Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987)

Instant Favorite.

A different way of telling a story

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

I was surfing Netflix and came across this streaming. Then it occurred to me that I seen this "box cover" before countless times in the video stores in the late 80s and the 90s. Who would not remember such a wonderfully imaged artwork as he was looking through video boxes on shelves. Those were the days. I love streaming, but I do miss those old-fashioned Mom and Pop video stores that were everywhere. Now, you get everything from home. I digress. This offering has a wrap-a-round story of zombies going to a movie theater to watch prevues from Mad Ron the projectionist, Happy a puppet zombie and Nick - the "normal" gut with the bald head and glasses. The zombie shuffle about, bring goodies to eat, take the goodies there at the concession stand to eat, pour blood over popcorn, shuffle about more, and sit down for some gory fun. The dialog between Nick and his Happy puppet is mostly fairly lame but fun nonetheless. The zombie make up is generally good for something like this. The prevues are all entertaining. I was writing down titles of things I must see - many of these I still have not seen. There is a whole host of various horror movie trailers from the 70s primarily though we get some 60s as well. We get some Mario Bava, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and some pretty famous films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas, and we get some lesser known offerings like Torso, Three on a Meathook(I have seen that one), and Africa: Blood and Guts(looks like a very nasty film). There are a few weird and exploitative ones too like the very uplifting Wildcat Women. The Ilsa trailer is very extensive as is the one for Night of the Bloody Apes, and as another viewer wrote, very, very gory. Overall, I recommend this as a neat little diversion. I enjoyed the movie trailers, the in-between segments, that wonderful artwork, and my brief yet vivid walk down memory lane. I bet the actual video today is worth a bit.

Produced by the aptly-named Off The Wall Video, this is the gore-hound's equivalent of being a kid locked in a candy factory. Trailers include THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS; WILDCAT WOMEN; CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS; DERANGED; TALES FROM THE CRYPT; THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED; THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE; MAN FROM DEEP RIVER; THE CORPSE GRINDERS; DEEP RED; COLOR ME BLOOD RED; MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND; THE MUTATIONS; HOUSE OF EXORCISM; GOD TOLD ME TO; SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT; BLOOD AND LACE; BLOODY PIT OF HORROR; DIABOLICAL DR. Z; LADY FRANKENSTEIN; BEYOND THE DOOR; I DRINK YOUR BLOOD; THE GHASTLY ONES; THREE ON A MEATHOOK, and many more.Some previews, like the one for LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, are too short to do the movie justice. Others, such as the ILSA and NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES trailers, not only wallow in gore but rub your proboscis in it. Of special interest is the preview of Africa BLOOD AND GUTS which features animal slaughter and actual executions of humans–something to offend everyone! Others show gory little tidbits that never made it into the finished pictures. Fangoria's Dr. Cyclops found the framing device wearisome; I personally got a big kick out of watching the scatological–and undead–Happy and his nerdy pal screening the trailers for an audience of festering, limb-chomping, eyeball-munching zombies. (In the background at one point is a lurid poster for Andy Milligan's BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS–this is my kind of theater!)

Next time you have a bunch of guys over for beers, pop this in.The trailers were excellent. And you'll definitely find a few things you'll want to look for at the video store later.I think Nick Pawlow's segments were just there to give us the excuse to get another beer. It did slow the fun down a little. I heard those parts were filmed in Philly. (My hometown) And NO ONE will be able to watch this only once.I'm proud to say I've seen most of these since and now even own a few of them. Great fun here. Some of them are still hard to find though. I'm surprised they didn't have more of the Cannibal-Zombie films here. It even had Africa: Blood & Guts. Featuring scenes that were missing for years.

Hosted by Nick and his demented zombie puppet Happy, they treat a theater full of zombies to 83 minutes of cool trailers from horror and gore flicks from 70's (mostly). Between trailers Nick & Happy tell some pretty lame jokes. Two things would've made this a little better.1.Less of Nick and his annoying puppet2.More obscure filmsOverall, its one of the best trailer tapes ive seen (and i've seen a few). 8/10Here's a a few of the trailers on the tape -I Drink your BloodDerangedThree on a MeathookLove me DeadlyCannibal GirlsDeep RedToxic ZombiesBlack ChristmasBlood and LaceBay of BloodIlsaLast House on the LeftTCMBlood spattered BrideI Dismember MamaTorsoBeyond the DoorOh yeah and by the way, Mad Ron is the cannibalistic projectionist chained to the projector.