Lisa Petrucci of SOMETHING WEIRD VIDEO reveals da goods in two parter podcast

Part one:  Part two:

  

Here's a brand new two part episode (April 2022) of a podcast called The Walter Paisley Movie House podcast. The guest is Lisa Petrucci of everyone's fan favourite video label Something Weird Video. I've never listened to this podcast before, and I only know of its existence because someone posted about the two episodes in the SWV fan group on facebook (actually I think it was Lisa Petrucci herself). 

The interview is pretty good, and Lisa has an interesting background story. And it is certainly good to see she is keeping Something Weird Video alive after Mike Vraney - the guy who started the company - passed away. I've only ordered directly from them maybe a dozen titles over the years due to fairly obstructive ordering procedures; For a long time they didn't take PayPal. And later they did decide to take PayPal, but only thru direct personal e-mails which took days to get thru. And of course now they don't take orders for physical formats from outside North America at all!! Some titles you can order for download, but the download versions are of a less good quality (according to Petrucci herself), and you don't get a cover with your downloaded film! 

I've never before wanted to order from their download catalogue, because I want physical copies to put on my shelves. However, I caved in and ordered a download recently. It was a film you can't get anywhere else. Not even via YouTube. I wrote to Lisa Petrucci and asked for a scan of the cover from their dvd-r version of the film (I'm positive they've got digital copies already - how else would they print out covers for the physical dvd-r versions) but the reply was a no can do. I love SWV but I'm not one to kiss ass and I'll call out annoying things when I see them - and this is annoying!!! Luckily, a collector in the US who had bought the physical version was kind enough to help me out and make a copy. But still. I can't rely on helpful fans for every download I might want to order. But, hey, forget about my being grumpy here and click that play button. It's a good podcast! 

Constipated Henry in sequel

I rewatched HENRY - PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, PART 2 (aka Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer 2: Mask of Sanity) last night. This time on blu-ray (Njuta Films, Sweden). I still can't make up my mind about it - do I like this or don't I. But no matter what, I've bought the fucking film three times! (fullscreen UK dvd, widescreen US dvd, and widescreen Swedish blu-ray)

It's a shit film compared to the original. And Neil Giuntoli is certainly no Michael Rooker. But as someone mentioned recently, if you're going to make a HENRY sequel without Rooker, Giuntoli is your best Henry. And yeah, I guess. When he's good in the film he's quite good. But there's just too many scenes where it was obvious the director said, "be Henry like Michael Rooker!" and he just looks like he's constipated. However, as a fun (and nasty) sequel it works alright. 

The question is just - should a "kinda good, kinda shitty" sequel exist to a fantastic original film? If they had called the film "Henrik - Portrait of a Mass Murderer" I would have no hesitation in barracking for it.  

PS: Be careful if you buy a reg. 1 dvd: there are two releases, one is heavily cut and one is uncut. The UK dvd is uncut (but fullscreen). The Swedish bluray is uncut and widescreen. 

Now, watch dese two different trailers (the top one being the longer, more nasty one):

PS: For some reason these two trailers have no avatar BUT they do work!

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Cronenberg - that's **David** Cronenberg - is finally back with a new body horror film

Teaser art poster

The last few years fans - well, at least I - have been looking towards Brandon Cronenberg for the latest kick in body horror. But it's rumoured (again: by me) that old man David sat down, watched his son's flicks, and thought to himself, "Ahh man, I should do body horror again!". He couldn't come up with a new title so he went back to his student films and - I guess - figured that nobody would remember he once used the title CRIMES OF THE FUTURE for an early short film. Oh well, we forgive you, Dave-oh cos we luuuv ya. And the two trailers look promising so I for one am certainly looking forward to CRIMES. It'll premiere at Cannes this year and premiere at cinemas in June. 

Watch both trailers, they're quite different: 

Kier-La Janisse and Lydia Lunch talk folk horror

I like Lydia Lunch's old band, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and some of her other stuff. She's pretty cool and interesting. She does her own podcast, "The Lydia Spin'', which is interesting if you look at her list of guests. However, when you actually listen to the show ... less so. I find it mind-numbingly boring to listen to their 20-30 minute intros often (but not always) about ... nothing really. Often just blah blah blah. And her male podcast partner, Tim Dahl, and his constant loud, fake laughter ... I wish there were a feature to block people on podcasts like you can block someone on facebook.

Anyhoo, here's a pretty good episode with Kier-La Janisse who did the (apparently huge, I haven't got it) booklet for the folk horror bluray box set that came out a few months back. Skip to ca. 18 minutes into the podcast where the interview starts, and hit the stop button once Dahl takes over and starts babbling about killer car films and animal killer films that he doesn't know anything about ("Did you invent the term 'folk horror'?" Argh!).

Direct link to the episode

PS: don't worry about the "part 2". There is really only this one new part. "Part 1" was a different interview from two yrs ago.

Original kill scene from KARETECI KIZ - without fake death scream

Someone - whoever they were - added a fake death scream to a certain kill scene in the Turkish revenge film KARETECI KIZ (1974) and it has become one of the funniest scenes on the internet in recent years. It's been out there for so long now that people think this is how the real scene plays out in the film. Well, it's not! This is an upload of the scene with its original audio from the Turkish print. It's still not a great scene by any means. It's still funny as hell. And the actor is still terrible. And the actress (Filiz Akin) still couldn't fight her way out of a paper bag. But ... it's a funky soundtrack and no death scream. 

PS: the film was dubbed into English and released as "Karate Girl" on vhs in various territories back in the day.

For a wee bit more info about the film check out this previous post on my other blog. 

   

Swedish vhs / English dub / Swedish subs / fullscreen

SHOCK CINEMA #61

There's a new issue of Steven Puchalski's Shock Cinema out. Good to see an old zine that still keeps going. I'm way behind getting these. I wish he would reprint the early issues in book form like with his early zine Slimetime.

SC homepage

Serial killer triple blu-rays in the mail

I haven't bought anything online in ages but I got these two blu-ray babies a couple of days ago; Three serial killer flicks, HENRY - PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER 1 & 2 and Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO. 

The HENRY - PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER blu-ray is from Njuta Films and, yes-yes-yes, I'm fully aware the Arrow people are going to release the film as well, but I don't care for their UHD version and the Njuta release has a second disk that includes the sequel! [EDIT: there is only one disc! Both films are on the same blu-ray disc] The Arrow release isn't going to include part 2. So there. I believe all the extras on the Njuta set are identical to the Dark Sky bluray.

By the way, I saw HENRY for the first time more than 30 years ago at the Scala Cinema in London (on a double bill with the original version of THE STEPFATHER). Since then I've got the film on various vhs tapes, several dvd's, and now bluray. Yeah, I quite like the film! I also own two dvd's of the sequel.

Hitchock's PSYCHO - I already own this on vhs, dvd and bluray, but this Nordic disk includes the new fully uncut print that was found in Germany. Obviously I had to have it! 
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PS: I got them both from cdon.dk, and the PSYCHO bluray is dead cheap there at the moment. 
PS.PS: No, HENRY 2 isn't a masterpiece but I thought it was alright. Better than its rep.

NB: HENRY har danske subs og det på trods af, at Njutas partner i Danmark, AWE, **ikke** har udsendt filmen herhjemme. Og jeg lader mig fortælle fra pålidelig kilde, at 2'eren er den uklippede udgave.

TIGER JOE now on English friendly blu-ray!

aka Fuga dall'arcipelago maledetto
Antonio Margheriti, Italy/Philippines 1982

For years I've been hoping that some label would release TIGER JOE on English friendly dvd or bluray, and finally (actually last year) a German label put it out on bluray - including the film's English audio!

 
I got the blu a couple of weeks back and it looks great. I haven't seen too much (any!) online talk about this. Maybe fans don't even know about this English friendly release AS THE COVER DOESN'T STATE IT CARRIES THE ENGLISH DUB. The cover says German and Italian audio! It doesn't actually have Italian audio but English.

 
TIGER JOE is a sequel (kinda) to THE LAST HUNTER. No, it's not quite as good, but I still like it a lot. It's got David Warbeck in the lead for crying out loud! 

 
The extras:
Audio commentary by Troy Howarth
16 page booklet (all in the Kaiser's German)
interview with Margheriti's son about these films (in Italian, subbed in English)
German & English audio. No subs for the film.

The version that I bought has a bluray and a dvd. Somebody mentioned there's also another German dvd release in English, but the cover for this bluray clearly states this is the first fully uncut German release, so be careful if you're looking to get another dvd release.

 
I got mine from D&T Mailorder in Austria. There are various different versions (different covers, same contents) but I think stock is getting low so be quick if you want one.

Trailer from Danish VHS tape (thanks to Diabolik) 

PHILIPPINE SOLDIERS: The Action Films of Teddy Page (with Andrew Leavold)

 

Alright, things are moving at a snail's pace here but at least I've got something GOOD for ya this time 'round: Simon Miller over at EXPLOSIVE ACTION blog and YouTube channel (with help from Andrew Leavold) has put together an awesome documentary video about Teddy Page's Vietnam War flicks. The doc runs just under an hour and you should check it out right away. The film actually had a (very) limited DVD-R release but needless to say it sold out right away. 

- Jack

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Description from Explosive Action: 

"TEDDY PAGE (real name Teddy Chiu) is one of my favourite trash film directors. Throughout the 1980s he made some of the most entertaining, low-budget, explosive action jungle films you will ever see. 

With the help of certified Weng Wengologist and Filipino film expert ANDREW LEAVOLD ("The Search For Weng Weng"), I explore the English language action films that Teddy churned out between 1983-1995.

My interest in Teddy Page's films started with Phantom Soldiers on Japanese VHS in 2010, and the obsession has only increased over the years, encouraged by the writings, documentaries, blogs and conversations with people such as:

Andrew Leavold: Bamboo Gods and Bionic Boys + The Search for Weng Weng

Paul Cooke (RIP): Ballistic Blood Bullets

David Zuelo: Tomb it May Concern

Jack Jensen: When the Vietnam War Raged... in the Philippines

This film was a passion project and labour of love over five months, and is my most detailed and intricate video yet with a lot of editing and sourcing of footage."

- Simon Miller

Thanks for the mention, Simon! 

And here's Andrew Leavold's description from his web-shop

"Filipino action fans rejoice! Our good friend in Sydney, Simon Miller (Explosive Action) has made this awesome mini-documentary on Filipino Z-grade action director Teddy Page (real name Teddy Chiu, aka Irvin Johnson etc)… and he invited me to participate! Almost an hour of blood, guts and exploding huts, with Simon’s commentary on each film (Blood Debts, Hunters Crossing etc), and me filling in the historical back-story of Teddy and Kimmy Lim’s no-budget action film factory Kinavesa/Silver Star. Simon has made ten hand-numbered copies on DVD – and Trash Video Archives has our exclusive mitts on numbers 6 to 10. So grab one now, as once they sell, they’re gone forever…"

- Andrew Leavold

Like I mentioned in the above they're already sold out!

Gutter Hunter #1 (Canada, 2021)

It's 5 in the morning here and I just ordered Robin Bougie's new zine, Gutter Hunter!! The first print run was sold out in five days from Robin's own website (in Canada), but a pile was sent by a slow moving steamboat to FAB Press in England. I've been waiting for two months for the zine to arrive and it's finally here - or rather there - at FAB Press' headquarters. Now I just have to wait to get it from FAB Press. Yah! Spiffy!! :D

Robin Bougie ran his zine Cinema Sewer for like 25 years or so, but last year he felt it was time to call it a day. The old mag dealt with 70s and 80s porn and exploitation films. This new zine is dedicated to underground comix.

As I write this the first issue is still available from FAB Press in the UK. £12 + pp. 100 pages.

Oh, and I just found some guy's cool review of the zine on YouTube. Check it out, cabron!