Trailers from Hell
101 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 13 years ago - ★★★★ - 9 ratingsTrailers from Hell showcases classic previews of past movie attractions punctuated with humorous commentary by iconic filmmakers. The series includes Joe Dante (Gremlins) on horror movie The Terror and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) praising one of his seminal influences Danger: Diabolik.
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Episodes
Peeping Tom
June 21, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 95.6 MB VideoThe first Video Nasty came not only before video but from the esteemed Michael Powell, whose career was sidetracked into shorts for The Childrens' Film Foundation by this much maligned and misunderstood rumination on the dark powers of cinema. In the US it was relegated to skinflick houses and grindhouse second features.
Black Sunday AKA-Mask of the Demon
June 14, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 82.9 MB VideoThe worldwide success of Mario Bava's official directorial debut spurred the brilliant cinematographer on to a new career and made an international star of the entrancing Barbara Steele. U.S.distributor AIP changed the title and claimed it was too scary for anyone under the age of...well, 12.
Kronos
June 07, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 87.4 MB VideoJack Rabin and Irving Block were a couple of indie FX mavens whose works ranged from Night of the Hunter to Robot Monster. But one of their most offbeat creations was the giant alien robot Kronos, who wanted not Our Women but Our Energy. On its own terms it's a pretty nifty little picture, with an emblematic 50s sci-fi cast.
Invaders From Mars
May 31, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 97.3 MB VideoHis 1935 "Things to Come" is more prestigious, but famed production designer Wm. Cameron Menzies reached his directorial zenith with this deliberately unreal "B" that has creeped out several generations of kids. The great Art Gilmore narrates a classic trailer for a seminal movie. In SuperCineColor!
Journey to the Lost City
May 24, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 83.6 MB VideoAn exploitation picture staple was the cutdown feature version of the 12-chapter serial, but they were seldom directed by filmmakers as distinguished as Fritz Lang, who fled Hitler to become a Hollywood success. But in 1960 AIP bought two elaborate 1957 German-made Lang adventures and combined them into one hectic movie.
El Cid
May 17, 2011 04:00 - 3 minutes - 121 MB VideoAnother enormous Samuel L. Bronston historical spectacle with big stars and epochal Euro production values, directed by the perennially underrated Anthony Mann, fresh from his being fired from Spartacus.
The Fiendish Ghouls
May 10, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 109 MB VideoThe truncated third US release (after earlier tries as "Mania'", then "The Psycho Killers'") of John Gilling's 1960 retelling of the Burke and Hare story that formed the basis for Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Body Snatcher". Cut by a reel and a half and aimed at the lowest of brows, this version ends with Donald Pleasence getting a torch in his face.
Danger Diabolik
May 03, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 96.2 MB VideoOne of the great comic book movies of all time from the brilliant Italian director Mario Bava, whose visual dexterity was never widely appreciated during his lifetime. An uncharacteristically elaborate 1967 pop art production for which Bava nonetheless employed his usual lovingly hand-made in-camera tricks.
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
April 26, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 73.1 MB VideoHammer competitor Amicus Films found their mojo with this 1964 multi-story horror omnibus, which led to countless iterations of the same formula, including their biggest hit "Tales from the Crypt". The genius of the portmanteau system was that the actors were often needed for only a few days, which allowed for casts that were almost ridiculously classy.
The Haunting
April 19, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 71.8 MB VideoThe subtle terror techniques that Robert Wise learned from his mentor Val Lewton are on uncanny display in the creepiest haunted house movie of them all. (The trailer's not too subtle, though.) Compare the original to the lamentable remake to see the difference between art and CGI junk.
The Black Sleep
April 12, 2011 04:00 - 1 minute - 70.6 MB VideoBasil Rathbone's coldly obsessed Dr. Cadman looks like a dry run for Peter Cushing's Baron Frankenstein in this florid period monster rally with scary makeups by Gordon Bau. Akim Tamiroff's role was intended for Peter Lorre.
The Beast of Yucca Flats
April 05, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 75.6 MB VideoBy the time Swedish wrestler and best-selling Halloween mask Tor Johnson made this, his all-time worst picture, his career was behind him and the days of Ed Wood must have looked like Eden. The longest 54 minutes in movies.
Sweet Smell of Success
March 29, 2011 04:00 - 3 minutes - 136 MB VideoClifford Odets and Ernest Lehman's corrosive look at Power in America as typified by an unscrupulous and possibly insane Broadway columnist modeled on Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell. Brilliantly directed by the underrated Alexander Mackendrick. A must-see.
Tarantula
March 22, 2011 04:00 - 2 minutes - 81.6 MB VideoUniversal was the leader in slickly produced 50s genre pix, and here's another eerie desert-set chiller from Jack Arnold with good special fx and creepy makeups. Leo G. Carroll, one of Hitchcock's favorite actors, classes up the joint as the scientist whose serum results in big buggery.
Suspiria - International Version
March 15, 2011 04:00 - 3 minutes - 124 MB VideoTaking up the lurid mantel of Mario Bava, former film critic Dario Argento rocketed to international prominence with this highly influential giallo which spawned countless imitations. This is the international trailer made for export.
Sunset Boulevard
March 08, 2011 05:00 - 3 minutes - 137 MB VideoBilly Wilder royally p.o.'d most of the Hollywood establishment with this devastatingly dark yet moving take on the tragic decline of silent movie queen Norma Desmond (an unforgettable Gloria Swanson), pushed aside by an unfeeling industry. One of the all-time greats. "I AM big! It's the PICTURES that got small!"
Son of Kong
March 01, 2011 05:00 - 2 minutes - 76.8 MB VideoEverybody's favorite director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) is dodging bill collectors who want him to pay for King Kong's Big Apple antics and finds himself back on Skull Island with the lovely Helen Mack in this hastily-produced sequel. A family tragedy during production resulted in fx genius Willis O'Brien entrusting some of the animation to assistants.
Silent Running
February 22, 2011 05:00 - 3 minutes - 117 MB VideoStephen Bochco and Michael Cimino were among the writers of fx wizard Doug Trumbull's melancholy 1971 space odyssey, which has taken on belated luster in our globally steam-heated present. One of Bruce Dern's finest hours.
Rebel Without a Cause
February 15, 2011 05:00 - 2 minutes - 101 MB VideoIt's pretty much a bromide that if James Dean had not died at his peak he might have ended up like Troy Donahue, but in this emblematic Nick Ray film, released after Dean's death in a 1955 auto accident, he continues to electrify new generations with his raw emotion.
Raw Meat
February 08, 2011 05:00 - 2 minutes - 78.1 MB VideoA rather inelegant retitling of Gary Sherman's British thriller "Deathline", originally pitched to the grindhouse crowd but eventually rediscovered by critics and audiences on tv and video. One of Donald Pleasance's finest hours.
Queen Of Outer Space
February 01, 2011 05:00 - 2 minutes - 89.9 MB Video"Howdya like to drag that one to the High School Prom?" leers a horny astronaut while ogling the shapely acolytes of Queen Yllana, leader of the all-girl Venusian population. "I hate zat qveen", grumbles Chief Scientist Zsa Zsa Gabor, who doesn't appear to be in on the joke. Silly, spoofy and cheerfully chauvinistic, this one has many fans, some of them straight.
Psych-Out
January 25, 2011 05:00 - 3 minutes - 119 MB VideoDick Clark produced Richard Rush's ode to the Haight-Ashbury scene, filmed on location by Laszlo Kovacs in Psychedelic Color. Remember, as Dean Stockwell tells us, "all the games gotta go, or else it's just a plastic hassle"!
Privilege
January 18, 2011 05:00 - 3 minutes - 118 MB VideoAnticipating punk rock, Peter Watkins' semi-documentary study of a future society using music to enslave the masses appropriates some unauthorized reenactments from the National Film Board of Canada's groundbreaking Paul Anka docu "Lonely Boy". How Universal ended up distributing this is a mystery even they couldn't solve.
No Name On The Bullet
January 11, 2011 05:00 - 2 minutes - 86 MB VideoSci-fi specialist Jack Arnold's best Western casts Audie Murphy against type -or is he?- as a cold-blooded hit man who just might be Death personified and brings fear to a town full of guilty people. An underrated gem.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
January 04, 2011 05:00 - 4 minutes - 153 MB VideoAlthough one wag said of director Stanley Kramer's all-star Cinerama extravaganza, "it shows what happens when a man who doesn't understand drama tries to do comedy", the years have been kind to it. Nostalgia for the once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast alone would get it by, but the extravagant stunt work that seemed so unwhimsical in 1963 is now commonplace in movie comedy.
Mad Love
December 28, 2010 05:00 - 2 minutes - 90.5 MB VideoPeter Lorre's Hollywood debut is one of the weirder pix ever to come from MGM, or maybe anywhere else. One of ace cinematographer Karl Freund's rare forays into directing, and his last. Gregg Toland photographed it, and years later Pauline Kael would claim he stole a lot of shots from this to use in Citizen Kane!
Mr. Arkadin
December 21, 2010 05:00 - 2 minutes - 81.1 MB VideoOrson Welles' most mysterious film has him playing a sinister international tycoon who, like Charles Foster Kane, is obsessed with his past, which he can't remember -- or can he? A motley assortment of the director's pals fill out the various roles, including then-wife Paola Mori.
Kiss Me Stupid
December 14, 2010 05:00 - 2 minutes - 97.6 MB VideoBilly Wilder took a lotta brickbats for this "vulgar", "tasteless" and "crude" sex comedy set in Climax, Nevada, which was roundly condemned from pulpits and lecterns countrywide in 1964. Its sleazy reputation has been somewhat rehabilitated over the years as pop culture has raced to embrace such concepts as DNA hair gel and carnal relations with baked goods.
These Are The Damned
December 07, 2010 05:00 - 3 minutes - 127 MB VideoFascinating mixture of science fiction and social comment from Hammer Films circa 1961. Rumored for a long-overdue dvd release, this bleak but moving atomic parable still packs a punch and was recently unveiled in its original cut on Turner Classic Movies over 40 years after its truncated release. With an emotion-packed score by James Bernard.
The Trip
November 30, 2010 05:00 - 2 minutes - 98.7 MB VideoWriter Jack Nicholson and star Peter Fonda told Roger Corman he couldn't make a movie about LSD without trying it at least once. So Roger took a caravan of pals to Big Sur, where he dutifully dropped acid and communed with the elements. Out of it all came his most personal and revealing film, a pop art time capsule that was banned in Britain for nearly a decade.
The Intruder
November 23, 2010 05:00 - 2 minutes - 88 MB VideoIn 1961 Roger Corman took a flyer from his exploitation roots and made one from the heart, from Charles Beaumont's angry novel inspired by the rabble-rousing exploits of Southern racist John Kasper. When exhibitors refused to book it, Corman returned to Edgar Allan Poe and the movie disappeared into grindhouse hell under titles like Shame and I Hate Your Guts. William Shatner stars, but Corman's first choice was...Tony Randall!
The Innocents
November 16, 2010 05:00 - 3 minutes - 112 MB VideoJack Clayton's masterpiece, one of the greatest cinematic ghost stories, is ill-served by this lowbrow trailer that sells it like a cheap Eurotrash import. Film debut of the lovely and talented Pamela Frankin.
The Cyclops
November 09, 2010 05:00 - 2 minutes - 83 MB VideoGiant monster specialist Bert I. Gordon's only somewhat improved followup to "King Dinosaur" was shot in 1955 but didn't make it to theaters til 1957, on a double bill with Ulmer's "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll", satisfying only the fans of pert starlet Gloria Talbott, who starred in both.
Spartacus
November 02, 2010 04:00 - 3 minutes - 114 MB VideoCredited to Stanley Kubrick, taking over from Anthony Mann (whose casting choices appear in abundance), this troubled epic from revered Lefties Dalton Trumbo and Howard Fast has become a touchstone of 60s cinema and for good reason -- it's less pious and more honestly moving than the comparatively overblown Ben-Hur.
Rio Bravo
October 26, 2010 04:00 - 2 minutes - 104 MB VideoHoward Hawks' riposte to the likes of "High Noon" and "3:10 to Yuma" is one of the great Movie Star Westerns, cannily targeted at every demographic available.
Suspiria
October 19, 2010 04:00 - 1 minute - 40.1 MB VideoEdgar has his own thoughts on the very different American trailer that accompanied the US release of Argento's classic.
Scream of Fear
October 12, 2010 04:00 - 1 minute - 57.6 MB Video"Psycho" spawned a cottage industry of twist-ending killer-thrillers, and this modest Hammer entry is one of the best. Psycho's unconventional ad campaign also led to gambits like this one, pretending the movie was just too scary to show any actual footage in the trailer!
Marnie
October 05, 2010 04:00 - 5 minutes - 187 MB VideoAnother elaborate personalized Hitchcock trailer. His "sex mystery" followup to The Birds has its adherents, but Larry Cohen isn't one of them. Nice Bernard Herrmann score though, and the star of Family Plot has a supporting role.
The Revenge of Frankenstein
September 28, 2010 04:00 - 2 minutes - 73 MB VideoTerence Fisher returns to direct the first (and best?) of six sequels to the groundbreaking Curse of Frankenstein, bringing new complexity and plenty of gallows humor to the character of Baron Frankenstein, the alternately malevolent and admirable protagonist whose grand experiments just never seem to work out.
Fiend Without a Face
September 21, 2010 04:00 - 2 minutes - 84.1 MB VideoRenowned for the flying brains and sputtering gore of its final reel, this British sci-fi set in Canada has maintained semi-classic status over the decades despite the fact that it's actually pretty uneventful.
Experiment in Terror
September 14, 2010 04:00 - 3 minutes - 117 MB VideoComic director Blake Edwards revisits his noir roots in this 1962 suspense classic cannily filmed on San Francisco locations. One of the biggest hits of the early 60s. And one of the most unusual trailers.
Don't Look Now
September 07, 2010 04:00 - 3 minutes - 136 MB VideoFor his third outing as a director, cinematographer Nicolas Roeg came up with this sublimely creepy adaptation of a Daphne Du Maurier story shot on location in Venice. The simultaneous release of "The Exorcist" took some of the wind out of its sails in the US, but it's now considered a horror classic.
Dirty Duck
August 31, 2010 04:00 - 3 minutes - 113 MB VideoA satirical labor of love from animator Charles Swenson that ended up vying with "Fritz the Cat" for X-rated grindhouse playing time. There's a lot of wit and imagination on view, but hardly anyone ever saw the picture.
Daughter of Dr. Jekyll
August 24, 2010 04:00 - 2 minutes - 74.5 MB VideoLow-budget auteur Edgar G. Ulmer, who gave us "Detour" and "Man from Planet X" proves you can't win 'em all with this derivative and nonsensical second-feature set in the 1800s, but shot in a Hancock Park mansion through whose windows 1957 cars can be seen driving by.
Dementia 13
August 17, 2010 04:00 - 3 minutes - 75.3 MB VideoTake the "D-13 Test" to find out if you're too crazy to see this shot-in-Ireland axe murder thriller from fledgling director Francis Ford Coppola. The gorgeous Luana Anders has one of her infrequent leads here, and Ronald Stein's score is one of his best.
Confessions of an Opium Eater
August 10, 2010 19:07 - 3 minutes - 119 MB VideoAlbert Zugsmith's shining moment in an amiably disreputable career that nonetheless included producing pix by Sirk, Welles and Jack Arnold. Only Fu Manchu is missing from this hypnotically retrograde yellow peril hallucination starring Vincent Price and half the Asian actors in Hollywood.
Carnage
August 03, 2010 04:00 - 3 minutes - 136 MB VideoThis is the international export trailer for Mario Bava's trend-setting 1971 murder spree, presented entirely in solarized images. This film has had so many titles over the years that we don't have room to list them, but the one that stuck was the brilliant US reissue title "Twitch of the Death Nerve".
Winchester '73
July 27, 2010 04:00 - 2 minutes - 92.9 MB Video<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> The first of eight collaborations between noir specialist Anthony Mann and a newly flinty James Stewart, this psychological western exudes corrosive post-war anxiety. It also trailblazed a groundbreaking profit participation deal (engineered by Stewart's agent Lew Wasserman) that transformed the industry. Dan Duryea shines in a classic bad guy performance that defined his career.
Wild in the Streets
July 20, 2010 04:00 - 2 minutes - 107 MB Video<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> AIP toppers were floored by the unexpectedly positive reviews this lightning-in-a-bottle satire garnered in the volatile political world of 1968. The right movie at the right moment, it captured the mood of a country in crisis and propelled star Christopher Jones into a short-lived mainstream career that included a starring role in David Lean's "Ryan's Daughter".
White Zombie
July 13, 2010 04:00 - 3 minutes - 110 MB Video<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> Sure it's creaky, but this early talkie from poverty row was the first zombie movie and visually it's still pretty cool. Bela Lugosi is the indelibly named Murder Legendre, head zombie master on a Haitian plantation where the dead don't charge for their labor. First takes seem to be the rule, as there are a number of flubbed lines and missed camera moves. This is the 1952 reissue trailer.