Genre Box Stickers

Remember these things? Used to be they were on almost every VHS tape in the shop, as if you didn't know what genre you were getting into.

I couldn't help but turn them into refrigerator magnets and buttons. (I'm always on the lookout for small round images) Yes this is a shameless plug for a product I make; you can buy a set of four, in a cool package, at my Etsy shop An Enormous Door.

Leave a note saying you saw this on Lost Video Archive and I'll throw in a fifth one for free.

LVA Status Update

For anyone keeping track it may have become obvious that Lost Video Archive has lately not been updated as regularly and routinely as in the past.

For that I am sorry, but I have good reason.

Over the last six months I've begun the process of applying to various graduate schools. It's a long and harrowing process that involves taking tests, writing convincingly about what you want to study for the next six years, and reading a lot. A lot.

And I've been hanging art shows which takes more time than I would like even though I enjoy painting and drawing as much as I enjoy watching/writing about odd films.

As a result, you may see entries that do not follow our usual format of obscure and/or VHS only. Sometimes I am inspired to write about other things, and sometimes I write for other publications (ghasp!)

So, while things are crazy here at HQ, Lost Video Archive may be a little sporadic, but I love doing this, so I will always be here. Stick around, it will always be interesting. And if you want to see the reading list (there's some good shit,) just let me know.

Danke fur Die Award for LVA

Thanks to Mr. Elwood Jones at  From the Depths of DVD Hell for liking this writing project enough to grant me the pleasure of the Liebster Award in which I must answer questions, presumably in an effort to further nerdify myself. I'm okay with that.

 1.) Who is your favorite Kajiu monster and why? Monster-Zero (Ghidora) because he has three heads and was born when a meteorite mated with a fucking volcano.
 2.) Were does your interest in movies come from? Monsters are great metaphors for rebellion. I'm a rebel.
 3.) You are being sent to your own private island so what book, film, album and luxury item are you taking with you? Whatever I'm in the middle of. (presently: Captive Bodies: Postcolonial Subjectivity in Cinema, Death Ship, 2-Pac: Me Against The World and Rosemary Ciabatta bread.)
 4.) What is the most underrated film of all time? Nothing is constant. At the moment, The Bodyguard.
 5.) Is Noel Clarke the worst thing to happen to modern cinema and as such should be banned from any kind of acting / directing / writing project or am I overreacting? Don't know who that is.
 6.) Why should people read more, rather than just waiting for the film version? Because they sound (and after enough of this shit, are) ignorant.
 7.) What is the scariest movie ever made? The Corporation or Manufacturing Consent
 8.) What film is most memorable for traumatizing you as a child? Critters
 9.) What are your golden rules of blogging? Find something you hate in every film you like, and vice-versa.
10.) How big is your watch pile? Enough to keep me going for a few months.
11.) What was the last scene in a movie which truly blew your mind? Something from The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. I fucking love this film.

Week of Back Talk!

One of the disappointing things about being a small time writer (at least to me) is that one yearns for feedback and dialogue from others, yet rarely gets it. This is particularly the case online where so much content is available for free and in the meantime one is frequently too self-interested.

I myself am often guilty of merely noting, but not reading the posts of my cohorts. In an modest effort to address this situation I'm pledging to leave at least two comments a day for the next week on my various comrade's blogs. Sound easy enough, but the catch is I have to actually read the post and be insightful in my response!

Since I was duped into the Twitter-hole, I'll Tweet (@SethGoodkind) a link to the site in question each time I comment on a fellow's article or review, that way there's accountability. (you can also see my Tweets on this blog just above Linda Blair.)

What's more, I challenge readers of this blog to follow suit, it's not that hard, read someone's post and say something! You can get started by looking at my comrade's recent entries in the sidebar to the right. There's lot's of content everyday, so there is plenty to think about and respond to!

Join me, dialogue is AMAZING!

Commence Week of BACK TALK!

Talk About a Stranger

United States - 1952

Director - David Bradley

A Long Month

Wow, it's been a long and trying month.

I just moved from my house of seven years into a new apartment here in Seattle. In the process I had to disinter all of the VHS tapes and DVDs that had gradually encrusted the place and re-organize them all in a new unfamiliar space. It took almost 2 weeks to get everything set up and operating so that I could draw and watch movies again. Without those two activities I quickly become a neurotic misanthrope as my partner will attest.

Now we're back in action, although the boxes are sort of still acting as furniture. With luck there are a lot of new things coming at Lost Video Archive. If you've been following lately you'll have noticed some extra reviews over at Paracinema, more to come. I'm working on a larger project similar to that. More stuff over at Illogical Contraption, and for those of you who remember Blair Week and Kotto Week, it's soon time for a new installment!

And so thanks for (unwittingly) bearing with me as I reorganized my life. And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Lunchmeat #6

I'm a little behind the curve on this one, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Still, I wanted to let you VHS nerds out there know that the latest issue of Lunchmeat, that would be #6, is available. It full of movies I've never even heard of which is saying something. After all, VHS obscura is their whole schtick.

Check out Lunchmeat HERE!

A Great Score!

Wow, it's been a long ass time since I started raising a stink about movies.
I wanted to use the opportunity of my 200th follower and my 500th post (almost perfect; 201-498) to take a few minutes to thank those of you who read Lost Video Archive and especially those who, on occasion, actually think it's kinda neat and tell me so! I love and strive for dialogue!

What I have primarily tried to do here over the past 4 years at LVA is to hone my writing ability on something I love, namely genre film. As the rest of my brain has grown and I've pursued other areas of interest the whole thing has become what you see now; a multi discipline interaction with the world of culture and cinema.

I really appreciate those of you that follow and actually read Lost Video Archive, you are the 200! And those of you who carry links to LVA on your own amazing sites and/or blogs, I extend my humble gratitude; a recommendation is among the highest of compliments. Now, for those of you who follow LVA and have a site/blog to which you would like me to post a link, let me know! A true community is reciprocal, and despite my best intentions and a confirmation bias, I sometimes miss things that are right in front of my face.

I realize that what Lost Video Archive does is something a little unusual when it comes to film "reviews", and as such your appreciation is very much noted and dear to me. Thanks for making LVA a great score so far!

Queer Film Blogathon

Lost Video Archive will be contributing at least one post to this worthy event. 

Check out host Garbo Laughs for a complete list of contributors and information on participating yourself.

In the meantime, I wrote a short essay on the important subject of "Naming Your Girl Band" which was published yesterday over at the preeminent music blog Illogical Contraption.

Neanderthal Man and some New Stuff

As I do occasionally around here, I spent a few hours updating some old posts with new posters and/or VHS sleeves. I could never hope to cover even a tiny fraction of the movies out there, but the ones I do get to, I try to do well. Here's a list of updated posts with expanded content, primarily posters or VHS covers:

Turkey Shoot (AKA Escape 2000)

Too Late For Tears

Limit Up

Reptilicus

Zipperface

Hunter's Blood

Distant Thunder

Night of the Sharks

Neanderthal Man

United States - 1953

Director - Ewald Andre Dupont

Seeing the old with new eyes is what we do everyday here at Lost Video Archive!

Cannibal Mercenary

Cannibal Mercenary

Thailand - 1983

Director - Hong Lu Wong

I found this poster/DVD cover(?) for the super absurd Thai film Cannibal Mercenary at Ioffer.com. I have a copy of this film simply titled Mercenary, on a bad bootleg VHS tape I got from a video store I worked in years and years ago. I think Cannibal Apocalypse would be a more apt comparison but it does lift large elements of the plot from Apocalypse Now.
Anyway, I thought this would make a good opener for my month of Vietnam War themed posts. Why am I devoting a month to it? Well because I'm going to be in Vietnam the entire month! I've wanted to visit since I began studying the country and the war many years ago. Now I finally got my chance so I'm taking it.

For more 'Nam related posts I've done in the past (it's a long standing interest as I mentioned) click Namsploitation and Vietnam Vets labels.
And finally, if you leave any comments in the next month don't despair they will get approved when I return.

I Got Happy

Thanks to Trash Film Addict and Breakfast In the Ruins for liking Lost Video Archive enough to award me with this thing. I do like cupcakes with sprinkles. (Are they vegan?)
I get the impression that I'm supposed to name ten things that I enjoy and pass the award on to ten other blogs. I'm not into listing anything except grievances so if you want explanations of any of these, ask. OK, here goes:

First Act:
Charles Bronson
Successful Art Projects
Green Chile
History Books
Mexico
Banh Mi
Funky scotch
Sleeping
Quiet
Fresh Fruit in my cereal.

Second Act:
Satan's Hope Chest
Japanese VHS Hell
Starlet Showcase
Breakfast In the Ruins (I picked him before I knew he had picked me)
Camp Movie Camp
Raro VHS
Crap Video Artwork
When the Vietnam War Raged in the Philippines
Kung Fu Fridays
Manchester Morgue

Now, go, See, DO!

Special Features

Those of you unfamiliar with Illogical Contraption are in for a real treat, it is one of the most amazingly retarded geysers of intellectual circularity I have ever seen. (Those of you familiar with it are always in for a treat) I am lucky enough to have the esteemed privilege of contributing to said discourse now and again.

This last Monday while you were all reading about Richard Harrison HERE at LVA, over at IllCon they were reading my heady witticisms regarding the band The Clowns from the Don Edmonds craptacular classic Terror On Tour. As I'm sure your aware, I've written about the entire crappy movie HERE, but the piece at Illogical Contraption, titled The Hidden Agenda Behind Rock n' Roll, is a whole new level of stupid. Check it out, and find some good music over there while you're at it.


 For those of you that witnessed Raculfright 13's instant victory in our first ever Lunchmeat missing title contest (HERE), and for those of you who didn't here is the cover scan with the title intact courtesy of Josh at Lunchmeat Magazine:

Lunchmeat's Missing Title!

Post your answer as a comment and if you're right you get free stuff from Lunchmeat Magazine!

Tombs of the Blind Dead

I added new VHS boxes to several movies that have been posted here in the past. I found a very old Media Home Entertainment release of the British thriller Schizo.
In addition I added several  UK sleeves, one for the Texan film The Outing bearing the original title "The Lamp" and another for the Canadian film The Vindicator.
Bionic Ninja got a new VHS thing, and
Goin' All the Way got a new poster image. Check 'em out!

And, just so this post isn't pure text here's a sweet Dutch VHS box for one of my favorite zombie movies of all time. Can't remember where I got the image.

R.I.P. V.H.S.

My friend Phill and I made these shirts commemorating the death of our beloved magnetic format. They say Kung Fu Grindhouse because one of the things we do with KFG is to screen old movies that never made it out of the VHS format. If any of you VHS nerds out there are interested in a hand printed RIP VHS shirt, shoot me an e-mail and we'll discuss. We sold out of them in 10 minutes last month but I'm planning on screening a few more.

New Approach

In an effort to keep from burning myself out during my last and possibly most difficult quarter before graduation (think multiple History research papers), I am going to try a somewhat new approach to Lost Video Archive which includes fewer but more comprehensive posts.
It may seem hopelessly idealistic, but I think it is important that this remains both fun to do (watch, research and write), and fun to read (for you and me.)
Paracinema Magazine seems to be on hold for the time being, but I am contributing a guest series about fictional bands in bad movies over at Illogical Contraption so read that and the rest of the blog because it's good.
Lot's of stuff on the docket here, so keep yer eyes peeled. In the meantime, go rent a beta.

New Stuff

On a recent trip to my homeland I scored a good haul of video cassettes. Historically this has not been the case, but I think they are beginning to realize that it's not worth holding on to a lot of their old inventory. Even in the backwoods of New Mexico the death of VHS is being felt; nobody rents them anymore,and those few that do are probably not going to watch Lovely But Deadly or Joysticks. Some of these have already gotten the writeup, the others will soon. If you're keeping track though you know that I still haven't gotten to all the junk from the last big haul, namely To Sleep With A Vampire, I just know that's going to hurt a lot so I'm scared.
I've added a few new links to other great movie blogs so please visit those there's a reason they're there.

Here's another awesome Charles Bronson Poster I found somewhere a long time ago.

I changed the format of the posts a little bit in the last few months, adding running times which help identify the particular version of the film in question, and by going to full front and back box scans. Some of the older posts have been updated to include these additions, and a few posts have new images.
Finally, unless anyone complains I'll continue posting brief writeups of films which are outside the scope of my goal just so I can scan and post the old VHS box art under the tag Just the Box.

Tragedy Strikes: Metalstorm

Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn
United States - 1983
Director - Charles Band
MCA Home Video, 1983, VHS
Run Time - 1 hour, 24 min.


Normally this would not be a problem, I have repaired many broken and damaged VHS tapes. Sadly in this case the magnetic part of the tape itself was flaking off of the plastic part in brittle fragments of sorrow all over my fingers as I gingerly removed it from the VCR. (you can see this in the top right of the photo)
Suffice to say I have still not seen this movie. I do however appreciate the double reinforcement of the "kindness clause" on the cassette.

DIY VHS Nerd

My friend Phill and I made this semi unprofessional serigraphic homage to the dead format of our childhood. There are distant whispers of a Vestron Video, and/or a Lightning Video print as well, but the winds of war are unpredictable.

8-28-09: I heard from a friend yesterday that Rotten Cotton does a Media t-shirt print, so there ya go, for whatever that's worth.

New Stuff

With a helpful tip from an anonymous reader I have added two more films to the list of roles for the Ubiquitous Punk Lady

I also found a great Japanese poster for the Bronson film Violent City which I added to my review of that film. It's similar to, but a lot cooler than this nice poster for his film Mr. Majestyk.

I've also added links movie trailers on some of my older reviews, including:
Deathsport
Invasion USA
Starcrash
Rats
All of these are linked to CultTrailers.

I also recently found a copy of the film I Come In Peace starring Dolph Lundgren, a film which I've wanted to see since I first witnessed the trailers as a child. In addition, some new informational films are in the cue for review as soon as I finish midterms, stay tuned.