Hi there. Welcome back to the SHOCK-A-RAMA POSTER SHOW! Take a gander and see if anything strikes your fancy today.
GHOSTHOUSE (aka LA CASA 3) (Italian photobusta set):
Zowie! Color me SURPRISED. I came home from a little birthday road trip to discover a tube sitting on my front porch. Huh? I wasn't expecting any thing... It was from my friend Rosa in England. Oh my STARS! What an amazing, delightful and totally unexpected surprise. She had sent me a set of Italian photobustas for GHOSTHOUSE (aka LA CASA 3). NO WAY! I was so shocked and thrilled by her generosity. Golly---how EXCITING! THANK YOU sooooo much, Rosa! WOW!
For those unfamiliar with the LA CASA series, the first LA CASA was THE EVIL DEAD. That was followed by LA CASA 2 (EVIL DEAD 2). But the next LA CASA? You'd expect "ARMY OF DARKNESS," right? Wrong! Those wacky Italians decided to just cash in on the name and released several unrelated films as part of the LA CASA series. GHOSTHOUSE was LA CASA 3, the David Hasselhoff/Linda Blair turd WITCHERY is LA CASA 4 and Claudio Fragrasso's (the man behind "TROLL 2") BEYOND DARKNESS is LA CASA 5. Later (after they had already been released under other names) HOUSE 2 and THE HORROR SHOW were released as LA CASA 6 & 7.
The EVIL DEAD films aside, of the bogus LA CASA sequels, GHOSTHOUSE is hands down my favorite. It makes NO SENSE whatsoever. I love it. And it's just chuck full of Italy's idea of American culture at the time---so it's like 80's PLUS. Hilarious. And awful. But totally AWESOME.
THANK YOU so very much, Rosa! Zowie!
BURNT OFFERINGS:
I already have this poster. (I don't recall the characters along the top, though. A variant, perhaps?) I realize this poster is worth nothing. It was part of a "lot", so I didn't pay much / anything for it, really. I did genuinely like the movie and I have been to the house it was filmed out (near Oakland, California---NOT the East Coast as the movie says it takes place in. The same house was used in the original "PHANTASM" and "SO I MARRIED AN AX MURDERER".)
PARANOIA:
Another poster I already have... Ha!
I DISMEMBER MAMA / THE BLOOD-SPATTERED BRIDE (combo):
Yet another poster I already have several copies of... HA! I'm a sucker for gimmicks. I wish I had one of the "Up-Chuck Cups" given away for this showing. ARGH! I'm not sure if BLOOD-SPATTERED BRIDE had been released in the US before this release, but I DISMEMBER MAMA (which stars GERI REISCHL, aka "Fake Jan" from THE BRADY BUNCH VARIETY HOUR) was originally released briefly under the dull title "POOR ALBERT AND LITTLE ANNIE". The I DISMEMBER MAMA title is a much better alternate.
THE BURNING:
I already have a copy of this poster...probably more than one. Why did I buy another? I'm just stupid that way, I guess. I don't know if this movie ever played in my town or not. However, I had this poster on my ceiling as a teen in high school. Great image---the shadowy killer above and the naked couple making out in the water below. Ha! While I may not have seen this (until years and years later), I do remember reading about it in Fangoria Magazine. Ahh, Fangoria...
HORROR ON SNAPE ISLAND:
Surprise...I already have this poster, too. Ha! This was part of a lot and came with the I DISMEMBER MAMA combo poster. This one has fun art on it (Dig that head bouncing down the stairs). I saw this film, YEARS later when it was re-released and re-titled to cash in on the success of THE FOG. Then it was called BEYOND THE FOG. Ha! I knew it wasn't a true sequel, but for the producers to have the balls to try and pass it off as one, well, of COURSE I was curious and had to see it. It's an okay little thriller but dated and British--not American. A very young Robin Askwith is in it (He made those popular "Confessions of..." -- "Confessions of a Window Washer", "Confessions of a Pop Performer", "Confessions of a Driving Instructor", etc. -- British sex-comedy movies in the 70s as well as starring in the terrible spoof "Queen Kong"), so I knew it was an older movie in addition to being a fake sequel. Ha!
SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL:
I won this? I don't even really recall bidding on this (I was on vacation... Most of my pre-vacation bids were outbid). I certainly did not realize it was a porn film, but I do dig the artwork of the scantily clad woman cozying up to a large, smoking revolver.
KING KONG (2005):
If you were wondering who the idiot was who bought the alleged spear from the 2005 remake of "KING KONG" (despite the fact the "prop" label lists it as "2006"), I was that idiot. I saw the thing had a low bid amount and flipped out. I bid, sat back and...it was mine. Then I looked up all of the scenes with the natives in the film---and NO WHERE did I see anything remotely resembling this spear tip. Oh well. It joins my alleged prop "legs" that were supposedly from the original "TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE" and were later housed in the Movieland Wax Museum (I even have the bogus certificate of authentication to prove it. Ha!) I should have my own museum of fake props. Ha! However, this spear head has to be from somewhere. it may not be KING KONG, but somewhere. If I hang on to it long enough, I may be able to figure it out.
MATINEE:
Another vacation win. I probably already have this, but was not sure. I am a big William Castle fan (anyone want to please give me their HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL poster? It's the only Castle title I am lacking...). Castle, if you didn't know, was the king of the movie gimmicks in the 1950's and early 60's. THE TINGLER featured PERCEPTO (theater seats were wired to give tiny shocks during a key scene in the movie), MACABRE offered burial insurance in case theater goers died of fright watching the film. There was a PUNISHMENT POLL (audiences decided the fate of a villain), ILLUSION-O (ghost viewers that allowed you to see or not see ghosts of the screen), COWARD'S CORNER (if you were too afraid and wanted your money back....you had to sit in an area where the entire audience could see cowardly you), and EMERGO (a ghost floated over the audience at a key moment).
MATINEE was sort of a tribute to that era, with John Goodman playing a fictionalized version of Castle, Lawrence Woolsey. The movie is not great, but it is entertaining. The poster (which shows a theater marquee showing the fictional film within the film, "MANT"--Half Man / Half Ant!) is perfect. I'm thrilled to get it (if I didn't already have it, that is...).
THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1947 re-release):
This is my real "prize" of the lot---the thing I am most excited about (Rosa's present excepted). I know this is a re-release, but the artwork is different than the original release poster...and so much BETTER. I've been after one of these for ages. There's been one on eBay for about 2 or 3 times the amount I paid for this. Zowie! Although he is not listed below, Conrad ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "The Man Who Laughs") Veidt stars as the sinister Jaffar. Awesome.
That's all of the time (and posters) we have today. Thank you, as always, for visiting.
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