I don't care that The Man with the Golden Gun and Airport '77 aren't horror- the posters are, in fact, awesome.
In other news, the shot of Drac in the Spanish poster for Scars of Dracula totally reminds me of that scene in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure where Pee-Wee gives Mr Buxton and Francis the trick gum. You know, when Pee-Wee goes "Would you care for some, Mr Buxton?" and Mr Buxton goes "Ah!" and Pee-Wee asks "Spearmint, or fruit?" to which Mr Buxton replies "Ah, fruit please!" and then Pee-Wee leaves and Francis goes "You do believe me, don't you dad?" and we realize that Francis has been given black mouth gum and Mr Buxton has been given hot gum and then Mr Buxton realizes he's been tricked and he raises his arms and goes "Ahhhhhhhh!". That's what the poster reminds me of.
In other other news, don't forget: Monday is Film Club day! Get your Near Dark on, y'all!
I love that "corrupt" is used in the tagline for *The Wicker Man* poster.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that *Blood Fiend* one is my fave this week.
Also, if a skeleton still has "creeping flesh" doesn't he/she sieze being a skeleton? hmmm....
Blurgh.
ReplyDeleteSee the first poster is great because not only is it an awesome movie poster, it's also a public service announcement. Drink a pint of blood a day! It does a body good!
ReplyDeleteIn a completely unrelated note sometimes I have this dream where I'm all alone. I'm rolling a big doughnut and there's this snake wearing a vest...I'm a loner Dottie, a rebel.
Not those kind of dreams, Pee-Wee.
ReplyDeleteDo you have something to share with the rest of us, Amazing Larry?
You know I was actually going to go with the "Amazing Larry" quote cause it's one of my favorite parts of the movie...actually the whole movie is my favorite part of the movie. In any event I couldn't summon the wit to work it in.
ReplyDeleteNow if you'll excuse me I have to go steal back the X1 before the Soviets find the compartment that contains the microfilm!
Wow, this is six kinds of awesome.
ReplyDeleteFavorite posters:
SPECIAL WTF AWARD: Dracula '72 日本語. The Japanese never disappoint with the crazy.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Taste the Blood.... So hilariously lurid I can't leave it off.
5. TIE: Dr. Terror and The Creeping Flesh. Too perfect for luring in twelve-year-olds.
4. Rasputin. That is one deeply cool three-color, and the Lee peeking out behind Grigory Yefimovich's beard is great.
3. Curse of Frankenstein. Terrific ripoff/homage to Universal horror. The hand is fantastic.
2. Fu Manchu. Sure, racist, blah blah blah, but that's a hell of an invocation of Rohmer's works—intrigue, foreign lands, hot chicks in danger! And at least they made Lee actually look reasonably East Asian.
1. "Technicolor" Dracula. Vaguely inhuman vampire, call-back to Universal's cobwebby castle, and very-old-school title font and screaming woman in peignoir. That's retro horror graphics, y'all.
Awesome Christopher Lee facts:
Once hunted down J.R.R. Tolkien in his Oxford local because he and his friends were such crazy Lord of the Rings fans. Has re-read the trilogy every year of his long life at Christmas.
Mother was an Italian aristocrat and opera singer.
And best: went to Finland as part of a British volunteer group to fight the invading Soviets in the Winter War of 1939-40. Never saw action, though, as he described the Finns were slightly bemused as to what they were doing there, thanked them profusely, then sent them home...
Other good ones:
ReplyDeleteIan Fleming's step-nephew.
Read classics at college.
Served in the RAF and military intelligence in WWII.
And maybe most admirable: Married to the same woman since 1961.
I miss the sketchy artwork and hyper-lurid colour schemes they used in the old days of movie posters.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else wondering how a skeleton can have "Creeping Flesh"?
Obviously, "beware the skeleton with the creaking bones" didn't quite cut the mustard...
Spazmo- The flesh has creeped elsewhere for the moment, leaving us in the care of it's skeleton.
ReplyDeleteMan, I do love that Japanese Dracula '72 poster. "Heeeeeey... nice car!"
-Jonathan
Hooray for AIRPORT 77, any movie where the Bermuda Triangle makes an appearance is a horror film in my book!
ReplyDeleteBest thing about retro movie posters? The fact that it sounds like they were all written by squares in marketing.
ReplyDelete"A Totally Corrupt Shocker!"
Creeping Flesh is my fave - and one of my fave horror films - it's called Creeping Flesh, Fox, because the flesh literally grows on those old bones - it's quite sinister!
ReplyDeleteMan...
ReplyDeletePeewee's Big Adventure is awesome.
ah, that's when they made POSTERS.
ReplyDelete