Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell

by Shrub 9/4/10

Yeah. Yeah I remember these days. 1987. Video rental stores were a recent and very exciting development. Staying up late on weekends, fighting with the big sister over time with the rented VCR and the handful of tapes you had for a couple of days. A whole new world of horror was opened up to this teenager, who would always reach first for the movies with the words “living dead” in the title or mohawked zombies on the cover. For me there was no such thing as a Drive-In or Grindhouse in those days. But VHS brought those shows right home to you.

Mad Ron’s Prevues from Hell is being released on DVD this month, but everything about it throws you right back into those early VHS days. It even LOOKS like a video tape on your screen. It’s got the washed out picture, scratches on the film, full screen… this ain’t no HD blu-ray whatever, but for the true nostalgia experience, that’s how it’s gotta be right? I might want to see re-mastered versions of the films themselves, but for this fun disc, I wouldn’t change a thing.

The back-story here revolves around a couple of hosts, one human and one zombie ventriloquist dummy (who works blue with weenie and 3D titty jokes) who are hanging out in the projection booth of a theater while the foaming-at-the-mouth Mad Ron plays trailers from his bloody, demented collection. All the while downstairs, the undead (sporting some righteous 80’s hairdos) are starting to fill the place up and helping themselves to some treats while enjoying the show.

After the introductions, we move into rapid fire film trailers, some obscure, some not, but most all are video gold. The only exceptions being the Africa Blood and Guts type of mondo flicks (why footage of people shooting elephants and executing political enemies gets lumped in with good, clean horror movies I never understood. I prefer my horror to be firmly outside of the real world thankyouverymuch). Thankfully that stuff is the exception on here and most of this stuff is really just great.

I found myself really marveling at the, dare I say, poetry, of the narrators on these things. The sun was setting as I watched the flickering, jumpy previews for “Deranged” and then “Three on a Meathook”, hearing the lines “The only ones left to mourn. The last witnesses to the execution. Suspended in time by a puppeteer with blood on his hands. Little broken dolls that go on dancing… after the music has stopped.” I found myself drifting towards an elusive Horror Euphoria, ready to fist pump the air and give high five’s all around. Man I’m odd. But that’s how it is.

Mad Ron’s showcases a golden age of horror that I feel is pretty underrated. Mostly, I suppose, because many of these films are so obscure. But I guess that’s part of the appeal. It adds to their unusualness, and thrill.

It’s a very affordable title with a list price of $14.99 and will be released by Virgil Films (the folks who bring you all those cool Morgan Spurlock shows on DVD) on September 14th. Pick it up and I bet you’ll find yourself going back to watch some of these bizarre snippets of psycho-mania again and again.

Movies

Movies A-C

Movies D-E

Movies F-I

Movies J-M

Movies N-Q

Movies R-S

Movies T-Z

Virgil Films has graciously given us some copies of this brand new DVD to give away to readers of GOBLINHAUS.

(Contest ended 10/31/10)

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