By Chris Jackson
Little more than one strange and bewildering scene after another from beginning to end, this 80-minute compilation of weird and obscure vintage horror trailers features almost everything you could ever need for a delightfully demented night in, from cheap and tacky drive-in B-movie fare to slightly more ambitious “serious” horror to goofy 80s horror comedies and beyond. Bear witness to forgotten relics like Nightmare Weekend, where home technology becomes sentient and starts killing people, Witchcraft 70, which purports to be a collection of hidden-camera footage from actual occult activities, a night of terror with The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy, and Splatter University, “where the school colours are blood red and not only the classes are cut”…
It’s always fun to see how films were promoted in days gone by, with tongue-in-cheek taglines (“in this game, the best prize you can win… is your life”) and creepy voiceovers warning you about the (unlikely, in all honesty) effects that viewing such material might have on weaker souls. As an added bonus, horror fans will almost certainly come out of the other end of this selection with a list of films to add to the collection.
Also included are a brain-melting schizophrenic 6-minute supercut of relentless screaming and shouting that rarely stays on one scene for more than a few seconds, and the “AGFA Horror Trailer Show: Videorage”. Presented like an otherworldly public access show, this is a 70-minute collection of no-budget shot on (and released straight to) video trailers, with added commercials and oddities from AGFA’s vault. Good fun all round, and a particular treat for the more deranged horror fans out there.
