Trailer of the Week: The Dead Next Door (1989)

Ohio producer/director J.R. Bookwalter has launched an Indiegogo pre-ordering campaign for an upcoming "25th Anniversary Ultimate Edition" bluray of his first feature, the shot-on-Super 8 zombie epic (and namesake of this blog) The Dead Next Door.

The 3-disc set will launch whether or not he reaches his campaign goal, but if you're willing to pledge you can get early access to the limited edition release. The set will include four (!) unrated versions of the film, two of them created from a brand-new 2K restoration using original film elements. The remastered version will be offered in both the original 4:3 aspect ration and in a new 16:9 cropped widescreen option. the two previous VHS and DVD versions will also be included (along with all of the original extras).

The set will also include some a new commentary track, a new trailer, and a CD that includes the original soundtrack and some previously unreleased tracks from the film.

Check out the Indiegogo trailer below:

Trailer of the Week: Twisted Illusions (1985)

This very early direct-to-video horror anthology from Tim Ritter and Co. led to Ritter's most infamous project, Truth or Dare? And there's a sequel!

Trailer of the Week: Igor and the Lunatics (1985)

Here's a Troma release from NYU film school grad and award winning playwright Jocelyn Beard. Director Billy Parolini is producing a documentary, A Man Called God, about actor Christopher St. John and cult leader Sai Baba.

Trailer of the Week: Attack of the Beast Creatures (1985)

Possibly my favorite Connecticut horror film about killer troll dolls. Here's a fan-made trailer, and some clips.

Trailer of the Week: Super Soul Brother (1979)

Delighted to see that the next round of Vinegar Syndrome releases includes this oddball sci-fi superhero blaxploitation comedy from Miami, Wildman Steve's Super Soul Brother, direct from the Austin American Genre Film Archive (AGFA). No trailer online, but plenty of not-safe-for-work clips.

Trailer of the Week: Terror in the Swamp (1985)

Producer Martin Folse occasionally airs this film on his own Louisiana TV station.

Trailer of the Week: Blood Cult (1985)

Hard to believe it's been 30 years since this debuted on video...

Trailer of the Week: Curse of the Blue Lights (1988)

I overlooked this one when I published the book, but Code Red released this Pueblo, Colorado-based film on disc a few years back. Local filmmaker John Henry Johnson was at the helm, and the film is periodically screened in Pueblo by the Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center.

I can't actually find a trailer online (although one was included on the DVD), so here's the whole movie, thanks to a YouTube poster.

Trailer of the Week: Where Evil Lives (1991)

To answer the question, "Did Claude Akins ever appear in a regional horror film?" we present this Florida obscurity that was finally released on DVD in 2012 by Troma. Shot in Stuart, Fla., on 16mm as Trilogy of Fear, this horror anthology failed to find a distributor during the dark days of the early 1990s when the fright film market bottomed out.

You can read more about it here and here. Watch the original promo below, along with Troma's revamped trailer.

Trailer of the Week: NATAS: The Reflection (1983)

This weird western from Arizona is the one and only directing credit for bit player Jack Dunlap. I used to see it on video store shelves pretty frequently back in the VHS days, but it has since dropped off the map. There's another trailer, for the Elvira-hosted edition of the tape on Thriller Video, here.

Trailer of the Week: The Offspring (From a Whisper to a Scream, 1987)

Ohio-born director Jeff Burr made this fun anthology in Georgia, and secured the services of Vincent Price for the wraparound segments (one of his last genre performances) by cold calling him at his house, showing up uninvited with the script and a bottle of wine. Scream Factory will deliver the film on Blu-ray in March.

Trailer of the Week: Zontar: The Thing From Venus

Fred Olen Ray has dug into his vault and made another 50 or so copies of his RetroMedia Beast Collection DVD set available on Amazon (get 'em while you can). The set is a cornucopia of regional horror flicks, including Ed Adlum's Shriek of the Mutilated, Bill Rebane's Capture of Bigfoot, Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot, Larry Buchanan's The Eye Creatures, and the subject of our trailer of the week, Zontar: The Thing From Venus. Since Zontar was originally a made for TV project, we've posted a series of homemade trailers below that range from sublime to ridiculous.

Trailer of the Week: In Search of Bigfoot (1975)

Before he made the insane faux-bigfoot horror film Blood Stalkers (1978), Robert W. Morgan had already established himself as a well-known (and a bit eccentric) bigfoot expert. This documentary follows Morgan and his team as they hunt for the Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest. Portions of the film were later re-purposed in the very similar Bigfoot: Man or Beast film released by director Lawrence Crowley which includes additional, un-related footage.

Vinegar Syndrome has released the film on a double-bill with Cry Wilderness (1986), a family-friendly bigfoot flick.

Trailer of the Week: Spookies (1986)

For this week's trailer, I've selected Spookies, a disjointed haunted house flick from New York that both confounded and amused me when I first saw it. When I was putting together the Regional Horror Films book, I found a number of articles and interviews online that detailed its troubled production history -- one that involved two separate directors and crews, as well as a lot of bad feelings.

Now Max Evry over at The Dissolve has gathered all of the major participants from both stages of filming for what has to be the definitive oral history of Spookies/Twisted Souls.

You an read second-phase director Genie Joseph's account here. The official Spookies fan page is on Facebook.

Trailer of the Week: Nail Gun Massacre (1985)

Terry Lofton's ridiculous The Nail Gun Massacre is out as a limited edition Blu-ray from Code Red. My review of it will be in the next issue of SCREEM magazine.

Trailer of the Week: Ms. 45 (1981)

Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45 isn't quite a horror film, but it does trade on some horrific imagery. My review of the new Drafthouse Films Blu-ray will appear in the upcoming issue of SCREEM.

Trailer of the Week: The Wednesday Children (1973)

Straight out of Wadsworth, Ohio, The Wednesday Children languished in obscurity after a few screenings in 1973 until it was rescued by the folks over at Slow Mutants.

Trailer of the Week: Blood Church/Heartland of Darkness (1990/1992)

Here's the 2007 trailer for Heartland of Darkness, a lost Ohio horror film originally titled Blood Church/Fallen Angels.

Trailer of the Week: Homebodies (1974)

I recently completed a feature for Country Living magazine on Ohio-based horror films, including details on this odd black comedy from Cincinnati. The article will appear in the upcoming October issue.

Trailer of the Week: Final Exam (1981)

I know the kids just went back to school, but it's never too early in the year for the North Carolina slasher film Final Exam. I'll have a review of the new Scream Factory Blu-ray in the upcoming issue of SCREEM.