Something Weird Video

[thesemodernsocks]

What would be some of the essential purchases from the Something Weird catalog?

[Matt]

The Meatrack/Sticks and Stones
Rent-A-Girl/Aroused/Help Wanted Female
A Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine/A Sweet Sickness/The Brick Dollhouse
Two Thousand Maniacs
The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill/The Head Mistress
The Ghastly Ones/Seeds of Sin
The Defilers/Scum of the Earth

[oldsheperd]

Confessions of a Psycho Cat
Any H.G. Lewis
Any Harry Novak
Curse/Kiss/Touch of Her Flesh

[thesemodernsocks]

Excellent, thanks for the help.

[bcsparker]

If anyone else out there is looking to get into Something Weird Video and doesn't know where to start, I have a suggestion. They released a DVD called EXTRA WEIRD SAMPLER. It is a collection of over 100 (!) trailers of SW releases. It is cheap - around $5 retail and less used on Amazon. If you want a few hours of brain-boiling, eye-gouging fun, look no further. Nudity, monsters, wrestlers, maniacs. It's all there. The trailer for The Erotic Adventures of Zorro is worth the price alone! If bargain bins were filled with more fun stuff like this, I'd be a happy guy.

[Lino]

For Mondo lovers, SWV latest double-feature: Ecco/The Forbidden. Review is up at DVDdrive-in.

DVDManiacs reviews SWV new druggy double-feature DVD, The Acid Eaters/Weed.

[HerrSchreck]

Judge Bill Gibron (the subject of skuhn's avatar, still the best one on the forum) provides a thoughtful and well written review about WAY OUT (billed here with an Aquarian klunker called GHETTO FREAKS)... WAY OUT is quite a film by Irivin Yearworth of THE BLOB and many other oddball independents. It was made in the South Bronx in 1967 (the year I was born), and not very far from where I was born; all shot on locations by a cast of former junkies re-enacting their tribulations & losses on the streets that they occured. As a time capsule (a city sympony in and of itself: see the bronx and the subways before the age of graffiti!!) of a former incarnation of inner-city blight in true documentary style shooting, it's quite the fascinating little epic written and performed by junkies upon recovery.. first on the stage, and then on film as the play received attention (not dissimilar to the sublimely mandatory SHORT EYES) by Miguel Pinero. Not neccesarily for all tastes but if you are interested in obscure independent productions from another era pushing the boundaries of American taste and possible subject matter, then I'd highly recommend this often moving, occasionally devastating film. Here is Gibron's monograph:

Way Out, on the other hand, is an amazing movie, a brash indictment of the entire drug culture, posing as a very successful experiment in avant-garde filmmaking. Don't get the wrong idea from that last statement: This is not some manner of performance art passing itself off as reality, or a combination of editing tricks and narrative misdirection. No, director Irwin S. Yeaworth, Jr., famous for helming the original The Blob in 1958 and The 4D Man in 1959, took a potent, underground play by real life recovering addict John Gimenez, transported the story to the mean streets of the Bronx and populated his cast with ex-junkies. The result is Way Out, a sublime, substantial look at the everyday struggles of Hispanic heroin addicts.

This is not your typical Tinsel Town fare, nor does it completely fit into the exploitation mold. More powerful than the standard mainstream walks through the mire of drug dependence, but with none of the outrageous elements that tend to undermine most art house titles, this is a frank and forceful discussion of the desperate lives of sad, strung-out people. Using the barest of plots to illustrate its pro-God points (this is a film that argues for faith as the cure-all for addiction), the reality of the performances combined with the sense of authenticity given off by the environment gives this film a true aura of apprehension and melancholy. The players, all ex-users themselves, bring the pain, the pathos, and the precariousness of abuse to vivid life, never once undermining the illusion or accuracy. Not quite a complete example of cinema vérité (there is too much artifice in Yeaworth's blocking and color scheme), Way Out avoids many of the pat answers offered in a typical Hollywood drama. The result is an amazing and moving picture, far better than other examples of mid-'60s social scare films. Way Out doesn't need to make up nightmares to warn young people about the dangers of dope. It offers up pragmatism in gritty, grotesque bucketfuls to illustrate its horrors.

Like scholars unlocking a long-lost secret tomb of time capsule treasures, Something Weird has really outdone itself with these two titles. While Ghetto Freaks fails in its flower power, Way Out more than makes up for those hopeless hippie missteps. The result is a real dichotomy of cinematic style and motion picture communication. Ghetto Freaks wants to waltz around the issues with acid rock ridiculousness. Way Out addresses the problems up front and personally. The same could be said for the tech specs as well. Both color transfers come in 1.33:1 images that suffer from age defect and negative issues. Yet Way Out looks a thousand percent better than Ghetto Freaks. It doesn't have the latter's washed out, ultra-grainy grubbiness. Way Out looks surprisingly good, with bright vibrant hues dancing around the otherwise dark and dirty streets of New York. Yeaworth also has the better artistic sense. Robert J. Emery, the director of Ghetto Freaks, is too lost in his own world of wild angles and pointless montages to make his movie work (though the "caught in the act" panhandling sequence does have a nice, innocent eavesdropping quality to it). Both movies feature the same type of tiny, muffled soundtrack that occasionally makes the dialogue indistinct. But for the most part, these long-lost films look and sound fairly good.

Sadly, Something Weird really lets us down in the extras department. The ads for other drug/dropout films are fine, with the Cameron Mitchell starring vehicle Monkey on My Back looking like manic, must-see dementia. But the only other bonus beside the four trailers (none for either film offered) is 10 minutes of cautionary claptrap about the evils of drugs. Pulled directly from some sixth grade health class, and doing nothing to either shock you out of or support your use of illegal narcotics, this vague overgeneralization about the dangers of dope is just dumb. You know you're in trouble when a weenie roast is the naughtiest thing about your anti-addiction rant.

While Ghetto Freaks / aka Love Commune / aka Signs of Aquarius is about as cogent as a freshly smoked banana peel and twice as tempting, Way Out is one hell of a film, as emotional as it is memorable. Together, this duo combines to form a DVD of divergent directives. Way Out wants to scare you straight. Ghetto Freaks hasn't sobered up enough to figure out what all the fuss is about.

[Matt]

I'm not sure what's going on with Something Weird Video. They appear to have stopped producing proper DVD editions through Image in favor of selling DVD-Rs direct. That's okay, I guess, but I will miss buying their lavish editions of utter garbage. At the same time, I am ecstatic to report that one of their latest releases is on my short list of Holy Grails: Andy Milligan's Fleshpot on 42nd Street. All DVD-Rs are only $10 (plus shipping, which can run on the high side). If you don't know where to start, I recommend this, which is very near and dear to my heart.

[HerrSchreck]

That would REALLY suck if they sunk. I can't believe this thread has half a page of posts!

I don't know about you guys but I love this company to death. The Rent-A-Girl triple header, the Hooked/Flaming Teenage pak, the WayOut doubleheader, these guys are one of the best kept secrets in terms of vintage US independent film. If I had the money, the receipt of the news in Matt's post would see me buy the whole fucking catalog eyes closed, no questions, and would put off buying "premium/arthouse" for a long stretch.

The seedy 50's-70's underbelly of NYC that has basically vanished along w Times Sq is basically there in their catalog in full (along with, I daresay California, Michigan, and the South-- o yeah, the south). A rich compendium of perfectly valid and hugely entertaining American FOlk Art... and those who don't Get It, miss the boat.

[Lino]

Ok, so the Doris Wishman Chesty Morgan Double-Feature is on my way as we speak (BTW, the Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection is surely one of the best sets in DVD-dom ever so be sure to buy it, oh you unaware ones!), this being my introduction to the famous lady(ies).

What other Wishman movies are essential purchases? And just why hasn't SWV given her the boxset treatment yet? She's one of the most talked about and collected exploitationers ever, surely.

[colinr0380]

I've only seen Nude On The Moon but that was quite fun one, with a nudist colony standing in for another world! I much prefer it to Queen From Outer Space at least!

[MichaelB]

I highlighted Wishman's Let Me Die A Woman in the current Sight & Sound - it's a jaw-droppingly terrible film in every conceivable way, but it does at least deliver on its tagline ("All True! All Real! See a man become a woman before your eyes!")

[HerrSchreck]

Heh hehhh... ah Something Weird.

I also love how they smacked companies like Kino & Facets in the face by putting all this glorious obscuro-exploitoschlock on dual layer discs with progressive transfers, since the very beginning. Oh and charge 11 bucks for a double feature-- in stores.

But then again... now dvd-r's?

My copy of The Violent Yrs / Girl Gang was 12 bux w tax over the counter. A dvd9 loaded w extras.

[Lino]

And what can I say, ladies and gentlemen? I'm hooked, that's what. I admit it helped a bit having read about Doris Wishman's life and career and, particularly, her very own brand of filmmaking techniques before watching any of her movies.

I slipped into a kind of Zen-like state of cinematic bliss when the first shots of shoes started to appear as randomly as the lines of dialogue seemed to be spoken. Her fascination with telephones and ashtrays is also worthy of note. But what about the rest, you might ask: well, let's just say that atrocious editing and dubbing coupled with truly ludicrous storylines and plots in scenes played out in the most glaring use of kitsch set decorations I've ever seen on screen, amount to a sort of movie experience everyone has to live at least once.

Oh, and the first 15 minutes of Double Agent 73 really rival Suspiria's. Seriously.

[HerrSchreck]

I can't tell you how much I love Something Weird Vid. Three in the morning on sleepless nights would be so much bleaker without it.

[Matt]

Most of the DVDs released by Something Weird through Image have just had a major price drop (now $10 MSRP). If you have been holding off on buying any of these, wait no longer. You might have to shop around to get the best prices, but DVD Empire has Andy Milligan's The Ghastly Ones for $7.09!

[Faux Hulot]

I admit it helped a bit having read about Doris Wishman's life and career and, particularly, her very own brand of filmmaking techniques before watching any of her movies.

Presumably as a joke, someone added my name as producer to the credits of one of her films in some online listing. I've scarcely been more flattered.

[Gregory]

A lot of Something Weird DVDs are on 50% or more off, as part of a huge Amazon.com promotion.
Unfortunately, most of the titles recommended above are not included in the sale. The only two titles I noticed from what's already been recommended specifically were Two Thousand Maniacs and Ghastly Ones/Seeds of Sin (I already have the latter).
Below is a mostly complete list of the rest. Recommendations please! Which are the masterpieces, the absolute must-haves? I'm afraid I can only order a few due not only to money but kevyip issues.

The Beautiful, the Bloody, and the Bare
Basket Case
Godmonster of Indian Flats
Doctor of Doom / Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy
Thirsty Dead / Swamp of the Raven
Amazing Transplant
Terror in the Midnight Sun / Invasion of the Animal People
Murder a La Mod/The Moving Finger
Death Curse of Tartu / Sting of Death
The Child
The Black Cat / The Fat Black Pussycat
Scare Their Pants Off / Satan's Bed
The Naked Witch / Crypt of Dark Secrets
A Scream in the Streets
Day of the Nightmare / Scream of the Butterfly
The Zodiac Killer / The Sex Killer / Zero In and Scream
Horrors Of Spider Island
Dr. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks
Mantis in Lace
The Beast That Killed Women/ The Monster of Camp Sunshine
The Mad Butcher
The Toy Box / Toys Are Not for Children
Mighty Gorga / One Million AC/DC
Box of Blood
Evil Come Evil Go/Terror at Orgy Castle/The Hand of Pleasure
The Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection
Axe
Kiss me Quick
Wizard of Gore
The Gore-Gore Girls
Blood Feast
Carnival of Blood
Monsters Crash the Pajama Party
Blood Suckers
Gruesome Twosome

[cinemartin]

Murder ala Mod is great.

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

The Mighty Gorga is a fantastic, epically hilarious cheapie. And unlike most b-movies of it its ilk, not unbelievably boring when the monster isnt on-screen. Which is fairly frequent.

[Matt]

The Amazing Transplant is Doris Wishman, and probably her most insane major film - certainly worth $5. I think you can't go wrong with The Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection, even if it doesn't include the "Blood" trilogy. The Gore Gore Girls and Wizard of Gore are classics of the genre.

It looks like more titles than what you listed are on sale. 2000 Maniacs is only $4.99, and it is a must-own.

Huh. All the Warner Film Noir and Gangsters collections are included in this sale.

[Gregory]

Matt, I mentioned 2000 Maniacs above the list as one of the two sale titles that had already been specifically recommended in this thread. All the others I hadn't seen among people's earlier picks. If anyone notices any that I left out any others, though, please list them.
Thanks for the suggestions, Matt, HHSS and cinemartin. Soon I'll place an order with a few of the titles named. With utmost sincerity, what I'm looking for here is the cinematic equivalent of The Shaggs.

[MichaelB]

Something Weird's Basket Case is a magnificent release - I really really cannot praise it highly enough.

Here's the relevant bit of my review for the long defunct Bullets'n'Babes:

DVD Video Quality

Basket Case fans will know what to expect, but the uninitiated should be warned: this film was shot on a ludicrously small budget on 16mm - and, to make matters worse, virtually all of it is set after dark, with lighting that could politely be described as somewhat basic. In other words, there is clearly an absolute upper limit in terms of quality that anyone can realistically expect - indeed, Frank Henenlotter apologises for the picture quality less than five minutes into the commentary!

So why have I given it such a high rating? It’s because this transfer is a genuinely staggering achievement. When I first saw the film in the cinema in the early 1980s, the print was so grainy that it looked more like Super 8 than 16mm - but on this DVD it’s actually quite hard to tell that it wasn’t 35mm. It’s certainly not grain-free, but apart from a few shots (chiefly those shot in obviously very low light) the grain is rarely obtrusive and never distracting - indeed, it suits the deliberately scuzzy feel very well.

Surprise number two is that the print is in exceptionally good condition. It’s not absolutely pristine - there are occasional spots and scratches (splice marks can occasionally be seen as well), but no more than I’d accept on a far more recent release, and the near-total absence of digital artefacting is equally welcome. Surprise number three is that the colours are gorgeous, particularly the all-important reds, whether we’re talking Duane’s rucksack, the Hotel Broslin’s neon sign, or of course spurting gouts of blood. Black levels are dead on, while even shadow detail is surprisingly good - assuming it was ever visible in the original footage.

Apparently this DVD was transferred from the original negative and electronically colour-corrected under Henenlotter’s supervision... and it shows. As for the lack of anamorphic enhancement, Henenlotter himself confirms on the commentary that it should be 4:3, something that apparently surprised him during the transfer - he didn’t actually realise that cinemas cropped it to 1.85:1 on its original release or even that he should have shot a potential theatrical release in a wider ratio!

All in all, this transfer is pretty close to ideal - and an absolute revelation even for a longterm Basket Case fan like myself. Obviously, no-one is going to mistake this for, say, the Superbit version of The Fifth Element, but my only real criticism is that it would have been nice if Something Weird had gone the extra mile and digitally scrubbed out the few white dust spots. But otherwise, you can rest assured that every other problem is firmly inherent in the original materials, and nothing short of a reshoot is going to solve that.

DVD Audio Quality

The sound is the original mono, with no attempt at a remix, which I think was a wise decision - I’m really not convinced by the current trend to add DTS surround remixes to films originally shot for about ten cents and recorded on a portable cassette deck. Obviously, this is pretty basic (limited dynamic range, audible distortion at the top end), and I didn’t expect it to be anything else, but I’m happy to confirm that dialogue comes across clearly enough, and that it’s probably safe to say that any shortcomings are, as with the picture, squarely down to the original materials.

DVD Extras Quality

Proudly touted as a 20th Anniversary Special Edition, it’s clear from just a glance at the back cover that Something Weird’s devotion to this film doesn’t stop with the transfer: in fact, they’ve outshone even their already excellent Herschell Gordon Lewis discs in terms of archive-trawling for rare and wonderful extras.

First of all, there’s the publicity material: two trailers, a TV spot, two radio spots (these are particularly good) and two radio interviews with actress Terri Susan Smith. The quality of all of them is pretty ropey (the trailers are far grainier than the main feature and reminded me of what I originally saw in the cinema), but that doesn’t really matter. The interviews, unsurprisingly, are the strongest items - awful recording quality (Smith is recorded on the other end of a not especially good phone connection), but her sheer enthusiasm for the film is infectious. The first interview is seven minutes, the second is far skimpier at three (and it essentially recycles the same material).

Things get rather more interesting with the outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage, a rapid-fire montage of clapperboards, between-shots clowning, people cracking up (particularly entertaining when they’re covered in blood, goo and elaborate wounds) and - bliss! - special effects shots of Belial that manage to be even worse than what actually ended up in the film. All this footage is silent (Something Weird have added a musical accompaniment) and there are no explanatory notes or commentaries, but it’s great fun to watch - a fair bit more entertaining than similar items on some of the Herschell Gordon Lewis DVDs. It runs just over six minutes.

An impressively large stills gallery blends production and behind-the-scenes stills with lobby cards and poster designs from around the world. These are presented sequentially with a music backing track - you can’t navigate them yourself. The whole thing lasts just under five minutes.

“In Search of the Hotel Broslin” is a nostalgic 15-minute documentary, made this year (2001), in which Frank Henenlotter takes us on a tour of the film’s locations. This is hilarious - shot on a wobbly camcorder, it was obviously improvised on the spur of the moment, failing to gain admission to the building that doubled as the Hotel Broslin but successfully breaking into the location of the Hellfire Club, while Henenlotter regales us with a stream of production stories. There’s also an interview with actor Joe Clarke, one of Belial’s most memorable victims (“So, Joe, what was it like being attacked by a rubber monster?”), and Henenlotter is generous enough to point out locations used by such diverse filmmakers as Marco Ferreri (Bye Bye Monkey) and Lucio Fulci (The New York Ripper) as well. Best of all, we get to see the original Belial - the stop-motion puppet version (who’s not in the best possible condition, but it’s nice to see he survives in some form) - along with a load of merchandise from various international distribution campaigns.

The weirdest extra is “Beverly Bonner’s Laugh Track”, a selection of excerpts from a cable TV comedy show presented by the film’s co-star. This has no connection with Basket Case whatsoever apart from Ms Bonner’s involvement, but it’s amusing enough (in a very early hours of the morning on Channel Four kind of way), not to mention handy for truly obsessive completists. It runs just over seven minutes, at the end of which you’re rewarded with her website address and phone number, though I didn’t check the latter to see if it was genuine.

But the high point, as usual with Something Weird’s releases, is the commentary, by Henenlotter, producer Edgar Ievins and co-star Beverly Bonner. Although already a seven-disc veteran of the company’s commentary tracks, this was the first I’d heard that didn’t feature Herschell Gordon Lewis (to whom Basket Case is dedicated, incidentally), so I wasn’t totally sure of what to expect - but, happily, it turned out to be pretty much the same formula: a non-stop mix (and I mean non-stop: Henenlotter is such a motormouth that I’m amazed Ievins and Bonner get a word in edgeways) of lively production anecdotes (most of which are hilarious), gleefully irreverent piss-taking and copious apologies for technical and artistic shortcomings (“Oh, look at that - an attempt at lighting! Gee, it almost looks moody!”, plus plenty of all-too-audible groaning and indeed laughing at the less successful special effects). Anyone familiar with Herschell Gordon Lewis’ or John Waters’ commentaries will be absolutely in tune with this one, and it’s well worth a listen - I particularly relished a story about an audience member at an early screening being overheard solemnly claiming that all the humour was unintentional and that “the director simply lost control”, which subsequently became Henenlotter’s personal motto.

Finally, there’s a reasonably lengthy printed essay by Vince Bonaviglia (a fair bit longer than the essays included with Criterion discs), included in a four-page pullout leaflet that also contains a list of the sixteen chapter stops.

That was written in 2001, so I might well be fussier about the transfer today - but I think I'd stand by every word of everything else.

[Gregory]

I think you can't go wrong with The Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection, even if it doesn't include the "Blood" trilogy.

I just realized that one of the ones I neglected to put on the list was the Blood Trilogy set.

[bigcat]

Anyone received anything from these guys recently? I haven't received anything and its over a month since my order. No response to my email, so I'm starting to get worried.