Man.
Time DO fly!
Well, this isn’t much of a post, I’m embarrassed to say, but that’s okay: this hasn’t been much of a blog.But I thought I’d post something just before we enter 2012 and get distracted by various end of the world events…
So, recently, I bought the latest issue of Rue Morgue magazine, and one of the articles was about a film called CHILLERAMA, an anthology horror film set at a drive-in, featuring four films by four directors. I kind of skimmed the article but hadn’t read it yet, although, I did see that one of the films within a film involved some insane plot featuring, uh, deadly sperm. This bizarre film featured the work of writer/directors Adam Green (who did the feature film, FROZEN), Joe Lynch (WRONG TURN 2), Adam Rifkin (DETROIT ROCK CITY) and Tim Sullivan (2001 MANIACS). As far as I know, I haven’t seen any of their other work, but I recognized their names from various film magazine articles or other blog posts. In CHILLERAMA, much like Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s GRINDHOUSE tribute, these four filmmakers contribute a film apiece in a gleefully unhinged and unapologetically inappropriate homage to drive-in B-movie scare flicks. These filmmakers’ contributions to CHILLERAMA were, respectively: THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANKENSTEIN, ZOM-B-MOVIE, WADZILLA, and I WAS A TEENAGE WEREBEAR.
So, I was anxious to look this film up at my local video store or on Netflix.
Meanwhile, during my recent forays into Christmas shopping, I noticed a bunch of DVD titles at my local Walmart that were ridiculously priced (like, $5-$10). So, I had to stop by there today after work to buy some laundry detergent and I thought I’d see if any of those DVDs I scoped out earlier were still available.
Well, they had moved stuff around so I wound up basically just browsing through their DVD racks.
I did grab a 2-disc set of the CHUCKY sequels for $10 that I’ve been meaning to buy forever.
But then I came across the gorgeously illustrated DVD package of CHILLERAMA!
HOLY CRUD!
And only 10 bucks, too!
Now, a few years ago I had the impression that Walmart policy was to have this sort of “family value” reputation, and the most obvious example of that (to me, at least) was their policy of stocking CDs that only had edited lyrics. Now, I don’t know if this was true or not, or just something I mistakenly thought, but that was the impression I always had of the store. Maybe that WAS the policy but perhaps they’ve eased up on that.
Whatever.
So I found it to be weird and disorienting when I started seeing low-budget horror films in their bargain bins- specifically, four film collections of low-budget movies that sometimes seemed slightly unsavory. But, those were titles that sort of flew under the radar.
It was a much bigger shock earlier this year to see the remake of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE selling for $10 on the regular racks!
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE!
The title alone seemed incongruous of typical Walmart inventory. And as far as I could tell, it wasn’t some edited version, either; this was the whole film as released on DVD, and bargain priced, too!
So, stumbling across CHILLERAMA today was another screwy and pleasant surprise.
And really, the detailed, gorgeous caricature artwork on the DVD by Phil Roberts is worth the price alone.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to watching this film soon.
Alright, I might as well post this entry for now.
If I get my shit together, maybe I’ll have one more BEFORE tomorrow midnight, my official “last post of 2011”!
Uh… more than likely, though, I’ll try to post my “FIRST entry of 2012” soon(ish) AFTER midnight tomorrow…
Either way, I hope “you all” have a safe and enjoyable New Year celebration this weekend!
(Ha! Like, how big a readership do I really have???)