Shreck (1990, Don Adams & Harry James Picardy) No Ogres, Here!

1990's Shreck is a movie that should not work at all. It's amateurish to the highest degree, it deals with subject matter that even handled delicately can rock boats, and... the list goes on. The fact of the matter is that the movie DOES work; it's exceedingly entertaining. The sheer love of moviemaking is evident throughout the flick, and the moments of intentional humor lead me to believe they knew they weren't making a classic here.

Shreck concerns a group of three teenagers, Roger, Mike, and Neal; three horror fans in a club called The Dogs of Gore. Roger lives in a house that once belonged to Nazi War Criminal, and prolific serial killer, Max Shreck. Through Roger's hilarious homemade documentary on the subject, we find out that this was an alias chosen from the name of the lead actor in the film Nosferatu. In 1958, Shreck had one last rampage until he was finally struck down, and guess what? It's the anniversary of his death, and Roger's mom is out of town. What are three horror fanatic teenagers to do? Why, have a seance in an attempt to resurrect Shreck in order to strike down their enemies, of course. Well, to everyone's surprise it works leading to a very alive, and very rampaging Max Shreck. Sound simple enough? Well it is and it isn't.

First off, there is no denying it; the movie is flat-out entertaining. It is in spite of itself, because it has a lot of strikes against it. I don't count the fact that it's shot on video or made by amateurs a strike against it, but even in the realm of SOV this movie looks like shit. This is mainly due to the video effects they use throughout to give the illusion of night in the outdoor scenes, a blue tint. Depending on the shots and the context this is alternately surreal and creepy or annoying.

This leads me to an interesting point, like numerous other SOV features the flaws and shortcomings become strengths in an odd way. The super lo-fi video picture, and primitive (to say the least) video effects to more often than not create a creepy, surreal atmosphere. I mentioned above them becoming annoying, and they can, simply because sometimes you can't tell what the hell is going on. The good outweighs the bad in this regard, however. The amateur quality of the acting and the whole production also help because it creates a kind of naive charm. This was obviously a group of 20-somethings (tops) who loved horror movies getting together and making this for the fun of it. It's quite obvious in every frame, and when they don't know what they're doing you smile and cheer their enthusiasm. The fact is, they're dealing with Nazi stuff here. Sensitive stuff by anybody's measure, and the subject matter isn't exactly handled maturely. Nazis are never glorified in any way shape or form, but tasteful this is not. We have christmas-light swastikas, swastika necklaces used as ninja stars, swastika pizzas, swastika fan-blades used in decapitations, etc etc. Obviously, this is all insane and beyond ridiculous, and if you're not looking for insane and ridiculous why are you checking out SOV horror flicks?

The movie is genuinely funny at times, and honestly engaging and entertaining for most of it's running time. It's never boring, and that's saying a lot. The gore is not as plentiful as it should have been given it's absurd premise, but it's there. The plot gets downright weird involving a timewarp back to his rampage in 1958, ghosts that are people wearing sheets (seriously), and other bizarre what-the-fuckness. Through it all, Shreck is an entertaining example of the American SOV flick. Offensive, ridiculous, ingenious, entertaining, weird, and pretty inept. I had a blast with it.

My clamshell release was put out by Video Outlaw, and my copy came from Ron Bonk and Sub Rosa. Contact him to see if he has anymore left!

Video Store Generation Manifesto

By Ehren W.

I'm calling this a manifesto for one simple reason; it sounds really cool. The fact of the matter is that this isn't a movement or anything, this is merely a passion. It's a spark that exists in a lot of people, but I thought sadly burned out around the time of my generation. Luckily,  I was straight up wrong on that one.

This is the first videostore I worked at. It's called Hollywood At Home Movies & Magazines. Not only was this first videostore that I worked at, it was also one of the first videostores in the entire area, if not the first. This videostore was also the first place that I rented and saw films such as Cannibal Holocaust, Deep Red, Blood Feast, Nekromantik, and local gore epics like Zombie Bloodbath. Needless to say, this place was responsible for a lot of firsts for a lot of people. (It was probably the place where a lot of people rented their first porno, or bought their first dirty magazine.)

That's the place. There was a Blockbuster right up the street from us. We outlasted it. That blue and yellow monstrosity shuttered when I still worked at Hollywood At Home. My store wasn't the only one in the area; there was another store called Video Library. That place had a waaaay bigger collection than us. Insanely big. But, we had stuff they didn't have and vice versa. So do you know what we two locally-owned indie stores would do? We'd recommend each other to customers. Help them track down the movie, because that was what was really important. Video Library closed when I worked at Hollywood At Home, too. They liquidated their stock, 10 VHS for $20 bucks. I don't remember how much their DVD's or Videogames were, because I didn't care. All I cared about was raiding their INSANE Horror section. They had so much great stuff, I used to love going in there and perusing the hundreds and hundreds (literally) of horror flicks. I'm glad many of those tapes are still in my collection, I've sold quite a few, but they went to good homes.

I love horror movies. They're what I collect, they're what I write about. Well, let me rephrase. Cult movies, trash movies, exploitation movies, bizarre movies, underground movies, horror movies, splatter movies, experimental movies, gothic movies, monster movies, etc. Usually, unless a videostore has a cult section (we did), all those flicks end up in the Horror section, so when I use the term "Horror" I'm using it as a rather all-encompassing term for many, many subgenres.

Almost every person I worked with at a videostore (I've worked at three, including Kim's Video in New York City) were the same way; we liked movies of all genres, from classic dramas, to arthouse and foreign favorites, but we always liked horror flicks. So did all of the regulars. Most casual renters hated horror flicks, most casual moviegoers still hate horror flicks, but videostore clerks and regulars all dug em. That's how it was and is. Maybe I'm just justifying my love, and trying to justify having a blog called Video Store Generation and only talking these kinds of flicks. Eh, whatever. Let's not overthink this.

You're probably wondering, what he hell does this have to do with a passion, and a spark, and this piece being called The Video Store Generation Manifesto? Well, everything and nothing I guess. I'm just sharing my story of fandom, and I am nowhere near unique in that regard. There has been a lot of talk about grindhouse films, and drive-in movies, and I don't mean Tarantino and Rodriguez. I mean the classic trash masterpieces of 42nd streets and the drive-ins of America. I love all those movies, and tons of us do. However, I was born in 1984 in Kansas City. We didn't have grindhouses, and by the time I was old enough to be able to go see cool movies, the cool movies were pretty much out of theaters and drive-ins anyway.

There's a lot of people older and younger than me whose grindhouse was the videostore, and the drive-in was our VCR. Independent cult, horror, exploitation, and trash filmmaking continued after the grindhouses and drive-ins closed in the form of direct to video releases. This, in my opinion, is a sadly neglected fact. 

Back when I was a teenager renting these movies at local videostores, I loved all the classics, but I also loved all of the shot-on-video and direct to video titles, too. It made me feel like I could do it, too. It was people like me, people who just loved horror and cult films not waiting for Hollywood and just going out and doing it themselves. You know what? I think these guys have ALWAYS done horror and exploitation filmmaking better than Hollywood, and they always will. Almost every summer blockbuster Hollywood movie these days once would have been the domain of Roger Corman, William Castle, or Lloyd Kaufman. Now they throw ridiculous budgets at it, take away the edge, and call it HIgh Concept. It's pathetic.

These shot on video and direct to video movies (and horror, cult, and exploitation films through history) are like the most classic punk rock and metal records. Yeah, they can have shitty production values. Yeah, the technical abilities may not be perfect, but you know what? It has more creativity, energy, passion, exuberance, originality, guts, and way more to say than anything the majors put out. It's that way in music for a lot of people, and it's that way for movies for a lot of people. Thankfully, cinema people seem to finally be giving some credit to these low budget auteurs, but in my opinion not enough. 

Companies like Troma, Tempe, Sub Rosa, Video Outlaw, W.A.V.E., Seduction Cinema, Shock-O-Rama, Burning Moon Home Video, Dead Alive Productions, Full Moon Entertainment; not to speak of the tons of classic distribution companies that are too numerous to name, but the collectors all know. Big boxes and clamshells. The good old days.

You had filmmakers like Fred Olen Ray, Jim Wynorski, Tim Ritter, Ron Bonk, The Polonia Brothers, Lloyd Kaufman, Brad Sykes, David DeCoteau, Leif Jonker, William Hellfire, Richard Gabai (I'm forgetting so many), and a special mention to the Prince of Gore, Todd Sheets. A now (deservedly) legendary Kansas City movie maker who gave me my first job on a set when I was 15. Like I said, this stuff made us feel like we could go out and do it, and tons of fans across the country and world did. I only named North American filmmakers above, but this phenomenon was worldwide, and I will mention these foreign contributions in another piece. There are numerous

This independent spirit is important, and it drives many of us. With advances in technology and internet funding and distribution, the "grindhouse" and "drive-in" spirit of filmmaking is still very much alive when it comes to fans making their films, and getting them seen. Streaming, OnDemand, PayPal, easy online store fronts, and I am so damn happy; VHS IS BACK,!

My goal is to have Videostore from here on out be mentioned in the same breath when describing this adventurous independent spirit of movie making (and movie watching) when one would mention the Grindhouse or the Drive-In. That is what I feel the Video Store Generation is all about. It's my blog, but it's not my spark. It belongs to a hell of a lot more people than me.

From here on out, the types of movies I've been mentioning are what I will be talking about, plus more rants like this. I've neglected this blog for a while and I'm pretty damn disappointed in myself that I did. I've felt a kick in the ass and I'm going to be doing more. I won't be doing reviews, however, I'll be doing write ups. I'm a Trash Advocate, not a critic. Back when I worked at videostores, it was my job to recommend things; if something sucked I didn't mention it to anyone. That's the way it will be here. I will talk about movies from the indie video days that I've seen and that I felt capture this spirit well. If I don't mention a movie, it's because I haven't seen it or I thought it wasn't very good. Always feel free to recommend things, I'm always down to see something new and crazy.

Many other people are doing a great job keeping the spirit alive by making movies, or distributing movies, or putting out fanzines, or just buying movies, or trading vintage VHS tapes, or even collecting the new limited run VHS special editions that are coming out from companies like Massacre Video, Vultra Video, Sub Rosa Sinema, Psycho Video, and many more. This blog is merely my contribution to this, and my sincere hope is that more and more people will embrace their passion for this kind of stuff. If I can help bring anyone to this, or help them discover a new favorite movie, I'm happy.

                                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hollywood at Home is closed now. I'm sad as hell to say it, but it's last day was December 31st, 2013. We started this new year with one less independent videostore, and that's just damn sad. I'm heartbroken it is gone, but I won't let that spirit die. In VHS collectors, and horror groups I see this spirit in new generations. It's not over.

Whether they exist in brick and mortar or not, The Drive-In, The Grindhouse, and The Videostore all still live. It lives in every fan who never lets it die within them.