Every year on a movie collecting forum website I am a member of, AllPosterForum.com (or just APF) they put up a post inviting members to list their favorite purchases for the year. Here is my contribution to the post from 2015, the first year I was a member and participated:
Here're my Top 10 for 2015 in descending order:
10. THE SLAUGNTER (?) (Ghana):
Oh my stars! I was late to the Ghana thang. I know it's been somewhat of a phenomena for a while now, but iIonly learned of the whole thing this year. I saw some of them and they were just so awful/unique/primitive/cool I really wanted one...but they were going for hundreds and thousands of dollars! Yikes!
I was watching this one for a while...It would come up and not sale, come up and not sale. I wasn't sure if it was because the title was obviously misspelled (The Slaugnter? Maybe The Slaughter? But what is The Slaughter?) or something. The price was the lowest I have ever seen a Ghana poster and I decided to go for it. I'm glad I did. Not only is it just so groovy ghoulie cool, it's an original painting (on a rice flour sack!). There's not another one like it. I am also thinking it's a zombie flick, possibly THE zombie flick; ZOMBIE based on elements in the poster. Wow! Wow! WOW! I can NOT wait to get this puppy framed and on the wall.
9. BLOOD FEAST
Nothing so appalling in the history of horror! Zowie! Here is a Bucket List poster--the original gore film, Herschell Gordon Lewis' seminal BLOOD FEAST!!!! This is a gorehound's holy grail...well, ONE of them anyway! Until this flick, the screen had never been so filled with blood and gore, Playboy Playmate Connie Mason stars in this mid-60s drive-in epic. Lewis followed this up with titles such as TWO THOUSAND MANIACS, COLOR ME BLOOD RED, THE WIZARD OF GORE, THE GORE-GORE GIRLS and others. He also made nudie cuties such as GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BARES, B-O-I-N-N-G!, and softcore soap operas like SUBURBAN ROULETTE and SCUM OF THE EARTH!
8. NEKROMANTIK (German):
When I first saw this film 15 or 20 years ago (whenever it came out), I never dreamed I'd someday own the poster for it as it was a German film that premiered on video here. At the time I was only buying U.S. one sheets. I wouldn't have had a clue back then of how to even go about obtaining a foreign poster. It was only after joining APF that I dared to stick my toes into the international poster field...and voila! I now have this creepy, ghoulish classic! Stunning!
7. THE TINGLER
This was one of my "possible dreams"/Bucket List posters that I scored over the past year. Hooray! I love gimmicks, so naturally the posters for the gimmick-rich horror films of William Castle would be in my sights. I now have most of his major gimmick horror movie posters--except one (the most expensive one of all. YIKES!), The Tingler has eluded me for decades. The gimmick for the film was that during the movie this creature (the titular tingler) was supposed to break out of the screen and into the audience. If it got you the only thing you could do to save yourself was to SCREAM! When the tingler escaped, the screen went black. Only Vincent Price's narration, telling audiences to scream for their lives could be heard...as well as the screams from those attacked by the tingler!!! (Well, the attacking tingler was really the gimmick of the movie, Percepto! Percepto was just a small low-volt shocks administered to the bottom of the seats of unsuspecting theater goers! That sure scared the yell out of them). FABULOUS!!!
6. BEACH PARTY
Yes, believe it or not, this was another "possible dreams"/bucket list poster, I have had all of the other BEACH PARTY sequel posters (and several wanna be knockoffs) for years--but the original was always out surfing me at auction. I always wiped out at the last minute. Argh! But this little beach bunny is finally mine. The first and BEST of the Beach Party flicks!
Nothin' is better than the sand, surf, and salt air.
Unrack our boards just as soon as we get there.
Stack 'em in the sand 'til they're breakin' just right.
Yea, we're surfin' all day and we're swingin' all night.
Vacation is here... BEACH PARTY tonight!
Yes, I know the lyrics. Ha! Here, you can sing along with Frankie and Annette yourself (and tell me how much hairspray Annette has to have on her big 'do as they zoom down Hwy 1. Man!):
5.THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU
I'm still not sure how I feel about getting this poster--but it's on my Top 10 list anyway, because (I think) I SHOULD be excited about it. When it was auctioned off on eMovie earlier this year, they said it was "rare" and the first one sheet for the movie they had ever auctioned off. It does star Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre, too...you can't go wrong with them; it's just the condition of the poster that has me uneasy. I don't want to linenback it--but it needs some help. Someone suggested a "gel backing" (and that sounds promising, the little I've read on it so far), but I just don't know if that will be enough. Hmm. It is nice--just a little rougher than I like 'em.(And that tape stain in the top center is going to drive me bonkers!)
4. SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS:
Yes, this is actually on my list for favorite purchases for 2015. Amazingly this was also on my "possible dreams" bucket list. I have been after one of these for years...they've always eluded me and the prices have slowly risen over the years... I nabbed this one though, while the nabbing was good. You spell it S-A-N-T-A C-L-A-U-S, Hooray for Sant-y Claus!!! Zowie! And starring a pre-pube (barely) Pia Zadora who is painted GREEN! Awesomeness!
3. WHITE SLAVES OF CHINATOWN:
This would probably have been No. 2 on my list, if the whole ordeal of getting it had been a better experience. I have been searching for this poster for years. You almost never see them. This is probably the rarest poster I bought this year---and I somehow ended up buying THREE of them. WTF!?! Those who visit my thread may remember how I had battled to win the first one that came up on eMovie--and won it...only to be told afterwards that there was an error in the listing and the poster had been trimmed by an inch on the bottom. I gave the poster up...but battled for it a second time when it came up for auction again (this time clearly labeled it was trimmed). I paid way too much and was not happy with the trimmed poster.
Then one came up in the Everett Auction--untrimmed. Another costly bidding battle ensued and I got it for far too much money. It was untrimmed, but it was also kind of beat up.
A third one came up for in a lot on eBay. It was really thrashed, but for some reason I could not let it go. $80 later, the trashed one was mine as well.
Three of the same poster--not happy with any of them really...but I finally have one...er, THREE! This is the Everett copy below (it looks in better shape than it really is):
2. THE MAN WHO CRIED WOLF:
Oh man, I could NOT leave out this gorgeous poster from the old Universal thriller from 1937. While it's not one of the classic monster films, it's still of the period and I think it is just gorgeous! I got this early in the year, just days before I was accepted into APF. This would probably have been my No. 1 favorite poster, but this was something I just stumbled on. (No. 1 had been on my radar for decades!). I can't wait to get this one framed and up too. Look at the color and the lettering. Wow! Gorgeous, I tell. Just GORGEOUS!
1. KING KONG (1956 Re-release):
Since I'll never be able to afford an original KING KONG, this was my ideal alternative, the 1956 re-release poster. This had been at the top of my "possible dreams" bucket list forever...until last summer when it became mine. While I paid too much money for it (this was the MOST expensive poster I ever purchased. With auction fees, shipping, etc. on top of the sell price, it was more than $1,000. Yikes! When it got here, I was feeling a little bit ripped off as I thought the grading had been exaggerated somewhat (hmm). But it is still a gorgeous poster. And it's mine--FINALLY!
Oh man! This list was far harder than I thought it would be. I've had to delete several things in favor of others! Golly! This was an exceptional movie year for me, I guess. There were so many good posters this year...So many bucket list posters, too! Just some of the things I had to leave off include the original JAWS, the super rare 2012 and 2013 HALLOWEEN re-releases, giant monster movies like REPTILICUS, VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE and KONGA, wonderful cheese like MOVIE STAR AMERICAN STYLE, my beautiful and different BEYOND THE DOOR poster or any of the stunning Thai posters I now own.
When you have too many good posters to fit into your Top 10, you know it was a good poster year! May 2016 be an even BETTER poster year for ALL of us!
CHEERS!
Here're my Top 10 for 2015 in descending order:
10. THE SLAUGNTER (?) (Ghana):
Oh my stars! I was late to the Ghana thang. I know it's been somewhat of a phenomena for a while now, but iIonly learned of the whole thing this year. I saw some of them and they were just so awful/unique/primitive/cool I really wanted one...but they were going for hundreds and thousands of dollars! Yikes!
I was watching this one for a while...It would come up and not sale, come up and not sale. I wasn't sure if it was because the title was obviously misspelled (The Slaugnter? Maybe The Slaughter? But what is The Slaughter?) or something. The price was the lowest I have ever seen a Ghana poster and I decided to go for it. I'm glad I did. Not only is it just so groovy ghoulie cool, it's an original painting (on a rice flour sack!). There's not another one like it. I am also thinking it's a zombie flick, possibly THE zombie flick; ZOMBIE based on elements in the poster. Wow! Wow! WOW! I can NOT wait to get this puppy framed and on the wall.
9. BLOOD FEAST
Nothing so appalling in the history of horror! Zowie! Here is a Bucket List poster--the original gore film, Herschell Gordon Lewis' seminal BLOOD FEAST!!!! This is a gorehound's holy grail...well, ONE of them anyway! Until this flick, the screen had never been so filled with blood and gore, Playboy Playmate Connie Mason stars in this mid-60s drive-in epic. Lewis followed this up with titles such as TWO THOUSAND MANIACS, COLOR ME BLOOD RED, THE WIZARD OF GORE, THE GORE-GORE GIRLS and others. He also made nudie cuties such as GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BARES, B-O-I-N-N-G!, and softcore soap operas like SUBURBAN ROULETTE and SCUM OF THE EARTH!
8. NEKROMANTIK (German):
When I first saw this film 15 or 20 years ago (whenever it came out), I never dreamed I'd someday own the poster for it as it was a German film that premiered on video here. At the time I was only buying U.S. one sheets. I wouldn't have had a clue back then of how to even go about obtaining a foreign poster. It was only after joining APF that I dared to stick my toes into the international poster field...and voila! I now have this creepy, ghoulish classic! Stunning!
7. THE TINGLER
This was one of my "possible dreams"/Bucket List posters that I scored over the past year. Hooray! I love gimmicks, so naturally the posters for the gimmick-rich horror films of William Castle would be in my sights. I now have most of his major gimmick horror movie posters--except one (the most expensive one of all. YIKES!), The Tingler has eluded me for decades. The gimmick for the film was that during the movie this creature (the titular tingler) was supposed to break out of the screen and into the audience. If it got you the only thing you could do to save yourself was to SCREAM! When the tingler escaped, the screen went black. Only Vincent Price's narration, telling audiences to scream for their lives could be heard...as well as the screams from those attacked by the tingler!!! (Well, the attacking tingler was really the gimmick of the movie, Percepto! Percepto was just a small low-volt shocks administered to the bottom of the seats of unsuspecting theater goers! That sure scared the yell out of them). FABULOUS!!!
6. BEACH PARTY
Yes, believe it or not, this was another "possible dreams"/bucket list poster, I have had all of the other BEACH PARTY sequel posters (and several wanna be knockoffs) for years--but the original was always out surfing me at auction. I always wiped out at the last minute. Argh! But this little beach bunny is finally mine. The first and BEST of the Beach Party flicks!
Nothin' is better than the sand, surf, and salt air.
Unrack our boards just as soon as we get there.
Stack 'em in the sand 'til they're breakin' just right.
Yea, we're surfin' all day and we're swingin' all night.
Vacation is here... BEACH PARTY tonight!
Yes, I know the lyrics. Ha! Here, you can sing along with Frankie and Annette yourself (and tell me how much hairspray Annette has to have on her big 'do as they zoom down Hwy 1. Man!):
5.THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU
I'm still not sure how I feel about getting this poster--but it's on my Top 10 list anyway, because (I think) I SHOULD be excited about it. When it was auctioned off on eMovie earlier this year, they said it was "rare" and the first one sheet for the movie they had ever auctioned off. It does star Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre, too...you can't go wrong with them; it's just the condition of the poster that has me uneasy. I don't want to linenback it--but it needs some help. Someone suggested a "gel backing" (and that sounds promising, the little I've read on it so far), but I just don't know if that will be enough. Hmm. It is nice--just a little rougher than I like 'em.(And that tape stain in the top center is going to drive me bonkers!)
4. SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS:
Yes, this is actually on my list for favorite purchases for 2015. Amazingly this was also on my "possible dreams" bucket list. I have been after one of these for years...they've always eluded me and the prices have slowly risen over the years... I nabbed this one though, while the nabbing was good. You spell it S-A-N-T-A C-L-A-U-S, Hooray for Sant-y Claus!!! Zowie! And starring a pre-pube (barely) Pia Zadora who is painted GREEN! Awesomeness!
3. WHITE SLAVES OF CHINATOWN:
This would probably have been No. 2 on my list, if the whole ordeal of getting it had been a better experience. I have been searching for this poster for years. You almost never see them. This is probably the rarest poster I bought this year---and I somehow ended up buying THREE of them. WTF!?! Those who visit my thread may remember how I had battled to win the first one that came up on eMovie--and won it...only to be told afterwards that there was an error in the listing and the poster had been trimmed by an inch on the bottom. I gave the poster up...but battled for it a second time when it came up for auction again (this time clearly labeled it was trimmed). I paid way too much and was not happy with the trimmed poster.
Then one came up in the Everett Auction--untrimmed. Another costly bidding battle ensued and I got it for far too much money. It was untrimmed, but it was also kind of beat up.
A third one came up for in a lot on eBay. It was really thrashed, but for some reason I could not let it go. $80 later, the trashed one was mine as well.
Three of the same poster--not happy with any of them really...but I finally have one...er, THREE! This is the Everett copy below (it looks in better shape than it really is):
2. THE MAN WHO CRIED WOLF:
Oh man, I could NOT leave out this gorgeous poster from the old Universal thriller from 1937. While it's not one of the classic monster films, it's still of the period and I think it is just gorgeous! I got this early in the year, just days before I was accepted into APF. This would probably have been my No. 1 favorite poster, but this was something I just stumbled on. (No. 1 had been on my radar for decades!). I can't wait to get this one framed and up too. Look at the color and the lettering. Wow! Gorgeous, I tell. Just GORGEOUS!
1. KING KONG (1956 Re-release):
Since I'll never be able to afford an original KING KONG, this was my ideal alternative, the 1956 re-release poster. This had been at the top of my "possible dreams" bucket list forever...until last summer when it became mine. While I paid too much money for it (this was the MOST expensive poster I ever purchased. With auction fees, shipping, etc. on top of the sell price, it was more than $1,000. Yikes! When it got here, I was feeling a little bit ripped off as I thought the grading had been exaggerated somewhat (hmm). But it is still a gorgeous poster. And it's mine--FINALLY!
Oh man! This list was far harder than I thought it would be. I've had to delete several things in favor of others! Golly! This was an exceptional movie year for me, I guess. There were so many good posters this year...So many bucket list posters, too! Just some of the things I had to leave off include the original JAWS, the super rare 2012 and 2013 HALLOWEEN re-releases, giant monster movies like REPTILICUS, VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE and KONGA, wonderful cheese like MOVIE STAR AMERICAN STYLE, my beautiful and different BEYOND THE DOOR poster or any of the stunning Thai posters I now own.
When you have too many good posters to fit into your Top 10, you know it was a good poster year! May 2016 be an even BETTER poster year for ALL of us!
CHEERS!
Comments
Post a Comment