I posted a few capsule reviews of films I watched on VHS in the previous forum in the DVD thread, maybe this is a better place to put these and this fresh start an excellent chance to make it so. I still collect VHS. now even more then ever actually, since I hear a lot of people just throwing away their tapes… especially those old ugly ones with the bad movies nobody has heard about… the horror the horror!
Maybe this thread can be about all things VHS… with nice cover pictures etc… I hope some of you will like that.
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some recent reviews:
Lady Karate (Onna Hissatsu Ken) - another video title for this film is sister street fighter. A campy Japanese wannabe kungfu film with an overused plot and characters who all try their best to imitate Bruce Lee. dumb entertainment, but entertaining enough. the Dutch ‘VML’ video is widescreen and in original language but the print is dark and the white subtitles are hard to read sometimes.
the wild team (I Cinque del Condor) - ooh a real stinker. it’s like the A-team but even dumber and not really suitable for children at the same time… who would want to see this badly written, badly acted, badly edited, badly… anything movie? ... well I did but only to tell you not to check this out. there is nothing even for exploitation fans here and it also fails to reach the ‘so bad it’s good’ category. the Dutch ‘Video for Pleasure’ video is widescreen and dubbed in English.
Don’t Torture a Duckling (Sunrise Tapes)
I like watching old movies like this on old VHS tapes With Sunrise Tapes the quality of the print is often not perfect. Here we get an English dubbed widescreen version (missing a bit of image on both sides) in a transfer that looks a little bit dark. The film itself is a good giallo. I haven’t seen much of this genre so I’m not sure how to rate it but I liked it and that’s what counts. There is one disturbing scene that stands out and really impressed me, in which four villagers brutally murder a girl they suspect is the killer. very chilling use of music in that scene and ‘in your face’ gore effects.
The Pyjama Girl Case (Sunrise Tapes)
another letterboxed, English dubbed video of an Italian murder mystery. I don’t think this falls completely within the giallo genre though. The print quality is good, but the film sadly isn’t. very badly scripted, stupid characters and nothing exciting happens.
Hell Commando’s (VPV)
a decent looking VHS from 1982, 4:3 and English dubbed, of the 1969 film Comando al Infierno. An Italian and Spanish co-production directed by José Luis Merino. Sadly nothing positive to note about the movie.
It’s WOII and a professor needs to be rescued from the SS before he develops a virus for Hitler. The commando team that is selected to do this gets wiped out by a squad of marines lost behind enemy lines who think they are Germans. And then they are forced to complete the mission. They are an unruly bunch who are mostly interested in girls though.
That all sounds better written down than it is to watch. There is no exciting action, no humor and, with all the girls there and the eurotrash credits, it’s surprisingly tame also.
They Call Me Trinity (Video for Pleasure)
They clearly used a very old and damaged film copy as master for this video. I got the full grindhouse experience For the very few VHS collectors that might still be out there this is a letterboxed and English dubbed version. The film is typical Bud Spencer and Terence Hill fare in a spaghetti western setting. I’ve read that it was very popular and ‘inspired’ Sergio Leone to make My Name is Nobody.
Naked Fist (Video Collection)
A Filipino karate movie. Reminded me somewhat of Bloodsport and Kickboxer, the two Jean-Claude van Damme karate classics. But this is an older movie with much much lower production values. And the main selling point of this movie is a fight in which karate champ Jillian Kessner gets naked and kicks a guys ass.
Angelfist (Video Look)
The same director, Cirio H. Santiago, did a sort of remake twelve years later. Ken Metcalfe who wrote Naked Fist and acted in at least fifteen of Santiago’s movies is the only actor to return from Naked Fist. There is again a girl who is out for revenge after her sister gets killed for photographing something she shouldn’t have, again she gets naked and kicks a guys ass, again there is some Filipino stick fighting. But the acting is even worse this time around (some of the worst ever) and the leading lady is pumped full of silicone which makes her real ugly.
I also think the fighting in Naked Fist is slightly better, certainly the final fight of that movie because it has a killer ending (with fightingsticks ending up in eyesockets!).
The Devils of Monza
Video Liberty, 4:3, English dub, Greek subs, 1986, dir: Luciano Odorisio
The story of a nun, born to a noble family, who is first seduced then raped by man who is also of high birth. She gets pregnant but the baby is stillborn, a sister who wants to tell about the scandal gets killed and everything is aloud to get out of hand because the two have develloped a real passion for each other, despite themselfs. It all has to end with intervention by the inquisition. All the nunsploitation elements are present but this isn’t a sleazy film really. It’s filmed very well and the aim is more towards melodrama. The story gets a little bogged down with all the sidetracks in the story though, so a tighter edit… or more exploitation elements … could make this a better film.
Vera storia della monaca di Monza
Replay Video, 4:3, in Italian with Dutch subs, 1980, dir: Stefan Oblowsky (Bruno Mattei)
This is the same story (duh) with minor variations made to allow for more sex-orgies. This is more what you might expect from nunsploitation: softcore sacrilege. It’s good that I saw the other film first because in the need to go from one nude scene to the next the story is sometimes half forgotten. There is also a lot less atmosphere here. Add to this a washed out image and the end result is a piece of boring crap
Strange to see a scene stolen from La Bête (Borowczyk) at the beginning of the movie, but trivia like that make sitting through a load of bad movies like this all the more rewarding
EXTRA INFO: ImdB says that footage (of horses copulating) has also been used in “Julchen und Jettchen, die verliebten Apothekerstöchter” and I know it’s also in “Caligula et Messaline” (again a Bruno Mattei movie!) ... I guess that was a very popular scene then, back in those days
I just hate the VHS format. It does not interface with my Home theatre too well (my own damn fault when I designed the theatre...but still!)
I’ve still got a few films that haven’t made it to DVD yet, but once I have the film on DVD, I see no reason to keep the VHS.
Of course, any film that you can only find in an older format is worth keeping rather than discarding only because the format is old! I’ve still got 300 or so VHS tapes kicking around the house. I’m sure when my kids are in their teens they will mock them, like I mocked my parents 8-Tracks. Or heck, those kids (which are under 5 now) are going to probably be mocking any media stored on a physical device, over virtual (.mp3 equivalent) films.
I just rented the a VHS tape the other day, something I hadn’t done in years. It was a widescreen, subtitled version of Fist of Legend I had to see after reading about it on the Twitch forums. Awesome film...but I hope it comes out on DVD. Sorry.
I’ve just started to flirt with VHS again - mainly UK Pre Certs. I haven’t reached the point where I’m going to shell out £50, £100, £300 for a VHS yet but I’m getting into looking around car boot sales and charity shops for hidden bargains (sad I know). Most titles I’ve picked up are the ones that haven’t reached DVD yet and whilst quality maybe compromised sometimes it feels right to watching these film this way :D Check out the UK Pre Cert forum for the real collectors though :D
I’m slowly transferring my OOP VHS titles to DVD-R, but I can’t seem to part with the original copies (much to my wife’s annoyance). The other day I transferred Sonny Boy - hadn’t seen it in years, couldn’t believe I’d kind of forgotten how crazy that movie is. Might have to write it up for main page.
Watched Suicide Cult (Glickenhaus, 75) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187530/. I didn’t actually mean to buy this film - it was in a case with a different sleeve (Lady, Stay Dead) I picked up in a boot sale. Man this is a weird but utterly shite film… You get the sense they had this great idea on paper but had no idea how to execute and even less of an idea of how to edit it. I may try and flog it on eBay....
I didn’t actually mean to buy this film - it was in a case with a different sleeve
That happens to me too every once in a while. Sometimes the other tape is a real find… mostly not
This weekend I hit a jackpot again. I’ve been looking at ‘marktplaats.nl’ (a Dutch website where people can place ads if they want to sell something or are looking for something) a lot lately for VHS tapes. At least 20 ads are placed per day!! mostly from people dumping their standard tapes (james bond, bruce lee, jackie chan, schwarzenegger, jean-claude van damme, stephen king, robert de niro or all the Hollywood blockbusters of the last ten years). But this was a collector with mostly 80’s tapes. Lot’s of bad (Fillipino) action movies; including Tiger Shark, a tape I have been looking for at second hand markets for years now! All in all I bought 83 tapes for 41 euro (that is around 27 pound I guess...)
That happens to me too every once in a while. Sometimes the other tape is a real find… mostly not
This weekend I hit a jackpot again. I’ve been looking at ‘marktplaats.nl’ (a Dutch website where people can place ads if they want to sell something or are looking for something) a lot lately for VHS tapes. At least 20 ads are placed per day!! mostly from people dumping their standard tapes (james bond, bruce lee, jackie chan, schwarzenegger, jean-claude van damme, stephen king, robert de niro or all the Hollywood blockbusters of the last ten years). But this was a collector with mostly 80’s tapes. Lot’s of bad (Fillipino) action movies; including Tiger Shark, a tape I have been looking for at second hand markets for years now! All in all I bought 83 tapes for 41 euro (that is around 27 pound I guess...)
The film was supposed to be Lady, Stay Dead which I believe is an Australian horror but I may try and flog the sleeve on eBay as well!
So what sort of tapes are sought after in the Netherlands Petcor80? I mean here in the UK we’ve got “pre certs” and “video nasties” but given that sort of thing doesn’t occur out there, I’m guessing other factors must come into account (small distributors, rare covers etc). Do you have any pictures of some of your favourite videos?
So what sort of tapes are sought after in the Netherlands Petcor80? I mean here in the UK we’ve got “pre certs” and “video nasties” but given that sort of thing doesn’t occur out there, I’m guessing other factors must come into account (small distributors, rare covers etc). Do you have any pictures of some of your favourite videos?
I don’t know if there really is a collector ‘scene’ in the Netherlands, at least I’m not a part of it. As you say, we don’t have the added attraction of bans and cuts. In fact for a few films the Dutch release is the only uncut one in existence and therefore sought after in the rest of the world. As anywhere else in the world, the Dutch video history is quite interesting. In the early days there were three formats fighting for domination, betamax, video2000 (vcc) and vhs. That last format won as we all know so thats the format I collect. You still often see betamax at second hand markets but video2000 has become a rarity. In the early days the market was open for anyone to step in and start releasing back-catalogs of not only eurotrash but also auteur cinema quick and cheap. When the big studios realized there actually was money to be made with this thing called video, things started to change. I’d say that after the 80’s the video market became much less interesting for collector’s of oddities and cult cinema. Dutch labels from the early days like Sunrise tapes, VML, Video for Pleasure, Video Screen or VPV are also becoming rare because if they aren’t in the hands of collectors they are bound to be discarded, thrown away, destroyed and disposed of. One thing I noticed is when you throw the name of these labels in Google you often end up at Scandinavian collectors websites, so maybe that’s where they all went. In Belgium there is also much more of a collector spirit I noticed (not only with VHS but also with pulp literature and comic-books, two other old and obscure interests of mine). Recently I started tape trading with this guy there who collects anything from the Vestron label:
http://vestronvideo.blogspot.com/
Schokkend Nieuws magazine (Shocking News) http://www.schokkendnieuws.nl/ made by the people of Film Events
http://www.filmevents.nl/ who also organize the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival and are slowly getting into film-making themselfs, is the only place in the Netherlands where space is devoted to VHS, in the “video basta!” column, as far as I know. These guys have a vast collection and an even bigger knowledge and know how to write inspiring stuff about all the good and bad that has been released in the Netherlands.
As for me. The most I ever spend on a tape was 100 guilders on the Belgian release of Angst
It’s the absolute best serial killer film that I know, so money well spend for me, But I’m sure the guy who sold it to me made a huuuge profit. The tape is very rare though. The film has now been released in Germany on DVD, but as it is a German language movie, there are no subs on that release. In the US a company called Barrel Entertainment announced it’s release… but that was in 2003!! http://www.barrel-entertainment.com/pre_news033103.htm I don’t think that is ever going to happen.
I am also very happy with now owning this video
An image I have had in my head since I first saw the poster at my local ‘videotheek’ (video rental store) when it was released
I think this is one of the most beautiful covers in my collection.
and another thing,
Things to look for in Dutch video’s to see if you’ve got a possible cult film:
- a big box with a curved spine (instead of the slightly thinner square boxes that became standard later)
- drawn cover art instead of a photo
- the original title of the movie ‘translated’ in Dutch
Hello , I’m the guy that collect the Vestron Video International tapes. But not only the Vestron Tapes also other rare & hard to find stuff. I have more than 3000 tapes , But I’m slowly selling on ebay or trade some tapes for Vestron Video titles I don’t have .
Maybe I can show you some of the Vhs tapes I Got
And let’s start with a very rare original Vds release of Lucker . This one is the 84 minutes version.
It’s a Belgian Horror film and very collectable because the original copie/ Master is Burned
and here 2 times the same film in different releases from the same company
this is the first release early 80’s ( i think 1982)
I work in Leidschendam, and needed some sort of cable for my home cinema set. So I walked into a very small store in the Damlaan and lo and behold…
They had a whole display with those old curved VHS tapes! Gave me a hippie flashback. Shall I check tomorrow if they still have them?
but only to tell you not to check this out. there is nothing even for exploitation fans here and it also fails to reach the ‘so bad it’s good’ category. the Dutch ‘Video for Pleasure’ video is widescreen and dubbed in English.
