Poster of the Week- Maniac (1980)

I can still remember the first time I saw the poster for Maniac. The killers legs and crotch, his hand holding a severed head, his other holding a knife with the tagline of ‘I WARNED YOU NOT TO GO OUT TONIGHT’ in the deranged scrawl of a psychopath. What was not to like for a horror/exploitation film fan?

I actually first saw the poster in a film magazine in the mid 80’s. Maniac was actually banned when it was submitted for cinema release in 1981. It was also banned when submitted for video release in 1998. It was then cut by 58 seconds when it was resubmitted for video release in 2002. And all of this brouhaha was only what happened in the UK.

In the US it wasn’t just the film that sparked protests, pickets and disapproving TV programme segments but also the poster as even that was seen as being so massively offensive! Now that’s style! More can be seen about the moral panic regarding the film here.

Some theaters would only carry censored posters outside their cinemas.

In fact, the L.A. Times wouldn’t even carry any advertising for the film. The film’s marketing department used that fact as the basis for another poster! ‘See the film The L.A. Times won’t carry ads for!’ All publicity is great publicity especially for an exploitation film. As if there could have been a higher kind of recommendation.

I finally got to see the uncut film many years after first seeing the classic poster. Was the film as good as the poster? No. It was even better. Maniac is the grimier cousin of Taxi Driver and is not a million miles away from a film like The New York Ripper. Noo Yawk is especially fun on film when it’s crime-ridden and more like Gotham than Disneyland.

Poster of the Week- Enter The Dragon/Death Race 2000

This week’s Poster of the Week is for the double bill of Enter The Dragon and Death Race 2000.

Double bills were very popular at cinemas in the UK in the 70’s and 80’s and seemingly the more lurid films the better with horror, kung-fu and cult films being selected for these billings which were traditionally shown at midnight on a Saturday night. It was like the cult film ethos that permeated 42nd Street in New York was proving so popular that it even influenced the cinema programmers of Britain.

It was rightly assumed that the kind of audiences who would go to see a Bruce Lee film would also want to see a Roger Corman movie, especially as one of it’s stars (Sylvester Stallone) had since become famous for his role as the eponymous hero of the movie Rocky (check out the cheeky reference to this in the billing for Death Race 2000 on this poster).

Both of these films were also resurrected from years gone by for this double bill and so this gave cult film fans the opportunity to see both on the big screen again. These were also the days before home video and so cinemas were the primary source for seeing such fare.

Double bills fell out of favour in the 90’s and onwards but thankfully there are now special cinema screenings of films that have just been restored for Blu ray. I’ve noticed a lot of older films receiving cinema showings to commemorate an anniversary of a film’s release also. Inception and Back to the Future are two such films showing on the big screen again recently because of this. And this is a great thing. To see a film on the big screen with a great sound system are the optimal conditions for experiencing a film.

BackToTheFuture35thAnniversaryScreenings

Poster of the Week- The Beast in the Cellar (1970)

This week’s Poster of the Week is for the 1970 Beryl Reid shocker The Beast in the Cellar. Ms Reid deserves an article regarding her stellar output all of it’s own and one day that will happen.

This movie was actually released not just on it’s own in the UK but also as a double bill with the equally great Blood on Satan’s Claw and this is the quad that has grabbed my attention.

Check out the almost goofy caricature of the monster used on this poster. The beast in the actual film was neither goofy or cartoonesque in the movie and so maybe this device was used so that he could take centre stage on the film’s poster without causing too much controversy for being too scary.

Whilst you’re perusing this gorgeous piece of art here’s the equally impressive Australian daybill and the UK quad poster for the film’s release on it’s own. I’m loving Beryl’s shocked expression on both.

BeastInTheCellarQuad — …and the UK quad poster

Poster of the Week- Westworld (1973)

This weeks Poster of the Week goes to the classic sci-fi nightmare that is Westworld from 1973.

There are so many brilliant images here that sum up the movie- the iconic image of Brynner’s demented robot gunslinger, the technician sat in front of a bank of monitors and control panels, the technological font used for the film’s title, the tagline that has indeed gone worng…

And whilst we’re at it, take a look at the similarly brilliant posters for the film’s sequel Futureworld, (loving this tagline too) and Westworld’s Japanese and Belgian posters. All gorgeous.