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EVILS OF THE NIGHT FINALLY BACK ON VHS

EVILS OF THE NIGHT FINALLY BACK ON VHS December 30 2014 | POSTED BY Nicole Mikuzis

1985’s exploitation gem EVILS OF THE NIGHT makes its triumphant return to VHS this month as part of Gorgon Video’s desire to reunite genre fans with underseen films from the past. Featuring original cover art in a classic “big box” style plastic clamshell, this Special Edition of EVILS OF THE NIGHT makes the perfect addition to any VHS collection.

Directed by Mardi Rustam (co-writer of Tobe Hooper’s EATEN ALIVE), EVILS OF THE NIGHT embraces exploitation like few films of the 1980s. Shot on a micro- budget, the film was able to secure a then unheard-of cast for a feature of its size, including Aldo Ray (THE GREEN BERETS), Neville Brand (LAREDO), John Carradine (THE GRAPES OF WRATH), and TV legends Julie Newmar (“Batman”) and Tina Louise (of “Gilligan’s Island” and Dark Sky Films’ LATE PHASES).

The wildly unconventional plot follows a trio of vampire aliens (Carradine, Newmar, and Louise) who travel to Earth in search of human blood – the only thing in the universe that offers their species eternal youth. Upon arriving, they recruit two dim- witted rural mechanics (Ray and Brand) to abduct a group of even more dim-witted teenagers for their sinister harvest. Taking them to an abandoned hospital, the aliens and mechanics gleefully drain the teens of their red stuff – but it isn’t long before their evil plot is found out and the remaining kids hatch a scheme to stop them dead in their tracks! Featuring hilarious special effects and plenty of 80s splatter, EVILS OF THE NIGHT was quite appropriately dubbed a “Teen Sex Comedy- Slice 'N' Dice Thriller” by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution upon its original release there.

Featuring a stellar score by Robert O. Ragland, composer of Q: THE WINGED SERPENT and the Blaxploitation classic ABBY, this stellar Limited Edition VHS the only way to witness one of the 1980’s most absurd, carefree, and just plain crazy exploitation films!

Order your copy HERE

FACES OF DEATH: FACT OR FICTION?

FACES OF DEATH: FACT OR FICTION? October 20 2014 | POSTED BY Nicole Mikuzis

To this day, the name FACES OF DEATH inspires fear and awe in filmgoers around the world. Banned by authorities from Australia to Germany, the sheer brutality and shock value of Conan LeCilaire’s mondo classic is both staggering and awe-inspiring – a true testament to the dark ingenuity of the young director and his still-lost crew.

While LeCilaire eventually opened up about his involvement in the movie, virtually every member of the crew – most all of whom used fake names – has remained silent about his or her work on the controversial classic.

Is it because such a large number of the deaths in the movie are real, and that even some of the staged scenes have yet to be proven fake? Did governments’ rampant banning of the film across the world, or the furor it created upon its release in 1978, keep LeCilaire’s crew quiet? Or are there even more secrets behind the creation of FACES OF DEATH that, nearly 40 years later, we have yet to uncover?

What do we know as the truth? We’re certain of John Allan Schwartz’s involvement, which included writing the film under a different pseudonym and appearing as a cannibalistic cult leader in one of the movie’s staged segments. We know that actor Michael Carr portrayed the film’s ghoulish narrator, Francis B. Gröss, who would go on to appear in a number of the film’s sequels. And we also know that various scenes, such as the monkey brains and jailhouse execution, were staged – but no one knows who the actors in these segments were.

Shortly after the film’s release in 1978, whistleblowers came forward to claim that several of the staged scenes were actually real, and that the reason actors and actresses were not noted was because we’d just witnessed their deaths on film! As the film picked up steam on the midnight movie circuit, differing opinions over the authenticity of certain scenes became more passionate – and intense.

In a modern world where death is all too prevalent in our media, FACES OF DEATH continues to thrill, terrify, and inform – having become more than just a film, but a landmark of human extremes that still carries with it many unanswered questions.

Now nearly 40 years old, Gorgon Video celebrates the mondo masterpiece – re-releasing the groundbreaking exploitation classic on VHS with its original box art.

BEWARE THE OLD SAWYER HOUSE:  A history of the Williamson County Manor

BEWARE THE OLD SAWYER HOUSE: A history of the Williamson County Manor September 11 2014 | POSTED BY Ted Geoghegan

One of the most striking, iconic images in Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE is the lonely white farmhouse that Leatherface and his deranged family call home. And although it was thrust into the public eye upon the release of the film, the stately manor has a stunning history all its own – and continues to thrive forty years after its brush with fame.

 

No one knows exactly when the home was built, but local records claim it was constructed sometime around 1909. Raised on the top of Kit Hill, north of Austin and just inside the Williamson County border, the house was an immediate attention-grabber. With twelve-foot ceilings, a complex rooftop featuring a private balcony, and a stunning front entryway and staircase, the lavish cottage manor quickly became a jewel of the area even though its architect, George Franklin Barber, was known for creating “kit homes”, which regularly featured the same layout. Numerous manors across Texas - also designed by Barber - are practically mirror images of it, and are regularly mistaken for the CHAIN SAW home.

 

The house had numerous owners over the years, all of which tended to the ample Texas farmland surrounding it. For decades, it was owned by Robert and Nina Sellstrom, who ultimately retired from the farm life and sold the home and property in 1971. New homeowners promptly rented the estate to a series of families, but unwittingly thrust the abode into cinematic history when they allowed filmmaker Hooper and his motley crew of filmmaking rebels to shoot in it during the sweltering Summer of ’73.

 

The CHAIN SAW crew had been looking for a desolate home to shoot in for quite some time, and heard about the Williamson County Manor through mutual friends on a local softball team. Several grueling weeks in the dilapidated, scorching house hardened the film team, but the results – as film history has proven – were well worth the agony. THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE was released in 1974 to massive success, and turned the home into an instant tourist attraction.

 

From the moment the film debuted, horror fans flocked to the manor. It remained a rental property throughout the 1970s and 80s, and welcomed hundreds of fans every year, wanting a glimpse of Leatherface’s stomping grounds. Unfortunately, by the mid-90s, unscrupulous types began vandalizing the home, and it wasn’t long before the once-grand manor had fallen into disrepair.

 

Ironically, the house’s salvation would come at the hands of numerous chainsaws, which were used to dice the estate home into seven pieces and move it off its original foundation in 1997. Finding a new home on the Texas landscape, the manor was reassembled in nearby Kingsland, at the Antlers Hotel compound, owned by Austinites Barbara and Dennis Thomas. Once situated there, Anthony Mayfield restored the home as an eatery, opening it initially as the Four Bears Restaurant and, since 2012, operating it as the Grand Central Café.

 

Visitors to Leatherface’s home are always welcome, and additional information on stopping by manor can be found at www.kingslandgrandcentral.com

 

And for those looking to experience the horror of Tobe Hooper’s horror masterpiece at home, the incredible 4K restoration of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE – celebrating the film’s 40th anniversary – is now available on DVD and BluRay.

BASED ON A MOSTLY-TRUE TRUE STORY

BASED ON A MOSTLY-TRUE TRUE STORY August 29 2014 | POSTED BY Ted Geoghegan

Since its release to cinemas forty years ago, THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE has infamously touted itself as being “based on a true story.” Although Leatherface and the bloodthirsty Sawyer clan never actually existed, the central inspiration for the film is widely-known to be Wisconsin-based murderer Ed Gein. A ghoulish bodysnatcher who eventually graduated to murder and cannibalism, Gein’s penchant for crafting furniture and clothing out of human remains was a huge creative inspiration to CHAIN SAW writers Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel.

Another much lesser-known inspiration, however, bears a frighteningly closer semblance to the murderous family in the 1974 horror classic.

Alexander Bean was born in East Lothian, Scotland near the start of the 15th century. Nicknamed “Sawney” – an antiquated nickname for a Scotsman – Bean was a troubled young man who had no desire to follow in his family’s hard-working footsteps. Instead, he married a disturbed young woman with a penchant for violence – and their combined devilish, illegal behavior soon forced them into hiding.

Much like CHAIN SAW’s Sawyer clan, the Beans decided that the more remote a location, the better their chances of survival would be. Refurbishing a massive coastal cave outside the town of Bennane Head, “Sawney” and his wife had eight sons and six daughters, who then produced eighteen grandsons and fourteen granddaughters through incest – creating a massive, 48-member inbred family incapable of interacting with the outside world.

“Sawney” and his ghoulish kin hid inside their massive cave by day, and ventured out only at night. Taught nothing but crime by their power-mad patriarch, the Bean family would brazenly kidnap, rob, and murder any seaside travelers unfortunate enough to cross their evil path. And shockingly, much like the lethal family in CHAIN SAW, the bodies of their unfortunate victims were dragged home and devoured.



After a monstrous crime spree that lasted twenty-five unimaginable years, the Bean family had murdered so many people that King James VI of Scotland put together a manhunt to track down the culprits. When their remote cave home was finally uncovered, the inside was reportedly littered with the remains of over one thousand people.

“Sawney” and his family were gathered up and promptly executed, but their legend lives on in Scottish folklore, and through films such as THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and THE HILLS HAVE EYES, which was also based on the evil brood.

The Beans’ horrific exploits may seem unreal, and in many ways, far more brutal and unbelievable than the films based on them. One thousand victims, after all, is a tough tally – even for Leatherface and his ilk.

And while many historians question whether Bean and his family truly existed – or are an amalgam of earlier tales – even more in Scotland stand firm that they were, in fact, quite real. The story of “Sawney”’s life, family, and gruesome acts was recorded in The Newgate Calendar, a detailed monthly bulletin of executions at London’s Newgate Prison, where the prolific sociopath had his hands and feet cut off and subsequently bled to death.

The truth, as they often say, is stranger – and more horrifying – than fiction.

11 Facts about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

11 Facts about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre August 11 2014 | POSTED BY Ted Geoghegan

The most incredible restoration in the history of horror cinema hits DVD and BluRay on September 16th. The all-new 4K digital transfer of Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE arrives with a newly created 7.1 surround sound mix supervised by the director himself, and is ready to terrify a whole new generation of horror fans!

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this uniquely terrifying masterpiece, we’re sharing eleven incredible, little-known facts about the original TEXAS CHAIN SAW!

11) Several of the human skeletons seen in the film were real. The cash-strapped production found that purchasing real bones from India was far less expensive than buying realistic plastic ones!

10) The late Jim Siedow is the only actor to appear in both the original and the 1986 sequel.

9) Comedic actor John Laroquette, best known for his role on the sitcom “Night Court” started his career as the film’s opening narrator. He appreciated the opportunity so much, he came back to narrate the 2003 remake and its 2006 prequel.

8) Also, according to John Laroquette, the actor’s payment for providing the film’s opening narration, was a single marijuana joint.

7) Leatherface might not look very smart, but actor Gunnar Hansen, who plays him in the film, is actually a poet with two graduate degrees. He’s also well-known for his friendliness, and loves meeting his fans.

6) The crew taped over the logo of the Poulan 245A chainsaw used in the film, fearing that the manufacturer might try to sue them for portraying their product in a negative light!

5) Despite being banned in several countries due to its violent content, CHAINSAW earned over $30 million at the box office on a budget of under $100,000, making it a huge independent success.

4) Who says making movies is easy? With such a small budget, the cast and crew shot for up to 18 hours a day, every day. The average temperature in Texas during the Summer they were filming was 102 degrees!

3) Director Guillermo Del Toro (HELLBOY, PACIFIC RIM) claims that after viewing the film, he became a vegetarian!

2) Much of the blood seen on Marilyn Burns when she is being chased by Leatherface is actually her own. She cut herself on numerous branches and dry undergrowth, but chose to keep running!

1) Although famously based on true events, there never was an actual “Leatherface.” The film is actually very loosely based on the crime spree of Wisconsin-based sociopath Ed Gein (whose chainsaw-less true story also influenced PSYCHO), mixed with the Scottish legend of Sawney Bean and his cannibalistic family.

 

 

ROOMMATES WANTED:

ROOMMATES WANTED: August 03 2014 | POSTED BY Todd Wieneke

Beg, steal or borrow your way into buying this disc: THE ROOMMATES and A WOMAN FOR ALL MEN are finally coming to dvd as a colossal double-feature! These long-lost General Film Corporation releases, masterfully helmed by Arthur Marks (Bonnie’s Kids, Detroit 9000, JD’s Revenge, Bucktown) and starring the likes of Roberta Collins, Pat Woodell, Judy Brown, Andrew Robinson and Alex Rocco have been newly transferred in 2K from the original 35mm negatives, and are presented with bonus features exclusively created for this release. More details to come but for now, enjoy the beauty of the opening minutes of THE ROOMMATES:

 

 

 

It Came From The Basement:  It’s the art, Dammit!

It Came From The Basement: It’s the art, Dammit! June 02 2014 | POSTED BY Nicole Mikuzis

Part of VHS’ enduring appeal is the emotional connection to the artwork that graced the large clamshell cases. This was art with a capital “A” -- pre-computer, pre-photoshop; home-grown, hand-painted, full color renderings of the mayhem and murder contained within the film itself. Artists created their visions on canvas in various mediums which were then sent to full service printing studio for photos, reduction, typeset and print and soon thereafter the store shelves.

Last year we discovered several gorgeous pieces of original artwork from Gorgon’s earliest releases. We are hoping to uncover more, and if we find enough of them we’d love to organize gallery exhibit devoted to the early art of VHS marketing! Write us if you have any information or materials you’d care to share. 

Also look out for limited-edition screen-print versions of the below pieces. Can you identify the releases associated with the art?


 

 

 

Death Spa VHS available now!

Death Spa VHS available now! May 19 2014 | POSTED BY Nicole Mikuzis

You asked for it, we listened. Last month, we gave you DEATH SPA on Blu-ray & DVD, but you wanted more. For all you Tapeheads out there, we bring you DEATH SPA on VHS in the classic clamshell case, nonetheless. 

Exclusive to the Gorgon Video shop. CHECK IT OUT!

We’re big time! Coming soon, a release starring STALLONE and MITCHUM!

We’re big time! Coming soon, a release starring STALLONE and MITCHUM! May 18 2014 | POSTED BY Brian Dillon

Ah, nuts, it’s Frank Stallone and Chris Mitchum…

Be on the lookout for our upcoming release of Carl Monson’s “masterpiece” of 80s sleaze cinema, SAVAGE HARBOR, aka DEATH FEUD, a timeless tale of the love between a heroin-addicted prostitute, a sailor on shore leave and his bestest boozing buddy/martial artist sure to please the entire family.  

Hey, is that Lisa Loring aka Wednesday Adams? Why, yes, it is.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer Fast Fact

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer Fast Fact May 18 2014 | POSTED BY Nicole Mikuzis

The original poster art for HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER was created by none other than Joe Coleman, a fine artist whose work is highly sought-after and commands lofty prices internationally. The original painting now resides in the private collection of HENRY director (and art aficionado) John McNaughton. 

Oddly enough, our first exposure to Mr. Coleman came via our VHS release of Mondo New York, an unusual shockumentary on the underground performance art scene of mid-1980s NYC. Mr. Coleman appears in a live performance piece in which he ignites a brick of firecrackers strapped to his chest and bites the heads off of live mice, leaving shocked audience members running for the doors... ah, art!

The piece was so shocking that the film’s release was delayed due to a lawsuit filed by “The Price Is Right” figurehead and animal rights activist Bob Barker. In the end, Bob lost and we... won?