With time ticking down until the launch of 88 Films’ SLASHER CLASSICS COLLECTION – kicking off with GRADUATION DAY on October 13th (a packed BluRay that comes with the feature length documentary SCREAM QUEENS: HORROR HEROINES EXPOSED) the label is pleased to announce the continuation of this crimson-caked line of slice and dice shockers. On 5th January MOTHER’S DAY will arrive on UK shelves, uncut and in HD, followed by the video nasty classic DON’T GO IN THE WOODS on February 9th. But if you thought that these initial three titles were as far as the weapon-wielding terror went… well… think again!
88 Films is proud to announce four worldwide BluRay premieres as part of the SLASHER CLASSICS COLLECTION – each debuting with new HD scans from the original materials approved by the directors themselves!
First up is 1984’s SPLATTER UNIVERSITY. Unavailable in the UK since the glory gory days of VHS tapes, this satirical campus-set sickie is one of the bloodiest and barmiest slasher-shockers ever made. Headlining the feisty Forbes Riley as a teacher trying to work out why her classes are featuring increasingly less students, SPLATTER UNIVERSITY picks up the pace with a succession of superb sanguine-packed massacre-moments. A maniacal murder-mystery that is not afraid to crack out the crimson, SPLATTER UNIVERSITY turns up the suspense en route to an outrageous conclusion. From the maniacal mind of director Richard Haines (CLASS OF NUKE ‘EM HIGH), this exercise in horror insanity graduates with full honours. Take it from us: this is one lacerating lesson that you will never forget!
Also forthcoming from 88 Films is another much-missed rental shop splatter-satire – 1987’s SLAUGHTERHOUSE. Indeed, if you ate-up THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE then you are sure to pig-out with the flesh-filleting fun of this immortal fright-favourite. SLAUGHTERHOUSE introduces one of the screen’s most memorable madmen in Buddy – a cleaver-wielding backwoods baddie who, along with his father Lester, doesn’t take too kindly to anyone infringing on his weirdo way of life. Buddy was brought up killing and packing meat, and even lived among his family’s livestock, but now his rage turns to trespassing teens and market-capitalists seeking to buy-out his dad’s property! The end result is a tongue-in-cheek terror totem that is finally back on the shelves and ready to menace an all new-generation of gore-junkies!
Next-up is a creeper that proved to be a cut above its contemporaries - namely 1983’s corpse-ridden romp SCALPS. Directed by B-movie master Fred Olen Ray, SCALPS mixes arterial-opening action with the supernatural when a group of college kids begin digging around an old Native American burial ground. Unfortunately for our intrepid explorers, a spirit by the name of Black Claw was enjoying his sleep and he is none too happy about receiving a premature wake-up call. A slaughter-thon that does not skimp on the genre-essential plasma-spillage, the long-awaited re-emergence of SCALPS on home video is sure to have tribes of horror fans hollering in happiness!
And the good news just keeps coming as one of the most controversial classics in BBFC history comes to BluRay in Fred Olen Ray’s HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS. Heavily censored upon its original UK release – presumably after the British censors failed to appreciate the movie’s mix of macabre gore and limb-lopping laughs – HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS is finally unleashed in all of its uncensored glory! This colourful bout of carnage brings together two of cinema’s most beloved scream queens in Michelle Bauer (NIGHTMARE SISTERS) and Linnea Quigley (RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD). Quigley plays a stripper that is being tracked by a sleazy private investigator (played by B-movie veteran Jay Richardson) who suspects she might know something about a slate of citywide murders. Meanwhile Bauer essays the prostitute-servant of a sinister cult-leader. Her shady sect worships the chainsaw and likes nothing better than to sacrifice a few new victims during a bit of power-tool fuelled bump and grind (with the emphasis on the grind!). Packed with babes, boobs and blood, and also highlighting a standout performance from Leatherface himself, Gunnar Hansen, HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS belongs in the collection of any self-respecting splatter movie buff.
States Richard Elliot: “We could not be happy with the four new additions to our ‘Slasher Classics Collection’. I hope that this quartet of horror gems, which are all receiving their worldwide BluRay premieres as part of this line, will reassure fans of our absolute dedication to genre cinema – in particular those movies that we all grew up loving on VHS. I am also thrilled that each title will have a new scan overseen and approved by the respective directors.”
Adds James Blower: “It has been a long process in trying to sort out the titles for wave two of our ‘Slasher Classics Collection’. The bar was set high by the first line of films and we really did not want to disappoint. However, we are thrilled that four great movies are now ‘out of the vaults’ and coming back to UK shelves in great-looking editions. It is madness to think that SPLATTER UNIVERSITY, SLAUGHTERHOUSE and SCALPS have not even had a DVD release in Britain yet! And as for HOLLYWODO CHAINSAW HOOKERS… well, who doesn’t want to see Linnea and Michelle in HD?”
As with the first wave of 88 Films’ “SLASHER CLASSICS COLLECTION”, wave two will come with collector’s booklets from film critic Calum Waddell, numbered spines, reversible cover art and special features to be confirmed.
