Part 2:SPOOK CHASERS:I had never heard of the Bowery Boys until I got my first Bowery Boys poster. And even then, I had no idea just how many Bowery Boys films were made (48, not counting earlier incarnations as the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys and the East Side Kids) until later still. SPOOK CHASERS appeared near the end of the series. It has fun, vintage graphics. I totally dig it.
THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS:I have had this one for a while. Did I ever frame it? I don't remember, but don't think so. It makes a great companion to the other Bowery Boys poster, SPOOK CHASERS, even though this one is 10 films earlier.
THE GIANT LEECHES:I almost didn't fame this poster. It's such a cool classic and I paid enough for it. And then I noticed (Duh! Read the descriptions better, dummy!) that it had a Canadian censor stamp on it...and it killed it for me. Now that I know it is there, it's pretty much all that I see when I look at it. But, I framed it because I may never have another (without the stamp). Hmm.
RETURN OF THE FLY:I love this poster---such great graphics and the whole hyped verbiage ("Scream At..."). How marvelous! This was my favorite poster purchase of last year and arguably the best of the three original FLY posters.
DRACULA-PRINCE OF DARKNESS and
PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES (re-release combo)
:I know this is kind of a dull combo poster, although I do like the gimmick at the top. That gimmick is why this got framed. I actually have a pair of the "Zombie Eyes" glasses I intend to frame and display next to this poster. (I wonder if the "Dracula Fangs" were any different than the plastic ones you could buy in any store at Halloween time when I was a kid.)
THE AMAZING TRANSPLANT:How excited am I to have this poster? VERY! It's kind of hard to find/rare. But that's not why I am thrilled to own it. THE AMAZING TRANSPLANT was the very first Doris Wishman movie I ever saw. My jaw just dropped to the floor when her camera would focus on an ashtray or a clock or a painting---anything but the actors who are talking because all of the dialogue was added later and by focusing on a
cup or a pack of cigarettes, there was no need to worry about matching the dialogue to the actors' mouths. Pure bad movie genius!
THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION:Here is yet another example of a poster being better than the movie itself. Don't get me wrong. As bad as it is, I like the film... But this poster promises a movie that is soooo much more than the actual movie delivers.
THE HORROR SHOW:This poster, in English and in a standard one-sheet size, is so very hard to find. Although made by Universal in the early 80s as a TV documentary on the history of horror movies, it seems to rely heavily on Universal's horror library (understandable) instead of the horror genre at large. But even so, there are lots of iconic horror images in this poster. I'm delighted to have it.
BLACULA:I'm sure this is not considered p.c. today -- but it's NOT from today. This BLACULA poster hails from the early 70s blaxploitation era and was from that rare subgenre of blaxploitation horror films. Zowie! It was a toss up between this poster and its sequel. And while SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM might be a more interesting poster, BLACULA is a far better movie. I love it.
SUGAR HILL:More Blaxploitation horror fun! SUGAR HILL is a movie with voodoo AND zombies! Yowza!
BASKET CASE:What a wonderfully weird little film this is...and surprisingly seems to be falling off of the horror radar. I have three copies of the one sheet--each one is slightly different than the others. This was the best copy of the three so it won its place in a frame. This is low-budget filmmaking at it's finest. (I really dig this film. The sequels though... eh!)
TALES OF THE THIRD DIMENSION:TALES OF THE THIRD DIMENSION is a seldom-seen regional rarity from the early 80s from producer Earl Owensby. Owensby had a string of 3D flicks in the 80s, with other such titles as ROTTWEILER, HOT HEIR, CHAIN GANG, etc. I've never seen this--or any of Owensby's 3D movies. But I have tried my best to collect the posters for them (as rare as they are). This one, based on what I read online, is a series of three short stories, held together by a talking skeleton host named Igor in a TALES FROM THE CRYPT/CREEPSHOW manner. The poster was too interesting to keep tucked away.
DEMENTIA 13:There are a lot of reasons to like this poster. The artwork is fun and there is mention of a gimmick (the "D-13 Test"). It's also a film directed by a young Francis Coppola before his middle name, Ford, popped into credits and before THE GODFATHER was ever published. I almost didn't frame this, though. The movie, while deliciously atmospheric and kind of creepy, just never really did it for me. Every time I watch it, I want to like it...but by the end, I just feel dissatisfied. I wonder how Coppola got from this to THE GODFATHER.
BLOOD FEAST:Although I have posters for all of Hershel Gordon Lewis' horror films, if I was going to frame any of them, of course it would be for his first one, BLOOD FEAST, the very first "gore" horror movie ever. Have you ever had an Egyptian feast? Ha! I'm thrilled to have this poster.
TOURIST TRAP:I LOVE this little film. I was lucky enough to see it when it first came out (on a double bill with DOMINIQUE, a.k.a. DOMINIQUE IS DEAD) when I was a 14-year-old kid. It was so wonderfully odd at the end. The poster is just creepy as well. Chuck Connors stars along with a young Tanya Roberts.
THE GATES OF HELL:I was also lucky enough to see this in the theater when it came out. Although it was made in 1980, it didn't open here until 1983...just after I turned 18, so I didn't have to worry about whether its self-imposed X-rating would be treated as an X or an R (as some theaters did for films like DAWN OF THE DEAD, ZOMBIE, PIECES, etc.). Although better known today as CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, I had no idea what I was walking into when I went to see this. I knew it was by Lucio Fulci, who had done ZOMBIE. Based on the awesome artwork, I was expecting more of the same. But ZOMBIE this was not. This was wildly different in a good way.
THE NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CATS:I love this cheesy poster for a seriously dumb movie. The cats are actually secondary to the plot of the film, but who cares when you've got such an exploitive title and such kitschy cool (in an awesomely bad way) artwork?
THE REDEEMER:I love this poster. It has ZERO to do with the movie---and everything with marketing. I remember when the ads for this movie popped up in the newspapers using the same fantastic image as featured here on the poster. WOW! It looked sooooo creepy, spooky cool. I wanted to see it very badly. This movie is better known as CLASS REUNION MASSACRE--a sort of an early slasher film (shot in 1976, but released around the same time as the original HALLOWEEN in October of 1978.). Clearly trying to ride the wave of THE OMEN (The tag line reads: "First THE OMEN...Now THE REDEEMER") and the subtitle reads "Son of Satan". The kid pictured has creepy glowing red eyes---and what is with the diabolical figure behind him? Well, there is nothing supernatural or diabolical or eye glowing about this film. It's just the picked on former teen getting revenge on the popular kids who, years earlier, gave him grief. When I finally saw the flick, you can imagine how disappointed I was. However, I still dig the poster. It got me to track down the film decades later. That is effective marketing.
BLUEBEARD'S 10 HONEYMOONS:While this poster looks like the film is about as pedestrian as an old William Castle flick, I really dig the poster art. The line of skeleton brides behind the living bride coupled with the list of the ways the 10 brides met their ends is very fun and clever...in a 50s sort of way.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN:Yes, this is a comedy...but the look of the film and the poster art really do convey the feeling of the old Universal horror flicks that the film so wonderfully spoofs. This is a classic poster.
OLD DRACULA:I have had this poster framed in the past--but decided to give it a second lease on framed life because A) I really dig it (especially the skeleton in the coffin wearing cat-eye glasses) and B) although it has nothing to do with YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, I thought pairing them together would be fun. This film started off life under the title VAMPIRA, but had a pre-US release title change to OLD DRACULA to cash in on the success of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, hoping audiences would think the films were related. I remember seeing this when it opened in a double feature with FOOD OF THE GODS when I was a kid.
SNUFF:As I've been reframing my posters, I've been sending pictures of them to my mother. She actually really likes my collection and is glad I am framing them again. Except earlier this evening she called and told me that while she liked all of the pictures of posters I had sent her, there was one she didn't like. It was this one for SNUFF. "That really happens, you know," she told me. I asked her if she knew the significance of this poster and why I would include it (because, after all, it's not a great image). She said she didn't. So I told her about how when this film came out, there was such an outcry from the public and people picketed theaters because they thought it was a real snuff film. But it wasn't. I also told her that those first angry outbursts and protests were all staged by the film's producers/distributors to
up publicity. And it worked. I was 10 when this came out in 1975 and I do remember all of the outrage and discussion about it on the news. Anyone seeing the film would know that the title and what all of the poster's verbiage are alluding to are totally bogus. The movie is actually pretty lame--and the tacked on "snuff" footage is clearly bogus. But what great marketing. That's what the film is remembered for today--the controversy--NOT for the film itself.
NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES:Better known today as HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD, I remember skipping school and going to see this about 1984 or so. It wasn't DAWN OF THE DEAD or ZOMBIE, but it was okay. After getting in my car and driving away, the very next place I stopped at, my car broke down. If it had broken down at the theater, I'd have been soooooo busted. The movie is one of the cheaper-made zombie flicks from Italy with a lot of stock footage. But the poster art is pretty nifty.
THE LOCH NESS HORROR:Years ago, there was an online movie poster store (I don't remember it's name. Is it still around? Does anyone know?) that used this poster image as their logo. I had never heard of the film before, but thought the art was fantastic. Years went by and I finally tracked the film down. Yeah, it was a big turd as you might expect. Oh well. Then, from out of the blue, the poster showed up and I snatched it up. The movie may suck but the poster is a piece of wonderful exploitation art.
That's all of the posters I've gotten framed so far. I have not even started working my way through my tubes of rolled posters yet (and I have far more tubes of posters than I have boxes of folded ones). And, of course, nothing is on the walls yet. As you can see, I also have plenty of boxes of general crap to sort through post move. I've got my work cut out for me.
Thanks for visiting, though. I'll see you next time.
CHEERS!