February 2012
10 posts
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#136- My Uncle: the Alien (Henri Charr; 1996)
by Tim May
If you’d like to be an amateur sociologist through the observation of popular children’s entertainment, the ‘80s was a time when kids craved adventure (The Goonies) and maturity (Stand by Me). By the ‘90s, crack and AIDS had ravaged the children of America, leaving only one desire: lots of fucking money. Films like Blank Check celebrated the joys of unchecked laissez-faire capitalism...
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#135 - Summer School (aka Mag Wheels) (Bethel...
By Dan Kinem It’s been way too long since the last sex comedy review, and what better way to kick it off then with the radical, racy, and reckless, Summer School! The whole three R’s thing doesn’t actually work for me. I would much rather go with my own list (which you need to learn, ‘cause there’ll be a test on it), “The Five B’s”… Babes,...
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Interview with Dave Duncan, filmmaker/owner of...
By Dan Kinem To round out our Camelot Studios weekend, we have an interview with Dave Duncan! Dave has been working in film since the mid-80s on such cult films as The Hackers and Black River Monster. He is also the current owner of Camelot Studios, who distributed VHS in the 1980s, and the former owner of two video stores. VHShitfest is proud to have the first interview with Dave about these...
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#134 - The Hackers (John Duncan; 1988)
By Dan Kinem Anyone who’s read any of my reviews knows there’s nothing better than a slasher, except for a slasher that was shat-on-hideo that is. The Hackers is one of the rarest of its kind and is likely on most horror fans’ wishlists, if they’ve heard of it. The second I saw the cover I knew I must own this movie, no matter what it took. Thankfully, the hype I built...
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#133- Black River Monster (John Duncan; 1986)
by Tim May
Welcome to Camelot Studios weekend! This interesting Michigan based studio released six movies in the mid-to-late eighties including The Earhunter (1985), Black River Magic (1985), The Black River Horse Capades (year unknown), and The Hackers (1988). The company still exists, though they no longer produce features; these days, they prefer to focus on commercials and industrial videos....
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We did it! Through hours of time-wasting, I...
Now all of you go “like” us on Facebook! Love, Dan
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#132- Gary Coleman: For Safety's Sake (Leslie H....
by Tim May
Normally, when looking for things to review, I like to find tapes with a certain kitsch value. For Safety’s Sake, a children’s instructional video hosted by one of America’s favorite jokes (until his death in 2010), Gary Coleman, seemed to fit the bill.
Sadly, beyond its entertaining opening sequence, For Safety’s Sake is pretty boring. Gary Coleman uses the “magic of computers” to...
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#131 - Scream Queens Swimsuit Sensations (John A....
By Dan Kinem There’s certain tapes I get that make me love the fact VHS existed. The whole idea of this direct-to-video scream queens “sexy workout” is absurd, yet, in the VHS era this made perfect sense. It’s the type of thing every horror fan would’ve had to buy, but the type of thing none of them would have enjoyed more than once (if that) and the type of thing...
January 2012
5 posts
14 tags
#130- Magico, el enviado de los dioses (Angel...
by Tim May
Like the Superman of 1938, Magico’s title character is a social justice superhero. Although he battles a group of supervillains, Magico spends most of his energy saving women from would be rapists and drunken wife beaters. That seems to be the case, anyway. As you can probably tell, Magico is a Mexican shot on video “film”—in Spanish with no subtitles. I’ve rarely...
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One last reminder!
If you haven’t gotten our release of Gore-Met Zombie Chef from Hell then you better make sure to do it soon! We are trying to get rid of the rest of the stock we have and once they are gone, they are gone. We put a lot of work into the release and would like to get them all sold out soon. Anyone who has ordered or orders this week, the DVD will ship this weekend! Thanks everyone for helping...
Anonymous asked: Is the doc you're working on called Rewind This? I saw it on Kickstarter but not on here and I'm confused a bit.
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#129 - Invasion of the Mindbenders (aka Alien...
By Dan Kinem There’s some cult rarities that slip through the cracks, then there’s movies like this, that must have literally slipped into a crack in the earth which sent it back to the prehistoric times of the dinosaurs ala the 90s Land of the Lost show, because no one I know has ever said anything about this movie. I’ve never heard this one brought up in conversation or seen...
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December 2011
9 posts
29 tags
Interview with Author and Actor, David Henry...
Interview by Dan Kinem David Henry Sterry is an author, comedian, and actor, who has written thirteen acclaimed books and been acting since the 1980s. He has acted in everything from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to the VHShitfest favorite, Hellroller, where he played two roles, Dr. Kosloff and the King of the Bums. I was lucky enough to conduct a phone interview with the man about his entire career,...
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Documentary details! Everyone read!
As you may or may not have heard, we begin shooting our documentary on VHS culture and why VHS is amazing January 3rd or 4th until about the 9th. We need to know if anyone in the Philadelphia, NJ, NYC area would like to be interviewed. Any help would be much appreciated. We would basically come and ask you a few questions and maybe get some shots of your collection or you hitting up a local video...
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#128- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Alpha's...
by Tim May
Merry Christmas, ‘shitheads! To celebrate this, the greatest of all holidays, let’s look back on the understandably overlooked “Alpha’s Magical Christmas,” one of two original direct-to-video holiday themed Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers programs.
As I’m sure most of you know, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was a wildly successful children’s action show in which five “teenagers with...
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#127- Spookies (Eugenie Joseph and Thomas Doran &...
by Tim May
At first glance, Spookies probably seems like a standard haunted house affair, but a few hilarious characters and scenes save it from blandness. Before we get to the film itself, you may have noticed there are three directors credited for this beast. Thomas Doran and Brendan Faulkner shot and completed a rough cut of a film called Twisted Souls, before being fired by the producer....
November 2011
6 posts
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I added my VHS wishlist to the site! →
Everyone can go check it out to see what tapes I’m on the lookout for. If you have any of these please hit me up! Even if you don’t necessarily want to get rid of it I still want to know. Also, if you know where to get these or ever see any cheap and want to pick them up I would greatly appreciate it. I’ll constantly be updating and editing this page so you can keep checking...
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#126 - The Abomination (Bret McCormick; 1986)
By Dan Kinem
Happy Thanksgiving ‘Shitheads! In honor of this great holiday where students are freed from torturous schoolwork and fat lards are given a free pass to get lardier, I present a review for… The Abomination. A movie about huge-teethed tumors that feast on human flesh just like your obese ass feasts on turkey and stuffing!
There are many VHS I get excited about. Hell,...
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#125 - Toxic Zombies (aka Bloodeaters) (Charles...
By Dan Kinem
Could it be?! Has this annoying zombie obsession died down? Well, at least in my world it has. I know somewhere out there there’s still a bunch of losers gushing about The Walking Dead TV show or asking, “Yo, bro, what would you do if zombies attacked?!” But somehow I have managed to separate myself far away from these types. For the past six years or more the...
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October 2011
8 posts
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#124- TeenAlien (Peter Semelka; 1978)
by Tim May
Happy Halloween, VHShit-heads! During this, perhaps the greatest of all festive seasons, I love to watch films that take place on Halloween. There’s something about movies that happen the day of that really gets me in the spirit. So, this year, I thought it’d be fun to check out the shot-in-fucking-Utah-of-all-places 1978 oddity known as TeenAlien.
TeenAlien begins in 1957 with some...
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Like the Best Zombies, VHS Just Won’t Die →
I was interviewed in this New York Times article on VHS. Pass this around, this is a huge deal for VHS! - Dan Kinem
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#123 - Cannibal Campout (Jon McBride; 1988)
By Dan Kinem
How was the whole redneck hillbilly eats human meat idea started, anyway? I mean, yeah, rednecks are annoying as fuck and borderline retarded, but cannibals? That seems like a strange jump in logic. Though it wouldn’t come as a surprise if that scumbag Larry the Cable Guy was found out to be raping young girls and cooking them. Regardless, Cannibal Campout fits in that...
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#122- Delinquent School Girls (Greg Corarito;...
by Tim May
Delinquent School Girls wasted no time answering our biggest question when Dan and I start a movie. Almost immediately, there are tits.
We’re brought to a juvenile correctional facility for girls, which seems to run a lot more like a mildly strict boarding school. The girls are, of course, sluts, and a couple of them are fucking around with their instructors. For a prison, these...
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I'm selling a bunch of rare horror VHS! →
Help me out. I am selling some rare tapes right now, so make sure to bid. This might be your last chance ever to get the insanely rare limited edition 555 clamshell. Also, you can add this Ebay page to your favorites and keep checking back. I will always be posting tapes up for cheap starting bids! Don’t miss out on some of these. There’s some we have reviewed before and some we...
September 2011
9 posts
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#121 - The Last Slumber Party (Stephen Tyler;...
By Dan Kinem
The slumber party slasher sub-sub-genre may be my favorite ever. You get the unrealistic, albeit amazing, situation where a bunch of at least slightly attractive females spend the night together getting naked, having pillow fights, and getting picked off one by one. What’s not to love? Some would say The Last Slumber Party is what’s not to love about the genre, but...
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#120- Dreamaniac (David DeCoteau; 1986)
by Tim May
One year ago, I wrote the very first VHShitfest review for David DeCoteau’s classic Aliens ripoff, Creepozoids. Since then, we’ve become somewhat fascinated with his work, reviewing Shrieker, Dr. Alien, and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama. So what better film to celebrate the one year anniversary of VHShitfest than DeCoteau’s 1986 A Nightmare on Elm Street-biting...
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#119 - Zombie Lake (Jean Rollin; 1981)
by Dan Kinem
I’ve been duped yet again by stunning VHS cover art. Somehow I went my whole life as a horror fan without knowing of the true horrors that rest deep in the Zombie Lake. I actually went completely gung-ho into this movie skipping joyously to my VCR – shit-eating grin on my face and tape in hand – without ever having heard of the many suicides that were directly related to the...
August 2011
11 posts
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#118- Rappin' N' Rhymin' (Bruce Kimmel; 1991)
by Tim May
If you’re looking at that cover and hoping to see Fred Flintstone rip up the mic, then you may be disappointed with Rappin’ N’ Rhymin’. However, you do get Damon, the most ferocious MC since Chuck D. Jay-Z, Nas, and Q-Tip better watch out, because this kid’s gunning for their GOAT status.
You know you’ve got a classic on your hands when the first song has a hook like, “YOU LIKE RAP?...
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