R0 NTSC DVD
Synapse Films
The
42nd Street series are amazing collections of trailers from the Seventies and
Eighties. The first three volume has garnered a cult following and Synapse have
also released XXX adult trailer collections as well.
Volume
4 is a great collection of trailers which cover the full gambit of genres from
cult to horror, teen coming of age to epics, American Indian and historical
films to crime, exploitation to sex and lots more.
The
condition of the trailers is as you would expect, scratchy and old, but this
just gives them more of a “midnight movie” feel. So many of these films were
sold via the trailers alone, when you saw them you wondered what all the hype
was about. In so many cases the trailers were better than the films and were edited
to give you the best bits (sometimes they even included scenes and content not
found in the films at all !). In the
Eighties they were placed at the end of videotapes so they got you in and you
could not wait to rent them and when you did you wondered why you bothered.
Who
has ever heard of Schizoid, Die Sister, Die, Bonnie's Kids, Combat Cops or
Blackout – the night New York’s power failed ?
Of
course no such collection would be complete without cult favourites and these
trailers are a real joy and include such notables as Americathon, Can I Do
It…'Til I Need Glasses?, the Jezebels, Simon:King of the Witches (now restored
and released by Dark Sky Pictures) and The Legend of Boggy Creek.
There
is also lots and lots of schlock including Yor: The Hunter from the Future,
Silent Scream, Mortuary and Humongous !
One
of the easily overlooked gems on this collection is the commentary. This
features Fangoria managing editor Michael Gingold, film historian Chris
Peggiali, and Edwin Samuelson of AVManiacs.com. The commentary provides a
synopsis and background info on each film, a pretty amazing commentary to say
the least.
There
is also a small selection of made for TV trailers.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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