TRAILER TRAUMA PART 4: TELEVISION TRAUMA (2017) ****

Garagehouse Pictures’ Trailer Trauma 3:  80s Horrorthon was the be-all end-all horror trailer compilation.  Clocking in at almost eight hours, it was a mindboggling collection of some of the best horror trailers the ‘80s had to offer.  Now the folks at Garagehouse are faced with a dilemma:  What to do for an encore?  How can one top the biggest trailer compilation of all time?

The answer is simple.  You go smaller.  A lot smaller.  

That’s right, Trailer Trauma Part 4:  Television Trauma is a collection of TV spots for some of the best exploitation movies known to man.  Most of the spots are only about a minute long (many are only thirty seconds), so the exploitation goodness comes at you fast and furious.  All your favorite genres are covered.  It begins with a lot of ads for Roger Corman’s New World films (everything from Women in Prison to Naughty Nurses) before heading into Italian horror (there are a lot of Dario Argento and Mario Bava titles), Godzilla movies, Kung Fu flicks, softcore comedies, and American horror.  

Many of your favorite films are here including The Toolbox Murders, Doctor Butcher M.D., and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  There’s also enough oddball curios and hard-to-find rarities (The Cremators, Big Zapper, and Summer Camp) mixed in throughout the collection.  The various rerelease trailers are also a lot of fun and it’s neat to see how they were often repackaged for double features (like the ones for Phantasm).  Among the entertaining double feature trailers are The Velvet Vampire/Scream of the Demon Lover, Beyond the Door 2/The Dark, and Curse of the Headless Horseman/Carnival Blood.  

The disc is an interesting reminder of what was deemed appropriate for television during the ‘70s and ‘80s.  Since the previews were all meant for television, they don’t feature any nudity, but they do contain grisly gory images that wouldn’t fly today.  Also note how various curse words are bleeped out while the N-Word is tossed around quite freely.  

I can’t say Television Trauma is as exhaustive and complete as its predecessor.  Speaking as a connoisseur of trailer compilations, I can say that using strictly television spots was a stroke of genius.  I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeve for their next edition.