SHIVER AND SHUDDER SHOW (2002) ***

Shiver and Shudder Show is another fun Something Weird trailer compilation.  Clocking in at close to two hours, it kicks off with an ad for a “Shiver and Shudder Spook Show” before segueing into the trailers.  There’s a good mix of titles, eras, and subgenres here, which makes it perfect pre-Halloween viewing (or anytime, really).   

We get a handful of movies that appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Attack of the Giant Leeches, The Killer Shrews, and Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy), vampire films (Goliath and the Vampires, Blood Bath, and The Vampire and the Ballerina), and Jerry Warren productions (Creature of the Walking Dead, The Incredible Petrified World, and Face of the Screaming Werewolf).  Other highlights include the double feature of Werewolf in a Girls’ Dormitory and Corridors of Blood (“A Nervorama Shocker!”) and the trailer for Tales of the Bizarre (which has a face of a mummy taking up half the screen the entire time).  The odd taglines in some of the previews are good for a laugh too, like The Beast of the Yellow Night (“See it with Someone You… Trust…”), Kill, Baby, Kill (“S & Q!  Shiver and Shake!  Quiver and Quake!”), and The Vampires Night Orgy (“Were They Humans (sp) Beings?”).  It all culminates in a long run of great trailers for South of the Border horror flicks that are amusing, mostly because they all use the same narrator, font, and similar ad copy.  

Some of the best ads are devoted to cheesy gimmicks that help lure unsuspecting audiences into the theatre.  You’ll receive a “Witch Deflector” when you see a double feature of Witchcraft and The Horror of It All.  You’ll have to sign a “Fright Release” if you want to check out The Curse of the Living Corpse!  Or you can get free “Spare Body Parts” when you see a double feature of Night of the Bloody Apes and Feast of Flesh!  What a time to be a moviegoer!

I’m an old hand at watching these Something Weird samplers, so I recognized many of the trailers from other compilations.  (The double feature ad for The Blood Spattered Bride and I Dismember Mama makes its obligatory appearance yet again.)  Even with that said, this is still a fun time.  The addition of spook show ads (like the bug-themed “Insect-O-Thon”) and vintage Halloween-themed toy commercials also help make up for some of the overly familiar trailers in the collection.  

The complete trailer rundown includes:  Something Weird, Tales of the Bizarre, Witchcraft, The Curse of the Living Corpse, Frozen Alive, Bourbon Street Shadows, Terrified, The Beast of the Yellow Night, a double feature of The Blood Spattered Bride and I Dismember Mama, Daughters of Darkness, The Black Cat, Psycho a Go-Go, The Dead One, Insect-O-Thon Spook Show, Attack of the Giant Leeches, Creature of the Walking Dead, The Awful Dr. Orloff, Macumba Love, The Killer Shrews, The Wacky World of Doctor Morgus, a double feature of Night of the Bloody Apes and Feast of Flesh, The Wild, Wild Planet, Goliath and the Vampires, “Spasmitus” Spook Show, Blood Bath, The Hands of Orlac, double feature of The Vampire’s Coffin and The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy), Kill, Baby, Kill, Virgin Witch, a double feature of Blood Suckers and Blood Thirst, Don’t Look in the Basement, The Incredible Petrified World, Witchcraft, a double feature of Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory and Corridors of Blood, Face of the Screaming Werewolf, Mutiny in Outer Space, Dead Eyes of London, The Witch’s Curse, The Terrornauts, The Vampire and the Ballerina, The Devil’s Hand, a double feature of Carnival of Blood and Curse of the Headless Horseman, Friday the 13th Spook Show, Back from the Dead, “Kooky Spooky” toy commercial, The Phantom in the Red House, The Genie of Darkness, The Brainiac, The Living Head, The Invasion of the Vampires, Samson vs. the Vampire Women, The Vampire, The Witch’s Mirror, Curse of the Crying Woman, The Blood of Nostradamus, and “The Young American Mystics Cult of Horrors” Spook Show.