okay fine fellows I am working on at least six new reviews because I’ve seen a whole bunch of stuff. Also when the oscars come out I’ll do reviews of all the nominations. I do this for myself, but in case any of you were curious that is the update
I found this site that led me to the source of the original art. However, it was not from Demon Queen that I recognized the image. The art was already familiar to me from seeing it on the alternate poster for Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City (aka City of the Walking Dead; Incubo Sulla Cittá Contaminata; L'Invasion des Zombies) (1980).
Curiously enough, the Nightmare City artwork was also used in part on a Turkish VHS release of The Exorcist (1973), and on the Australian VHS release of Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (aka Paura nella città dei morti viventi; The Gates of Hell) (1980).
Now, here is where things begin to get a little strange. Here is another poster for Nightmare City (the closest I can come to a source for it is that it was part of the cover art for a much later Betamax release). The girl at the bottom in cutoff shorts comes directly from the poster/VHS art for Troma’s Blades (1989) - a movie about a killer lawnmower.
To make things even more confusing, we have a piece of Italian VHS artwork for Eaten Alive! (1980), also directed by Umberto Lenzi, just before he made Nightmare City (though it has been retitled here as Holocausto Canibal 2, in order to piggyback off of the success of Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust (1980)). In the middle we see an image still incredibly similar to the Star Child artwork, though not quite as obvious. This new image was also copied on a VHS release for John Hough’s The Incubus (1982).
In the above image for Eaten Alive!, take note of the figures to the left and right. Neither of them are from that film. Those images actually originate from the alternate poster art for Bruno Mattei’s Hell of the Living Dead (aka Night of the Zombies; Virus; Apocalipsis caníbal) (1980).
To fans of Lucio Fulci films, something may look incredibly familiar about the zombie in the poster to the right. In fact, I’d say he’s a dead ringer (no pun intended) for the zombie on the U.S. poster art for Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (aka Paura nella città dei morti viventi; The Gates of Hell) (1980).
We have now come full fuckin’ circle. However, there’s still one final oddity. On a much later Spanish Betamax release of Mattei’s Hell of the Living Dead, there is a monstrous face forming in the clouds in the background. Fans of Troma films will notice that it is directly ripped off from the U.S. poster artwork for Class of Nuke ‘Em High (1986).
Basically, older horror films constantly ripped each other off when it came to promotional artwork, especially Italian horror films of the early 80’s. Whether this had anything to do with the decline of the Italian film industry in the 80’s is anyone’s guess.
One can only sit and wonder how they were able to get away with these shenanigans, especially when nearly all of these films were released in the same damn year.
(Seriously, considering how often I notice it, I oughta get paid for spotting these things)
I’m forever banned from stepping foot on what is virtually 1/5th of Scotland’s landmass.
For those of you wondering, it involved my disgruntled ancestor, the modern day equivalent of a 5 dollar refund, angry townspeople, and a ban on my entire bloodline until the end of time.
I really want to hear this story
If this gets to a hundred notes, I’ll give you more details.
Alright, gather around. So way way back in the 1700′s, my respectable relative decided that they wanted to go traveling. Their crops had come in on time, they weren’t dying of tuberculosis, and, for once, the English weren’t trying to kill them. So, naturally, they ventured South to a small village in the Hebrides for a nice ‘tropical’ vacation. Upon reaching said village, they came across an inn.
Now, the Scottish, being the wild party animals that they are, were having a dance that night. This dance must have looked like a lot of fun, because my relative in question decided to pay a modest fee of what would be 5 dollars in today’s world to get in. Everything was going great, until 10 minutes later, the inn decided to close for the night. My dude was NOT having it. They demanded a refund, but the innkeeper said no.
Shenanigans promptly ensued. They wanted their 5 dollars, and by God, THEY WOULD GET IT. Unfortunately, there was a no refund policy. I don’t know what was worse, the fact that they were robbed of 5 bucks, or that they were thrown so violently off their groove. I will never know what really happened next that night that was so bad, so awful, so absolutely mortifying that it warranted exile, but one can’t help but imagine. Was it murder? Heresy? A combination of both?
In the end, the townspeople chased them off, banished them, and cursed their very name. If they, or any of their children, or their children’s children’s children decided to step foot back on that island, there would be goddamn hell to pay.
If I could choose to travel back in time to any one place, it would be this very same event. I mean, I have questions. Did my ancestor kick ass and take names, or did they get their ass kicked? What else would they do for 5 dollars? Was wreaking havoc on a small town and forever shaming the family name worth it? Was it honestly worth the 5 fricking dollars?
And this, kids, is why genealogy isn’t boring and you should totally go ask your Gramma for family stories right now.
So there was a single, solitary kiwi on our counter in the kitchen.
And I decided to make fun of my roommate for it, because who buys one, single, solitary kiwi? So I asked her that.
Roommate: I didn’t buy a kiwi.
Me: This isn’t your kiwi?
Roommate: No?
Me: But this isn’t my kiwi.
Roommate: That kiwi was there when I got home.
Me: I don’t even eat kiwi!
As you can see, it’s a real kiwi. Here it is, on my counter, giving away nothing.
But I was still confused as to where it came from. Did one of us accidentally buy a kiwi at the store?
So I looked up the Kiwiny company to figure out which stores it’s sold at, to see which one of us might have bought it, since we tend to use different grocery stores.
Kiwiny doesn’t have American retailers.
There is literally no reason for this kiwi to be in my kitchen.
It came all the way from Italy and this is how you welcome it
