About Us
The Team
Press Releases
Ib Melchior and TFH at Larry Edmunds
DVD Drive In on The Best from Trailers From Hell
Trailers From Hell Launches DVD-Twitter Contest
DVD Savant on The Best from Trailers From Hell
Backstage at SXSW... Joe Dante is interviewed by IFC's Matt Singer
Trailers From Hell
Any movie can be great at 2 1/2 minutes!Trailers -- you know -- those fast-paced 2-to-4 minute theatrical promo shorts that have preceded the Feature Attraction since the dawn of sound? An exciting montage of all The Best Parts of a movie the exhibitors want you to NEED to see! Full of swirling letters screaming hyperbolic promises of THRILLS! ACTION! MYSTERY! ROMANCE! Packing all the highlights of a whole picture into its own mini-movie in just a few minutes!
TRAILERS FROM HELL is the brainchild of film director Joe Dante, new media entrepreneur Jonas Hudson, graphic artist Charlie Largent and producer Elizabeth Stanley. The series was born out of their mutual love of classic films of all types, but particularly horror and exploitation films.
TFH is the premier showcase for a breathtakingly eclectic assortment of trailers from classic era films both in their original form and punctuated with informative and amusing commentary by contemporary filmmakers. This content is syndicated across web and mobile partners including AOL Video, AT&T, Sprint, You Tube, Babelgum, Shorts TV, Yahoo and on cable television, as well as on the net at www.trailersfromhell.com. Fireworks International, a division of ContentFilm, serves as TFH's international sales agent.
Joe Dante
JOE DANTE is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art. After a stint as a film reviewer, he began his filmmaking apprenticeship in 1974 as trailer editor for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his directorial debut in 1976 with HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (co-directed with Allan Arkush), a thinly disguised spoof of New World exploitation pictures, shot in ten days for $60,000.In 1977 Dante made his solo debut as a film director with PIRANHA, which went on to become one of the company's biggest hits and was distributed throughout the rest of the world by United Artists. During his tenure at New World, Dante edited Ron Howard's directorial debut GRAND THEFT AUTO and co-wrote the original story for ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. For Avco-Embassy Dante next directed the highly praised werewolf thriller THE HOWLING (1981), followed by the IT'S A GOOD LIFE segment of the episodic TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983). Having worked with Steven Spielberg on TWILIGHT ZONE, Dante was chosen to helm one of the first Amblin Productions for Warner Bros., GREMLINS (1984), which became a runaway hit and grossed more than $200 million worldwide.
Dante followed up with EXPLORERS (1985) for Paramount, a sci fi fantasy about three kids who build their own spaceship, and then INNERSPACE (1987) for Guber/Peters, Amblin and Warner Bros., an action comedy in which miniaturized test pilot Dennis Quaid is injected into the body of supermarket clerk Martin Short.
Tom Hanks starred in Dante's next film for Imagine/Universal, THE 'BURBS (1989), which was followed by GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH for Warner Bros. in 1990. MATINEE (1993), featuring John Goodman as a huckster showman premiering his new horror film during the Cuban Missile Crisis, was a production of Dante and partner Mike Finnell's Renfield Productions for Universal in 1993. Dreamworks/Universal's SMALL SOLDIERS was released in 1998, followed in 2003 by Warner Bros. LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION featuring one of Dante's favorite actors, Bugs Bunny.
Dante's HOMECOMING, an episode of Showtime's MASTERS OF HORROR series, debuted in December 2005 to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and was named to numerous "Top 10" critics lists. The Sitges and Brussels International Film Festivals both honored HOMECOMING with Special Jury Recognition Awards, and The New Yorker called it the best political film of 2005. He followed with another MASTERS OF HORROR episode, THE SCREWFLY SOLUTION. His 3-D thriller, THE HOLE, won the first-time award for best 3-D movie at 2009 Venice festival.
Along the way Dante contributed several comedy segments to the multi-part AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON (1987) spoof produced by John Landis, and directed various episodes of the tv series AMAZING STORIES, TWILIGHT ZONE, POLICE SQUAD!, NIGHT VISIONS, PICTURE WINDOWS and EERIE, INDIANA, on which he was also creative consultant throughout its run. In 1995 he directed the pilot for Caleb Carr's space show THE OSIRIS CHRONICLES for Paramount Television. Dante received Cable Ace nominations for his direction of Showtime's RUNAWAY DAUGHTERS (1994) and HBO's THE SECOND CIVIL WAR (1997).
One of the creators of Trailers from Hell, Joe is producing the series through his company, Metaluna Productions and is also one of its hosts and commentators.
Tom Edgar
TOM EDGAR has been bulding film-related websites for more than a decade.Jonas Hudson
JONAS HUDSON connects major studios, labels and talent in the entertainment industry and builds integrated new media distribution and production properties around "snackable" short form content.In 2004, he co-founded The Nickels Group (TNG) - a traditional and new media company focused on mobile distribution. The Nickels Group distributed mobile content to over 2 billion cell phones worldwide and created the mobile brands: Reggaeton Nation and Nexxt Mobile which can be downloaded on five continents.
The Nickels Group was sold to the public company Mobile Streams, LTD, the mobile arm of Liberty Media.
In January of 2007 Hudson co-produced THE GRAVEDANCERS, which was released through Lionsgate Films. Mr. Hudson also Executive Produced the first Reggaeton feature film entitled SPIN which is distributed by Universal.
Prior to forming The Nickels Group, Mr. Hudson worked in marketing and distribution at Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. At Warner Bros., he planned and executed marketing and promotional strategies for the launch of the patented, new DVD technology. While there, he also created and implemented promotional partnerships with numerous Fortune 500 companies including General Motors, Coca-Cola, and Nestle.
Currently, Mr. Hudson runs his entertainment company, HY Entertainment Group, which produces "made for new media" and traditional content properties.
Hudson received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Irvine and has a MBA from the USIU.
Charlie Largent
Indiana native CHARLIE LARGENT received his BFA at the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis and his MFA at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. After graduation, he created commercial illustrations for advertisers and publishers while also developing his fine art. He began a series of one man and group shows (in New York, Chicago, Indianapolis and Los Angeles) that continue to this day.In the seventies he worked as an art director at the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis which led to an interest in video and film production. In the early eighties, Largent directed and produced several corporate videos including the official music video for the city of Indianapolis, INDIANAPOLIS INDEED. In 1985, Largent served as production designer for the theatrical film, THE ESCAPIST. In 1997, Largent developed CHARLIE HILL ILLUSTRATION which provides digital illustration to the advertising and editorial world and includes Coca-Cola, Microsoft and A&E Network among his clients.
In 2000 Largent moved to California, beginning a stint as film reviewer (for Video Watchdog) and writing screenplays. He sold an original story, TAGGED, to UPN for the most recent incarnation of THE TWILIGHT ZONE hosted by Forest Whitaker and co-wrote the original screenplay THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES, which will be directed by Joe Dante. In addition to his illustration and design for Trailers From Hell, Charlie is currently working on a series of drawings for an upcoming exhibition, as well as a book on film. Charlie is represented by Judy Coppage of The Coppage Company.
David Moore
David Moore is a second generation Hollywood kid who has spent most of his life in and around stages and post houses.By 18, he was already an accomplished sitcom editor, and was able to put himself through UC Irvine with weekend trips to LA to cut commercials.
After five years of onlining everything from music videos to documentaries, he opened his own post house, Media Island, in 1999. Â With his own slate of productions growing, he branched out into the studio business in 2006, and opened Arizona Film Studios.
Today, he continues to own post facilities and a production company in Hollywood
Elizabeth Stanley
After seven years as Assistant Executive Director/Director of Organizing for the Directors Guild of America, ELIZABETH STANLEY left the DGA in late 2004 to establish Elizabeth Stanley Pictures, her independent production company.Her new media ventures include TRAILERS FROM HELL, THE DARK PATH CHRONICLES, a vampire-themed VOD/webisode series written and directed by Mary Lambert which premiered on FEARnet in November 2008 and is being distributed around the world by ContentFilm; and SPLATTER directed by Joe Dante which she co-produced with Roger and Julie Corman. In 2006, Ms. Stanley produced the award winning feature documentary THE DOCTOR, THE TORNADO AND THE KENTUCKY KID written and directed by Mark Neale. She currently is developing a number of feature film and television projects including THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES to be directed by Joe Dante, THE PRICE OF PEACE (also to be directed by Lambert) which she will produce with Marge Piane through their Mayday Pictures banner; and EXPECTING SOMEONE TALLER, an adaptation of Tom Holt's cult fantasy novel of the same name, which will be directed by Joe Dante.
From 1997 to September 2004, Ms. Stanley served as the Assistant Executive Director/Director of Organizing for the Directors Guild of America. From 1987 to 1997, she was the chief executive for the Directors Guild-Producer Training Plan, the pre-eminent US entertainment industry joint labor management training plan.
Mark Alan
Minister of Information and TechnologyA native of Michigan, Mark Alan relocated to California by way of New York City. With a life-long commitment to the arts, Alan attended a two-year dramatic arts conservatory and later found himself working in various aspects of film and TV including assistant casting, and video-logging for the Travel Channel. After the jump to the west coast, Mark landed a job working for Joe Dante's production company, Renfield Productions. With strengths in literature and technology, Alan was able to prove himself an asset for Mr. Dante holding positions in both screenplay development and marketing. He continues a path in what he calls his "double life" as an actor, having booked numerous film and TV roles including a co-starring part in the Corman/ Dante interactive web series Splatter. Most recently Alan has wrapped on a crime drama titled 'Magic Hour' alongside actors Trevor Morgan and C. Thomas Howell.
IMDB
Danny Mears
Secretary in the Ministry of Information and TechnologyDanny Mears is new here. He graduated from North Carolina State University and has hopped around a lot since. He's run around law offices, worked for non-profit publications, occasionally (if rarely) committed acts of journalism, supported political campaigns, provided social media marketing assistance, and, mostly, produced corporate and non-profit video as a writer and as an editor. After years of doing these things in North Carolina, he moved to Los Angeles to do the thing that people move here to do. He soon fell into what he describes as "the luckiest opportunity of his life" (honest, he said that) and we ensnared him to do our online marketing work and (when needed) assist production.
Mostly, though, he's just new.
IMDB
Andrew Ehrich
Under Secretary of Information and TechnologyA small-town kid from Minnesota, Andrew is a recent Film and New Media undergraduate from the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. While in school, he wrote, directed, edited, and produced short films - ambitions he's continuing to fully pursue, while now living in Los Angeles. As marketing manager at Trailers From Hell, he's more than elated to be a part of something that legitimately allows him to put his film geekery to good use.
IMDB
Ib Melchior and TFH at Larry Edmunds
DVD Drive In on The Best from Trailers From Hell
THE BEST FROM TRAILERS FROM HELL!, Volume 1 (2010)Trailers From Hell LLC
If youâre a regular reader of DVD Drive-In and havenât been to the website Trailers From Hell (www.trailersfromhell.com), well you should head there right now. Trailers From Hell is the brainchild of director Joe Dante, new media entrepreneur Jonas Hudson, graphic artist Charlie Largent and producer Elizabeth Stanley. The mission of Trailers From Hell is to showcase previews of coming attractions from vintage movies, with a particular emphasis on horror, sci-fi and exploitation, so naturally, weâre all over it. The angle here is that the hundreds of playable trailers found on the site are accompanied by commentaries by an extensive list of diverse filmmakers, and you can now take home a slice of that with this initial DVD release, THE BEST FROM TRAILERS FROM HELL!, Volume 1.
THE BEST FROM TRAILERS FROM HELL! contains five different film directors (aka âgurusâ) doing on-camera introductions and voice-over commentaries to a number of different genre trailers from the late 1940s through the late 1970s, all which help to emphasize how much the art of the preview is all but lost today. All of the five participantsâ segments are spread out through the running time with Joe Dante (THE HOWLING, GREMLINS) handling duties on CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE TINGLER, BLOOD AND ROSES, and EARTH VS. FLYING SAUCERS; John Landis (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) is on hand for CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, GREEN SLIME, PRIVATE PARTS and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG; Mick Garris (THE STAND) reminisces on RABID, THE VALLEY OF GWANGI, HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM and SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN; Eli Roth (CABIN FEVER) handles SQUIRM, THE BIRDS, 3 ON A MEATHOOK and FORBIDDEN PLANET; while Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD) does the chores for PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, CORRUPTION, THE SENTINEL and SILENT RUNNING.
The trailers mentioned above are playable with or without the commentary, with the latter option found on the "choose a trailer" menu section. With the concept that âany movie can be great at 2 ½ minutesâ, the novelty here is the comments from the five participants, who do a good job of moving things right along while always being entertaining with their thoughts, factoids and film-going experiences. Thankfully, this is not of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 on-the-spot insult/mocking variety, but rather a nice mix of intelligent and sometimes heartfelt observations, with some humor added into the mix (especially from Landis) when appropriate.
Probably the most memorable remarks stem from an affinity that one of the directors has with a particular film that heâs discussing the trailer for. Along with sharing his cinematic knowledge, Dante will bring up fond memories of seeing EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS and CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (the theater he saw it turned him off Reeseâs Peanut Butter cups for good) as a boy, as well as how William Castleâs THE TINGLER and later meeting Vincent Price influenced his 1993 film MATINEE. Eli Roth and Edgar Wright (whose faux trailers for âThanksgivingâ and âDonâtâ respectively, were the best thing about 2007âs GRINDHOUSE) are of a different generation than the other directors here, and itâs fun to hear them talking about first encountering some of these films on television or staring at their box covers at the local video store. Even with a few errors in the comments (on SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, Garris notes that actress Yutte Stensgaard appeared in âCarry Onâ movies, probably confusing her with Valerie Leon), the disc on a whole is a enjoyable ride, and is highly recommended to cult film buffs and movie geeks alike.
The assortment of black & white and color trailers are presented both full frame and widescreen, most of which appear perfectly presentable, with a few occasional ones being a bit battered, as would be expected with vintage 35mm film. Extras include a full feature: the black & white horror oldie (and PD favorite) THE VAMPIRE BAT (1933) presented here in quite a sharp looking print despite the expected blemishes. The film of course stars Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Douglas Fairbanks and Dwight Frye, and this print runs around 62 minutes. The other extras are two amusing scare-themed vintage cartoons: Foster & Baileyâs âThe Haunted Shipâ (1930, B&W) and Ub Iwerksâ âThe Headless Horsemanâ (1934, color).
Anyone interested in ordering a copy should click HERE. (George R. Reis)
Trailers From Hell Launches DVD-Twitter Contest
Trailers from Hell will celebrate the launch of its first DVD, The Best of Trailers From Hell, with a Twitter Contest for a chance to win a limited edition signed copy of its forthcoming DVD.FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) March 25, 2010 -- March 25th, 2010- Trailers from Hell will celebrate the launch of its first DVD, The Best of Trailers From Hell: Volume 1, featuring Joe Dante (Gremlins), Mick Garris (Masters of Horror), John Landis (American Werewolf In London), Eli Roth (Hostel) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) with a Twitter Contest for a chance to win a limited edition signed copy of its forthcoming DVD. The DVD includes classic commentaries from the afore-mentioned Gurus, a new transfer of the classic independent 1933 horror film, Vampire Bat and two vintage cartoons: The Haunted Ship and The Headless Horseman.
The TFH DVD Twitter Contest enables fans to win a copy of the new DVD signed by Joe Dante. Fans must tweet #trailersfromhell and are then automatically entered to win one of 10 signed copies.
Trailers From Hell Launches First DVD and Twitter Contest
TFH showcases the trailers of classic era films both in their original form and punctuated with informative and humorous commentary by contemporary filmmakers. The content is syndicated across web and mobile partners including Babelgum, AOL Video, AT&T, Sprint, You Tube, Shorts TV, Yahoo and on cable television, as well as at www.trailersfromhell.com
Joe Dante, Trailers From Hell Founder notes, "Our first DVD is aimed at broadening our base of film fans to those who haven't yet discovered our award-winning website www.trailersfromhell.com. Our amazing heritage of great and sometimes just entertaining movies from earlier decades is in danger of fading from the public eye. This is our small attempt to keep what Jimmy Stewart once called âpieces of timeâ relevant and fun for future generations.â
From More information please go to www.trailersfromhell.com or email info@trailersfromhell.com.
DVD Savant on The Best from Trailers From Hell
The Best from Trailers From Hell! Volume OneReviewed by Glenn Erickson
For the past few years one of the brightest web destinations for fantastic film fans has been Trailers from Hell, a site with a simple premise: you can see original movie trailers there, with or without informed commentary by actual, real-life, honest-to-golly film directors. Savant edited trailers for a few years and is a fan of older forms of these "coming attractions" mini-previews. Once upon a time before TV advertising, audiences were actually excited to see the coming attraction previews, as they were often the only way to get an idea of the quality of the movie represented by the often misleading poster out in the lobby. Almost without exception, the more successful genre pictures of the 1950s had really, really good trailers. Let's not discuss contemporary trailers - they give me a royal pain for a number of reasons I won't plague you with right now.
Before viral marketing and cookie-cutter formulas there was a thing called "Showmanship", or, when the emphasis was on something other than quality, "Ballyhoo". Back when a trailer had hair on its chest, we'd be inundated with hard-sell voiceover and text promising thrills the movie couldn't possibly deliver. If a man and a woman in the movie had even the most chaste bodily contact, big words would jump off the screen about "Savage, naked emotions laid Raw!" Outright hype, hokum and unsubstantiated claims shouted that the film in question was the greatest this or that, or the most "whatever" you've ever seen before. How many times have we been assured that we "won't believe our eyes', or that some hero or monster was "the mightiest of them all?" My favorite BS text standard was the claim that "Generic self-important social issue film" was "the most important movie you'll see this year, or any year". An unnamed Biblical epic that I wouldn't embarrass by naming it threw out the astounding boast that it was "the most impressive movie you will ever see!"
The Trailers from Hell site has by now passed 400+ entries or so. Volume 1 presents twenty of the most popular titles, mostly eccentric genre spectacles. Five genial director "Gurus" host four titles each: Joe Dante, Mick Garris, John Landis, Eli Roth and Edgar Wright. Here's the rundown:
The Birds
Blood and Roses
Corruption
The Curse of Frankenstein
Curse of the Werewolf
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Forbidden Planet
Green Slime
Horrors of the Black Museum
Mighty Joe Young
Phantom of the Paradise
Private Parts
Rabid
Scream and Scream Again
The Sentinel
Silent Running
Squirm
3 on a Meathook
The Tingler
The Valley of Gwangi
That's a good Sci-fi, horror and fantasy playlist, a variety mix with a selection of special rarities. The trailer for The Valley of Gwangi is an elaborate no-voiceover mini-epic consisting almost exclusively of Ray Harryhausen special effects, while the oddball Green Slime is as psychotronic a head-scratcher that ever was. The selection features plenty of class and a bit of gore. The dazzling trailer for the 1967 Peter Cushing film Corruption is cut faster than anything new that I've seen. It's likely that few viewers have seen any moving images from Roger Vadim's rare 1960 Blood and Roses, and the trailer is packed with exotic and erotic vampire moments. For sheer tastelessness there's nothing to compare with the shocker Horrors of the Black Museum, and the trailer for Paul Bartel's Private Parts was probably too edgy to show in any venue more prestigious than a grindhouse.
The host commentaries provide the real added value, cramming a wealth of information, humor and insights into the two- to four- minute trailer running times. Each personality shows up for a few moments before the trailer starts, and then remains off-screen as it plays -- no MST3K silhouette vandalism here. Genial Joe Dante shows affection for his quartet of classic-era shockers, and Eli Roth gives us an interesting viewpoint on Alfred Hitchcock's long, bizarre trailer for The Birds. Natural clown John Landis communicates his fondness for both oddball titles (Green Slime) and childhood favorites (Mighty Joe Young).
Embellishing this treat of a disc are some genuinely 'special' special extras. The Haunted Ship is an oddball "Toontown"- style cartoon positioned somewhere between the silent and sound eras -- it seems designed to be playable even if your Prohibition-era movie palace hasn't yet updated to sound on film. The Headless Horseman is a full-on retelling of the Ichabod Crane story by renegade Disney artist Ub Iwerks.
Best of all is the full 1933 feature The Vampire Bat, an independent horror film filmed on studio-quality sets with stars like Melvyn Douglas, Fay Wray and Dwight Frye. Lionel Atwill shows up as a kindly doctor, but doesn't stay kindly very long. The big surprise is that the quality of the print sourced, and its audio, are actually quite good -- The Vampire Bat stopped playing on television a long time ago, and this was my first opportunity to see it.
Artwork, menus, packaging details and other frills are nicely turned out by artist Charlie Largent in the same attractive style seen at the Trailers from Hell website (before their recent slight re-design). Vintage trailers have a special glory and it's difficult not to become excited by these arresting coming attractions. The Best of Trailers from Hell delivers their dramatic text blurbs and over-sold voiceover scripts full force: "The Evil Embrace of the Powers of Darkness!"
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,
The Best of Trailers from Hell Volume 1 rates:
Trailers: Excellent
Video: Very Good
Sound: Very Good
Supplements: two vintage cartoon, the entire 1933 feature horror film The Vampire Bat
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: March 26, 2010
Backstage at SXSW... Joe Dante is interviewed by IFC's Matt Singer
Plumbing the depths of Joe Dante's "Trailers From Hell"The Austin Chronicle
In a World Where ...
Plumbing the depths of Joe Dante's 'Trailers From Hell'
BY MARC SAVLOV
"When I first came out to L.A. in '74, there were a lot of film collectors out here, and I was a film collector, too," says Joe Dante, the man behind the Mogwai of Gremlins, the hirsute horrors of The Howling, and the director of what must be George W. Bush's least favorite episode of HBO's Masters of Horror, "Homecoming" (in which the corpses of American servicemen killed in Bush's Middle East folly rose up from their body bags to vote W. out of office).
"They used to commandeer theatres at midnight and just run hours of trailers; it's not a type of program that anyone can enjoy. You have to be a real fan to appreciate that many movie trailers for that amount of time. But it occurred to me, after some time, that I had all these great trailers, and since I had no place to run them anymore, I thought why not put them up on the Internet?"
The resulting site TrailersFromHell.com combines the best of genre (and, occasionally, nongenre) trailers with introductions and optional commentary tracks from some of the greatest directors, producers, effects artists, and grindhouse gurus in the world, from Allison Anders to George Hickenlooper, Eli Roth to Edgar Wright. It's not only one of the best collections of trailers ever assembled, it's also hopelessly addictive and a fine way to put off reading the studio's asinine "notes" on your screenplay for yet another week.
"We started out with the idea of only doing exploitation trailers," says Dante, "but as we enlisted more and more people to be commentators, we found their tastes to be much broader than that. And so we've ended up with this eclectic assortment of movies that are classics and movies that are terrible and movies that are in between."
As every film geek and regular attendee of the Alamo Drafthouse's infrequent trailer marathons knows, the previews are almost always the best part of the communal moviegoing experience. Sadly, contemporary trailers are more often than not designed and cut together by corporate committees, resulting in bland, unmemorable previews that can't hold a candle to their earlier counterparts, celebrated so effectively on Trailers From Hell.
"To me, trailers, when they're good, are like cinematic haiku. You're taking the essence of a movie, and you're boiling it down to 2˝ minutes or thereabouts. Every decade had its own particular style: In the Forties, there were lots of wipes, lots of onscreen cards, lots of hyperbole, and the Forties and Fifties are kind of my favorite period for trailers. Around the Sixties, people started getting a little more sophisticated about trailers. If you look back at the trailer for the picture The Grapes of Wrath, for example, it's always astonishing how much more sophisticated the movie is than the trailer, so that it could appeal to the widest possible audience. But in the Sixties, some of the filmmakers started to actually assert control over the advertising of their films, and then you got people like Kubrick who basically were responsible for the trailers for pictures like 2001 and Dr. Strangelove."
Today, of course, what we get are "guys running away from the exploding fireball," notes Dante. "With Don LaFontaine, the trailer-voice guy who recently passed away, he was one of the reasons trailers used to be so memorable. Lines of his entered the cultural lexicon and became almost cliché. For instance, I dare you to find me a modern trailer that doesn't have the word 'now' in it. It's just a bromide. And it's really hard these days to find a really clever trailer, because there's so much money riding on the movies that the producers are terrified that they're going to strike out. It's kind of sad, but that's the exact opposite of what we try to celebrate about movie trailers on the site."
Trailers From Hell With Joe Dante
Midnighters
Monday, March 16, 12mid, Alamo Ritz
Trailers From Hell Meets MyxerTones!
MyxerTones (TM), the best place to make and share mobile content, today announced a new relationship with the Nickels Group and their new media brand and website Trailers From Hell, the site that showcases classic-era coming attractions punctuated with humorous commentary by iconic genre filmmakers. Utilizing MyxerFlix(TM), video content at Trailers from Hell (TFH) is immediately available for distribution to mobile devices and also accessible to the entire MyxerTones community - now over 2.5 million users strong.
TFH is quickly becoming one of the web's most popular new destinations for creative video content. With over 50 trailers already available, the company plans to release three new trailers per week, with well-known Hollywood creatives recording new commentary tracks. Hosts include filmmakers such as Joe Dante (Gremlins) dishing about the multi-directed horror film The Terror and Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead) praising one of his seminal influences Danger: Diabolik.
The launch of TFH's mobile distribution is highlighted by a rare trailer from the movie Psycho with John Landis (Blues Brothers, American Werewolf in London) doing an amusingly informative commentary.
"MyxerFlix essentially has allowed us to bring this material to mobile phones for the first time ever," said Jonas Hudson, president of The Nickels Group. "Promoting widespread mobile distribution has always been a key goal for us, but until we discovered MyxerFlix, we simply couldn't easily handle all the technical and other challenges associated with distributing mobile content through a consumer solution. We found the Myxer platform and MyxerFlix not only met the exact specifications we needed, but we were also impressed with its ease-of-use and reliability."
MyxerFlix opens up the mobile video market to all content owners, effectively eliminating the technical and distribution barriers frequently encountered by independent content producers. The content owner does not have to worry about disparate media formats or carrier contracts. Content owners simply upload a video, place a MyxerTag on their own web page or MySpace profile, and the video is instantly available to any mobile user on any carrier's network. The Myxer platform is completely free, so content distributors can decide whether to give their content away or charge a fee. MyxerTones also provides APIs that enable sites to facilitate automated use of the technology. Myxer API documentation is available at http://www.myxterones.com/api/doc.
"TFH is a great example of how our MyxerFlix service can immediately leverage the reach of today's new, creative and viral video content," said Myk Willis, founder and CTO of Myxer. "We let video content creators focus on what they do best - spending time creating great content - while we eliminate all the other obstacles that typically accompany the 'mobilization' of content. We believe that TFH represents some of the best new thinking in video, and will also prove to be a great addition to our MyxerTones community."
About Myxer (TM)
Myxer simplifies the delivery of content to mobile devices. Whether professional or user-generated, Myxer makes the process of delivering ringtones, images, full-track audio, video and more to the mobile marketplace incredibly quick and easy, regardless of the carrier or device being targeted. Myxer's popular MyxerTones website is quickly growing to be the most visited online destination for making and sharing mobile content, with over 2.5 million users who are downloading more than 6 million pieces of mobile content each month. The Myxer platform also offers partner API's for easy integration with existing content websites interested in expanding their reach to the mobile market.
About The Nickels Group
The Nickels Group is a consortium of film, music and event producers who produce and acquire traditional and mobile/online content. Founded by Daryl Young and Jonas Hudson, The Nickels Group has created alliances with celebrities, filmmakers, musicians and athletes to provide unique and entertaining content for all global mediums from digital distribution to major theatrical film releases.
The Nickels Group mobile distribution reaches nearly 1.5 billion mobile users worldwide and has distribution deals with Vodafone (Aus), Sprint (US), Telcel (Mexico), Vodafone (UK), Teljoy (South Africa), and others.
Myxer(TM), MyxerTones(TM) and MyxerFlix(TM) are trademarks of mVisible Technologies, Inc., all other marks are the property of their respective owner.
Hollywood Genre Directors Tackle The Small Screen With Trailers From Hell
Even a bad movie can have a great trailer.Trailers -- you know -- those fast-paced 2-to-4 minute theatrical promo shorts that have preceded the Feature Attraction since the dawn of sound? An exciting montage of all The Best Parts of a movie the exhibitors want you to need to see! Full of swirling letters screaming hyperbolic promises of THRILLS! ACTION! MYSTERY! ROMANCE! Packing all the highlights of a whole picture into its own mini-movie in just a few minutes!
Joe Dante's Metaluna Productions, The Nickels Group and Elizabeth Stanley Pictures, proudly announce the kick-off of Trailers from Hell (TFH), a new series that will be delivered online and via mobile devices throughout the world. TFH is a series that showcases classic-era movie Previews of Coming Attractions with particular emphasis on the lurid, the extreme and the outrageous.
Viewers can opt to watch the original trailers intact and/or enjoy the previews punctuated with pithy and humorous commentary by iconic genre filmmakers.
The premiere episodes include Joe Dante (Gremlins) dishing about the multi-directed horror film The Terror and the last gasp of the old-fashioned monster movies, The Unearthly.
Meanwhile, John Landis (American Werewolf In London) basks in the pop music glory of The T.A.M.I. Show, Mick Garris (The Stand), shivers at the memory of House On Haunted Hill and Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead) praises one of his seminal influences, Danger: Diabolik.
Dante notes, "The bromide about these old trailers is that they were better than the movies they promoted. That's only true in some cases, but they did deliver in-your-face excitement and breathless hyperbole at a pace the movies never could. I got my start in the movie biz cutting trailers at the tail end of the so-called Golden Age, before the ad agencies and focus groups took over. I love trailers. So join us in revisiting, or discovering for the first time, how much fun these sensational, absurdist slices of shameless cinematic hucksterism can be!"
Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris adds, "A master trailer cutter can take the worst of films and tool two minutes of breathtaking cinematic mastery out of it. At its best, the movie trailer is an exclamation point, a ringing alarm to alert the hungriest of Pavlov's dogs."
Trailers from Hell is tailor-made for new media outlets because it targets an easily-identifiable and active niche market of genre movie-lovers who aggressively seek out this type of content. As Jonas Hudson of The Nickels Group says:"Short form content has finally found a market place afterthe dot.combust of '01. Over the past 18 months, mobile distribution and on-line sites have enabled fans to view short form content while providing a real revenue model for its providers. We can now go outside the user's "cocoon" and allow people to watch shorts while they are on the go".
In future episodes director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) will weigh in on the ultra-low-budget shocker, Carnival of Souls and Roger Corman's influential gothic Poe-etry, House of Usher. Larry Cohen (It's Alive) will also provide commentary on the films that influenced him.
Viewers can watch Trailers From Hell on the www.trailersfromhell.com website, via the Fun Little Movies premium channel on Sprint mobile phones and on the iPhone.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
From CinefantastiqueJoe Dante began his writing career in the sixties for Castle of Frankenstein magazine, and I think it would be safe to say that COF was quite influential on most of the writers who eventually ended up writing at Fred Clarkeâs Cinefantastique magazine.
However, Dante began his actual filmmaking career in the trailer dept. of Roger Cormanâs New World Pictures, where, as a trailer editor, he amassed a huge collection of previews from many classic and not so classic horror films.
Joe recently began the fabulous online site, TRAILERS FROM HELL, possibly the first site of itâs kind devoted exclusively to movie trailers, and it features all kinds of rare and unusal trailers from horror and other films, mostly from the fifties and sixties.
Read More
From Variety
7-8-07
Dante conjures 'Trailers From Hell'
Directors head online to dish on genre films
By SAM THIELMAN
"Gremlins" director Joe Dante can recount endless anecdotes about Roger Corman movies, and with his new project "Trailers From Hell," he'll be sharing a few of them with Web and cell-phone users.
Dante and other Hollywood directors are recording new commentary tracks for the trailers to venerable horror and exploitation films. The project is being distributed via the Web at Trailersfromhell.com. Producers are also in negotiations to bundle the series of shorts with an on-demand package including similar content.
Directors with tracks already recorded include Edgar Wright ("Hot Fuzz"), who talks about his love of '60s Eurospy actioner "Danger: Diabolik," and Dante, who dishes on Corman shlockfest "The Terror." Helmers tapped for future contributions include Mick Garris ("The Shining" and "The Stand" TV miniseries) on "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes" and Mary Lambert ("Pet Semetary") on "Village of the Damned."
Indie producer Elizabeth Stanley is producing "Trailers From Hell" and Jonas Hudson will be distributing it through his company the Nickels Group.
Listen to Trailers From Hell producer Jonas Hudson and Trailers' PR Guru, Shaun Saunders chat about TFH on WS Radio!
From Anne Thompson/Variety
7-11-07
Trailers from Hell: Dante Dissects Genre Trailers
Horror Master Joe Dante is one of the geniuses at work behind the new website Trailers From Hell. Other Grindhouse gurus offering commentary on horror trailers are Mick Garris, Mary Lambert, John Landis and Edgar Wright. UPDATE: here's a Q & A with Dante.
From Xeni Jarden/Boing Boing
7-24-07
Trailers from Hell: directors muse on schlocky movie faves
The idea behind the recently launched "Trailers from Hell" website is simple and fun. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, there's a new video segment in which a renowned movie director comments over one of their favorite b-movie / exploitation / grindhouse flick trailers. Lots of personal memories, inspiration revelations -- it's like having a beer with a filmmaker whose work you dig, and fessing up about crappy movies you're both ashamed to admit loving.
One of this week's uploads is Mick "Masters of Horror" Garris waxing poetic about "The Vampire Lovers".
What's extra cool here is the fact that each trailer is offered both with and without commentary. Great picks, and the commentaries I've watched are most watchable.
For instance, John Landis pointing out people he went to high school with who appear in "The T.A.M.I. Show," the musical variety epic filmed in "Electronovision" in 1964.
Or Joe Dante on the sciencesploitation crapsterpiece "Incredible Petrified World": Link. ("You gotta hand it to [Jerry Warren] -- he made Ed Wood look like Bernardo Bertolucci, but he got these things made and people paid to see 'em!").
The commentaries feel authentic. You can't really fake this stuff, so there's a lot for fringe movie buffs to enjoy.
The only criticisms I have about the project are nitpicky UI issues -- I can't subscribe to an RSS feed (opt-in email updates, but that's kinda lame) UPDATE: Hey look, an RSS feed!; the website has a big-ass noisy Flash intro at the front gate; audience comments would be nice; and I wish the content were available on some of the web video networks I get most of my daily video pickins from.
Still, I'm totally bookmarking it and planning to come back regularly. Here's hoping they'll make these very good goods a little easier to access as time goes on.
From Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule
7-11-07
TRAILERS FROM HELL!
It ought not to surprise anyone that I would consider Joe Dante one of my favorite filmmakers. Hollywood Boulevard, the wire-and-spitballs comedy he made in 1976 with Allan Arkush, made my personal top 100 and I gladly return to movies like Piranha, The Howling, Explorers, Itâs a Good Life, Innerspace, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, The âBurbs, Matinee, Small Soldiers, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, The Second Civil War and Homecoming as often as I can. Plus, anyone familiar with his DVD commentary tracks on Hollywood Boulevard and The Howling knows how unpretentious, self-effacing, and quick-witted he can be, as well as how encyclopedic is his knowledge of the high points, as well as the cobwebbed nooks and crannies, of genre films.
Now Dante has put together a site which seems made for me, and for you too, Iâd wager. Itâs called Trailers from Hell, on which he gathers like-minded, quick-witted genre filmmakers like Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Mick Garris (The Stand), Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) and John Landis (An American Werewolf in London) to present gloriously crazed and otherwise cheesy genre trailers from all categories of B cinema. But hereâs the kicker: these directors introduce the trailers, and then provide DVD-style commentary for the duration. (You can choose to watch the trailer with its original audio as well.)
The whole enterprise has the intimate feel of a two-minute version of those old Creature Features-type programs, minus the bad sketch acting and ubiquitous late-night used car ads. This week's featured trailer is for the Tor Johnson epic The Unearthly, hosted by Dante, who provides details about the actors (John Carradine and 50-Foot Woman Allison Hayes joining Johnson) and some hilarious observationsâover a static shot of Carradine and another actor on either side of a anatomy class torso model inexplicably placed in between them, Dante quips, âThis is a particularly interesting composition thatâs probably won many awards in Europe.â He even draws the line linking this near-forgotten movie to Woody Allenâs Everything You Always Wanted to Know About SexâŚ, which heavily draws on The Unearthly in a parody sequence featuring Carradine himself as a mad doctor who unleashes a rampaging, and lactating, 50-foot breast on the unsuspecting countryside. The site also provides information on Dante, Landis and the rest of the aptly dubbed âGrindhouse Gurus,â as well as plenty of good information on the brain trust behind this inspired project. You can click on a link to buy the movie once youâve seen the trailer, thereâs a store where you can buy Trailers from Hell merchandise, and you can even sign up for regular e-mail updates whenever something new comes lumbering out of the dark virtual vaults where the trailers are stored.
Trailers from Hell promises to be a gas for anyone who loves low-budget genre films but also has room in their heart to give them a good-natured ribbing now and again. And what better person in Hollywood to launch such an enterprise than the director who has shown so much savvy, understanding, genuine love and respect for genre, as well as seemingly boundless energy and a wickedly subversive streak wider than the dusty, empty streets that seem to measure a half-mile from hitching post to hitching post in any Sergio Leone western? Joe Dante and company talking monsters are now just a click away (and always available on my sidebar). Thatâs not hell, thatâs heaven.
Trailers From Hell
Any movie can be great at 2 1/2 minutes!Trailers -- you know -- those fast-paced 2-to-4 minute theatrical promo shorts that have preceded the Feature Attraction since the dawn of sound? An exciting montage of all The Best Parts of a movie the exhibitors want you to NEED to see! Full of swirling letters screaming hyperbolic promises of THRILLS! ACTION! MYSTERY! ROMANCE! Packing all the highlights of a whole picture into its own mini-movie in just a few minutes!
TRAILERS FROM HELL is the brainchild of film director Joe Dante, new media entrepreneur Jonas Hudson, graphic artist Charlie Largent and producer Elizabeth Stanley. The series was born out of their mutual love of classic films of all types, but particularly horror and exploitation films.
TFH is the premier showcase for a breathtakingly eclectic assortment of trailers from classic era films both in their original form and punctuated with informative and amusing commentary by contemporary filmmakers. This content is syndicated across web and mobile partners including AOL Video, AT&T, Sprint, You Tube, Babelgum, Shorts TV, Yahoo and on cable television, as well as on the net at www.trailersfromhell.com. Fireworks International, a division of ContentFilm, serves as TFH's international sales agent.
Joe Dante
JOE DANTE is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art. After a stint as a film reviewer, he began his filmmaking apprenticeship in 1974 as trailer editor for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his directorial debut in 1976 with HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (co-directed with Allan Arkush), a thinly disguised spoof of New World exploitation pictures, shot in ten days for $60,000.In 1977 Dante made his solo debut as a film director with PIRANHA, which went on to become one of the company's biggest hits and was distributed throughout the rest of the world by United Artists. During his tenure at New World, Dante edited Ron Howard's directorial debut GRAND THEFT AUTO and co-wrote the original story for ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. For Avco-Embassy Dante next directed the highly praised werewolf thriller THE HOWLING (1981), followed by the IT'S A GOOD LIFE segment of the episodic TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983). Having worked with Steven Spielberg on TWILIGHT ZONE, Dante was chosen to helm one of the first Amblin Productions for Warner Bros., GREMLINS (1984), which became a runaway hit and grossed more than $200 million worldwide.
Dante followed up with EXPLORERS (1985) for Paramount, a sci fi fantasy about three kids who build their own spaceship, and then INNERSPACE (1987) for Guber/Peters, Amblin and Warner Bros., an action comedy in which miniaturized test pilot Dennis Quaid is injected into the body of supermarket clerk Martin Short.
Tom Hanks starred in Dante's next film for Imagine/Universal, THE 'BURBS (1989), which was followed by GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH for Warner Bros. in 1990. MATINEE (1993), featuring John Goodman as a huckster showman premiering his new horror film during the Cuban Missile Crisis, was a production of Dante and partner Mike Finnell's Renfield Productions for Universal in 1993. Dreamworks/Universal's SMALL SOLDIERS was released in 1998, followed in 2003 by Warner Bros. LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION featuring one of Dante's favorite actors, Bugs Bunny.
Dante's HOMECOMING, an episode of Showtime's MASTERS OF HORROR series, debuted in December 2005 to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and was named to numerous "Top 10" critics lists. The Sitges and Brussels International Film Festivals both honored HOMECOMING with Special Jury Recognition Awards, and The New Yorker called it the best political film of 2005. He followed with another MASTERS OF HORROR episode, THE SCREWFLY SOLUTION. His 3-D thriller, THE HOLE, won the first-time award for best 3-D movie at 2009 Venice festival.
Along the way Dante contributed several comedy segments to the multi-part AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON (1987) spoof produced by John Landis, and directed various episodes of the tv series AMAZING STORIES, TWILIGHT ZONE, POLICE SQUAD!, NIGHT VISIONS, PICTURE WINDOWS and EERIE, INDIANA, on which he was also creative consultant throughout its run. In 1995 he directed the pilot for Caleb Carr's space show THE OSIRIS CHRONICLES for Paramount Television. Dante received Cable Ace nominations for his direction of Showtime's RUNAWAY DAUGHTERS (1994) and HBO's THE SECOND CIVIL WAR (1997).
One of the creators of Trailers from Hell, Joe is producing the series through his company, Metaluna Productions and is also one of its hosts and commentators.
Tom Edgar
TOM EDGAR has been bulding film-related websites for more than a decade.Jonas Hudson
JONAS HUDSON connects major studios, labels and talent in the entertainment industry and builds integrated new media distribution and production properties around "snackable" short form content.In 2004, he co-founded The Nickels Group (TNG) - a traditional and new media company focused on mobile distribution. The Nickels Group distributed mobile content to over 2 billion cell phones worldwide and created the mobile brands: Reggaeton Nation and Nexxt Mobile which can be downloaded on five continents.
The Nickels Group was sold to the public company Mobile Streams, LTD, the mobile arm of Liberty Media.
In January of 2007 Hudson co-produced THE GRAVEDANCERS, which was released through Lionsgate Films. Mr. Hudson also Executive Produced the first Reggaeton feature film entitled SPIN which is distributed by Universal.
Prior to forming The Nickels Group, Mr. Hudson worked in marketing and distribution at Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. At Warner Bros., he planned and executed marketing and promotional strategies for the launch of the patented, new DVD technology. While there, he also created and implemented promotional partnerships with numerous Fortune 500 companies including General Motors, Coca-Cola, and Nestle.
Currently, Mr. Hudson runs his entertainment company, HY Entertainment Group, which produces "made for new media" and traditional content properties.
Hudson received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Irvine and has a MBA from the USIU.
Charlie Largent
Indiana native CHARLIE LARGENT received his BFA at the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis and his MFA at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. After graduation, he created commercial illustrations for advertisers and publishers while also developing his fine art. He began a series of one man and group shows (in New York, Chicago, Indianapolis and Los Angeles) that continue to this day.In the seventies he worked as an art director at the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis which led to an interest in video and film production. In the early eighties, Largent directed and produced several corporate videos including the official music video for the city of Indianapolis, INDIANAPOLIS INDEED. In 1985, Largent served as production designer for the theatrical film, THE ESCAPIST. In 1997, Largent developed CHARLIE HILL ILLUSTRATION which provides digital illustration to the advertising and editorial world and includes Coca-Cola, Microsoft and A&E Network among his clients.
In 2000 Largent moved to California, beginning a stint as film reviewer (for Video Watchdog) and writing screenplays. He sold an original story, TAGGED, to UPN for the most recent incarnation of THE TWILIGHT ZONE hosted by Forest Whitaker and co-wrote the original screenplay THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES, which will be directed by Joe Dante. In addition to his illustration and design for Trailers From Hell, Charlie is currently working on a series of drawings for an upcoming exhibition, as well as a book on film. Charlie is represented by Judy Coppage of The Coppage Company.
David Moore
David Moore is a second generation Hollywood kid who has spent most of his life in and around stages and post houses.By 18, he was already an accomplished sitcom editor, and was able to put himself through UC Irvine with weekend trips to LA to cut commercials.
After five years of onlining everything from music videos to documentaries, he opened his own post house, Media Island, in 1999. Â With his own slate of productions growing, he branched out into the studio business in 2006, and opened Arizona Film Studios.
Today, he continues to own post facilities and a production company in Hollywood
Elizabeth Stanley
After seven years as Assistant Executive Director/Director of Organizing for the Directors Guild of America, ELIZABETH STANLEY left the DGA in late 2004 to establish Elizabeth Stanley Pictures, her independent production company.Her new media ventures include TRAILERS FROM HELL, THE DARK PATH CHRONICLES, a vampire-themed VOD/webisode series written and directed by Mary Lambert which premiered on FEARnet in November 2008 and is being distributed around the world by ContentFilm; and SPLATTER directed by Joe Dante which she co-produced with Roger and Julie Corman. In 2006, Ms. Stanley produced the award winning feature documentary THE DOCTOR, THE TORNADO AND THE KENTUCKY KID written and directed by Mark Neale. She currently is developing a number of feature film and television projects including THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES to be directed by Joe Dante, THE PRICE OF PEACE (also to be directed by Lambert) which she will produce with Marge Piane through their Mayday Pictures banner; and EXPECTING SOMEONE TALLER, an adaptation of Tom Holt's cult fantasy novel of the same name, which will be directed by Joe Dante.
From 1997 to September 2004, Ms. Stanley served as the Assistant Executive Director/Director of Organizing for the Directors Guild of America. From 1987 to 1997, she was the chief executive for the Directors Guild-Producer Training Plan, the pre-eminent US entertainment industry joint labor management training plan.
Mark Alan
Minister of Information and TechnologyA native of Michigan, Mark Alan relocated to California by way of New York City. With a life-long commitment to the arts, Alan attended a two-year dramatic arts conservatory and later found himself working in various aspects of film and TV including assistant casting, and video-logging for the Travel Channel. After the jump to the west coast, Mark landed a job working for Joe Dante's production company, Renfield Productions. With strengths in literature and technology, Alan was able to prove himself an asset for Mr. Dante holding positions in both screenplay development and marketing. He continues a path in what he calls his "double life" as an actor, having booked numerous film and TV roles including a co-starring part in the Corman/ Dante interactive web series Splatter. Most recently Alan has wrapped on a crime drama titled 'Magic Hour' alongside actors Trevor Morgan and C. Thomas Howell.
IMDB
Danny Mears
Secretary in the Ministry of Information and TechnologyDanny Mears is new here. He graduated from North Carolina State University and has hopped around a lot since. He's run around law offices, worked for non-profit publications, occasionally (if rarely) committed acts of journalism, supported political campaigns, provided social media marketing assistance, and, mostly, produced corporate and non-profit video as a writer and as an editor. After years of doing these things in North Carolina, he moved to Los Angeles to do the thing that people move here to do. He soon fell into what he describes as "the luckiest opportunity of his life" (honest, he said that) and we ensnared him to do our online marketing work and (when needed) assist production.
Mostly, though, he's just new.
IMDB
Andrew Ehrich
Under Secretary of Information and TechnologyA small-town kid from Minnesota, Andrew is a recent Film and New Media undergraduate from the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. While in school, he wrote, directed, edited, and produced short films - ambitions he's continuing to fully pursue, while now living in Los Angeles. As marketing manager at Trailers From Hell, he's more than elated to be a part of something that legitimately allows him to put his film geekery to good use.
IMDB
Ib Melchior and TFH at Larry Edmunds
DVD Drive In on The Best from Trailers From Hell
THE BEST FROM TRAILERS FROM HELL!, Volume 1 (2010)Trailers From Hell LLC
If youâre a regular reader of DVD Drive-In and havenât been to the website Trailers From Hell (www.trailersfromhell.com), well you should head there right now. Trailers From Hell is the brainchild of director Joe Dante, new media entrepreneur Jonas Hudson, graphic artist Charlie Largent and producer Elizabeth Stanley. The mission of Trailers From Hell is to showcase previews of coming attractions from vintage movies, with a particular emphasis on horror, sci-fi and exploitation, so naturally, weâre all over it. The angle here is that the hundreds of playable trailers found on the site are accompanied by commentaries by an extensive list of diverse filmmakers, and you can now take home a slice of that with this initial DVD release, THE BEST FROM TRAILERS FROM HELL!, Volume 1.
THE BEST FROM TRAILERS FROM HELL! contains five different film directors (aka âgurusâ) doing on-camera introductions and voice-over commentaries to a number of different genre trailers from the late 1940s through the late 1970s, all which help to emphasize how much the art of the preview is all but lost today. All of the five participantsâ segments are spread out through the running time with Joe Dante (THE HOWLING, GREMLINS) handling duties on CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE TINGLER, BLOOD AND ROSES, and EARTH VS. FLYING SAUCERS; John Landis (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) is on hand for CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, GREEN SLIME, PRIVATE PARTS and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG; Mick Garris (THE STAND) reminisces on RABID, THE VALLEY OF GWANGI, HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM and SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN; Eli Roth (CABIN FEVER) handles SQUIRM, THE BIRDS, 3 ON A MEATHOOK and FORBIDDEN PLANET; while Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD) does the chores for PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, CORRUPTION, THE SENTINEL and SILENT RUNNING.
The trailers mentioned above are playable with or without the commentary, with the latter option found on the "choose a trailer" menu section. With the concept that âany movie can be great at 2 ½ minutesâ, the novelty here is the comments from the five participants, who do a good job of moving things right along while always being entertaining with their thoughts, factoids and film-going experiences. Thankfully, this is not of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 on-the-spot insult/mocking variety, but rather a nice mix of intelligent and sometimes heartfelt observations, with some humor added into the mix (especially from Landis) when appropriate.
Probably the most memorable remarks stem from an affinity that one of the directors has with a particular film that heâs discussing the trailer for. Along with sharing his cinematic knowledge, Dante will bring up fond memories of seeing EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS and CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (the theater he saw it turned him off Reeseâs Peanut Butter cups for good) as a boy, as well as how William Castleâs THE TINGLER and later meeting Vincent Price influenced his 1993 film MATINEE. Eli Roth and Edgar Wright (whose faux trailers for âThanksgivingâ and âDonâtâ respectively, were the best thing about 2007âs GRINDHOUSE) are of a different generation than the other directors here, and itâs fun to hear them talking about first encountering some of these films on television or staring at their box covers at the local video store. Even with a few errors in the comments (on SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, Garris notes that actress Yutte Stensgaard appeared in âCarry Onâ movies, probably confusing her with Valerie Leon), the disc on a whole is a enjoyable ride, and is highly recommended to cult film buffs and movie geeks alike.
The assortment of black & white and color trailers are presented both full frame and widescreen, most of which appear perfectly presentable, with a few occasional ones being a bit battered, as would be expected with vintage 35mm film. Extras include a full feature: the black & white horror oldie (and PD favorite) THE VAMPIRE BAT (1933) presented here in quite a sharp looking print despite the expected blemishes. The film of course stars Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Douglas Fairbanks and Dwight Frye, and this print runs around 62 minutes. The other extras are two amusing scare-themed vintage cartoons: Foster & Baileyâs âThe Haunted Shipâ (1930, B&W) and Ub Iwerksâ âThe Headless Horsemanâ (1934, color).
Anyone interested in ordering a copy should click HERE. (George R. Reis)
Trailers From Hell Launches DVD-Twitter Contest
Trailers from Hell will celebrate the launch of its first DVD, The Best of Trailers From Hell, with a Twitter Contest for a chance to win a limited edition signed copy of its forthcoming DVD.FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) March 25, 2010 -- March 25th, 2010- Trailers from Hell will celebrate the launch of its first DVD, The Best of Trailers From Hell: Volume 1, featuring Joe Dante (Gremlins), Mick Garris (Masters of Horror), John Landis (American Werewolf In London), Eli Roth (Hostel) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) with a Twitter Contest for a chance to win a limited edition signed copy of its forthcoming DVD. The DVD includes classic commentaries from the afore-mentioned Gurus, a new transfer of the classic independent 1933 horror film, Vampire Bat and two vintage cartoons: The Haunted Ship and The Headless Horseman.
The TFH DVD Twitter Contest enables fans to win a copy of the new DVD signed by Joe Dante. Fans must tweet #trailersfromhell and are then automatically entered to win one of 10 signed copies.
Trailers From Hell Launches First DVD and Twitter Contest
TFH showcases the trailers of classic era films both in their original form and punctuated with informative and humorous commentary by contemporary filmmakers. The content is syndicated across web and mobile partners including Babelgum, AOL Video, AT&T, Sprint, You Tube, Shorts TV, Yahoo and on cable television, as well as at www.trailersfromhell.com
Joe Dante, Trailers From Hell Founder notes, "Our first DVD is aimed at broadening our base of film fans to those who haven't yet discovered our award-winning website www.trailersfromhell.com. Our amazing heritage of great and sometimes just entertaining movies from earlier decades is in danger of fading from the public eye. This is our small attempt to keep what Jimmy Stewart once called âpieces of timeâ relevant and fun for future generations.â
From More information please go to www.trailersfromhell.com or email info@trailersfromhell.com.
DVD Savant on The Best from Trailers From Hell
The Best from Trailers From Hell! Volume OneReviewed by Glenn Erickson
For the past few years one of the brightest web destinations for fantastic film fans has been Trailers from Hell, a site with a simple premise: you can see original movie trailers there, with or without informed commentary by actual, real-life, honest-to-golly film directors. Savant edited trailers for a few years and is a fan of older forms of these "coming attractions" mini-previews. Once upon a time before TV advertising, audiences were actually excited to see the coming attraction previews, as they were often the only way to get an idea of the quality of the movie represented by the often misleading poster out in the lobby. Almost without exception, the more successful genre pictures of the 1950s had really, really good trailers. Let's not discuss contemporary trailers - they give me a royal pain for a number of reasons I won't plague you with right now.
Before viral marketing and cookie-cutter formulas there was a thing called "Showmanship", or, when the emphasis was on something other than quality, "Ballyhoo". Back when a trailer had hair on its chest, we'd be inundated with hard-sell voiceover and text promising thrills the movie couldn't possibly deliver. If a man and a woman in the movie had even the most chaste bodily contact, big words would jump off the screen about "Savage, naked emotions laid Raw!" Outright hype, hokum and unsubstantiated claims shouted that the film in question was the greatest this or that, or the most "whatever" you've ever seen before. How many times have we been assured that we "won't believe our eyes', or that some hero or monster was "the mightiest of them all?" My favorite BS text standard was the claim that "Generic self-important social issue film" was "the most important movie you'll see this year, or any year". An unnamed Biblical epic that I wouldn't embarrass by naming it threw out the astounding boast that it was "the most impressive movie you will ever see!"
The Trailers from Hell site has by now passed 400+ entries or so. Volume 1 presents twenty of the most popular titles, mostly eccentric genre spectacles. Five genial director "Gurus" host four titles each: Joe Dante, Mick Garris, John Landis, Eli Roth and Edgar Wright. Here's the rundown:
The Birds
Blood and Roses
Corruption
The Curse of Frankenstein
Curse of the Werewolf
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Forbidden Planet
Green Slime
Horrors of the Black Museum
Mighty Joe Young
Phantom of the Paradise
Private Parts
Rabid
Scream and Scream Again
The Sentinel
Silent Running
Squirm
3 on a Meathook
The Tingler
The Valley of Gwangi
That's a good Sci-fi, horror and fantasy playlist, a variety mix with a selection of special rarities. The trailer for The Valley of Gwangi is an elaborate no-voiceover mini-epic consisting almost exclusively of Ray Harryhausen special effects, while the oddball Green Slime is as psychotronic a head-scratcher that ever was. The selection features plenty of class and a bit of gore. The dazzling trailer for the 1967 Peter Cushing film Corruption is cut faster than anything new that I've seen. It's likely that few viewers have seen any moving images from Roger Vadim's rare 1960 Blood and Roses, and the trailer is packed with exotic and erotic vampire moments. For sheer tastelessness there's nothing to compare with the shocker Horrors of the Black Museum, and the trailer for Paul Bartel's Private Parts was probably too edgy to show in any venue more prestigious than a grindhouse.
The host commentaries provide the real added value, cramming a wealth of information, humor and insights into the two- to four- minute trailer running times. Each personality shows up for a few moments before the trailer starts, and then remains off-screen as it plays -- no MST3K silhouette vandalism here. Genial Joe Dante shows affection for his quartet of classic-era shockers, and Eli Roth gives us an interesting viewpoint on Alfred Hitchcock's long, bizarre trailer for The Birds. Natural clown John Landis communicates his fondness for both oddball titles (Green Slime) and childhood favorites (Mighty Joe Young).
Embellishing this treat of a disc are some genuinely 'special' special extras. The Haunted Ship is an oddball "Toontown"- style cartoon positioned somewhere between the silent and sound eras -- it seems designed to be playable even if your Prohibition-era movie palace hasn't yet updated to sound on film. The Headless Horseman is a full-on retelling of the Ichabod Crane story by renegade Disney artist Ub Iwerks.
Best of all is the full 1933 feature The Vampire Bat, an independent horror film filmed on studio-quality sets with stars like Melvyn Douglas, Fay Wray and Dwight Frye. Lionel Atwill shows up as a kindly doctor, but doesn't stay kindly very long. The big surprise is that the quality of the print sourced, and its audio, are actually quite good -- The Vampire Bat stopped playing on television a long time ago, and this was my first opportunity to see it.
Artwork, menus, packaging details and other frills are nicely turned out by artist Charlie Largent in the same attractive style seen at the Trailers from Hell website (before their recent slight re-design). Vintage trailers have a special glory and it's difficult not to become excited by these arresting coming attractions. The Best of Trailers from Hell delivers their dramatic text blurbs and over-sold voiceover scripts full force: "The Evil Embrace of the Powers of Darkness!"
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,
The Best of Trailers from Hell Volume 1 rates:
Trailers: Excellent
Video: Very Good
Sound: Very Good
Supplements: two vintage cartoon, the entire 1933 feature horror film The Vampire Bat
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: March 26, 2010
Backstage at SXSW... Joe Dante is interviewed by IFC's Matt Singer
Plumbing the depths of Joe Dante's "Trailers From Hell"The Austin Chronicle
In a World Where ...
Plumbing the depths of Joe Dante's 'Trailers From Hell'
BY MARC SAVLOV
"When I first came out to L.A. in '74, there were a lot of film collectors out here, and I was a film collector, too," says Joe Dante, the man behind the Mogwai of Gremlins, the hirsute horrors of The Howling, and the director of what must be George W. Bush's least favorite episode of HBO's Masters of Horror, "Homecoming" (in which the corpses of American servicemen killed in Bush's Middle East folly rose up from their body bags to vote W. out of office).
"They used to commandeer theatres at midnight and just run hours of trailers; it's not a type of program that anyone can enjoy. You have to be a real fan to appreciate that many movie trailers for that amount of time. But it occurred to me, after some time, that I had all these great trailers, and since I had no place to run them anymore, I thought why not put them up on the Internet?"
The resulting site TrailersFromHell.com combines the best of genre (and, occasionally, nongenre) trailers with introductions and optional commentary tracks from some of the greatest directors, producers, effects artists, and grindhouse gurus in the world, from Allison Anders to George Hickenlooper, Eli Roth to Edgar Wright. It's not only one of the best collections of trailers ever assembled, it's also hopelessly addictive and a fine way to put off reading the studio's asinine "notes" on your screenplay for yet another week.
"We started out with the idea of only doing exploitation trailers," says Dante, "but as we enlisted more and more people to be commentators, we found their tastes to be much broader than that. And so we've ended up with this eclectic assortment of movies that are classics and movies that are terrible and movies that are in between."
As every film geek and regular attendee of the Alamo Drafthouse's infrequent trailer marathons knows, the previews are almost always the best part of the communal moviegoing experience. Sadly, contemporary trailers are more often than not designed and cut together by corporate committees, resulting in bland, unmemorable previews that can't hold a candle to their earlier counterparts, celebrated so effectively on Trailers From Hell.
"To me, trailers, when they're good, are like cinematic haiku. You're taking the essence of a movie, and you're boiling it down to 2˝ minutes or thereabouts. Every decade had its own particular style: In the Forties, there were lots of wipes, lots of onscreen cards, lots of hyperbole, and the Forties and Fifties are kind of my favorite period for trailers. Around the Sixties, people started getting a little more sophisticated about trailers. If you look back at the trailer for the picture The Grapes of Wrath, for example, it's always astonishing how much more sophisticated the movie is than the trailer, so that it could appeal to the widest possible audience. But in the Sixties, some of the filmmakers started to actually assert control over the advertising of their films, and then you got people like Kubrick who basically were responsible for the trailers for pictures like 2001 and Dr. Strangelove."
Today, of course, what we get are "guys running away from the exploding fireball," notes Dante. "With Don LaFontaine, the trailer-voice guy who recently passed away, he was one of the reasons trailers used to be so memorable. Lines of his entered the cultural lexicon and became almost cliché. For instance, I dare you to find me a modern trailer that doesn't have the word 'now' in it. It's just a bromide. And it's really hard these days to find a really clever trailer, because there's so much money riding on the movies that the producers are terrified that they're going to strike out. It's kind of sad, but that's the exact opposite of what we try to celebrate about movie trailers on the site."
Trailers From Hell With Joe Dante
Midnighters
Monday, March 16, 12mid, Alamo Ritz
Trailers From Hell Meets MyxerTones!
MyxerTones (TM), the best place to make and share mobile content, today announced a new relationship with the Nickels Group and their new media brand and website Trailers From Hell, the site that showcases classic-era coming attractions punctuated with humorous commentary by iconic genre filmmakers. Utilizing MyxerFlix(TM), video content at Trailers from Hell (TFH) is immediately available for distribution to mobile devices and also accessible to the entire MyxerTones community - now over 2.5 million users strong.
TFH is quickly becoming one of the web's most popular new destinations for creative video content. With over 50 trailers already available, the company plans to release three new trailers per week, with well-known Hollywood creatives recording new commentary tracks. Hosts include filmmakers such as Joe Dante (Gremlins) dishing about the multi-directed horror film The Terror and Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead) praising one of his seminal influences Danger: Diabolik.
The launch of TFH's mobile distribution is highlighted by a rare trailer from the movie Psycho with John Landis (Blues Brothers, American Werewolf in London) doing an amusingly informative commentary.
"MyxerFlix essentially has allowed us to bring this material to mobile phones for the first time ever," said Jonas Hudson, president of The Nickels Group. "Promoting widespread mobile distribution has always been a key goal for us, but until we discovered MyxerFlix, we simply couldn't easily handle all the technical and other challenges associated with distributing mobile content through a consumer solution. We found the Myxer platform and MyxerFlix not only met the exact specifications we needed, but we were also impressed with its ease-of-use and reliability."
MyxerFlix opens up the mobile video market to all content owners, effectively eliminating the technical and distribution barriers frequently encountered by independent content producers. The content owner does not have to worry about disparate media formats or carrier contracts. Content owners simply upload a video, place a MyxerTag on their own web page or MySpace profile, and the video is instantly available to any mobile user on any carrier's network. The Myxer platform is completely free, so content distributors can decide whether to give their content away or charge a fee. MyxerTones also provides APIs that enable sites to facilitate automated use of the technology. Myxer API documentation is available at http://www.myxterones.com/api/doc.
"TFH is a great example of how our MyxerFlix service can immediately leverage the reach of today's new, creative and viral video content," said Myk Willis, founder and CTO of Myxer. "We let video content creators focus on what they do best - spending time creating great content - while we eliminate all the other obstacles that typically accompany the 'mobilization' of content. We believe that TFH represents some of the best new thinking in video, and will also prove to be a great addition to our MyxerTones community."
About Myxer (TM)
Myxer simplifies the delivery of content to mobile devices. Whether professional or user-generated, Myxer makes the process of delivering ringtones, images, full-track audio, video and more to the mobile marketplace incredibly quick and easy, regardless of the carrier or device being targeted. Myxer's popular MyxerTones website is quickly growing to be the most visited online destination for making and sharing mobile content, with over 2.5 million users who are downloading more than 6 million pieces of mobile content each month. The Myxer platform also offers partner API's for easy integration with existing content websites interested in expanding their reach to the mobile market.
About The Nickels Group
The Nickels Group is a consortium of film, music and event producers who produce and acquire traditional and mobile/online content. Founded by Daryl Young and Jonas Hudson, The Nickels Group has created alliances with celebrities, filmmakers, musicians and athletes to provide unique and entertaining content for all global mediums from digital distribution to major theatrical film releases.
The Nickels Group mobile distribution reaches nearly 1.5 billion mobile users worldwide and has distribution deals with Vodafone (Aus), Sprint (US), Telcel (Mexico), Vodafone (UK), Teljoy (South Africa), and others.
Myxer(TM), MyxerTones(TM) and MyxerFlix(TM) are trademarks of mVisible Technologies, Inc., all other marks are the property of their respective owner.
Hollywood Genre Directors Tackle The Small Screen With Trailers From Hell
Even a bad movie can have a great trailer.Trailers -- you know -- those fast-paced 2-to-4 minute theatrical promo shorts that have preceded the Feature Attraction since the dawn of sound? An exciting montage of all The Best Parts of a movie the exhibitors want you to need to see! Full of swirling letters screaming hyperbolic promises of THRILLS! ACTION! MYSTERY! ROMANCE! Packing all the highlights of a whole picture into its own mini-movie in just a few minutes!
Joe Dante's Metaluna Productions, The Nickels Group and Elizabeth Stanley Pictures, proudly announce the kick-off of Trailers from Hell (TFH), a new series that will be delivered online and via mobile devices throughout the world. TFH is a series that showcases classic-era movie Previews of Coming Attractions with particular emphasis on the lurid, the extreme and the outrageous.
Viewers can opt to watch the original trailers intact and/or enjoy the previews punctuated with pithy and humorous commentary by iconic genre filmmakers.
The premiere episodes include Joe Dante (Gremlins) dishing about the multi-directed horror film The Terror and the last gasp of the old-fashioned monster movies, The Unearthly.
Meanwhile, John Landis (American Werewolf In London) basks in the pop music glory of The T.A.M.I. Show, Mick Garris (The Stand), shivers at the memory of House On Haunted Hill and Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead) praises one of his seminal influences, Danger: Diabolik.
Dante notes, "The bromide about these old trailers is that they were better than the movies they promoted. That's only true in some cases, but they did deliver in-your-face excitement and breathless hyperbole at a pace the movies never could. I got my start in the movie biz cutting trailers at the tail end of the so-called Golden Age, before the ad agencies and focus groups took over. I love trailers. So join us in revisiting, or discovering for the first time, how much fun these sensational, absurdist slices of shameless cinematic hucksterism can be!"
Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris adds, "A master trailer cutter can take the worst of films and tool two minutes of breathtaking cinematic mastery out of it. At its best, the movie trailer is an exclamation point, a ringing alarm to alert the hungriest of Pavlov's dogs."
Trailers from Hell is tailor-made for new media outlets because it targets an easily-identifiable and active niche market of genre movie-lovers who aggressively seek out this type of content. As Jonas Hudson of The Nickels Group says:"Short form content has finally found a market place afterthe dot.combust of '01. Over the past 18 months, mobile distribution and on-line sites have enabled fans to view short form content while providing a real revenue model for its providers. We can now go outside the user's "cocoon" and allow people to watch shorts while they are on the go".
In future episodes director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) will weigh in on the ultra-low-budget shocker, Carnival of Souls and Roger Corman's influential gothic Poe-etry, House of Usher. Larry Cohen (It's Alive) will also provide commentary on the films that influenced him.
Viewers can watch Trailers From Hell on the www.trailersfromhell.com website, via the Fun Little Movies premium channel on Sprint mobile phones and on the iPhone.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
From CinefantastiqueJoe Dante began his writing career in the sixties for Castle of Frankenstein magazine, and I think it would be safe to say that COF was quite influential on most of the writers who eventually ended up writing at Fred Clarkeâs Cinefantastique magazine.
However, Dante began his actual filmmaking career in the trailer dept. of Roger Cormanâs New World Pictures, where, as a trailer editor, he amassed a huge collection of previews from many classic and not so classic horror films.
Joe recently began the fabulous online site, TRAILERS FROM HELL, possibly the first site of itâs kind devoted exclusively to movie trailers, and it features all kinds of rare and unusal trailers from horror and other films, mostly from the fifties and sixties.
Read More
From Variety
7-8-07
Dante conjures 'Trailers From Hell'
Directors head online to dish on genre films
By SAM THIELMAN
"Gremlins" director Joe Dante can recount endless anecdotes about Roger Corman movies, and with his new project "Trailers From Hell," he'll be sharing a few of them with Web and cell-phone users.
Dante and other Hollywood directors are recording new commentary tracks for the trailers to venerable horror and exploitation films. The project is being distributed via the Web at Trailersfromhell.com. Producers are also in negotiations to bundle the series of shorts with an on-demand package including similar content.
Directors with tracks already recorded include Edgar Wright ("Hot Fuzz"), who talks about his love of '60s Eurospy actioner "Danger: Diabolik," and Dante, who dishes on Corman shlockfest "The Terror." Helmers tapped for future contributions include Mick Garris ("The Shining" and "The Stand" TV miniseries) on "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes" and Mary Lambert ("Pet Semetary") on "Village of the Damned."
Indie producer Elizabeth Stanley is producing "Trailers From Hell" and Jonas Hudson will be distributing it through his company the Nickels Group.
Listen to Trailers From Hell producer Jonas Hudson and Trailers' PR Guru, Shaun Saunders chat about TFH on WS Radio!
From Anne Thompson/Variety
7-11-07
Trailers from Hell: Dante Dissects Genre Trailers
Horror Master Joe Dante is one of the geniuses at work behind the new website Trailers From Hell. Other Grindhouse gurus offering commentary on horror trailers are Mick Garris, Mary Lambert, John Landis and Edgar Wright. UPDATE: here's a Q & A with Dante.
From Xeni Jarden/Boing Boing
7-24-07
Trailers from Hell: directors muse on schlocky movie faves
The idea behind the recently launched "Trailers from Hell" website is simple and fun. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, there's a new video segment in which a renowned movie director comments over one of their favorite b-movie / exploitation / grindhouse flick trailers. Lots of personal memories, inspiration revelations -- it's like having a beer with a filmmaker whose work you dig, and fessing up about crappy movies you're both ashamed to admit loving.
One of this week's uploads is Mick "Masters of Horror" Garris waxing poetic about "The Vampire Lovers".
What's extra cool here is the fact that each trailer is offered both with and without commentary. Great picks, and the commentaries I've watched are most watchable.
For instance, John Landis pointing out people he went to high school with who appear in "The T.A.M.I. Show," the musical variety epic filmed in "Electronovision" in 1964.
Or Joe Dante on the sciencesploitation crapsterpiece "Incredible Petrified World": Link. ("You gotta hand it to [Jerry Warren] -- he made Ed Wood look like Bernardo Bertolucci, but he got these things made and people paid to see 'em!").
The commentaries feel authentic. You can't really fake this stuff, so there's a lot for fringe movie buffs to enjoy.
The only criticisms I have about the project are nitpicky UI issues -- I can't subscribe to an RSS feed (opt-in email updates, but that's kinda lame) UPDATE: Hey look, an RSS feed!; the website has a big-ass noisy Flash intro at the front gate; audience comments would be nice; and I wish the content were available on some of the web video networks I get most of my daily video pickins from.
Still, I'm totally bookmarking it and planning to come back regularly. Here's hoping they'll make these very good goods a little easier to access as time goes on.
From Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule
7-11-07
TRAILERS FROM HELL!
It ought not to surprise anyone that I would consider Joe Dante one of my favorite filmmakers. Hollywood Boulevard, the wire-and-spitballs comedy he made in 1976 with Allan Arkush, made my personal top 100 and I gladly return to movies like Piranha, The Howling, Explorers, Itâs a Good Life, Innerspace, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, The âBurbs, Matinee, Small Soldiers, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, The Second Civil War and Homecoming as often as I can. Plus, anyone familiar with his DVD commentary tracks on Hollywood Boulevard and The Howling knows how unpretentious, self-effacing, and quick-witted he can be, as well as how encyclopedic is his knowledge of the high points, as well as the cobwebbed nooks and crannies, of genre films.
Now Dante has put together a site which seems made for me, and for you too, Iâd wager. Itâs called Trailers from Hell, on which he gathers like-minded, quick-witted genre filmmakers like Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Mick Garris (The Stand), Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) and John Landis (An American Werewolf in London) to present gloriously crazed and otherwise cheesy genre trailers from all categories of B cinema. But hereâs the kicker: these directors introduce the trailers, and then provide DVD-style commentary for the duration. (You can choose to watch the trailer with its original audio as well.)
The whole enterprise has the intimate feel of a two-minute version of those old Creature Features-type programs, minus the bad sketch acting and ubiquitous late-night used car ads. This week's featured trailer is for the Tor Johnson epic The Unearthly, hosted by Dante, who provides details about the actors (John Carradine and 50-Foot Woman Allison Hayes joining Johnson) and some hilarious observationsâover a static shot of Carradine and another actor on either side of a anatomy class torso model inexplicably placed in between them, Dante quips, âThis is a particularly interesting composition thatâs probably won many awards in Europe.â He even draws the line linking this near-forgotten movie to Woody Allenâs Everything You Always Wanted to Know About SexâŚ, which heavily draws on The Unearthly in a parody sequence featuring Carradine himself as a mad doctor who unleashes a rampaging, and lactating, 50-foot breast on the unsuspecting countryside. The site also provides information on Dante, Landis and the rest of the aptly dubbed âGrindhouse Gurus,â as well as plenty of good information on the brain trust behind this inspired project. You can click on a link to buy the movie once youâve seen the trailer, thereâs a store where you can buy Trailers from Hell merchandise, and you can even sign up for regular e-mail updates whenever something new comes lumbering out of the dark virtual vaults where the trailers are stored.
Trailers from Hell promises to be a gas for anyone who loves low-budget genre films but also has room in their heart to give them a good-natured ribbing now and again. And what better person in Hollywood to launch such an enterprise than the director who has shown so much savvy, understanding, genuine love and respect for genre, as well as seemingly boundless energy and a wickedly subversive streak wider than the dusty, empty streets that seem to measure a half-mile from hitching post to hitching post in any Sergio Leone western? Joe Dante and company talking monsters are now just a click away (and always available on my sidebar). Thatâs not hell, thatâs heaven.