Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell

"Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell" is an almost okay watch. The trailers they selected are good ones. That's not the problem. The problem is all of the lame puppets and zombie stuff that surrounds the trailers. That stuff is very low budget and is very annoying. After a little while "Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell" becomes a very long watch.

Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987)

*** (out of 4)

If you grew up in the 1980's and remember the great time when you could walk into a Mom and Pop video store and walk out with all sorts of goodies then you'll probably also remember the various trailer collections that were out there. The most popular with the likes of FILMGORE and THE BEST OF SEX AND VIOLENCE (hosted by John Carradine) but this one here was also quite popular and to this day it still has a rather strong cult following.

As you can tell from this list of trailers below, there's quite a bit of great stuff on here. These trailers were made during a time where you really had to sell the picture with a great title, a catchy tagline and of course hints at the depraved and gory things that they'd be seeing if they bought a ticket. Just check out the trailer for the double feature of I DRINK YOUR BLOOD and I EAT YOUR SKIN where the second feature has zero clips shown because it was a B&W film. NIGHT OF BLOODY HORROR has to be the highlight since they don't show any clips from the movie saying that they would be too shocking. Obviously a great way to get people to buy a ticket to see what's so shocking.

The movie has a projectionist and his zombie telling a few jokes and doing some skits in between all the trailers. Usually this type of thing is quite annoying but I thought it was rather well-done and funny here. The highlight has to be a sequence where the zombie talks about his girlfriend. There's also some gore in these scenes to go with what we see in the trailers.

If you're a fan of these type of trailer compilations then this here is certainly one of the best. The trailers shown include:

I DRINK YOUR BLOOD-I EAT YOUR SKIN, THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, DERANGED, THREE ON A MEATHOOK, THE CORPSE GRINDERS, THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS, LOVE ME DEADLY, CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, THE MANIACS ARE LOOSE, CANNIBAL GIRLS, TORSO, THE BLOOD SPLATTERED BRIDE-I DISMEMBER MAMA, THE GHASTLY ONES, THE WIZARD OF GORE, BEYOND THE DOOR, DEEP RED, SISTERS, DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE, THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM, LADY FRANKENSTEIN, FLESH FEAST, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, THE VAULT OF HORROR, HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES, BLOODEATERS, ORGY OF THE LIVING DEAD triple feature, THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z, Africa: BLOOD AND GUTS, NIGHT OF BLOODY HORROR, SILENT NIGHT EVIL NIGHT (BLACK Christmas), THE MUTATIONS, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED, BLOOD AND LACE, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, GOD TOLD ME TO, HORROR ON SNAKE ISLAND, ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS, MAN FROM DEEP RIVER, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, CARNAGE (A BAY OF BLOOD), COLOR ME BLOOD RED, MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND, SILENT NIGHT BLOOD NIGHT, BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES,

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.

Yes it's low budget and features a ventriloquist. It's also great. Perfect for Halloween viewing with your kids say, at least fifteen by today's standards (warning there are dead rats being burnt.) I loved it! Great collection of disturbing 70s horror. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I Drink Your Blood, Three on a Meat Hook etc. all broken up by a goofy ventriloquist with a zombie dummy. Check it out!

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.