The Corner Penthouse

This is one of an ongoing series of reviews that looks at various Blu-ray compilations of movie trailers and TV spots, most notably Umbrella Entertainment's Drive-In Delirium series and Garagehouse Pictures' Trailer Trauma series. Today's review details Trailer Trauma 2: Drive-In Monsterama. Read on to find out more...

As the title implies, this release contains trailers from the 1960s and 1970s (with two from the 1980s), with the main focus being horror. There are very little mainstream Hollywood motion pictures represented here, so this release may not be to everyone's liking. Of course, if you like LOTS of nudity and mature content, then this WILL be to your liking. This disc would be rated R, if it were rated in the U.S. A few of the blue/green/red "bands" are included before or after the trailers. There are more than on the previous release, though they are kept relatively short, which is good as I couldn't imagine sitting through them before each and every trailer.

The trailers are not shown alphabetically or chronologically. I'm really not sure what the order is, though some similar-themed films are kept together. For the most part, there is one trailer per chapter. All of the movie years come from the IMDB and are assumed to be correct. The trailer list included inside the case doesn't list the years. I looked EVERYTHING up in the IMDB and used that.

-- SPECIFICATIONS --

The total trailer runtime is 3:23:04. The full chapter/trailer list is below, following this review. All content is presented in English uncompressed PCM 1.0 Mono, aside from trailers in foreign languages, which are noted in the trailer list below. There are no subtitles, but were you really expecting any?!? All trailers are shown in full 1920x1080 high definition, with various aspect ratios per each film. The disc is region-free and plays fine on U.S. Blu-ray players.

-- PICTURE & AUDIO QUALITY --

Almost all of the trailers were sourced from dirty/damaged film reels. As such, most of them are littered with scratches and dirt, with picture that doesn't always have the best color balance. Although I'm not knowledgeable on the technical aspects of sound-on-film, I do know that the picture and the matching audio are not in the same exact physical spot on the reel. So, if there's physical damage, and you see it in the picture, you won't hear in in the audio track until a second or two later. I believe that this is why the audio in several trailers starts in-progress a second or two after the video starts. This also explains why a few trailers are cut off at the end. I noted some of these issues in the trailer list below.

I should note that Garagehouse Pictures are well aware that the content is not up to the high quality one would expect from a Blu-ray release, as the note below is included inside the case.

Due to the age, printing processes and deterioration of the original elements, some colors and soundtracks were no longer possible to be recovered 100%. This edition attempts to restore the closest possible picture and sound fidelity of the trailers as they were originally released.

However, I'd like to point out that (1) The note is INSIDE the case, so you are not given this warning BEFORE you make your purchase and open it up; and (2) These Trailer Trauma releases are not cheap bargain bin releases, and for roughly $30 each, I would expect better quality. Some may disagree with me, and even appreciate the defects as they make the trailers feel more "vintage" and "authentic", but I have to call it like I see it. Also, why is it that the cheaper-priced Australian-imported Drive-In Delirium releases have better quality for a lot of these same trailers?

-- SPECIAL FEATURES --

There is an Audio Commentary with Keith J. Crocker (director of The Bloody Ape) and George Reis (from DVDDrive-in.com), as well as the following Garagehouse Pictures Trailers (3:31): Ninja Busters (1984/2015) and Trailer Trauma #1 Blu-ray.


-- PACKAGING --

The single disc comes inside a standard 12mm clear Blu-ray case. The reverse/inside of the case artwork is a trailer/chapter list on the left side and on the right, under the disc, is an essay by Ian Zapczynski, along with some credits and the quality notice (plus a few trailer screenshots and cover art of other Garagehouse releases).

-- CONCLUSION --

I like horror movies, and there are certainly some interesting ones here - I definitely have to pick up Burnt Offerings (1976) soon - but I can't help feel like I've seen the majority of these 96 trailers on the various Drive-In Delirium releases, and in better quality, too. The quality is the biggest issue with these Trailer Trauma releases, so far. There are so many trailers that are hideous to look at due to scratches, and are in-progress or cut off at the end, that you really feel like you're watching "scraps" off the cutting room floor. I understand that Garagehouse Pictures doesn't have the same resources at their disposal as the major Hollywood studios, so they won't do any kind of restoration on these, but the price should be dropped by half to reflect that you're getting something that looks only a couple steps above public domain Dollar bin stuff in most cases. Since a lot of these trailers can be found in better quality on the various Drive-In Delirium releases, I would use those releases as the "base set" and just pick up the Trailer Trauma volumes that contain the unique trailers that you're interested in.

• Trailer Trauma 1
• Trailer Trauma 2: Drive-In Monsterama
• Trailer Trauma 3: '80s Horror-Thon
• Trailer Trauma 4: Television Trauma
• Trailer Trauma 5: '70s Action Attack!

The Blu-ray set was purchased with my own money and was NOT provided to me by anyone involved in the production or distribution of it.



I noted trailers that are also found on the Drive-In Delirium (DID) volumes, but I can't guarantee that they are the exact same trailer. They're for the same movie, under the same title, and they don't seem different from what I remember seeing on the DID releases. In all likelihood, they ARE the same trailer.

01. Title / GMRX Movie Ratings Guide / Monsters Do Have Their Place Anti-PayTV PSA / Previews of Our Coming Attractions. 02. Superbeast + Daughters of Satan (double feature) (1972) 03. The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973) 04. Werewolves on Wheels (1971) 05. Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (aka The Satanic Rites of Dracula) (1973) 06. Count Dracula's Great Love (1973) (edit in middle, end cut off) (ALSO ON DID3) 07. The War of the Gargantuas (1966) 08. Latitude Zero (1969) (ALSO ON DID1) 09. Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (1968) (in prog, end cut off) 10. The Vampire-Beast Craves Blood (aka The Blood Beast Terror) (1968) 11. Bloodsuckers + Blood Thirst (double feature) (1971) 12. The Folks at Red Wolf Inn (aka Terror House) (1972) 13. The Mad Butcher (1971) (slight edit in middle) 14. Carnivorous (1977) (most intro audio missing) 15. Island of the Damned (aka The Hex Massacre) (aka Who Can Kill A Child?) (1976) 16. Insel Der Neuen Monster (Island of the New Monsters) (aka Island of the Fishmen, aka Screamers) (1979) (in German) 17. Frankenstein Island (1981) (in prog) 18. Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1974) (ALSO ON DID1) 19. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) (ALSO ON DID1) 20. The Black Belly of the Tarantula + The Weekend Murders (double feature) (1971) 21. The Murder Clinic (1966) 22. Schizoid (1980) (audio in prog) (ALSO ON DID2) 23. The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971) (ALSO ON DID1) 24. Baron Blood (1972) (ALSO ON DID1) 25. Dorian Gray (1970) (in prog) 26. The Mephisto Waltz (1971) (ALSO ON DID3) 27. The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) (ALSO ON DID1) 28. The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972) 29. The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus + The Manster (double feature) (1960) (end cut off) 30. Banana Monster (aka Schlock) (1973) 31. The Gorilla Gang (1968) 32. Eye of the Cat (1969) (ALSO ON DID1) 33. Willard (1971) 34. Kiss of the Tarantula (1976) 35. Cathy's Curse (1977) (ALSO ON DID3) 36. The Demons (1973) 37. Mark of the Witch (1970) (in prog, edit in middle) 38. Terror (1978) (ALSO ON DID1) 39. Terror in the Wax Museum (1973) 40. Nightmare in Wax (1969) 41. Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969) (in prog) 42. Castle of Evil (1966) (in prog) 43. The Terror (1963) 44. The Tower of Screaming Virgins (1968) 45. Scream of the Demon Lover (1970) (audio in prog, off sync, end cut off) 46. And Now the Screaming Starts (1973) 47. The House That Screamed (1969)

48. Hell House Girls (aka The Smashing Bird I Used to Know) (1969) 49. House of 1,000 Dolls (1967) (end cut off) 50. House of Psychotic Women (1974) 51. The House of Seven Corpses (1974) 52. The House by the Lake (aka Death Weekend) (1976) (small edit near end) 53. Burnt Offerings (1976) 54. Horror House (aka The Haunted House of Horror) (1969) 55. The Beast in the Cellar (1971) 56. The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) 57. Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972) 58. Women and Bloody Terror + Night of Bloody Horror (double feature) (1970) 59. Blood From the Mummy's Tomb + Night of the Blood Monster (double feature) (1971) 60. The Blood Rose (1970) 61. Blood Demon (aka The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism) (1967) (audio in prog, end cut off) 62. Brides of Blood (1968) 63. Brain of Blood (1971) (audio in prog) 64. Vampire People (1964) 65. Curse of the Vampires (1966) 66. Guess What Happened to Count Dracula? (1971) 67. Andy Warhol's Dracula (aka Blood For Dracula) (1974) (ALSO ON DID1) 68. Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (aka Flesh For Frankenstein) (1973) (ALSO ON DID3) 69. The Embalmer (1965) 70. Deathmaster (1972) 71. The Thing with Two Heads (1972) 72. Creature with the Blue Hand (1967) 73. The Psychopath (1966) 74. Tales That Witness Madness (1973) (ALSO ON DID1) 75. Kiss and Kill (aka The Blood of Fu Manchu) (1968) 76. De Sade (1969) 77. Computer Killers (aka Horror Hospital) (1973) 79. Brainstorm + The Woman Who Wouldn't Die (double feature) (1965) 80. Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971) 81. Necromancy (1972) 82. Night of the Eagle (1962) (audio in prog, end cut off) 83. The Brotherhood of Satan (1971) 84. Beware My Brethren (1972) 85. Land of the Minotaur (aka The Devil's Men) (1976) 86. The Lost Continent (1968) (ALSO ON DID1) 87. Island of Terror + The Projected Man (double feature) (1966) 88. The Shuttered Room (1967) (end cut off) 89. Torture Garden (1967) (audio in prog, slight bits missing, end cut off) 90. In the Devil's Garden (1971) 91. Devil's Nightmare (1971) 92. Devils of Darkness (1965) 93. The Devil Within Her (aka Beyond the Door) (1974) (ALSO ON DID4) 94. The Gorgon + The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (double feature) (1964) (audio slightly in prog, tiny bit missing, audio at end cut off) 95. The Old Dark House + Maniac (double feature) (1963) 96. Zombie (aka Zombi 2) (1979) / Good Night Drive-In Theater Message. (ALSO ON DID1)

THE END