31 DAYS OF FRIGHT: A Celluloid Bloodbath Banned in 19 Countries!

Sorry for missing out on yesterday's post. The initial print run of ER #51 has officially arrived and I've been busy stuffing envelopes and sending out packets to contributors and distributors. Copies are going fast so be sure to order yours soon. Plus, I discovered a small cache of ER back issues and immediately added them to our Box 5531 shop at Etsy. Oh, right and I also checked out a new film I'm in with Seka, Ginger Lynn Allen, Michele Bauer, Caroline Munro and William Forsythe. Gotta check that off my bucket list!

Over the years, my role as a zine editor has afforded me some cool experiences. Interviewing John Waters for our first issue, meeting PHANTASM star Reggie Bannister and wowing him with a copy of a folk record he had recorded decades prior, and drinking the day away in a hotel bar with a pair of B-movie directors who regaled my friends and me with stories of their craft all come to mind.

But one of the highlights of ER's history has to be the day back in 1987 my buddy (and co-founder) Lou Goncey and I spent interviewing the guys behind MAD RON'S PREVUES FROM HELL. The tape is a VHS staple and immediately recognizable to anybody who spent time haunting the musty, dusty shelves of video stores. A compilation of classic exploitation, horror and drive-in schlock trailers, it also featured cut-ins with a rotting zombie puppet named "Happy" who would "yuck" it up between segments as his zombie cohorts invaded the theater and watched trailers.

The sprawling interview ran over two issues back in 1987 and still makes me chuckle every time I give it a read. (We'll be posting a PDF of the original interview for download in the next few days.)

Fast-forward to the summer of 2011 and an email pops up asking me to contact MAD RON producer/writer Jim Murray. It seems the team is getting back together for a long-awaited sequel (a topic discussed in our original interview) and Murray wants to know if I'm interested in introducing the trailer for the notorious gore snowjob SNUFF. 

A few weeks later I'm standing in a sweltering old movie theater, a once-grand, one-screen movie palace that has seen better times. But it's the perfect setting for my walk-and-talk about the notorious SNUFF, which you can see in the "Women Treated Badly" segment about an hour and twenty-five minutes into CELLULOID BLOODBATH: MORE PREVUES FROM HELL (now available on DVD and Netflix streaming). Don't worry, by the time I come on you'll have long passed your "shock limit" ... or at least have had three or four beers.

CELLULOID BLOODBATH continues in the grand tradition of the original PREVUES FROM HELL, though the drooling, entrails-eating zombies from the first installment have been replaced by horror hosts, scream queens, B-movie icons and even the occasional zine editor who intro the clips or provide backstory while folks like Seka, Ginger Lynn Allen and the great William Forsythe weigh in with thoughts about horror and even the age-old violence vs. sex argument.

But I know, I know... what you're really here for are the trailers and CELLULOID BLOODBATH offers up a heaping helping of gore, monsters, cannibals, T&A and more (some courtesy of Oscar-winner Bob Murawski and the late Sage Stallone of Grindhouse Releasing). Split into segments on everything from Vampires, Killer Animals, Babies and Psychos to Argento, Cannibals, Gimmicks and more, BLOODBATH will "make your blood curdle" as it takes you on a tour of "the twisted canyons of a demented mind" thanks to trailers for the likes of BERSERK!, CURSE OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN, GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE, MEAT CLEAVER MASSACRE, WICKED WICKED, THE BABY, CORRUPTION, DRIVE-IN MASSACRE (complete with misspelling), THE HANGING WOMAN (one of two Paul Naschy trailers to make the flick) and tons more.

Even for a hardened, jaded trashhound like myself, BLOODBATH had some revelations and my "must see" list now includes such titles as THE MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY, LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE MONSTERS, THE FIENDISH GHOULS, TENDER FLESH, THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT and the jaw-dropping ALABAMA'S GHOST.

Thanks to its wild collection of titles and the talking heads who provide some insight (or a potty/beer break), CELLULOID BLOODBATH is a must have for your trailers shelf and the perfect accompaniment to your Halloween party.

CELLULOID BLOODBATH: MORE PREVUES FROM HELL is available from Amazon and on Netflix streaming.

We receive a small commission for purchases made at Amazon via this blog. Thanks for your support!