There are already thousands of cult-movie fansites on the interwebs, so I'll leave it to them to rehash the brilliant limited-release and direct-to-video horror and schlock movies of my young adulthood. Any nerd with a Fangoria subscription can break out his copy of From Beyond or Class of Nuke 'Em High, but it's rare that anyone thinks about the unsung heroes behind the great VHS exploitation films that came out between the mid-1980s and the early '90s: the boutique studios and video distribution companies themselves. Luckily, YouTube, Wikipedia, and many of the other Web 2.0 superstars are frequented by such dedicated über-dorks that even the most esoteric quest takes all of 47 seconds.
Today, major-studio offshoots like Dimension Films, Dark Castle Entertainment, Fox Atomic, and Rogue Pictures crank out (relatively) low-budget, high-return genre films, using a model that has flourished since the 1996 release of Scream. But in the decade leading up to horror's box-office resurgence, the best genre films were, by and large, relegated to the limited-run, cable, or direct-to-video markets. A relatively small number of major-studio offshoots and maverick companies made that market possible.
For the 14-year-old horror movie fanatic in 1988, nothing gave you a better indication of how the next 90 minutes would be spent than the roughly 15-second studio ident logo(s) at the beginning of the tape. And so the management is happy to present a brief salute to some of the distribution (and production) companies, large and small, (many defunct, some still around) that made VHS (and even BETAMAX) truly fun.
Vestron Video
A distribution company that released a treasure chest of B-movies up until 1992. (Notable examples: Ghoulies, Future-Kill, Lifeforce, Re-Animator, Troll, From Beyond, The Gate, The Running Man, Waxwork) STUDIO IDENT
Golan/Globus Productions and Cannon Films
These notorious schlockmeisters, a pair of savvy Israeli brothers, made some of the most memorable low-budget action films of the 1980s, both with their own production company, and as the heads of Cannon Films and Cannon Distribution. They also helped bring the world Michael Dudikoff and his more popular replacement, Jean-Claude Van Damme. (Death Wish II, Ninja III: The Domination, Lifeforce, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, Cobra, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, Masters of the Universe, Braddock: Missing in Action III, Bloodsport, Cyborg) STUDIO IDENT
New World Pictures
Prolific film production and distribution company that started releasing exploitation films in the late 1960s. (The Slumber Party Massacre, Children of the Corn, C.H.U.D., The Stuff, Vamp, Hellraiser, Zombie Nightmare, House, Return to Horror High, Creepshow 2) STUDIO IDENT
Media Home Entertainment
Another great video distribution company. (Blood Beach, The Dorm that Dripped Blood, Basket Case, Liquid Sky, Sleepaway Camp, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Class of Nuke 'Em High, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Dead Ringers, Nightbreed) STUDIO IDENT
And here are some other defunct or discontinued 1980s idents that might take you back:
DEG
Thorn EMI
Orion Pictures
AVCO Embassy
Embassy Pictures
New Line Cinema (1984)
United Artists
And then there is the dynamic duo of Hong Kong cinema:
Golden Harvest (Think Jackie Chan)
Golden Princess (Think John Woo)
And, finally, the contemporary homage to 1970s idents:
Grindhouse Releasing
And speaking of Grindhouse, why not entertain yourself with Eli Roth's fake trailer for Thanksgiving, and then catch a sampling of real trailers that inspired all these shenanigans in the first place.
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