One of the interesting things I like about the boom of interest in Exploitation film after Grindhouse, along with the rise of DVDs as a media format is the rise of the Trailer DVD – a DVD chock full of trailers for various exploitation films from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. They make for a great snapshot of a moment in time, showcasing both how films were sold (and what you could get away with in trailers), along with the movies being sold.
Sometimes you get a trailer that just doesn’t care, but manages to be entertaining anyway, (“Color. Me. Blood. Red. A terrifying journey into the world of the ma-carb” – read like the presenter has completely run out of fucks to give”), or sometimes you get a bonafide classic, like George Romero’s The Crazies, or even films from accomplished directors you had never heard of before, like Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive. And while certainly a lot of these trailers are also available on YouTube, there’s also something to be said for just binging on a whole bunch of exploitation movie trailers, one after the other, like the cinematic equivalent of eating a whole bunch of jalapeno poppers.
Cheezy Horror: Vol. 1 is one of these DVD collections. While most of these collections I’ve watched in the past have been something of a grab bag of exploitation films (often featuring horror, mondo, blacksploitation, and sexploitation films), as the title suggests with this set, the focus of the collection is entirely on horror films of the peak Exploitation period, from the ’50s through the very early ’80s.
The set has a smattering of a few classics in here – like Humanoids of the Deep, The Fearless Vampire Killers, and Friday the 13th – but the set also has a few other films that I had honestly never heard of before (like the above mentioned Eaten Alive), while also dodging some of the trailers that are classics, but show in pretty much every other collection – like The Astro Zombies and Color Me Blood Red (this last one mainly for blatant mispronunciation of “Macabre”.)
That said, the collection has some very real problems. The DVD doesn’t let you select a trailer from the main menu, which limits the utility of the set if you want to show a particular trailer to a friend. Perhaps worse than that though – in an apparent desire to pad out the DVD, the set repeats several trailers, particularly Humanoids, Doctor Phibes, and Vampire Killers.
While I had a little fun watching this, frankly, I’ve seen better collections, and the presentation of this set leaves enough to be desired that I can’t recommend a purchase.
That said, if you decide to get this anyway, it’s available from Amazon.com on DVD.
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