the jaded viewer

Well I was planning to go. But I didn't. I was thinking of going to go to the NYC Fangoria Weekend of Horrors last weekend. I elected not to go. Not because I was booked to do anything else, I just got that very eerie feeling it was going to suck.

And from my Evil Adam's account via UGO.com it really sorta did.

I've been to my share of Fangoria fests and Chiller conventions. When I first heard of Chiller being the mecca of horrorfests, I was psyched.

In my first Chiller, I met Kelly Hu (super hotness!) and Virgil (the former Million Dollar Man bodyguard) who happen to be sitting at his rented dealers table wearing a nWo shirt begging people to get his 'graph and pic for $20. $20!!! You gotta be frakin kidding me.

You entered the tent outside (you Chiller vets no what I'm talking about) and could meet the girl from Night of the Comet, WWE divas and former washed up wrestlers, that guy who played Jason in that Friday and of course Tiffany fuckin Shepis.

You could stare at the big breasted Playboy model from 1975 or you could see that bikini model on Page 3.

You could meet Leslie Neilsen, meet a dealer hocking his own home made movie or buy a rare toy from a dealer who kept that He-Man doll from 1985.

You could meet Tom Savini and Kane Hodder.

You could buy that old Inspector Gadget cartoon from the Saturday morning cartoon dealer or buy a vintage poster from the poster guy.

The dealers rocked. This was before the commonplace ebay/torrents/internet rare palooza that now makes it easy for us horror fanatics to get our fix. I picked up so much good shit back then. 2nd and 3rd generation dubs on VHS. Bad box and cover art. The rarity of getting something on DVD-R was like finding a needle in a stack of needles.

I remember my dealers.

Long haired guy
Mexican wrestling video guy
Blackheart (aka Blackest Heart Media)
JJ (aka Maggot Video)
Mr and Mrs. Old man and old woman selling rare shit

But that's all over now.

The 21st century horror convention is filled with "reunion" specials, special previews, bad TV collectable peeps and overpriced DVD specials.

EVERYTHING IS WAY OVERPRICED!!!

I bought a Herchell Gordon Lewis Bloodfeast for $5 and I couldn't fuckin believe I got such a bargain. Everything else...$30 or over.

My biggest gripe of all was I was just plain bored. Possibly the excitement of these fests was gone but nobody had the rare shit I was looking for.

I couldn't find one exploitation or grindhouse film I was looking for. Blaxploitation movies? Nada. Sexploitation?... zip. Ilsa? I couldn't even get a fuckin Ilsa movie.

There was a time I would be a kid at the candy store sugar rushing as I looked at all the crazy fucked up horror movies I could buy. The rarest of the rare. Movies bootlegged over and over again. Shared horror community trades. Circa 2002 I was part of this community trading horror movies on the internet.

Read this post. Here's an excerpt.

Watching a horror/exploitation/cult film on an underground, imported, no cover art, mislabeled VHS tape in your slowly decaying VCR is an unbelievable feeling. The picture is kinda grainy after the 8th generation dub. The sound is kinda off. Volume goes from high to low. You try to fix the tracking. That doesn't do shit. And you watch.

Then towards the end something mysterious happens. The dude you bought or traded this flick from just taped over midget porn and you see the tale end of it. Or he's used a tape where all his old cartoons were on.

It's oh so magically delicious. This is where bootlegging becomes special. Where you feel like your part of the mainstream. The mainstream of the underground.

Ahh bootlegging + horror conventions (circa late 90s early 00s) were a dynamic punch. We recommended titles, shared stories and propagated the urban legend of snuff.

And just like a horror remake, this new 2009 version of a horror convention has raped my childhood.

It's almost now obiliterated into smithereens. Gone. All gone.

The modern horror convention is going to die a gruesome death soon...and all that will be left is Kane Hodder sitting in a corner by himself reading a copy of Fangoria.

Labels: bootlegging movies, chiller theatre, Chiller Theatre Toy Model and Expo 2008, fangoria, fangoria weekend of horrors, horror convention, horror dealers, the horror continuum

Posted by the jaded viewer at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

First some history.

jadedviewer.com actually didn't start in January 2007. It actually began as Jaded Viewer Productions in 2002 on my other site called leftoverthoughts. My friend I traded horror movies on the internet through Google news groups, horror forums and e-mail.

To make trading easier, I posted my list on my site, gave a brief and humorous descriptions of each movie and listed 50-100 movies I was willing to trade.

It could be a 1 for 1, 3 for 3 or even 5 for 5.

Below is the disclaimer as originally written:



The reason I bring this up is because I found an old blog post I wrote up after I received a CEASE AND DESIST e-mail from a company gobbling up copyrights for some very obscure movies.

I thought it was unfair at the time and I still think it is today. Remember this was circa 2002. It was pre-YouTube, infancy of eBay and message boards were rampant.

If you were part of this community, let me know. It's a bit of nostalgia down underground horror lane.

Enjoy!

[first posted on leftoverthoughts.com on 12/30/02]

**
Monday, December 30, 2002

8th generation dub

I'm still sketchy on this whole bootleg thing. Reason why I bring this up is because recently I was informed that I can't buy or sell or trade any of my underground horror flicks anymore. Here's the deal.

I recently got an e-mail stating I was in violation of copyright laws of North America by an unnamed source. This source threatended legal action and I freakin quote:

Were rather upset and were debating on turning you over to the MPAA for copyright violations. IF our films are not taken off in the next 48 hours we will retaliate harshly. Looking at your list I see most of the films your illegally duplicating are owned by North American companies. We will also contact these companies letting them know what is going on so It would become a mess for you.

If said source is reading this, I have a few things to say for the record. Jaded Viewer Productions is a 2 man operation run out of a basement. Like most underground traders, we are poor. Like eating Ramen noodles poor. The list the said source is talking about can be found here. The list was only and I repeat only a means to initiate trades. Hence, is trading movies illegal? I don't think so. That of course is me being totally biased.

I am fully aware that the unauthorized duplication of movies is illegal without the consent of Major League Baseball and the New York Mets....wait I mean without the consent of the studio...yada yada yada. So am I suppose to be a good American and wait until somebody gets the rights to the foriegn flicks I wanna see so that I can buy them on as a legal copy that will be on DVD or VHS. And why in God's name are you charging $23?!? I mean seriously. It's not like it's Pulp Fiction or something. These are barely flicks that need to be watched once then get passed along to others so they can derive enjoyment out of them. I mean solidifying a market on horror films via copyright is a itsy bitsy piece of the freakin puzzle. It's like claiming 3/4 of a penny. Why would you want to do this?

For goodness sake Kim's Video sells bootlegs!!! It's such a retarded fart of a joke.

Ebay is loaded with these bootlegging motherfuckers. And they got good stuff so I don't complain. I'm not sure how much money they are costing these "companies" but shouldn't they all be prosecuted and castrated to the full extent of the law? Shouldn't they?

Here is my opinion. Bootlegging like any vice crime doesn't hurt anyone. Physically or mentally. When it's financially I don't give a shit. Yeah so a few people don't get some monetary reparations...big fuckin deal.

Most underground horror flicks are seen by people who've initiated trades, bid on Ebay, bought from a dealer at a convention or bought online. The underground is so fuckin small. And we are mostly poor bastards. When you make a trade...you're in a sense building a small village of horror fans that you can communicate with.

The reason we exist is because we don't or don't try to conform to the economics of mainstream movies purchasing conglomerate. The movies are sorta shared...only a few will have seen particular flicks. You feel lucky if somehow you've seen a really rare flick. You've secretly entered into a cult. You've made it. Give youself a pat on the back Tonto.

Bootlegging underground horror is like file sharing on Kazaa or Morpheus. Like downloading mp3s from the now defunct Napster. Like buying flicks from the street peddler on the corner. Like buying tickets from the scalper in front of the arena. Like munching on free food from a party you were not invited to. Like propositioning a prostitute. Like stealing cable. Like hacking into a Direct TV H card. Like downloading a hacked version of Photoshop. Like copying HTML code. Like moving to the good seats at a baseball game. Like leaving for work really early. Like getting to work really late. Like taking a 2 hour lunch. Like expensing a trip to Vegas on the corporate credit card. Like cheating on your taxes. Like sneaking into a movie. Like getting free refills. Like smoking pot. Like sleeping until noon. Like stealing a Playboy. And like tipping off at the gas station.

WE ALL FUCKIN DO IT.

Bill Gates monopolized IE browsers. Of course he did. Because big fuckin money was involved. By monopolozing horror movies...less people will be able to see the flicks you oh so desperately want people to see.

Watching a horror/exploitation/cult film on an underground, imported, no cover art, mislabeled VHS tape in your slowly decaying VCR is an unbelievable feeling. The picture is kinda grainy after the 8th generation dub. The sound is kinda off. Volume goes from high to low. You try to fix the tracking. That doesn't do shit. And you watch.

Then towards the end something mysterious happens. The dude you bought or traded this flick from just taped over midget porn and you see the tale end of it. Or he's used a tape where all his old cartoons were on.

It's oh so magically delicious. This is where bootlegging becomes special. Where you feel like your part of the mainstream. The mainstream of the underground.

Be proud. Welcome to our little club.

Klaatu Barrada Nikto.

**

Tags:
bootlegging horror movies 2002, horror movie trades , horror movie trading , dubbing, jadedviewer, , leftoverthoughts, kazaa, horror trades,

Labels: bootlegging movies, box art, dubbing, horror trades, horror trading lists, jaded viewer productions, kazaa

Posted by the jaded viewer at 1:33 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post