You may have heard that it's the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, but were you also aware of another classic movie which opened 30 years ago...
Did you happen to notice "With Mel Gibson" near the bottom of the ad? That's probably the last time Mel was buried in the credits like this. Check out the trailer which uses the "With Mel Gibson" credit too...Next there's this low-budget slasher movie that has a title that sounds like it could be an anti-abortion documentary to me...
And the Silent Scream trailer...Now here's a film that has gone by a number of different titles. The original title is Snapshot, but was retitled when released on video as The Day Before Halloween, or The Night After Halloween. To further confuse things the name of this film in the 1980 newspaper ad is...
I love that ad copy, "Don't open the door... Don't answer the phone... Don't look in the attic... " - all of which just happens to be titles of other horror movies. One More Minute looks like a pretty intense slasher film, but according to YouTube film reviewer, SlasherIndex it's anything but...Two years earlier in 1978 National Lampoon's Animal House was a huge hit, and a flood of imitators followed. Not to be out done, MAD Magazine presented their first (and only) motion picture with MAD Magazine Presents Up The Academy...
MAD Magazine artist Jack Rickard illustrated the poster, and that's practically the only thing MAD had to do with this film. Oh yeah, a live action Alfred E. Neuman makes a quick cameo too...
That "Alfred" mask is either funny or terrifying depending on your sensibilities. Anyways, the film was a flop, and fellow blogger, Frank, at Franklin Mint Blog does excellent job of documenting the whole mess. (You can also download the soundtrack at his blog too!)Well, here's the TV commercial...
It's an interesting coincidence that another "Animal House-like" movie opened on June 6, 1980, with poster art by Jack Davis who just happens to be another MAD Magazine artist...
The full-color poster has slightly different art and a totally different tag line...
And finally a TV commercial for this forgotten comedy...
I seem to remember there was indeed an anti-abortion film making the rounds about that time called "The Silent Scream" that showed footage of a moving fetus.
ReplyDeleteI recently watched the non-abortion version you posted about above, and was struck by how amazing the PHOTOGRAPHY of that film is... that is how a horror film should be shot.
OK so that's were I probably got that idea. Maybe the anti-abortion documentary people thought this horror film title was just too good not to use.
ReplyDeletefunny post. I came across that Mad Magazine movie on Netflix and was tempted to watch it. Maybe I'll just scan through. You're right, Alfred E. Neuman DOES look creepy. Looking through old newspapers and magazines is always like striking gold.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about Silent Scream! I never saw it, but I remember they played the commercial for it on TV over and over. I believe the commercial had that footage from the trailer of the person being pulled through the opening in the wall....now I have to go look for that on YouTube!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this!