I keep referencing this damned thing, and scattering its molecules all over the blog.
May as well pull it all together into a post that I can reference in future posts.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. (1985)
From here.
Umm...oh, yeah, the tape...got that at Shady Daves, this bingo parlor that ran a giant flea market on Sundays down in New Hampshire that we'd go to every couple of weeks with my grandmother.
It was a regular outing, we'd follow it up every time with dinner at Weathervane.
I believe I grabbed 2, 3, and 4 all in one trip.
I was pretty fuckin' jazzed.
Almost as jazzed as the day I saw "Freddy vs. Jason".
These were the first ones I ever owned all for myself.
It was quite a milestone.
Yeah, maybe that's why I never had some "special feeling", about adulthood IN adulthood.
I had my "today I am a man", moment at about 14.
*Laughs*
Anyway, part 1...I got that after 2,3,4,5..and maybe 6... definitely before 7...
I'm gonna say after 5, before 6.
Troll 2/ Best Worst Movie (1990/2009)
From here.
So, it's late 80's, early 90's...
...I have about 30-40 bucks in allowance burning a hole in my pocket, I'm at the Shady Dave's flea market (mentioned in my Nightmare retrospective), and they have literally a wall of tapes for 5 bucks a pop, so, I'm in hog heaven.
And, they have Troll, aaand, something I didn't even know existed, Troll 2!!
I kinda dug Troll, you got Sonny Bono turning into a seed pod, and you got singing Muppets that are only missing John Denver, so..hey, why not the sequel for 5 bucks?
Sign me up for more of that.
I get it home, pop it in....wowww....baaaad, yeah, I couldn't bury that in my file cabinet deep enough.
Comes the mid-90's and me, Hyla, & Spencer were into all these bad flicks, so, I was like "I've got one for ya...*grin*".
Ehh, I think we had a good time with it.
Maybe my MST3K lines bombed here and there, hey, they can't all be gems, at least I was trying.
Guys, if you're out there thinking "Mike was so annoying...I hate him SO!! DAMN!! MUCH!!", geez, get over it...wow.
So, yeah, I was well aware of this film, and it's painful blowfulness.
Hellraiser I & II (1987/1988)
From here.
Well, I repeat my tape-rack story from the Jason one.
Freddy, Jason, Pinhead, I pined after all of these via the VHS boxes back in the day.
Unlike Jason, Hellraiser gave me NO clue as to what was going on.
Y'know why?
It didn't suck!
I first saw it on HBO spending the night at my grandmother's house (yes, the CB grandmother).
Nabbed the tapes of 1&2 later on one of our Shady Dave's trips (see Freddy for the nitty gritty on Shady Dave).
Re-Animator (1985)
From here.
Eh, I vaguely recall this being on HBO as a kid...I think..
Saw it on "the incredibly strange film show", saw it in cult film books, finally bought it at Shady Dave's in a stack of tapes.
Been a lover of this film, and a fan of Jeffrey Combs ever since.
(Again, see the Freddy review for the skinny on Shady Dave's).
(See the "love stinks", episode in "Freddy's Nightmares", for another Combs appearance)
Alien (1979)
From here.
Got 1 & 2 in a stack of tapes at Shady Daves.
Hey, I told ya, I got a lotta fuckin' tapes out of there.
I weren't kiddin.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
From here.
I bought an old 70's MAD magazine at Shady Dave's (man I miss that place), and it had a Clockwork Orange parody (A Crockwork Lemon) and my jaw dropped. Even through the haze of parody, I was like "what fucked up movie is THIS, and why have I never heard of it???".
Years later, Saturday Matinee, a CD and VHS place that used to be in the mall, had it, and I bought it, and it was better than I dreamed.
Mars Attacks (1996)
From here.
Aw man, I was on one of our family Shady Dave's trips, and blew my wad on comics right at the front door, and then found the entire collection of the reprint issue of the cards for like 35 bucks.
Never saw 'em again.
Son of a bitch....
Had 'em..had 'em right there in my goddamned hand....
The Projectionist (1971)
From here.
Found it buried under several boxes at Shady Dave's.
Kept threatening to subject Hyla and Spencer to a double feature of this, and "Bloody Mama", if they didn't behave.
I didn't actually have "Bloody Mama", but...I knew where to get it.
"Horror Express", would have made an adequate substitute, I suppose.
I can reveal now, the threats were empty.
They probably knew that though.
I wouldn't even subject an Al-Queda operative to that.
The Exterminator (1980)
Also from here.
Another Shady Dave's special.
Exterminator 2 (1984)
Also-also from here.
Shady Dave's had a shitload of copies of this, like, enough to literally fill a pickup truck, and every last one, the box was beaten to fucking fuzzy pulp.
They were almost literally giving the things away.
I was never a taker.
And I brought home "The Projectionist".
Weathervane (1969-present)
From here.
We went to the one up in Kittery all through the 90's, that was our return leg of our New Hampshire flea market trip with my (now deceased) grandmother.
Up to Shady Dave's flea market, and then to Weathervane for dinner.
Comics, tapes, and fish n' chips.
Ahh...I miss those days.
I can still have all those things...but, it's not the same.
Nothing ever is.
Horror Collection: 6 movie pack.
From here.
Yeah, these 2,4,6,8,10 packs take me back to the good old days of the bargain bins at Shady Dave's flea market.
This is the next incarnation of that.
I'm loving it.
Brain Damage (1988)
From here.
I saw this at Shady Dave's flea market in the 90's, and aaaaalmost bought it.
Dunno why I didn't.
I kick myself.
Had it right in my hand.
Now that I've seen it, totally need to get it.
It's transcendent.
Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1973)
Also from here.
Okay, this one, I always saw on either the Nicelys shelves, or the Home Vision Video shelves, or at Shady Dave's, and...I never worked up the nerve to just grab the damned thing.
So, this was the last one I was curious about from the VHS days.
Consider it a retroactive "Flicks that really messed me up as a kid", cuz just the box spooked me for some fucking reason.
Faust #1 (1988)
From here.
Yep, saw this at Shady Dave's flea market, and this series is the mother lode of pornography and gore.
I REALLY wanted it, but it was the Ghost Rider situation times a thousand.
I REALLY would have been in trouble getting caught with this.
I thought.
Probably wouldn't have been caught (unless I said or did something really retarded), probably wouldn't be a huge deal if I had.
Still, the paranoia had been planted in me.
So, that covers the saga pretty well, but I never said how it ended.
Pathetically.
HQ bought the place out, started tearing it down to rebuild it....then the whole HQ chain went under, and it was all for nothing.
Shady Dave's was an empty foundation slab with no HQ on it.
Dead.
For nothing.
Muthafuckas.
The End!!
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