DVD review (region 2)
Compiled by Marc Morris with Jake West
Release date 24 September 2007

Bumper compilation of over-the-top trailers from 1970s exploitation classics. Keep repeating: "It’s only a movie, it’s only a movie…"

Anyone interested in gaining an insight into the main influences on Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof (and in fact Tarantino’s entire back catalogue) need look no further than this mammoth collection of 55 trailers from the ‘grindhouse’ cinema of the 1970s.

The grindhouses were run-down old theatres that pumped out double bills of cheapo horrors, blaxploitation epics, kung fu flicks and lurid stories ripped from tabloid headlines. Most were zero-budget American efforts, but the grindhouses also imported South American, Italian and British titles to cater for the insatiable demand for WANTON SEX and GORE.

Compiled by genre expert Marc Morris and director Jake West (Razorblade Smile, Evil Aliens), the trailers contained here follow a similar pattern of choppily edited nudity and bloodletting set to a frenzied voiceover (“Ask yourself, what acts of sadism will this electric knife be used for?”). Titles covered range from the familiar (The Last House on the Left, Caged Heat, I Spit on your Grave) to such forgotten gems as Wham! Bam! Thank You Spaceman, Doctor Butcher MD and, lest we forget, Night of the Bloody Apes. Suffice to say, many of the trailers are better than the actual movies.

As with the colourful poster art, this was a time when the trailer was an artform in itself, regardless of the quality of the picture, and Grindhouse Trailer Classics inspires a curious sense of nostalgia for a hysterical type of moviemaking and marketing that is now long since gone.

The DVD also comes with a documentary entitled Bump n Grind, in which an enthusiastic Emily Booth gives a brief overview of the sub-genre that she happily describes as “a karate kick in the face to good taste.” Hurrah to that! Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
An endearing collection of zombie flesh eaters, sex-crazed girls, disco godfathers and bloody apes.