Shock Festival is a two-disc DVD set containing multiple trailer compilations. The first one was for a collection of amateurish looking fake Grindhouse trailers, so I skipped that one and went right to the second disc that contained “real” trailers. This compilation is subtitled “The Ultimate Exploitation Trailer Marathon.” I’m not quite sure it lives up to the title, but it is a lot of fun and features a good cross section of subgenres. Among them are ‘80s action (Treasure of the Four Crowns and Vice Squad), Blaxploitation (Cornbread, Earl, and Me, Black Samurai, and Black Heat), Sexploitation (Grimm’s Fairy Tales for Adults, Flesh Gordon, and Cinderella 2000), and Roger Corman movies (Beyond Atlantis, Space Raiders, and Cannonball). There’s even a trailer for a straight-up porno (Titillation, which is hosted by Little Oral Annie) that also contains a plug for Cheri magazine.
Typically, I like it when trailer compilations run a bunch of similarly themed previews in one big block. With Shock Festival, a lot of the fun comes from the sharp contrast in tone from trailer to trailer. In some cases, it’s so extreme that it’s liable to cause cinematic whiplash. The biggest head-spinning contrast in content comes from the one-two combo of Jess Franco’s notorious sex flick Sadomania and the G-rated wilderness adventure, Challenge to Be Free. The juxtaposition of the kinky sexploitation flick The Female Animal and the kiddie matinee movie 7 Dwarfs to the Rescue is also worth a howl of laughter, as is the pairing of King Kong vs. Godzilla and Africa: Blood and Guts, which concludes the collection. (The inclusion of the teaser for Albert Pyun’s Captain America is pretty random too.)
Honestly, I could’ve done without some of the tamer trailers. The previews for war movies like Raiders of Leyte Gulf and The Fighting Rats of Tobruk didn’t do much for me. The good news is there’s still plenty of jaw dropping stuff here to satisfy fans of trailer tapes like me. The previews for Amazon Jail, Raw Force, and Fight for Your Life are a lot of fun, and the ad for Avalanche Express (which is nothing more than a series of stills of Lee Marvin and Robert Shaw) is pretty unique. All and all, it makes for a fine party tape to watch with a big group of friends.
The complete line-up includes: The Treasure of the Four Crowns, Vice Squad, Cornbread, Earl, and Me, Black Samurai, Grimm’s Fairy Tales for Adults, Flesh Gordon, Conquest, Delirium, Amazon Jail, Beyond Atlantis, Sadomania, Challenge to Be Free, Venom, Raw Force, Gone with the Pope, Black Heat, Starstruck, The Last Days of Man on Earth, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, The Late Great Planet Earth, Avalanche Express, Cinderella 2000, Titillation, Flesh and Lace, The Mysterious Island of Captain Nemo, Circle of Iron, Smithereens, Fantastic Planet, The Loveless, The Sexy Dozen, 2069: A Sex Odyssey, Raiders of Leyte Gulf, Scum of the Earth, Venus in Furs, The Female Animal, 7 Dwarfs to the Rescue, The Fighting Rats of Tobruk, Fight for Your Life, Fast Company, Grand Slam, Space Raiders, The Final Countdown, Cannonball, Killer Force, King Kong vs. Godzilla, and Africa: Blood and Guts.
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