SHOUT! to release a bucketful of FILIPINO flicks in DELUX quality!!!

The buzz among fans of American psychotronic movies the past few months is that SHOUT! Factory in the US have scheduled to release about 16,000 tons of old Roger Corman movies! Needless to say this is a BIG deal! Many of these films have never been released on DVD before and the ones that have actually been granted a release on one of those shiny wee discs are often in less than brilliant quality - to say the least.

SHOUT! Factory are releasing these old trash favourites in spiffy awesome, restored, uncut, cleaned up, correct format, nicely perfumed, cool DVD-case-sleeve'ed, filled with extras editions!!!!! But, hey, this isn't a blog on psychotronic cinema but on WORLDWEIRD cinema so let's babble a bit about that shall we!!

The very reason I'm brining up these new SHOUT! releases is the simple reason that Roger Corman co-produced quite a few Filipino films ... and SHOUT! are releasing a handful of these! A BIG handful I might add!! In Double and triple sets!!!




Their first double set contains UP FROM THE DEPTHS (directed by Charles Griffith, produced by Cirio H. Santiago, 1979) and DEMON OF PARADISE (produced and directed by Santiago, 1987). Word on the street is they're crappy beyond belief but I don't give a fuck about what the grapevine says, I've already bought the DVD and I'll make up my own mind about them thank you very much (once a punk always a punk, ay).

I haven't watched either of the two films yet (I got the disc on Saturday) but I've checked the quality of the prints and the extras, and these restored prints look juust amazing! And also, and this is very exiting... the disc contains a rare trailer for the Santiago directed FIRECRACKER (aka Naked Fist) which I wrote a little bit about the other day in connection with ANGELFIST (also by Santiago, and both films are remakes of TNT JACKSON - which, incidentally, is also directed by Santiago and will ALSO get a release from SHOUT!). There's no official release date yet.

And further more... in June SHOUT! are releasing a "Women in Cages" triple bill containing THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971), THE BIG BIRD CAGE (1972) and WOMEN IN CAGES (1971) which all (and I'm sure it's pointless to mention this as I'm sure you all know this already) star the queen of the blaxploitation flicks, the BABETIOUS (which probably isn't even a real word but that's what she is!) Pam Grier!




I'm fully aware these films have been released on DVD before (I can't comment on their picture quality as I don't have any of them; I still watch them on video tape) but this release should blow them all outta the water!

On DVDmaniacs message board SHOUT! spokesman Cliff Mac said about the set in January: "WOMEN IN CAGES COLLECTION includes BIG DOLL HOUSE, BIG BIRD CAGE and, of course, WOMEN IN CAGES. All three films have been re-transferred and look amazing."

By the way, SHOUT! will also be releasing ARENA (also starring Pam Grier) at a later stage but I reckon it's not in this set as it's a co-production with Italy and not the Philppines.

As I mentioned earlier FIRECRACKER is also slated for release and so are SAVAGE! (1973), TNT JACKSON (1974), FLY ME (1973), and TOO HOT TO HANDLE (1977).




Cliff Mac said this about FIRECRACKER on Dvdmaniacs last month: "I just watched our new transfer of FIRECRACKER.... WOW... it looks beautiful....".

There's no release date set for the last four films either but I'm certainly looking forward to them in a BIIIG way! FIRECRACKER and TNT JACKSON on restored DVD!!! O_O
Almost too UNREAL to be true!!! I'm certainly crossing my fingers we don't run into another bloody recession until AFTER we've seen these cool flicks on the street.

Sort Sol/Sods live on Beatbox 1987

About a year ago, I posted a different recording of the Sort Sol/Sods live clip seen in the above YouTube video. The video I posted back then is off my own Betamax tape which I taped when the concert was broadcast back in '87. And I must have played that tape at least 300 times over the years - and unfortunately that shows!! My tape is WORN!!!!! However, I've just discovered that someone else taped the same live show and uploaded it about a month ago ... and the picture quality is heaps better!!!

My comments from the original posting:

SORT SOL (aka SODS)
Three tracks live (DR TV, Denmark, 1987)

1) Blood on the Saddle
2) Searching Down the Block
3) Pinocchio Loose (aka Pinocchio on the Loose)
[the track list in the headline to the new upload is incorrect! "Fire Engine" is not played!!]

This is SORT SOL at their best! In 1987 Danish state tv ran a series of music shows entitled "Musicbox" and to me this was definitely the highlight of the series.

SORT SOL started out in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1978 as a full-on punk band under the name of SODS. Their debut LP "Minutes to go" is a mile stone in Danish punk music but soon after the release they got bored with the three cord limitations that punk music offered and on their second LP "Under en sort sol" they had moved in a more avantgarde'ish direction.

Their third LP "Dagger & Guitar" is the first one where they use the name SORT SOL but what many new fans don't realise is the band actually used both names for years to come. And if you were a "real" fan you kept calling them SODS. "Sort Sol" was for wanna-be fans, haha. I don't think I started using the Sort Sol moniker till 1990 or something. LOL.

On "Dagger & Guitar" SORT SOL recorded two tracks with LYDIA LUNCH. If you do a YouTube search you'll find their "Boy/Girl" track that features miss Lunch. It's uploaded by someone else in Canada (G'day mate, whoever you are) but (via other traders) the clip comes from a recording I did in 1984 when television in Denmark broadcast a documentary about the band called "OMKRING EN SORT SOL - et portraet af SODS".

There was a pretty big gap between the third and fourth LP and when "Everything that rises must converge" finally came out in 1987 their sound had become the violent music you'll hear on this live recording. Like I said this is the band at their best in my opinion. Later records never quite reached the intensity and violent rawness as on "Everything".

The original title of the LP was actually going to be "The Violent Bear it Away" but they change it before it was released. The CD version of the album, which wasn't released till many years later, contains a bonus disc for which they used the title.


For the initial post go here.

AWE goes WORLDWEIRD to release THE LIVING CORPSE and HELL'S GROUND this summer!

Gee, wauw!!! Another World Entertainment (AWE) are planning to release Khwaja Sarfaraz' ZINDA LAASH aka The Living Corpse (1967) and Omar Khan's Mondo Macabro produced ZIBAHKHANA aka Hell's Ground (2007) in June!!!

Four thumbs up from this here blogger!!!

It seems AWE are going to retitle THE LIVING CORPSE to Dracula in Pakistan, probably in order to make it sound more exotic - which is fine by me. Hell, they can call it "Pakistani-Dracula is a horny old geezer" for all I care. The main thing is they're putting this important and highly entertaining early Lollywood horror film on DVD.

Did I hear you say "important"? Why yes you did! ZINDA LAASH/The Living Corpse/Dracula in Pakistan is important as it's the first movie from Pakistan to ever receive an X rating! The movie was even banned when it was originally released! And then it was almost lost for good. The print that survived was literally found by Omar Khan on top of a trash can in an flooded basement!!! Mondo Macabro and The Hot Spot (Omar Khan and his brother's company) restored the print and it was released on DVD from Mondo Macabro in 2003. I certainly hope AWE enclose Omar Khan & Pete Tomb's commentary track!

HELL'S GROUND, the second film on AWE's upcoming DVD, was actually directed by Omar Khan! It's from 2007 and it's a Pakistani zombie movie! Yay!! Mondo Macabro co-produced it but didn't release it, it's out on Danger After Dark in the US. THE LIVING CORPSE/HELL'S GROUND DVD is also scheduled for release by Njuta Films in Sweden.

I must admit I'm slightly baffled as to why THE LIVING CORPSE is the bonus film on the disc... o_O ...as it is the better film of the two! I recommend that you read Omar Khan's review of THE LIVING CORPSE on his The Hot Spot review site. By the way, if you have any interest in Bollywood or Lollywood* films The Hot Spot is an awesome site for info!
*Lollywood is the Pakistani equivalent of Bollywood.

HELL'S GROUND is indeed a fun movie, and it's interesting (and cool) because of its origin (i.e. being Pakistani) but THE LIVING CORPSE is head and shoulders better; Its allure goes way beyond being interesting just for the sake of its unusual background. It is a very good adaptation of the Dracula story on its own terms and I highly recommend it! Trust me, I'm a professional and I know what I'm talking bout. Now, smell my finger.




From Mondo Macabro's website:

In the 1960's, even Pakistan was swinging!
To prove it, here's this amazing version of the Dracula story from 1967. So hot it was banned on its original release.
The only Pakistani film ever to be rated "X" in its country of origin, this sizzling little gem is also the first Dracula film to include the shocking "baby stealing" scene.
This first ever official video release, taken from the only surviving negative, includes a host of exclusive extras.

Zinda Laash - The Living Corpse - is a film so rare that even the most exhaustive studies of vampire films don't mention it. Although the film caused a sensation on its release back in the 1960's, it was banned and all but forgotten...until now!

An absolutely essential purchase for vampire film afficionados...for horror film fans...and for anyone who likes their horror hot and spicy.
A LOST VAMPIRE CLASSIC AND A LANDMARK IN ASIAN HORROR MOVIES

From now on it's the crappy ordinary mail-service for me all the way!!!

Arghhh! For fuck's sake! I've been home all day cos I've been expecting a parcel from some stupid courier company. They said they'd be here between 8 AM and 4 PM and they never showed up. So I ring them and they go: "Our driver was there at 1 o'clock!" Whaaat!! I've been home all day and now I'm not even getting my parcel!! I live in a tiny flat with a loud door bell and NO backyard. There's no fucken way in Hell I wouldn't have heard the door bell!!! I'm pretty sure it's my tapes from a collector in Holland. The stupid fucks won't even deliver it again so either I pay tons of money and go all the way to fucking Copenhagen to pick it up or they return the parcel. Shit, fuck, cunt!!! The douchebag driver probably rang the wrong fucken door (I live on the third floor). Where is my gun, where is my roof!!! .\_/.

From one blogger to the rest of you...

...stop fucken using black for background colour!!! Argh!

I like black too, I listen to old The Cure records, I watch old Bela Lugosi movies, and I like hanging out in dark corners... but if I see one more blog that has white on black I'm gonna start shooting random people from my roof top!!! Please! NO MORE BLACK BLOGS!!!

Tom Waits at Rockpalast (German TV) '77

Dear friends, our guest at Rockpalast tonight: Tom Waits.

Imagine if television these days actually took time to show something as slow as this! Now everything has to be NOW! QUICK! FAST! YOUNG! FAMOUS! (or GET FAMOUS!). Thank God for YouTube.

New DVD-company: ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT

Usually all text here is by me, myself and glorious I but this post is by my friend Fred Anderson. This is immensely exciting!!! Fred has just launched a new video label for Asian worldweird films!!! I wish him the best of luck! We need more Onars and more Mondo Macabros!!!

If you wish to comment on Fred's post go to his blog here.

- Jack




By FRED ANDERSON

I’m kinda late here in the biz, just when everything is dying and we’re leaving DVD to VOD and similar stuff. But you know, I had to do it. I had to at least once try it, mostly because I want to see some of my favorite obscure movies on non-bootleg DVDs.

So let me introduce to you, ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT. And it’s possible to write with small letters too ;)

What I miss on the DVD-market is weird Asian movies, odd exploitation from Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and so on. We’re not talking the normal martial arts flicks, we’re talking trashier stuff, wilder stuff. Mondo Macabro, one of the best companies in the biz, has released some amazing Asian stuff – but I don’t even want to compare myself with them. I’m in a much more primitive league.

I bought the rights to two movies, and those two might be the only titles I release… we’ll see what happen. Here they are…

The Killer Elephants (Thailand, 1976)
One of my favorites, this ultra-cheap and ultra-entertaining action movie with superstar-hunk Sombat Metanee will blow your mind when it comes to trashy action. The concept with the movie is that one of the gangs has trained killer-elephants who stomps, crushes and causes havoc to the poor suckers that meet them! You can read my review here. The knocked-out-by-elephant-dick-scene is a classic ;)

Thunder of Gigantic Serpent (Taiwan/Hong Kong,1988)
Yes, Joseph Lao’s cut & paste classic finally out on DVD! For this movie Joseph Lai and Godfrey Ho used footage from a Taiwanese monstermovie, King of Snake, and edited it together with new footage with legendary Pierre Kirby. No Ninjas, but a lot of monster action (Moslar!!!), a terrible cute kid and not always fitting-footage with western actors running around. What’s there not to love?

These versions where prepared for the international video market in the Eighties, so they are in fullscreen and with English dubbing. I’m using digibeta masters directly from Joseph Lai. For The Killer Elephants I MIGHT also include a widescreen version, sourced from a German VHS tape. Because of the cost I will make these on DVD-R, professionally manufactured in a factory. You won’t see any difference from a normal DVD. I will try to include some extras, but more on that later.

I bought the rights for Scandinavia, so the plan is to have at least Swedish subtitles. I’m sure there won’t be any problems for you outside Scandinavia to buy them from some store that ships internationally. I'm just a small business, nothing big and fancy, doing this to be able to see my favorite movies out on disc.

Yeah, that’s it. Check back for more info about release dates, new homepage, coverart, specs and of course screenshots.

Please spread the word about Attackafant Entertaiment and I would be very happy :)

/Fred

Angelfist (Philippines, 1992)

Directors who remake their own films is not an unknown phenomenon and in 1981 Cirio H. Santiago remade his own film TNT JACKSON from 1974; The remake is called FIRECRACKER (aka Naked Fist), however, what is quite a bit of a novelty is that Santiago even remade the film again!!! I guess he liked the plot, ay. The third time was in 1992 and this time he called it ANGELFIST. All three films follow the same plot about a kick-ass girl who goes to the Philippines to seek revenge for the death of her sister. I watched the first two films years ago (on VHS) and tonight I finally got the chance to see the third film. Being a Filipino exploitation flick means it's sure to deliver in the entertainment department. However, I can't say making the same film again and again made Santiago get better at choosing great actors for his roles, haha.

Mein gott, Cat Sassoon, the "actress" (and I use the term in the most loose term possibly) who plays the lead character in ANGELFIST, is by far one of the worst actresses I've ever seen! I kid you not when I say it's 90 minutes of "what the fuck was Cirio thinking!!!" She can't act, she can't fight (altho the film claims she was a karate champion - yeah, probably in Bizarro World), and her tits and lips look as fake as any Barbie doll's you'll find at Toys R Us! Man, those tits look so stiff and pointy it's probably a good thing no one landed on them headfirst as I'm sure they could have punctured some poor sap's eyes!!! I'm not even kidding.

The guy who plays her love interest is well cast as he's every bit as crappy an actor as she is. I'm laughing my ass off here thinking about it! Having said that, I should point out many of their co-stars are actually pretty good, and we find good ol'e Filipino regular Henry Strzalkowski as a crooked cop. ANGELFIST is definitely entertaining but it's just not anywhere nearly as good as TNT JACKSON and FIRECRACKER.

PS: And in case you're wondering: Yes, Santiago also repeated the "main character gets attacked by bad guys in her hotel room while she's naked and kicks their ass (still while being naked)! LOL.

THE DVD:
The copy of ANGELFIST that I've just bought is a reg. 1 DVD. It's presented in the fullscreen format. The picture is pretty good not least when you consider that most of the Filipino films we can get our mitts on are old wobbly video releases. The only extras is a trailer and some short biographies + a couple trailers for other films. There are no subtitles.

It's ironic that out of the three versions that Santiago made this is the only of the films that has so far received a proper DVD release. Fortunately, Shout Factory have announced that they'll be releasing a bunch of Filipino films this year and two of them are TNT JACKSON and FIRECRACKER!


Henry Strzalkowski (on the right) with Darwyn Swalve (who was also in HANDS OF STEEL which has just been released by AWE/Njuta Films) roughing up Nick Nicholson in DEATH BOND (1988).

Killers on Wheels - on fan subbed DVD now

I wrote about the Shaw Brothers film KILLERS ON WHEELS when it was made available as a VOD only release in France. That release is a beautiful uncut and restored print but being French it only carries French subs. Now there's finally an English subbed version from the fans at FuSubs. They're not money greedy bootleggers but fans and their DVDs are cheap. Click the cool cover for full size.

Rutger Hauer with a shutgun

 

Arghh, check this trailer out! It's for the new upcoming movie HOBO WITH A SHUTGUN and it stars ol'e serial killer psycho (from the original THE HITCHER) Rutger Hauer! It looks pretty fucken awesome. At first I thought the poster looked like one of those fake ones, LOL. It seems it's genuine enough alright.

Thanks to Rammy who posted about it on Uncut.dk forum.

EDIT (23.08.2024): I've just seen the embedded video has been taken off my post and this very odd statement. "Complaint from the Government"!?!? Huh??? What government??? I'm in Denmark, they don't ban or censor film traileres here. The US government??? Very odd. Well, I'll just upload it directly to THIS post! ^_^ 

PS. PS. PS: Oh, I see what the problem was! I had my VPN set for Germany. I guess the trailer (maybe the whole film???) is banned in Deutschland. 

Here's the disclamber you get in Germany (or with a VPN):