreno. This is another incredible release from Arrow Video, and is the first time Motel Hell has been released anywhere in the world on Blu-Ray.
Slasher, Horror, Gore, Video Nasties, Cult, Banned; 2 disc (Blu-ray and DVD) + 36 page booklet - Ex Used condition
In the early 80s the cinema screens ran hot red with celluloid crimson such as Tobe Hooper’s freaky ‘Funhouse’ and Sam Raimi’s demonic ‘Evil Dead’ and another adamantine terror title that has stood the time no less rigorously is J.S Cardone’s undeniably sinister, surrealistic nightmare ‘The Slayer’ (1982). Like a goodly few grisly epics released back then, perhaps Cardone’s fear-soaked feature was simply too effective for its own good and was only generally seen in a heavily truncated version until its recent and somewhat miraculous-looking Blu-ray restoration! Two clean-cut, well to-do couples take a brief holiday break on a palpably eerie, apparently unpopulated island in picturesque, storm-lashed Georgia, where Eric (Frederick J. Flynn) pragmatic older brother to his increasingly depressed, nightmare-riddled artist sister Kay (Sarah Kendall) optimistically rented a rather isolated house for them, the amicable, close-knit friends flown there by the splendidly archetypal, doom-auguring pilot Marsh (Michael Holmes) and it is not long after their arrival that the monosyllabic, hatchet-faced Marsh ominously foreshadows: “This island is the sort of place folk’s dream about!’ and when the plainly anxious, long-suffering Kay’s surreal, deeply felt premonitions are so vividly emancipated from her fitful womb of sinister sleep into gruesome, wide-scream, blood n’ guts reality that ‘The Slayer’ becomes a truly unforgettable nightmare! Even when only previously seen in its crudely censored version ‘The Slayer’ maintained its intrinsic darkness; the film’s decidedly oppressive location and Kay’s awful solitude remained intact, her increasing hysteria and tangible descent into despair along with the film’s robust technical merits elevated it to being one of the more memorable, independently produced 80s slashers. And some modest intrigue remains whether director Cardone’s prescient horror visions penetrated Wes Craven’s fertile imagination to the point of perhaps infinitesimally influencing his sleep-depriving, box-office smashing ‘Elm Street’ franchise? Who knows? Now finally released fully uncut, ‘The Slayer’ is a once slumbering B-Movie behemoth angrily reborn, with its murderous horns demonstratively unclipped, the burnished HD format doing much to reveal the film’s diabolical depths of psychologically disturbing, pulse-paralysing terror lurking within!
Horror, Slasher, Gore, Cult, Arrow, Richard Friedman; Blu-ray disc plus 24 page booklet - Ex Used condition
After a fatal car crash kills beautiful, foofy-haired bombshell Judy LaRue (Patty Mullen), her sleazy beau Mitch (Michael Rogen) is so gruesomely galvanized by the grisly death of his frisky fiancee, this slimy ambulance chaser bloodily becomes the bellicose, body-bag bursting, meat-faced, asylum creeping psycho 'The Coroner' (Michael Rogen), and as this hardbodied slasher movie entourage converges upon this bone-saw wielding sadists desolated crumbling domain, these boorishly bickering, day-glow dunderheads, headed by heroically hardbodied wet dream Patty Mullen very soon discover that partying (bickering!) at the 'Doom Asylum' may not have been the greatest choice of venue for their boozy B-movie shenanigans, as the sardonically skin-flaying, wickedly wise-cracking Coroner very soon cramps their big-haired style by intimately introducing his gnarly collection of murderous-looking mortuary tools to their still-living, diligently aerobicized torso's! Horror maestro Richard Friedman's darkly funny 'Doom Asylum' is sublime slasher movie schadenfreude, an outrageously compelling 80s cult classic whose myriad 'spiky highlights' include a splattery splendour of gruesomely-delivered death, and a terrifically titillating rooftop girl-fight with the deliciously acerbic spike-haired, shrill-voiced twisted Sister Tina (Ruth Collins) as the delightfully deviant director Richard Friedman's corpse-collecting 'Coroner' blithely hacks his bloody slay into B-Horror History!!!
Powell, Powell Peralta, Bines Brigade, Skate, Vintage, Classic; VHS Tape - Excellent Original Used condition
Quite rare and relatively forgotten Virgin/Powell Peralta/Bomb the Bass, music/skate video from 1989. This is a really great skate vid, and even though it's only just under 20 minutes long, it is highly regarded as a classic. This is not considered in the Powell video catalogue, or a Powell film. Filmed by legend CR Stecyk and features Bones Brigade and Powell skaters form 1989 before (Per Welinder, Frankie Hill, Tony Hawk etc), including clips from other Powell videos.
Avant Garde, Experimental, Dark, Gore, Disturbing, Cult, Underground; DVD and Booklet - New
This is not a casual movie-going experience; its unnerving, dark, and filled with upsetting imagery. This film is wholly avant-garde and has a sort of evil, misanthropic feel to it that's difficult to explain succinctly. For more daring viewers, though, E. Elias Merhige's "Begotten" offers a unique and somewhat terrifying experience that is not easily forgotten. The storyline, if you can call it that, plays out in three loose acts, each personified by the brutalization and unfortunate death of the "character," who are themselves representative of an axiom and/or figurehead in any number of Judo Christean and Pagan religions. Ostensibly, the three defining characters are credited as "God Killing Himself," "Son of Earth," and "Mother Earth," with the remaining, nameless characters credited as "Theatre of Material," which apparently was Merhige's production company. The overall look of the film harks strongly of early silent films, with loose blobs of shadow predominating and copious simulated scratches and aging present in nearly every frame. Its very cool to witness the obvious hard work that went into creating such a look. The imagery itself, though, is quite brutal and strong enough to ward off nearly all of the mainstream.
Mondo, Jacopetti, French, Film, Cult, Poster, Cinema, Vintage, Shocking; Cinema Poster (1975) - Ex Used condition
Original 1975 French cinema poster for Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi's 1975 (non-mondo) feature film Mondo Candido. The filmmakers base the film on a cynical satire `Candide' from the French writer Voltaire. Directors Jacopetti and Prosperi are known for their documentaries in which they have already presented the horrors of the world: MONDO CANE (part 1 and 2), AFRICA ADDIO and the very revolting ADDIO ZIO TOM. In comparison with other shockumentaries, all these movies are very well directed, have a racy comment and contain unforgettable images. "Mondo Candido" is a masterpiece. It's sensational, sometimes shocking but you will see a series of unforgettable images, very beautifully filmed, even though they are cruel, nihilistic and pessimistic. The superb musical score from Riz Ortolani is available now, but it is very difficult to find this exceptional movie.
Mondo, Shockumentary, Mixtape, Gore, Real Footage, Disturbing; Zine + 3 DVD-R set - New
Mondo Mysterium is a monthly published U.S. zine showcasing marginalized mondo films (and the occasional shockumentary or other fellow traveler) that been somewhat neglected (which will mean they have never had a DVD release, or at least not the particular version) and are deserving of recognition for their contribution to the genre. Each month, the zine comes with three curated DVD-R's of obscure and unreleased mondo films from the Mondo Mysterium collection archive, complete with essays about the selected films.
The three DVD-R titles included with in Mondo Mysterium Vol 2 are the esoteric mondo film 'Il piacere e il mistero' (1964); one of the more obscure US shockumentaries, 'The Underbelly of America' (1998); and finally something extra special: 'Death Fest' (ca. 1996), a '90s homebrewed gore mixtape.
Rare, Mondo, Shockumentary, Gore, Disturbing, Documentary, Real Footage, DVD + VHS + Autopsied Monkey Toy Bundle -Limited Edition (24 copies worldwide) - New
In 1959, a monkey came hurtling down from space. The US government, doing what the government does best, promptly killed the little monkey astronaut and cut it up. They filmed their slicing and dicing in gory, saturated detail. This is that footage. Never seen by the public before, here Mondo Mysterium presents the full 16-minute autopsy film, transferred from a US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology 16mm reel (it is a silent film, with no added soundtrack, to avoid trivializing the footage).
The Space Monkey Autopsy bundle includes the film on VHS and DVD (both NTSC), as well as your own autopsied monkey.
Rare, Brutal, Nacho Cerda, Gore, Disturbing, Unearthed Films, Notorious, Horror, (Warning, this is nasty); DVD - Ex Used condition
For those who have ever wondered what might go on behind locked doors in a mortuary, Nacho Cerdà brings us Aftermath—a nauseating, disturbing, and perhaps even thought provoking 30 minute study of one sicko and his passion for corpses. Beautifully shot using graceful sweeping camera movements and excellent lighting, with wonderful use of music and sound design, this is twisted film-making that even the art-house crowd might be able to appreciate. The movie begins as two men working in a morgue begin autopsies on a couple of male cadavers. In sickening detail, the first stiff is dissected, and the audience is spared no gruesome detail: the head is sawed open and the brain removed, the entrails are given a thorough poking around, and, finally, all of the spare parts (including the brain!) are shoved back unceremoniously into the corpse's thoracic cavity, before it is sewn up. Whilst the first pathologist cleans up his bloody tools, his workmate carries out a similar procedure on the second body. Strong stuff indeed, but you ain't seen nothing' yet! The guy working on the second corpse finishes up for the night and heads off home, and a third body is brought into the room—that of a young woman. The remaining member of staff, realising a rare opportunity has been presented to him on a platter (so to speak), locks the morgue door and indulges in a little spot of mutilation/fornication. Yes, folks, he gets a stiffy whilst hacking up the stiff, and climbs on board for a quickie, posing for a few photos in the process! Aftermath is extremely sick stuff, but it does drive home a point (in addition to presenting the viewer with some very impressive gore): after you're dead, your body is just meat!
Cult, Notorious, Nasty, Mockumentary, Underground, Comedy; DVD - New Sealed
Committed to upholding the law, a police officer with a deluded sense of entitlement about the position embarks on a reign of terror in the community trying to use his misguided sense of justice to carry out the peace in his night-long rampage of the citizens. This is a DVD release of this long underground film which has had cult status for decades now.
Mario Bava, Bay Of Blood, Giallo, Slasher, Horror,Cult; DVD - Ex Used condition
Mario Bava's landmark film can now be considered one of the very first slashers and of course a major influence on Friday THE 13TH. The film takes place at a lake-side resort where a variety of people are brutally slaughtered by an unknown maniac. Also known as A BAY OF BLOOD and a dozen other titles, this Bava film mixes the giallo with what would become known as the slasher and the end result is certainly something special and ground- breaking. To say the film was a major influence on the genre to come would be an understatement because there's simply so much going on here that other filmmakers would steal from. Obviously there's the graphic violence, which is scattered throughout the film and this is what got the movie its original reputation. The effects are quite ghastly for their time and especially a couple throat slashings, a memorable beheading and of course a sex scene where two victims are offed at the same time (and later stolen in Friday THE 13TH PART 2). The film is also quite sleazy with not only the gore but a fair amount of nudity and sex. This certainly wasn't the first film to use sex and violence but Bava really puts his own spin on it because the movie just feels so dirty.
