Black Devil Doll

I watched BLACK DEVIL DOLL tonight and what an entertaining piece of exploitation / blaxploitation / sexploitation / dollsploitation / whathaveyouploitation it is!!! I got the reg. 1 DVD which is loaded with fun extra stuff (like approx 700 different commentary tracks!!). It's NOT a remake of Chester Turner's BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL but they were clearly inspired by it and as I've mentioned here before they tried to get Chester's film included on the DVD which I'm sorry to say they didn't succeeded in. Hopefully we'll see the original released on DVD some day. Now watch the trailer. It's the uncut one. :D

Tales From the Quadead Zone - get it why don't you!

I've written about Chester Turner's two movies BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL and TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE a couple of times before in connection with a BLACK DEVIL DOLL eBay auction and the upcoming DVD release (which is totally delayed but I hear it's still on its way - just very, very slowly!). Anyhoo, if you can't wait for the DVD now is your chance to become the happy owner of an original THE QUADEAD ZONE video tape!!! Yeps, the original, very rare VHS is on eBay right now and for another day or so. While I'm writing this there's been 34 bids so far and the latest bid is 650 dollars!!! For the auction go here. For links to cool reviews of the two films and where to get boots from (and I don't mean Dr. Martins) check my old posts.

EDIT: The final bid came to $660.









NB: All this talk about eBay auctions makes me think of crazy Norwegian bearded man Patrick who left us many moons ago for rehab. I certainly hope you're doing well out there somewhere, buddy. Maybe one day you'll let us in on what the fuck happened to you.

Black Devil Doll From Hell - the org. tape

I wrote about the upcoming DVD release of BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL recently (check here) and for the past week a copy of the original tape has been on eBay. However, the seller is asking a 180 dollars for it and the cover is even cut to fit a regular size video case! On a day without food and water I might've been dizzy enough to cough up 50 bucks for it. But 180 smackaroos! Forget it!! I've got my bootleg from TrueGore and the DVD is gonna be out soon.

But if nothing else here's the pix from the seller's page (notice how the background colour and the fingernail colour go well with the cover. LOL):

Oh... my... gawd!!!

My eyes are deceiving me! This can't be real!! The damn green rays from the TV set have finally mushroomed my brain cells!!!

Chester Turner's shot on VHS amateur horror films BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL and TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE from 1984/87 are getting a fucken DVD release!!!!! How... what... I mean... HUH???

Haha, Jesus fucken Christ! These two films are the weirdest of the weird. I would never have put my money, or anybody's money, on their getting an official DVD release. Like, ever!

If you have no idea what these films are go to BLEEDING SKULL (my fave web site!) and read Joseph A. Ziemba's awesome reviews for BLACK DEVIL here and one for QUADEAD ZONE here. We can talk when you come back.

Joseph A. Ziemba:

Breathe easy, friend! It’s Black Devil Doll From Hell, the early shot on video (SOV) blaxploitation cesspool from mysterious auteur Chester Turner. Easily the most vile, scummed up, deranged, and hysterical film to ever be scored with a Casiotone CT-310, Black Devil Doll’s flamboyance cannot be overstated. Forget the tug between “good” and “bad” filmmaking; there’s nothing else like this anywhere on the planet. And there never will be again. In some far off bizarro world, Dave Chappelle and John Waters got together over lunch, shot the shit, and left with a napkin-scrawled script. One camcorder later and...well, you do the math.

There isn't much to tell you about Chester Turner. Or maybe there is but whatever little bits and pieces of half forgotten info there might have been has mysteriously disappeared in the mist of whatever alternative universe Chester came from. He made BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL in 1984. He shot it on video and the budget was (most likely) around 50 bucks which (probably) went to chow and bus fares.

Then he waited three years and made TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE using the same lead actress. Then... nothing. Chester Turner disappeared. No news. Nothing.

Many years later the two Lewis brothers, Shawn & Jonathan Lewis directed a new film about a black devil doll simply entitled BLACK DEVIL DOLL. It's not a remake of Turner's film but the inspiration is there. Well, at least for the title. On Dvdmaniacs Shawn Lewis talked about how they tried to buy the copyrights for Turner's film so they could include it as extra material with their own film on DVD. They got in contact with someone on MySpace who claimed to be Chester Turner. They paid him big bucks only to find out he was a con artist. And they got in contact with Chester's family only to discover he had actually died in a car crash back in 1994 or '95. The mystery of Chester Turner remains. Maybe it's better this way.

I have both films on bootleg DVD (from the place doctor Ziemba linked to on BLEEDING SKULL) and they are fine (probably look every way as good as the original - very very very rare - tapes ever did) but I still can't wait to get this DVD. xD. Neither should you.

The release date is set for October the 26th. Official web site here.


Joseph A. Ziemba:

As you can see, rules of language, structure, and general awareness have no business in the Quadead Zone. It's a tight package of non-stop, fantasmo delirium. People speak in tongues that escape the radar of historical linguists. Chester Turner's homemade score (some of which is recycled from Black Devil Doll, but re-recorded) drowns out everything at all times. Hilarity forces you to pause for breath (Ted and Fred's jive talk sessions) before pummeling you with disturbing grit-gore (Daryl Vs. Shirley). Surprises hide beneath every plastic covered couch and dirt floor basement. And then, before you realize it, Quadead walks the plank...and lives.

PS: After having finished this piece I suddenly discover that I'm not the only one who seems to have a preference to BLEEDING SKULL. Check the top scan, they've actually quoted the very review I linked to!!!