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Trailer Trauma: Drive-In Monsterama

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    Ian Jane
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  • Trailer Trauma: Drive-In Monsterama



    Released by: Garagehouse Pictures
    Released on: May 3rd, 2016.
    Director: Various
    Cast: Various
    Year: Various
    Purchase From Diabolik DVD

    The Movies:

    Garagehouse Pictures unleashes Trailer Trauma 2: Drive-In Monsterama, the follow up to last year's original Trailer Trauma Blu-ray, and fans of vintage horror and schlock should find reason to once again raise their hands in adulation. Like the first entry, there's a lot of stuff here that is pretty rare, and this time around there's almost three and a half hours of content here!

    The presentation starts off with a quick and helpful guide to the new MPAA ratings system before seguing into a funny commercial of sorts that played in theaters warning viewers about the dangers of the onslaught of pay television!

    And from there, we're smashed in the face with the awesomeness of a Superbeast/Daughters Of Satan double feature that contains no footage from Daughters at all. Huh. Someone in the marketing department should be fired over that, because if you've got Tom Selleck in your movie and don't promote that fact, you're not doing your job very well. This marks the first of a few Filipino lensed films that find their trailers included here. Lots of Filipino stuff, and lots of John Carradine, but more on that as it plays out.

    Monsters are next. Lots of monsters, starting with the ridiculous looking The Boy Who Cried Werewolf spot - you've got to see it to believe it - before seguing into the more easily obtainable Werewolves On Wheels, which isn't quite as good as the trailer makes it out to be. From there, it's the first round of Hammer time with a really great trailer for the Christopher Lee vehicle, Count Dracula And His Vampire Brides (a title you might know better as The Satanic Rites Of Dracula). Paul Naschy's utterly bizarre Dracula's Great Love (aka Count Dracula's Great Love aka Cemetery Girls aka a bunch of other variations on the same theme). After that, we leave Europe, albeit briefly, for two Toho cult classics - the mighty The War of The Gargantuas (in which two giant monsters battle it out) and the insanely colorful sci-fi trip that is Latitude Zero. Naschy jumps back in the spotlight again for the always cool to see Frankenstein's Bloody Terror trailer and then we bear witness to The Vampire-Beast Craves Blood (which is actually The Blood Beast Terror under a different title).

    The double feature madness continues with a spot for Bloodsuckers / Blood Thirst before we head down under for a pretty fun trailer for The Folks At Red Wolf Inn. After that? Well, people who eat people seems to be the theme as we see The Mad Butcher in all its glory before seguing into Ruggero Deodatao's Carnivorous (released on DVD stateside as Jungle Holocaust). With that out of the way, throw back some Listerine to get the taste of flesh out of your mouth and enjoy the uber creepy trailer for Island Of The Damned (better known in certain circles as Who Can Kill a Child?). A German trailer for Island of the Fishmen (or, if you prefer, Screamers). Frankenstein Island puts John Carradine front and center alongside Cameron Mitchell in one of the goofiest promo spots on the disc, which leads into the far more sophisticated take on Shelly's legend with a great spot for Hammer's Frankenstein And The Monster from Hell, a trailer that proves once and for all that Peter Cushing was the coolest sonuvabitch to come out of England in his day. Hammer time round two continues with an action packed trailer Captain Kronos- Vampire Hunter, an action-horror hybrid that doesn't get nearly the amount of love that it probably should.

    We move from England to Italy for the gialloesque trappings of Black Belly Of The Tarantula paired with The Weekend Murders, which is then followed by the lurid thrills offered in The Murder Clinic. If that wasn't enough, this is followed by the beautifully psychedelic trailer for Schizoid (which is a retitling of Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin). After that we learn what happened on The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave before we witness the horrible events that take place in the torture chamber of Baron Blood! The Italian hits just keep on coming after that, because we journey from the bowels of the good Baron's torture chamber to the high society pad inhabited by one Dorian Gray in Massimo Dallamano's take on Oscar Wilde's most famous creation.

    After that, we hit the seventies occult horror phase fast and hard with a pretty obscure piece promoting Paul Wendkos' The Mephisto Waltz which teams up everyone's favorite horror hero, Allan Alda, with a still foxy Jaqueline Bisset. 1975's The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud, which stars a not so drunk Margot Kidder and somehow wound up being directed by J. Lee Thompson, looks sufficiently weird and spooky - someone should put this out on DVD or Blu-ray. After that? The Possession Of Joel Delaney, wherein Shirley MacLaine has to try and figure out what's wrong with her younger brother. Some great seventies New York footage pops up in this one, an underrated and unappreciated gem of a movie.

    Another double feature kicks you in the nuts next, as The Horror Chamber of Doctor Faustus (the American version of the amazing Eyes Without A Face) is puzzlingly paired with The Manster. Audiences must have been confused by that pairing. John Landis' screwy Banana Monster (released on DVD by Image years ago as Schlock) does its damnedest to tickle your funny bone and it's followed by some other pretty neat animal themed horror movies - an oddball Edgar Wallace adaptation called The Gorilla Gang, a late sixties Gayle Hunnicutt vehicle called The Eye Of The Cat, the mighty Willard (the original, not the admittedly pretty cool remake with Crispin Glover), and then The Kiss Of The Tarantula, which is actually a pretty cool little movie.

    Moving right along, the trailer for the Canadian tax shelter program victim Cathy's Curse plays, building a bit of a supernatural edge that leads into a gritty spot for Jess Franco's The Demons. Those who would do the devil's work remain the focus of the trailer for Mark Of The Witch after which we're subjected to the terror of Norman J. Warren's terrifying Terror! The terror continues as we bear witness to the Terror In The Wax Museum in which John Carradine once again appears, this time with Ela Lanchester and Ray Milland along for the ride. Good times. If you wanted more wax, well, you're covered because this is followed by the 1969 Nightmare In Wax starring Cameron Mitchell but if it's more John Carradine you're after, you'll just have to wait your turn until we get to the ridiculous trailer for Blood Of Dracula's Castle. We're not done with castles yet though - Castle Of Evil and Corman's The Terror follow next, before we voyage deep inside the sordid Tower Of The Screaming Virgins only to then be subjected to Scream Of The Demon Lover, the Amicus classic And Now the Screaming Starts with Peter Cushing and then The House That Screamed, still missing in action on proper DVD or Blu-ray for some reason. Lots of screaming in those last few trailers.

    After all of the screaming is done, we get some real estate themed promos starting with director Robert Hardford-Davis' Hell House Girls (also known as The House For Unclaimed Girls), House Of 1000 Dolls starring Vincent Price, the House Of Psychotic Women with Paul Naschy, The House Of Seven Corpses (again starring John Carradine), House By The Lake (also known as Death Weekend), Burnt Offerings (which features a house but doesn't have the word house in the title - it still counts though and it's got Oliver Reed and Karen Black in it!) and then Horror House, which is British and kind of boring, but not boring because it's British, which is proven by the awesomeness of the trailers that are next - Beast In The Cellar and the great The Blood on Satan's Claw, Tigon productions the both of them.

    From there, things get bloody with a pretty intense trailer for Silent Night, Bloody Night which leads into a double feature of Women And Bloody Terror/Night Of Bloody Horror and then another, stranger double feature where Blood From The Mummy's Tomb is teamed up with Night Of the Blood Monster (which is actually Jess Franco's The Bloody Judge). The splashy, splashy red stuff keeps flowing as we next enjoy the story of The Blood Rose and then? Well, we spend a little quality time with Blood Demon (a retitled version of The Torture Chamber Of Dr. Sadism). Moving back to the Philippines for a while, the blood titles continue with four great spots - Brides Of Blood, the amazing Brain Of Blood, The Vampire People (which is The Blood Drinkers under an alternate title) and Curse of the Vampires (Blood of the Vampires).

    Anyone want to answer the question Guess What Happened To Count Dracula? This one was teamed up with Dracula The Dirty Old Man on a Something Weird DVD years ago, it's a fun watch. More interesting, however, are the trailers for Andy Warhol's Dracula and Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (which actually use those titles, they do not use Blood For Dracula and Flesh For Frankenstein), both of which feature Udo Kier at his and his most absurd. These are two of the coolest finds on this collection.

    From there, it's a bit of a mash up with Dino Tavella's The Embalmer (also known as A Death In Venice) giving way to one of Robert Quarry's finest moments in The Deathmaster which in turn bows down to the glory of Lee Frost's phenomenal exercise in completely enjoyable stupidity, The Thing With Two Heads! The Creature With The Blue Hand, which starts Klaus Kinski and was released domestically as The Bloody Dead, is pretty nifty as is The Psychopath, a Freddie Francis picture that has so far been pretty tough to come by. Tales That Witness Madness is up next, which in a completely random move leads us to Kiss And Kill (Jess Franco's The Blood Of Fu-Manchu under a different title). Moving right along, we get a pretty obscure trailer for AIP's De Sade followed by a pretty cool spot promoting Computer Killers (which is, in fact, Horror Hospital). This is followed by some more fairly random assortments as trailers play out for The Mind Snatchers, a Brainstorm piece combined with a spot for The Woman Who Wouldn't Die, a great trailer for Let's Scare Jessica To Death, a trailer for the Orson Welles starring Necromancy and a spooky spot for Night Of The Eagle (or, if you prefer… Burn, Witch, Burn).

    After that, why not get to know the friendly men of The Brotherhood Of Satan for a while? Beware My Brethren follows that one, which makes sense as it sort of works on a similar wave length, but after that? Donald Pleasance and Peter Cushing take you on a tour of the Land Of The Minotaur (also known as The Devil's Men). But our travels are not over yet! Hammer takes us to The Lost Continent before we wind up stranded on the Island Of Terror!

    Then we get random again with a trailer for The Projected Man, a trailer for The Shuttered Room and then a trailer for another Amicus film with Torture Garden, directed by Freddie Francis and starring Jack Palance. The devil gets his due next, as we get a trailer for In The Devil's Garden, then The Devil's Nightmare (with Erika Blanc at her foxiest), Devils Of Darkness and The Devil Within Her (also known as I Don't Want To Be Born), starring Joan Collins, Donald Pleasance and Caroline Munro. Yowza - what a cast!
    Bringing things to a pretty big finish is a double feature for Hammer's The Gorgon with Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb, then The Old Dark House paired with Maniac (the Hammer movie, not the Bill Lustig film!) and last but most certainly not least, the infamous trailer for Lucio Fulci's Zombie. If you're going to go out, go out with a bang.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Garagehouse Pictures presents Trailer Trauma 2: Drive-In Monsterama on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, each in its own aspect ratio, and generally speaking things look really good here (these were all transferred in 4k from 35mm elements). Expect scratches and print damage throughout but fans of trailer compilations wouldn't have it any other way. The disc is well authored, there are no obvious compression issues to note despite the long running time of the disc, nor are there any traces of noise reduction or edge enhancement here. These trailers look like the marginally beaten up film sourced promo spots that they are, but you'll still notice quite a bit more detail and texture here than you would on a standard definition offering. Quality varies from one spot to the next but overall, yeah, this stuff looks really good on Blu-ray, very film like and appropriately gritty and grainy.

    Audio chores are handled by an LPCM Mono track that is on par with the video - it's not quite pristine, but it sounds very good for what it is. The various narrators used on the different trailers are always nice and clear and the levels are properly balanced. The music and effects bits also sound nice and strong. If there's a bit of hiss here and there and the odd pop in the mix, that's okay. There aren't any subtitles provided on the disc.

    Aside from a trailer for the first Trailer Trauma release and for Ninja Busters (both available on Blu-ray now), we get menus offering a 'play all' option or individual trailer selection. But wait - there's more! DVD Drive-In's George Reis joins filmmaker Keith Crocker for a commentary track that runs the entire length of the disc. They offer up plenty of interesting facts and trivia about each of the movies, noting what studios were responsible for them, offering up some information on the different retitling that a few of these picture were subjected to over the years, and generally just providing some well researched contexts and background information on all of the insanity that Garagehouse has assembled for this second foray into trailer-laden Blu-ray madness.

    The disc comes housed inside a clear Blu-ray case with a double sided insert. Accompanying the disc inside the case is an insert that contains a short essay from Ian Zapzynski about the appeal of vintage trailer compilations and why people like us tend to obsess over them.

    The Final Word:

    Trailer Trauma 2: Drive-In Monsterama is pretty much all killer, no filler giving horror movie fans and trailer junkies alike three and a half hours of high definition bliss to get off to. Add to that the fact that this stuff all looks pretty great on Blu-ray and that we get a good audio commentary to go along with it? You're crazy not to snatch this up.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!








































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