GRINDHOUSE TRAILER CLASSICS VOLUME 2

Graced again with fantastic cover art, welcome to Nucleus Films' second helping of weird and wonderful trailers from the gaudy 1970s: in particular, the world of horror, exploitation and skin flicks.

Greeted initially by a garish, eye-grabbing main menu, all this party disc requires of you is that you settle back with a few beers � and press 'Play'.

Beginning with a brief title sequence/intro, little time is wasted in kicking into an advertisement for NIGHT CALL NURSES - the first of an incredible 55 previews. It's not the strongest start, being only mildly amusing. But things soon become more interesting with the second trailer - a sensational glimpse at THE TIGRESS, better known in fan circuits as ILSA TIGRESS OF SIBERIA. Dyanne Thorne's heaving bosoms and sneak peeks at snowbound sadistic torture? Oh yes.

From hereon in, VOLUME 2 is pretty much non-stop fun and nostalgia, with a few eye-openers along the way aimed at encouraging the uninitiated to delve deeper. In other words, this compilation succeeds in doing exactly what it aims at: entertaining, amusing, astounding � and even educating.

Running smoothly with a keen sense of pacing in terms of genre and variety, the compilation has been carefully assembled to thrill both people looking for a nostalgic fix and those curious about the more obscure films that have so far evaded their radar. It's all been put together to flow coherently, with only a second or so of scratchy "change reel" inserted in-between each promo. The result is a well-paced and consistent barrel of irreverent fun.

Of the trailers themselves, it's difficult to pick favourites from such a strong collection. But, here goes:

THE BLACK GESTAPO was a personal stand-out, making me fondly recall this violent Lee J Frost oddity. Blessed with a genuinely (and unintentionally) funny deep narration - the kind that keeps bellowing out from most of the trailers on offer here - it's a fast-paced montage of clips that accurately convey the sleazy appeal of the product it's advertising. Choice line in this one: "Go ahead and rape me, you punk! You bastaaard!!". As a subversive take on racism, this serves as a reminder as to how lame PANTHER was in comparison. More than that though, this makes me hanker for a Special Edition DVD of GESTAPO - come on, somebody, I haven't seen this since the days of VHS and I refuse to buy those unofficial (and reportedly unwatchable) bootleg discs currently knocking about �

SACRIFICE was one I was interested in as I had no idea what the film was. I was pleasantly surprised to discover it's actually MAN FROM DEEP RIVER under an alternative title. A lengthy trailer ensues, boasting a pin-sharp transfer, chock-full of boobies and blood. Not to mention Ivan Rassimov boasting the most hideous blonde barnet this side of that knackerless Nazi in SS EXPERIMENT CAMP.

DR MINX was one that I was new to. I'm unsure as to whether this clip has inspired me to actively track the film down, but it was an entertaining couple of minutes regardless. Edy Williams (CHAINED HEAT) appears to relish her role as the kinky lead, and as one male counterpart informs us, "she's a nympho"! The reaction of the audience member at the end is enjoyable too.

Another burst of pure nostalgia comes in the form of the trailer for DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE. One of the more grim (though less gory) women-in-peril films that ran alongside the burgeoning slasher genre in the early 1980s, the preview does a good job of highlighting the film's genuine sense of grime � before making it look like a zombie film by focussing deceptively on the movie's climactic moments.

CINDERELLA 2000 is one film I've read about on many occasions but not yet caught up with. The soft-core trailer has bumped the film in my list of things to see. From what I saw here, this looks like an enjoyably surreal and inventive musical comedy with plenty of attractive females getting naked at regular intervals. What's not to like?

HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE is the first of two trailers advertising Naschy horrors (the other being HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN [a.k.a. BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL). Both Naschy trailers are blessed with amusing voiceovers and soft grainy presentations - the promo for WOMEN helps you appreciate the fine restoration job BCI did with the recent R1 release.

BLOODY PIT OF HORROR's ad can't disguise the fact that the film in full is camper than a row of tents. It puts the fun aspect across well though.

THE PINK ANGELS was another new one for these eyes. Again, perhaps not one I'll look further into, although the trailer did have me laughing out loud. Gay Hell's Angels!

There's an interesting promo for Romano Scavolini's NIGHTMARE (a.k.a. NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN). This is faded and grainy but still makes me yearn for the film to get a decent DVD release (will Code Red's much delayed release ever materialise?!). It's interesting to note that this trailer comes complete with Tom Savini's name in big letters - despite him taking action to remove his association from the end product.

THE DEPRAVED looks fantastic, a THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE-type expose of the trials and tribulations of a young lady (THRILLER's Christina Lindberg) held against her will by a sadistic couple. Plenty of flesh on offer here, and a salacious voiceover warning us of the graphic and explicit content we'll get to see - "uncut!" - when this hits theatres. Out of all the trailers on offer here that were advertising films I'd not seen before (quite a few - JAILBAIT BABYSITTER, THE ARENA [with Pam Grier] etc), this is the one that left me salivating the most. Very sleazy stuff by the look of it and, while it may be uncouth to do so, I feel compelled to draw attention to Lindberg's cracking pair of jugs. I must order this in that nice R2 "Swedish Erotica" boxset �

Trailers for the likes of BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS, CRIMINALLY INSANE, NURSE SHERRI and THE NAUGHTY STEWARDESSES make the films look better than they truly are (that's the purpose, I suppose).

There's a nice reminder of how great ALMOST HUMAN is, even when saddled with clumsy English dubbing, in a promo clip bearing the title THE DEATH DEALER.

The trailer for SNUFF is a new one to me. Again, this gives the impression that the film is a lot better than it actually is. It carries the immortal tagline "Made in South America � where life is cheap!" and looks a lot better than the transfer used for the film on Blue Underground's DVD. This is promptly followed by a trailer for the cheap TENDER FLESH, which the narrator promises us "makes the killing in SNUFF look like amateur night". I think even NIGHTBEAST managed that!

THE WORM EATERS looks just as fucked up as it's title suggests (and yes, the trailer includes scenes of people chomping on the little beggars).

Elsewhere, Sonny Chiba turns up in a fast-paced trailer for THE BODYGUARD; David Hemmings maintains a suave distance in Argento's DEEP RED; Marilyn Chambers manages to look sexy even with a penis-shaped parasite protruding from her armpit in Cronenberg's RABID.

The quality of the picture on the trailer for FLESH GORDON is another one that puts the transfer of the film on DVD to shame, while the murky DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE preview is no less ropey than the film print used on the US DVD release.

Other notable inclusions take in THE DRILLER KILLER (a whole 17-second trailer!), STREET LAW (a high-octane preview with Franco Nero and Barbara Bach), RAW MEAT, THE EXTERMINATOR, VIRGIN WITCH, THE VIRGIN SLAUGHTER (better known to UK fans as AXE), WANDA THE WICKED WARDEN and CHINESE HERCULES - the latter is most enjoyable, effectively comprising of 90 seconds of Yang Sze battering all comers.

It all comes to a head in suitably fine trashy fashion with the bizarre INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS. It's another film I'm unfamiliar with, but it looks fabulous.

So there you have it - 55 trailers for some truly madcap films. Between them, these previews offer a wealth of bad fashion, big-busted gals with tons of attitude, the meanest motherfucking men ever to grace the screen, even meaner voiceovers, some truly STARSKY AND HUTCH-worthy music and a satisfyingly unhealthy dosage of sleaze. Guaranteed to leave you with a smile on your face.

The trailers run smoothly into each other. Each clip is shown in its original ratio and is enhanced for 16x9 TVs. So the only minor distraction in terms of a fluid look to this presentation is the aspect ratio shifts (black lines at the top and bottom of the 2.35:1 presentation of SACRIFICE, for example). It's not a concern.

Images are varying in quality, due to the large variation of source material of course. For the most part, the trailers look incredibly vibrant and vivid in terms of colours, with fairly sharp detail throughout. Image enhancement did look evident on a couple of clips, but again it won't distract from the fun you're sure to be having.

The audio throughout is English mono, and is a clear and consistent job. Most titles are dubbed into English, which adds to the high trash factor. Optional English subtitles are available for the hard of hearing.

The animated main menu page gives access to a static scene-selection sub-menu, which allows you to traverse through each trailer individually - yes, there are 55 chapters!

Extras include a gallery of original theatrical poster artwork for 53 of the disc's titles, and an engaging 10-minute featurette with historian/writer Stephen Thrower (NIGHTMARE USA). He sits in front of what looks like an extremely nice video collection and chats enthusiastically about his attraction to exploitation cinema. The featurette is peppered with clips from 70s horror and exploitation films.

Finally, we get trailers for other titles in the Nucleus Films canon: GWENDOLINE, FAUSTO 5.0, DEATH SHIP, LONDON VOODOO and BLOODBATH AT THE HOUSE OF DEATH (the disc is also defaulted to play the latter when it loads).

Great fun. The only drawback of Nucleus Films compiling such a strong collection of trailers is that it leaves you desperate to own many of the titles on DVD!

Call it serendipity, call it astute business planning, but either way Nucleus Films times their first TRAILER CLASSICS tome well. It coincided with the media frenzy over Tarantino's DEATH PROOF and the rising wave of interest surrounding the GRINDHOUSE double-bill in general. As a result, TRAILER CLASSICS VOLUME 1 found itself advertised on shelves in mainstream stores and presumably sold very well.

This time around, it'll be interesting to see how well stores advertise VOLUME 2. I hope they do, as it offers great entertainment for anyone interested in 1970s exploitation films - even more so if you remember half of these films from the halcyon days of collecting horror obscura on video.

Here's to hoping VOLUME 2 outsells it's predecessor and paves the way for VOLUME 3!

Review by Stuart Willis