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Trailer Trauma 3: 80's Horror-Thon

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    Ian Jane
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  • Trailer Trauma 3: 80's Horror-Thon



    Released by: Garagehouse Pictures
    Released on: January 31st, 2017.
    Director: N/A
    Cast: Various
    Year: 1980 - 1989
    Purchase From Diabolik DVD

    The Movie:

    The third entry in Garagehouse Pictures' excellent Trailer Trauma series doesn't delve into the cinematic obscurities that the first two entries did, but don't let that dissuade you. 80's Horror-Thon is exactly what it sounds like - a MASSIVE (this thing is seven hours long!) collection of more than two hundred theatrical trailers for horror pictures that played in the eighties. Presented year by year and in alphabetical order, this two disc collection provides horror fans with mammoth amount of viewing please. Here's what you get…

    DISC ONE:

    1980 - Alligator, Altered States, The Awakening, Blood Beach, The Boogeyman, The Changeling, Death Ship, Don't Answer The Phone, Don't Go In The House, Dressed To Kill, Fade To Black, The Fog, Friday The 13th, The Grim Reaper (Anthropophagus), He Knows You're Alone, The Hearse, The Howling, Human Experiments, Humanoids From The Deep, Inferno, The Island, Maniac, Motel Hell, Mother's Day, New Year's Evil, Nightmare, Prom Night, Scared To Death, The Shining, Silent Scream, Terror Train, The Unseen, Without Warning.

    1981 - An American Werewolf In London, The Boogens, The Burning, Dead And Buried, Deadly Blessing, Evilspeak, Fear No Evil, Final Exam, Friday The 13th Part II, The Funhouse, Ghost Story, Graduation Day, Great White, Halloween II, Happy Birthday To Me, Hell Night, House By The Cemetery, Inseminoid, Just Before Dawn, Mind Warp, Ms. 45, My Bloody Valentine, Night School, Omen III: The Final Conflict, The Prowler, Road Games, Saturday The 14th, Scanners, Student Bodies, Venom, Wolfen.

    DISC TWO:

    1982 - Alone In the Dark, Amityville II: The Possession, Basket Case, The Beast Within, Boarding House, Cat People, Creepshow, Death Valley, The Entity, Friday The 13th Part III 3-D, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch, Humongous, The Incubus, Madman, Murder By Phone, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, One Dark Night, Parasite, Poltergeist, Pranks, Q: The Winged Serpent, The Sender, Silent Rage, The Slayer, The Slumber Party Massacre, Swamp Thing, The Thing, Time Walker, Visiting Hours, Xtro.

    1983 - The 7 Doors Of Death, Amityville 3-D, Christine, Curtains, The Dead Zone, Deadly Eyes, The Evil Dead, Eyes Of Fire, The Final Terror, The Hunger, Jaws III 3-D, The Keep, Mortuary, Of Unknown Origin, Psycho II, Sleepaway Camp, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Videodrome, Wavelength.

    1984 - Boggy Creek II, Children Of The Corn, C.H.U.D., The Company Of Wolves, The Dungeonmaster, Firestarter, Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, Mutant, The Mutilator, Night Of The Comet, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Ninja III: The Domination, Scream For Help, Terror In The Aisles, The Toxic Avenger, Zombie Island Massacre.

    1985 - The Bride, Creepers, Day Of The Dead, Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning, Fright Night, Future-Kill, Ghoulies, Igor nd The Lunatics, Lifeforce, A Nightmare On Elm Street Part II: Freddy's Revenge, The Oracle, Re-Animator, Return Of The Living Dead, Silver Bullet, The Stuff, Transylvania 6-5000.

    1986 - Aliens, April Fool's Day, Critters, Deadly Friend, Deadtime Stories, Demons, The Fly, Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, From Beyond, Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, The Hitcher, House, In the Shadow Of Kilimanjaro, Invaders from Mars, Killbots, King Kong Lives, The Ladies Club, Link, Little Shop Of Horrors, Manhunter, Maximum Overdrive, Mountaintop Motel Massacre, Night Of The Creeps, Nomads, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Psycho III, Raiders Of The Living Dead, Rawhead Rex, Slaughter High, Terrorvision, Trick Or Treat, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Vamp, Wraith.

    1987 - Angel Heart, Anguish, The Believers, Blue Monkey, Creepshow 2, Dolls, Evil Dead 2, Flowers In The Attic, The Gate, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, Hellraiser, The Hidden, House II: The Second Story, Hunter's Blood, Jaws: The Revenge, The Kindred, The Lost Boys, The Monster Squad, My Demon Lover, Near Dark, Nightflyers, A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors, Prince Of Darkness, Return To Horror High, The Stepfather.

    1988 - Bad Dreams, The Blob, Child's Play, Critters II, Dead Heat, Dead Ringers, The Destroyer, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Fright Night Part 2, Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Hero And The Terror, The Kiss, Lair Of The White Worm, Monkey Shines, The Nest, Night Of The Demons, A Nightmare on Elm Street IV: The Dream Master, Phantasm II, Poltergeist III, Pumpkinhead, Return Of The Living Dead Part 2, The Serpent And The Rainbow, The Seventh Sign, Slaughterhouse Rock, They Live, Twice Dead, The Unholy, Vampire's Kiss, Waxwork.

    1989 - Deep Star Six, The Fly II, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Halloween V: The Revenge Of Michael Myers, Heaven Becomes Hell, Leviathan, Lisa, Moontrap, Pet Sematary, Phantom Of The Mall, Relentless, Shocker, Society, Stepfather II, Stripped To Kill 2, The Terror Within, Warlock.

    There's a lot to love here. Yeah, we get trailers for all the slasher franchise titles that were being pumped out back then, the Halloween series, the Nightmare On Elm Street series and the Friday The 13th series being the best examples, but if slashers are your bag there are plenty of more obscure titles represented here too. Case in point? Pranks, Curtains, Madman and The Slayer all make welcome appearances. And while slashers are probably the most recognizable horror phenomena of the eighties, there's a lot more to this collection than just crazy guys with knives. We get some nature run amuck films like Of Unknown Origin and Deadly Eyes, some space-based horror with Aliens and Mind Warp (better known as Galaxy Of Terror) alongside supernatural horror entries like the third and final chapter in The Omen trilogy and the Hellraiser films. Party horror pictures are also represented here with Night Of The Demons and Happy Birthday To Me and hey, it wouldn't be the eighties without a trip to the mall, right? Good thing Chopping Mall is here, under the alternate title of Killbots.

    Really, there's a ridiculous amount of variety represented on these two discs, and not all of it is to be taken seriously - Transylvania 6-500, My Demon Lover, Vampire's Kiss, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, Student Bodies and the great Saturday The 14th prove that horror fans have a sense of humor, while more 'straight' horror films like The Return Of The Living Dead and its sequel work in some good laughs alongside their more legitimate scares. While the bulk of the material here is domestic, a few foreign imports got theatrical play during the decade, so look out for a few Fulci and Argento titles in the mix just to keep things exotic.

    While taking all of this in during one marathon viewing session is a pretty daunting task, spread out over a few nights Trailer Trauma 3 is an absolute blast, and it serves as a great reminder of just how much fun being a horror fan was during these years.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Garagehouse Pictures presents Trailer Trauma 3: 80's Horror-Thon on two Blu-ray discs in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, each in its own aspect ratio, and generally speaking things look really good here (these were all transferred in 4k from 35mm elements). Expect scratches and print damage throughout but fans of trailer compilations wouldn't have it any other way. The disc is well authored, there are no obvious compression issues to note despite the long running time of the disc, nor are there any traces of noise reduction or edge enhancement here. These trailers look like the marginally beaten up film sourced promo spots that they are, but you'll still notice quite a bit more detail and texture here than you would on a standard definition offering. Quality varies from one spot to the next but overall, yeah, this stuff looks really good on Blu-ray, very film like and appropriately gritty and grainy.

    Audio chores are handled by an LPCM Mono track that is on par with the video - it's not quite pristine, but it sounds very good for what it is. The various narrators used on the different trailers are always nice and clear and the levels are properly balanced. The music and effects bits also sound nice and strong. If there's a bit of hiss here and there and the odd pop in the mix, that's okay. There aren't any subtitles provided on the disc. There are one or two trailers that have some audio synch issues, the most obvious one being The Keep, but outside of that this is all good.

    Garagehouse Pictures has also gone to the effort to record commentary tracks for all of this, with it once again being broken down by year. Here's who handles what:

    1980: Dan Fraga, Harry Guerro and Jesse Nelson
    1981: Chris Poggiali
    1982: Ted Geoghegan
    1983: Michael Gingold
    1984: Tim Ferrante
    1985: Grady Hendrix
    1986: Stephen Romano
    1987: Stephen Romano
    1988: Dan Buskirk
    1989: James Harris

    These guys all know their stuff and have their own unique styles and personalities. This give the commentary tracks plenty of variety as the guys spout of loads of facts and trivia about their respective itineraries and seem to have a great time doing it. Stuff like this adds some good value to the disc too. If some of the trailers here you'll have definitely seen before, getting some background information on the movies is always a good thing, particularly when it's delivered with the sort of enthusiasm we typically here across these tracks.

    Aside from trailers for the first two Trailer Trauma releases, Ninja Busters and The Satanist (all available on Blu-ray now), we get menus offering a 'play all' option or individual trailer selection.

    The Final Word:

    Trailer Trauma 3: 80's Horror-Thon is the right mix of quality and quantity, offering up so many horror trailer gems from all sub genres in great quality with some really good commentary tracks too. Don't miss it.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!










































    • Jason C
      #1
      Jason C
      Senior Member
      Jason C commented
      Editing a comment
      Excellent review as always Ian.

      The night I got my copy I put it in thinking I'd watch 15 minutes but ended up watching all of 1980. That group of trailers played really well together. Even if I'd seen some of them, it made for a fun mix. Like all trailer comps it got me excited to track down some films I haven't seen (Altered States, Fade To Black, Human Experiments). It also compelled me to dig out some titles I purchased but haven't got around to watching.

      I've heard some people complain about the addition of mainstream titles, but I thought it worked well having Anthropophagus run after Friday the 13th. I'm looking forward to seeing April Fool's Day sandwiched between Aliens and Critters.

    • Ian Jane
      #2
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      Ian Jane commented
      Editing a comment
      It's interesting seeing all of this stuff chronological and alphabetical - if makes you realize just how good certain years were compared to others!
    Posting comments is disabled.

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