Volume 1 of “Grindhouse Trailer Classics” brings fans fifty five of the best grindhouse trailers around, and they’re all available on one compilation on volume one of the DVD from Intervision Picture Corp. There are zombies, Nazis, cannibals, and exploitation galore with some of my favorite grindhouse flicks present and accounted for. They’re shameless and very well put together trailers that revel in the insanity of the films and deliver onslaughts of really surreal imagery.
Perhaps one of my favorite trailers is “Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde” starring Bernie Casey, who injects himself with a mysterious serum that turns him in to a hulking white beast who begins wreaking havoc in the hood. The trailer even shamelessly trots out the finale, but you have to love how Casey approaches the role with such conviction. There are also the trailers for the “Ilsa” films which flaunt the sheer stunning curvaceousness of star Dyanne Thorne. The trailers are self serious for what are basically silly Nazisploitation films based around Thorne.
The tone and imagery contradict themselves beautifully; especially when you see the two gorgeous bare chested blond twins preparing to whip prisoners at Ilsa’s commands. There are also trailers for some of my favorite grindhouse flicks including “Switchblade Sisters,” and “They Called Her One Eye,” both titles feature vicious one eyed female characters in their own right. It’s tough to ignore the beauty of Christina Lindberg. The trailers in the compilation come uncensored and full length, with a chapter selection allowing you to pick and choose which trailers tickled your fancy.
Among some of the better trailers, there’s “I Spit on Your Grave,” the sheer oddity “The Thing with Two Heads,” the goofy zombie flick “I Drink Your Blood, I Eat Your Skin,” and “Deadly Weapons,” the thriller starring Chesty Morgan as a woman who inflicts revenge on her lover’s killers by hunting them down and suffocating them with her humongous breasts. “Volume 1” is a fun and very complete compilation for Grindhouse aficionados, and with the great presentation, this is a great reference item for movie lovers. Featured on the DVD Extras is the twenty minute “Bump ‘n Grind.”
Hosted by the insanely gorgeous Emily Booth, viewers not privy to what the grindhouse was, get to explore the ins and outs of the sub-sub-genre and the relevance it had to film culture in the seventies. It’s the basics of the underground culture, and Booth is absolutely ravishing. There’s also the “Grindhouse Foster Gallery,” a slideshow of genuine posters and one sheets from the titles featured in the compilation.