Shock Festival – DVD Review

I was flabbergasted when Grindhouse bombed at the box office. Grindhouse paired Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez for the quintessential love letter to a bygone era with big stars, big action, and chunks of flesh being thrown at the screen for three hours. The most popular aspect of the movie were the faux trailers that were peppered throughout. Eli Roth (Thanksgiving), Rob Zombie (Werewolf Women of the SS), Robert Rodriguez (Machete), and Edgar Wright (Don’t) delivered in spades the coolness of what a teaser is supposed to do. Theatrical previews have always been something I love, and any DVD that doesn’t have them seem empty even if there are tons of other extra features.

Artist Stephen Romano has cobbled together a collection of rare and unusual exploitation and radio promotions from the age of Grindhouse Cinema. So grab a soda and some popcorn and enjoy the 70′s and 80′s for the first time, or for someone like me, it’s just like taking a trip down memory lane.

Disc 1

All New Trailers: Never before seen trailers for fictional B movies from Stephen Romano’s Shock Festival that come with an audio commentary from Stephen. My favorites were Girlkiller (with its opening that echoed Suspiria), The Legend of Boggy Creek-esque Evolver, and Dark Night of the Demon House (think Ulli Lommel’s Boogeyman).

Exploitation Trailer Marathon: A ton of vintage trailers with the best being Treasure of the Four Crowns in 3-D, Conquest, Raw Force, Space Raiders, Titillation, Venom, Captain America, and The Final Countdown.

Disc 2

The Ultimate Horror Movie Marathon: A far superior trailer collection than Disc 1 with coming attractions for The Stuff, Pieces, Pranks, Burnt Offerings, The House by the Cemetery, Great White, Saturn 3, The Crazies, Q, Grizzly, Hell Night, Maniac, Dead of Night, Bloodsucking Freaks, Deep Red, The Curse, Toolbox Murders,and 7 Doors of Death.

Television Spectacular: TV Spots for some cool flicks lke The Pyx, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, The Devil’s Rain, Rollerball, Evil in the Deep, Rabid, Tentacles, Beyond the Door 2, Shock Waves, Slithis, The Brood, The Changeling,and Comin’ At Ya!

The Trailers for Independent International Pictures featuring Sam Sherman: Mad Doctor of Blood Island, Brides of Blood, Blood-o-Rama Shock Festival, Satan’s Sadists, Angel’s Wild Women, Horror of the Blood Monsters, Girls for Rent, Naughty Stewardesses, and Blood Drinkers.

Shock Festival Image Gallery: Assorted faux posters done by a slideshow.

Disc 3

Original Radio Spots: A MP3 Disc that contains over three hundred original radio spots, digitally re-mastered from the original vinyl records sent to radio stations in the 70′s and 80′s.

Conclusion: There is no need to waste time critiquing the audio/video, it’s old school all the way. Just for your information, I didn’t list every trailer on the disc, just the ones I liked the best. Imagine if the 42nd Street Forever discs from Synapse Films were sold in a box set and that’s what you have here. There are some great trailers here for a lot of films that have never been released on DVD, and some for titles you probably already own. I want to see studios go after the obscure ones that have fallen through the cracks. I vividly recall when I used to connect my two VHS machines together and try to make my own compilation tape. Shock Festival is not a perfect “Greatest Hits” of the video cassette generation, but it’s pretty damn close folks. Here’s blood in your eye!

The DVD: Rating: