In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.
It occurred to me that I hadn't done a VHS intro in a while. Digging through my newer acquisitions, I discovered this identifier for A-Pix Entertainment.
The life of A-Pix was isolated almost entirely to the nineties. Much like PM Entertainment, A-Pix distributed mainly b-grade action films and soft core thrillers, though they did produce a few horrors like 1995's The Fear and Bill Lustig's Uncle Sam (which is where I pulled the above intro).
This particular VHS bestowed many gifts with five(!) trailers and this wonderful ad for the now-defunct The Horror Shop.
As far as I can tell, this company was tied to A-Pix and sold their merch in much the way Full Moon Pictures did. I found an earlier vid of theirs that included a toll free number before they'd made the jump to the World Wide Web!
Victoria Day Weekend - or as it is affectionately referred to, May two-four - is upon us once again and with that I bring you the VHS intro for Canadian distributor, Cinépix Film Properties.
As my post title would suggest, this is the second time I have featured C/FP. This logo above was the logo they used from 1997-1999, after which they were bought out and became Lions Gate Entertainment.
I talked about the many, many titles they put out in my first C/FP post from 2010, but I have since acquired this beauty below. Check it out in all its evil snowman goodness.
I decided to go big, and post the mother of all intros today. Here's the awesome ident for Cannon Films (complete with authentic tracking static).
Cannon Films was synonymous with home video. If you were renting B-movies back in the eighties, it would've been impossible for you to not come across that logo above. As you may know (especially if you've been following along with the Loose Cannons podcast), Cannon was established in the late sixties, but didn't really hit its stride until Israeli businessmen Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus took over in the late seventies.
They produced and distributed dozen of films that ranged from action pictures like Sho Kosugi's ninja trilogy (Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination) and Chuck Norris' action vehicles (Delta Force, Invasion USA) to crazy off-the-wall fare like The Apple.
I've got a pretty epic intro for you this time around. Check out this one for VC II Home Entertainment.
VC II was the non-pornographic off-shoot of VCX that dstributed a few dozen titles throughout the home video boom, including horrors such as Mardi Gras Massacre, Haunted and Night of the Demon.
This above intro was cribbed from my big box copy of The Prowler, which is pretty sweet in itself.
This week's VHS intro is a fairly deep cut, Comet Video.
I always think it a shame when there isn't a catchy jingle accompanying the visuals for these things. Comet was a smaller sub-label of the much more well known - and infamous - Continental Video. Comet distributed some of H.G Lewis' more notorious flicks like 2000 Maniacs and Blood Feast. As you saw, this intro was taken from my copy of Terror on Tape.
Though it is strange that my cover says “Studio One”, a company I could find no info about.
Anyway, I will attending Fright Night Theatre all weekend, so check back next week to hear of my exploits.
Good news, gang! I've decided to resurrect my VHS Company Intro feature. This will hopefully keep Fridays awesome in between episodes of VHS Fridays. To kick things off, I've got a great one for Trans World Entertainment.
Trans World Entertainment, or TWE, flourished during the home video boom and released over a hundred titles. Most were low-lent action movies involving ninjas, but they did distribute some notable horror titles including Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Maniac Cop and Troll 2. The intro above as cropped from my copy of Deep Space.
In their heyday, TWE also got into the production business, bringing forth such titles as Creature, I, Madman and The Curse. Perhaps most importantly though, they helped give us the kick-ass 1990 Dolph Lundgren vehicle I Come In Peace.
With Canada Day on the doorstep, it seems fitting that this
be the last in this batch of video intros.
Cineplex Odeon Home Video was the home distribution division
of the Canadian theatre chain of the same name. Founded in 1978 as Pan-Canadian
Film Distributors and based out of Toronto, it became Cineplex Odeon Films in
1986. In the early nineties, it was Canada’s largest independent film
distributor.
The above intro, a riff on their theatrical logo, was taken
from my VHS of Hardware and used on their tapes until 1990. A revamped logo was
then used until Cineplex was forced to scrap its distribution arm in 1998.
Cineplex Odeon was then folded into Alliance Atlantis, which itself was
absorbed by Entertainment One in 2013.
Even though their home video counterpart is gone,
Cineplex’s presence in Canada is still widely felt, as they – after swallowing
up Famous Players, Empire and the theatres built by AMC in their fifteen year
foray north of the border – now command more than seventy-five percent of the
theatres operating in Canada.
This week’s intro is for another tiny distribution company
from the eighties…
I wasn’t able to find much info on them, mainly because all
searches gave me a million results for that insipid vampire series from a few
years ago, but what I did find is that they released a half-a-dozen titles in
the eighties, including Haunts, The Milpitas Monster and The Queen of Black Magic.
The above logo was taken from my extra-crusty VHS of
Kiss Daddy Goodbye, which includes the first bit of the opening score from the
film.
The intro above was taken from my worn copy of The Scorpion With Two Tails, an old Sergio Martino flick starring John Saxon. Palisades was founded in the 1970's by Richard Grod and quickly became a notable distributor of cult “midnight” movies such as The Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Last House on the Left and Night of the Living Dead.
They also - in connection with my review of Felidae earlier this week - were responsible for releasing a few fringe animated titles such as Wizards, Fritz the Cat & Heavy Traffic. And unlike a lot of distributors that disappeared or got swallowed up after the home video boom, Palisades is still going strong.
For more info on Palisades Entertainment, including a visual history of the films they have distributed, click here.
I've got a dual video home video intro for you today.
Malofilm was a Canadian company that was started in 1983 in Montreal, Quebec that dabbled in both film and television production. It was named for its founder René Malo. They distributed almost two hundred titles in the Canadian market, including genre films such as Scanners, House II, Frankenhooker and Hide And Go Shriek. Malofilm (sans Malo after he retired due to illness in the late-nineties) is now currently operating under the name Seville Pictures.
The second intro, for RaeDon Entertainment Group, is far more infamous. Founded in 1987 and operating out of Southern California, they were known for making some of the worst movies of the home video boom, including Alien Private Eye, Death Collector and Brain Sucker.
The music heard during the RaeDon intro is the opening score from my copy of the 1987 horror anthology Chillers, which technically is a Troma picture, but distributed by RaeDon. I recall this being somewhat decent, but it has been over twenty years since I actually watched it, so who knows?
I can't really harp on RaeDon too much, as they did give me Rollerblade Warriors starring two of my favourite scream queens Kathleen Kinmont and Elizabeth Kaitan.
For more info on RaeDon's infamy, check out this great piece by Mike Malloy by clicking here.
This week's intro is for the home distribution company Video Gems.
I'm always sad when a company's logo is not accompanied by a jingle, but what can you do? Video Gems released distributed dozens of films in all different genre during the home video boom and due to their penchant for big box packaging, a lot of their wares are highly collectible today. Some of their more notable horror titles included The Blob, Love Me Deadly, Messiah of Evil and The Severed Arm. The above intro was culled from my VHS copy of The House of Seven Corpses.
By the time IVE was founded in 1986 by Noel C. Bloom, it already had a storied history, having previously been USA Home Video, which was responsible for, among other things, bringing the controversial Silent Night, Deadly Night to home video.
IVE released such genre titles as Angel Heart, Deep Star Six, Jacob's Ladder and also Jeff Lieberman's fifth feature Remote Control, the VHS of which the above intro was pulled. As a bonus, I have included the two other intros from the first scene when it goes all film within a film within a film!
In the early nineties, IVE became Live Home Video before being rebranded as Artisan Entertainment in 1998. Then a few years later, it was swallowed up by Lionsgate.
I've decided to bring back my vintage VHS intro feature from a few years ago. Yes, it took me that long to find another eight to pull from. I could've cribbed them from YouTube, but where's the fun in that?
So, at least for a little while, there will be a new intro here waiting for you every Friday morning. To start things of, here is the VHS banner for Charter Entertainment.
This was pulled from my recently acquired VHS of Brian Trenchard-Smith's 1986 flick The Quest. Charter was around for a few years in the mid-eighties. They distributed over seventy titles, including such horror titles as Slaughterhouse, God Told Me To, Manitou and I Was A Teenage Zombie. To see some Charter VHS covers, head on over to the incomparable Critical Condition.
For my previously posted home video intros, check the right hand sidebar, or click here.
This distributor logo I have for you today, is from a Canadian budget label called Interglobal Video.
Interglobal thrived in the eighties by releasing titles of all genres in the lesser quality LP & SLP formats. According to the VHS archive site Critical Condition, it was common for their tapes to cut out before the movie was even finished!
I also had a tingle of nostalgia when I saw Avenging Disco Godfather among the list of their releases, as that coverbox was a big hit at my store back in the day. For more Interglobal covers, click here.
Seeing The Tower the other day prompted me to learn more about the company that could have spawned such a “special” film. Here is the intro for Emmeritus Productions.
Emmeritus was a Hamilton, Ontario based company that made ultra-low budget features for local television station CHCH during the 1980’s. When I looked them up on Imdb, I was elated to find they had quite the catalogue, many of which I remembered from my coverbox browsing days. Boasting titles such as Shock Chamber, Blue Murder, The Hijacking of Studio 4, Ladybear & Niagara Strip, how can my interest not be piqued? You can be sure I will be actively searching for anything from these guys from now on.
For more info on Emmeritus, check out this awesome article about them on Canuxploitation.com, which includes several coverboxes and a promo video.
I was hoping for a jingle there, but oh well. Continental Video was one of the premiere purveyors of gore and sleaze in the eighties, so it’s no wonder a good number of their titles, like Nightmare, The Slayer, Frozen Scream and Blood Feast, ended up on Britain’s Video Nasties list. Continental also released horror titles under the banner of Comet Video for a time, as well.
When I said big ‘un earlier, I not only meant their significance to the home video market, but also their merchandising. Continental was known for their “big box” packaging. You could immediately spot their wares on store shelves, even before you were close enough to make out their gruesome covers. They also released some of their titles as double bills, with two of their movies on one tape. The above intro was culled from this recently acquired two-pack of The Slayer and Scalps.
It’s busted up to hell I know, but how fucking cool is that? It just arrived on Tuesday, so I’ve only watched the first ten minutes, but it’s pretty rough. The two features are each cut down to seventy-five minutes to fit onto one cassette, so lets hope it’s not the gore that got axed. Even so, just the sweet packaging is worth the fifteen bucks I paid for it.
Another infamous Continental Video title was Terror on Tape. In an attempt to push their product, they produced what was basically a clip show of gory moments from their back catalogue. Bloody snips from titles such as Return of the Alien’s Deadly Spawn, City of the Walking Dead, Blood Tide, Ruby and H.G. Lewis’ Blood Trilogy were shown alongside scenes – shot on video in likely an afternoon – of Cameron Mitchell hamming it up as a video store clerk serving customers looking for scary movies. Here's a clip below, courtesy of YouTube user MrBBJane, featuring Mitchell and scream queen Michelle Bauer.
God, that brings back memories. I think I first watched this movie at a sleepover, along with Jim Hanley's Junior. Good times.
It's Canada Day here, so I thought I'd throw up a bonus home video intro that is appropriate to the occasion.
Canadian Video Factory and Nova Home Video existed from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties. Due to cross-border rights issues, it would often be necessary for domestic companies to release titles north of the border. As is the case with Rage To Kill, which had also had yesterday's A.I.P logo following those above. A few other titles to be released by Nova were Suspiria, The Dead Pit and Xtro II.
Unfortunately, these licensing issues still exist today, as Netflix Canada still only offers a fraction of its American counterpart. Can't we all just get along?
Founded in the mid-eighties by David A. Prior and a few other filmmakers of similar repute, A.I.P. was an independent that dealt exclusively with low-rent, straight-to-video titles. Even though the majority of their catalogue would have resided in my old store’s “Super Action” & “Wild Action” sections, they did release a few horrors like Elves, Hellmaster, Savage Lust, Island of Blood and Soultaker, starring Joe Estevez & Robert‘Maniac Cop’Z’Dar. Like several other companies of the era, A.I.P. fizzled out about a decade later.
The above intro was taken from my VHS of Rage To Kill, starring B-movie icons Oliver Reed and Cameron Mitchell.
