"Frank Agrama - a member of that select group of directors who currently have three separate IMDb entries"

Female Gang aka Essabet el Nissae (Lebanon/Turkey/Egypt, 1968)

I know nothing about Frank Agrama (aka Farouk Ajrama aka Seyfettin Tiryaki) other than he directed DAWN OF THE MUMMY which I've seen. But I stumbled over the above poster at an Lebanese eBay store and thought I'd better check out if there were any DVD releases of the film. I didn't find a DVD but what I did find was a pile of posts about this director and his films, all posted by one fanatical film fan ("Doctor Kiss") on the Classic Horror Film Board (of which I'm not a member).

If you've seen DAWN you might think, "meh" but check out this YouTube collection of clips from Agrama's 1960s films were apparently were much better, or at least more fresh/energetic/youthful (and one of the posts provided a link to a DVD so that was cool. Unfortunately it seems it's un-subbed). And do check out the original posts on the Classic Horror Film Board here.




Kudos to Doctor Kiss for the thorough and detailed work he's provided in that thread.

Witch With Flying Head (Taiwan, 1982)

[Tai Seng VHS, USA]

[click scan for bigger size]

This must undoubtedly be one of the most rare Asian films and video tapes!

WITCH WITH FLYING HEAD isn't available ANYWHERE!!! There are no DVDs, no video-cd's, no laserdiscs, nothing but the faint memory of some very few long lost video releases. This is actually the only release that I'm aware of but a few years back I got some third hand hearsay info that there might have been a Vietnamese video release at some point. In any case, none of them had English subtitles I don't think and I'm not aware of any fan subbed versions.

And before you ask: No, I don't own this tape. I would sure love to! The scan comes courtesy of Jean-Claude Michel from Cinehound forum. And he doesn't own it either but was lucky to get a friend who owned it to make him a scan just before he himself sold it off again. Who knows where in the world this copy is now!? A while back I asked Pete Tombs of Mondo Macabro if this where a film they would consider for release and he said they'd love to but they couldn't find neither a print nor the copyright owners!!! O_O

So for now I'm certainly holding on to my dvd-r bootleg that looks like it was sourced from a 3'rd or 4'th generation video tape.

The film's entry on Hong Kong Movie Data Base.

New DVD-company: ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT

Usually all text here is by me, myself and glorious I but this post is by my friend Fred Anderson. This is immensely exciting!!! Fred has just launched a new video label for Asian worldweird films!!! I wish him the best of luck! We need more Onars and more Mondo Macabros!!!

If you wish to comment on Fred's post go to his blog here.

- Jack




By FRED ANDERSON

I’m kinda late here in the biz, just when everything is dying and we’re leaving DVD to VOD and similar stuff. But you know, I had to do it. I had to at least once try it, mostly because I want to see some of my favorite obscure movies on non-bootleg DVDs.

So let me introduce to you, ATTACKAFANT ENTERTAINMENT. And it’s possible to write with small letters too ;)

What I miss on the DVD-market is weird Asian movies, odd exploitation from Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and so on. We’re not talking the normal martial arts flicks, we’re talking trashier stuff, wilder stuff. Mondo Macabro, one of the best companies in the biz, has released some amazing Asian stuff – but I don’t even want to compare myself with them. I’m in a much more primitive league.

I bought the rights to two movies, and those two might be the only titles I release… we’ll see what happen. Here they are…

The Killer Elephants (Thailand, 1976)
One of my favorites, this ultra-cheap and ultra-entertaining action movie with superstar-hunk Sombat Metanee will blow your mind when it comes to trashy action. The concept with the movie is that one of the gangs has trained killer-elephants who stomps, crushes and causes havoc to the poor suckers that meet them! You can read my review here. The knocked-out-by-elephant-dick-scene is a classic ;)

Thunder of Gigantic Serpent (Taiwan/Hong Kong,1988)
Yes, Joseph Lao’s cut & paste classic finally out on DVD! For this movie Joseph Lai and Godfrey Ho used footage from a Taiwanese monstermovie, King of Snake, and edited it together with new footage with legendary Pierre Kirby. No Ninjas, but a lot of monster action (Moslar!!!), a terrible cute kid and not always fitting-footage with western actors running around. What’s there not to love?

These versions where prepared for the international video market in the Eighties, so they are in fullscreen and with English dubbing. I’m using digibeta masters directly from Joseph Lai. For The Killer Elephants I MIGHT also include a widescreen version, sourced from a German VHS tape. Because of the cost I will make these on DVD-R, professionally manufactured in a factory. You won’t see any difference from a normal DVD. I will try to include some extras, but more on that later.

I bought the rights for Scandinavia, so the plan is to have at least Swedish subtitles. I’m sure there won’t be any problems for you outside Scandinavia to buy them from some store that ships internationally. I'm just a small business, nothing big and fancy, doing this to be able to see my favorite movies out on disc.

Yeah, that’s it. Check back for more info about release dates, new homepage, coverart, specs and of course screenshots.

Please spread the word about Attackafant Entertaiment and I would be very happy :)

/Fred

End of the World...

...or at least the end of Jared Auner's WORLDWEIRD blog! Well, maaaybe. A couple of days ago Jared announced that Worldweird will go into hibernation for a while and maybe return at some stage. Or maybe not. Unfortunately, on my five year travel thru space (i.e. Cyberspace) I've come across many a barren world (i.e. blog) that was left behind with a "Will be back soon" note stuck to the door. But they never did come back. They just disappeared into some unknown hell-hole to seek... well, whatever it is you seek in unknown hell-holes. Boo-hoo. I certainly hope not that our good buddy Jared ("our" is not a royal our but our as in "we, the world-weird movie fans") is one of the few that understand and treasure these films. Unfortunately there aren't many of us left (were there ever that many anyway?). Anyway, Jared, I'll try and keep the flame burning here at the "Worldweird rip-off blog" with my feeble attempts at delivering some useful info for the handful of enthusiastic world-weird aficionados out there. Or if not useful info then at least some bad jokes, hearsay, or blatant lies about my own greatness. See ya around, Jared.

*Come back, Shane!*

Blood... nuns... blood... sinful... nuns... blooood...

Ahh, who wouldn't get arou... happy at the thought of wild nuns with bloodied hands who turn their eyes black and spew equal amounts of profanities and blood in your face. Ahhh. xD



The muy fantastico lobbycard above is one that I've just won. YAY!!! The bottom one is one I unfortunately lost out on a couple of weeks back. Boo-hoo!!! They're both from the Mexican horror movie SATANICO PANDEMONIUM from 1975. It's available on a spiffy disc from Mondo Macabro but unfortunately it seems it's going out of print.

Btw, if you haven't watched SANTANICO PANDEMONIUM but still think there's a wee bell going off in your head it may very well be cos you've seen FROM DUSK TILL DAWN in which another Mexican (and muy bonita at that!), Salma Hayek, plays a character called Satanico Pandemonium (in fact this is without a doubt señorita Hayek's FINEST moment on celluloid if you ask me!).




I couldn't find a trailer for SATANICO PANDEMONIUM so instead here's one for a TV documentary about everyday life in Mexican convents:



- And here; one of the finest moments in cinematic history. This is the clip I'd bring to a deserted island if I were to only bring one clip!!!



LMAO. Alright, the top trailer is of course from the awesome movie ALUCARDA (also on DVD from MM). xD

Scene from Death Bond

Nick Nicholson as a double-crossing sleaze-bag in DEATH BOND


Nick: "You know, I can't get over it".

Other guy: "What?"

Nick: "The striking resemblance between you and horse-shit!"



[the dialogue is from another scene though]

Wild 'n' weird vhs covers from Korea

Check out these uber rare Korean VHS covers of equally uber rare horror/worldweird films:

Boy and a Magic Box


The Butterfly Kiss (Taiwan)


Chinese Whimsy (Taiwan, 1974)


THE BEASTS (which isn't a rare film at all as it's available on [cut] HK dvd/vcd but this vhs is mega mega rare).


[click scans for bigger size]


Thanks to Matt (a nice Québécois who fortunately lives in Korea) who got these scans and the info. There's a link to his blog "Unknown Kino" in the bar on the right.


PS: and yeah there's an awful lot of new posts from a guy who doesn't post at the moment. Argh.

Mess with beautiful Byzantine women and they'll give ya HELL!!!

From a Mondo Macabro screening on UK TV of KARAMURAT, THE SULTAN'S WARRIOR. Thanks to Henrik Larsen of Obskuriøst magazine (and initually Graham Rix).