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Released by: Garaghouse Pictures
Released on: November 24th / 2017.
Director: N/A
Cast: Various
Year: Various
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The Movie:
The fourth volume in Garagehouse Pictures' excellent Trailer Trauma series is Television Trauma, a collection of vintage TV spots advertising a completely bizarre mix of horror, sci-fi, action, blaxploitation, sexploitation and martial arts pictures, some considerably more obscure than others.
Presented here are two hundred and fifty-eight vintage TV spots running about three hours in length - that's a lot of content - and here's what you'll find, in the order it is presented:
Rabid / Death Sport / The Big Bird Cage / Chained Heat / Women In Cages / Woman Hunt / The Cremators / Candy Stripe Nurses / Night Call Nurses / Street Girls / Big Bad Mama / Crazy Mama / Lady Frankenstein / Tidal Wave / Bury Me An Angel / Angels As Hard As They Come / Star Crash / Up From The Depths / Last Days Of Man On Earth / The Velvet Vampire / Scream Of The Demon Lover / Summer School Girls / The Student Teachers / Fly Me / Cockfighter / Fantastic Planet / Sweet Kill / The Brood / Galaxy Of Terror / Piranha / Humanoids From The Deep / Slithis / Zant / Twilight People / Private Parts / Deranged / The Toolbox Murders / Abby / Human Experiments / Folks At Red Wolf Inn / Eyeball / Autopsy / Shock Waves / The Rape Killer (released by Mondo Macabro as The Wife Killer) / Eyeball / Suspiria / The Evil Eye / The Black Cat / Dr. Butcher M.D. / Orgy Of The Dead / Girl In Room 2A / Torso / The Last Survivor / Four Flies On Grey Velvet / The Tempter (The Antichrist) / Great White / Killer Fish / Cat O' Nine Tails / Suspiria / Baron Blood / The Night Child / Black Belly Of The Tarantula / The Weekend Murders / Man From Deep River / Beyond The Door / Beyond The Door II / The Dark / Next! / Creepers / Castle Of Blood / Hercules In The Haunted World / Terror Of Godzilla / Super Inframan / King Kong Escapes / Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster / Destroy All Monsters / Godzilla On Monster Island / Message From Space / Monster Zero / War Of The Gargantuas / Goliathon / The Green Slime / Black Magic / Killer Snakes / Master Killer / Chinatown Kid / The Tattoo Connection / Bruce Lee - His Last Days / The Three Avengers / Five Deadly Venoms / Dynamo / Duel Of The Iron Fists / Kid With The Golden Arm / Street Gangs Of Hong Kong / The Hammer Of God / Fearless Fighters / The Godfathers Of Hong Kong / Fists Of The Double K / Dynasty / Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song / Stud Brown / The Candy Tangerine Man / Friday Foster / Blacula / The Legend Of Nigger Charley / If He Hollers… Let Him Go / The Black Six / The Mack / 3 The Hard Way / Gordon's War / The Black Gestapo / Black Eye / Trick Baby / Book Of Numbers / Come Back Charleston Blue / Super Fly / Wattstax / Darktown Strutters / TNT Jackson / The Spook Who Sat By The Door / Solomon King / Alabama's Ghost / Mark Of The Devil / The Hills Have Eyes / Sisters / Mark Of The Devil II / The Devil's Rain / Dr. Phibes / They Came from Within / Dracula's Dog / Satan's Cheerleaders / The Exorcist / The Fury / Black Christmas / Schizoid / Don't Open The Window / The House That Vanished / The Blood Spattered Bride / I Dismember Mama / Psychic Killer / The Medusa Touch / Drive-In Massacre / Son Of The Blob / The Devil's Nightmare / Theatre Of Blood / The Spector Of Edgar Allen Poe / Equinox / Tourist Trap / Phantasm / Curse Of The Headless Horseman / Carnival of Blood / The Texas Chain Saw Massacre / The Night Visitor / When The Screaming Stops / End Of The World / Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes / Vampyres / Night Of The Living Dead / Dawn Of The Dead / Jaws / The Sentinel / Carrie / The Mutations / Son Of Dracula / Dracula Sucks / Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things / Night Of The Bloody Apes / Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils / The Devils / Don't Look Now / Lord Shango / A Name For Evil / Homebodies / Don't Look In The Basement / Dead Of Night / Shanks / Grizzly / Day Of The Animals / Rattlers / The Teasers / They Call Her One Eye / Big Zapper / Mondo Cane-Mondo Cane 2 (double feature) / Dirty O'Neil: Love Life Of A Cop / Invasion Of The Bee Girls / Girls Are For Loving / Blacksnake / Six-Pack Annie / The Single Girls / Superchick / The Roommates / Room Of Chains / The Swingers / Swedish Flygirls / Sins Of Adam And Eve / Beyond Atlantis / Summer Camp / Supervixens / Waitress / Revenge Of The Cheerleaders / Massage Parlor Hookers / The Swinging Cheerleaders / The Cheerleaders / How Much Loving Does A Normal Couple Need? / Incoming Freshmen / Tomcats / Shame Of The Jungle / Flesh Gordon / Hustler Squad / Class Of 1984 / King Frat / The Bod Squad / When Women Had Tails / When Women Lost Their Tails / Tarzana / The Wild Girl / Bigfoot / A*P*E / The Mercy Man / Chain Gang Women / The Giant-Spider Invasion / The Child / The Redeemer / Massacre At Central High / Death Ship / The Thing / Halloween II / The Awakening / Horror Planet / Bloodeaters / Videodrome / Alone In The Dark / Nightmare On Elm Street / Xtro / Amityville 2 / The Fog / Evil Dead / Friday The 13th / Friday The 13th Part Two / Motel Hell / Blind Date / The Unseen / Graduation Day / Death Screams / The Children / Don't Go In The House / Mother's Day / My Bloody Valentine / Screams Of A Winter Night / The Beast Within / Deadly Blessing / He Knows You're Alone / Demon Seed / The Car / Mansion Of The Doomed / Halloween-Assault On Precinct 13 (double feature) / The Tenant / The Legend Of Boggy Creek / Tintorera: Killer Shark / Inseminoid / The Incubus / Frogs / Blue Sunshine / Halloween / Phantasm / The Amityville Horror / Killer's Delight / Kiss Of The Tarantula / Phantasm-The Fog (double feature) / Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hide / Mask Of Fu Manchu / Mark Of The Vampire
That's a pretty serious selection of promos there, covering most genres near and dear to the hearts of cult movie fans everywhere. Some of these are just shortened versions of their theatrical trailers but others are more unique. It's also interesting to see how and when certain TV spots are 'softened' for the television audience of their day, whereas others are a bit racier (Supervixens being a prime example of that, as it appears here complete with an X-rating). The horror spots will no doubt be a big draw and probably the most popular of the selections included here but take the time to sit down and watch the disc from start to finish. The Blaxsploitation run is a lot of fun and showcases some legitimate gems (it's also very cool to see a TV spot for Sweetback here… rated X by an all white jury!) and the martial arts selection is pretty solid too. The sexploitation trailers are a lot of fun, though clearly they've been toned down a bit more than some of the others. There's a good 'flow' to the way that the trailers are organized here too, making this easy to dive into and enjoy over one three hour sitting!
Video/Audio/Extras:
Garagehouse Pictures presents Trailer Trauma 4: Television Trauma on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, with pretty much everything framed at 1.33.1 as these were meant to be shown on TV, 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 this material 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 but you don't really need them.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary featuring authors Michael Gingold, Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali that makes for a pretty entertaining listen. There are times where some of the participants are a bit low in the mix and therefore harder to hear than they should be, but the content is good and there's a welcome sense of humor present throughout. They note various bits and pieces of trivia as each spot plays out, frequently pressed for time due to the short running time of these spots and occasionally running over the next spot, but they pack the track with information and seem to be having a good time doing it.
There's also a trailer reel here promoting other Garagehouse Pictures releases, menus and a TV spot selection option. On the back of the cover insert here's also a listing of each TV spot provided on the disc.
The Final Word:
Trailer Trauma 4: Television Trauma is another winning entry in Garagehouse Pictures' line of trailer compilations. Everything is presented in nice shape and the commentary is a fun listen. What's most interesting about this release is to see how some of the trashier content these spots were meant to advertise was presented for television audiences! Regardless, this is three hours of cult film bliss in trailer form. Highly recommended.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
