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MARCH 21 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT (1970)
Weird Filippino horror from the director of MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND and TWILIGHT PEOPLE. At the end of World War II an army deserter (John Ashley) is hunted down for the murders and rapes of a Filipino family. Cornered in the jungle, and running out of time, he strikes up a bargain with a mysterious man (our old friend Vic Diaz of VAMPIRE HOOKERS and countless other Filippino flicks). Diaz turns out to be the Devil and gives delight in giving Ashley eternal life, letting him occupy other people's bodies to "release the latent evil in their souls." In 1970 Ashley occupies the body of a wealthy industrialist who had his face destroyed in an accident. He miraculously recovers (giving Ashley his face back and the attending hospital doctor a heart attack!) and causes considerable confusion for his wife (Mary Wilcox of LOVE ME DEADLY - 1976). She never expected hubby to pull through and is having an affair with his brother (Ken Metcalfe). Ashley then falls in love with her not realizing that Diaz will not allow him to experience pleasure. Every time Ashley feels amorous he changes into an indestructable monster (in bad makeup) who feels compelled to rip out the innards of the Filippino population. A police detective (Eddie Garcia) assigned to the case notices a resemblance between the industrialist and the army deserter and pieces together the puzzle. As the police close in, Ashley is befriended by a blind hermit (in true FRANKENSTEIN fashion) who makes Ashley realize that the power of prayer may finally release him from his diabolical pact. Ashley had a long relationship with director Eddie Romero, starring in (and sometimes producing) such films as the aforementioned MAD DOCTOR and TWILIGHT as well as BRIDES OF BLOOD, BEAST OF BLOOD, BEYOND ATLANTIS, SAVAGE SISTERS and THE WOMAN HUNT. Ashley later quit acting (a good thing for mankind) and became a successful TV producer of such shows as THE A-TEAM and RIPTIDE and WALKER TEXAS RANGER before he passed away of a heart attack in 1997. BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT is a mildly diverting time waster thanks to the strange storyline, bloody gore, Wilcox's nudity and Diaz's all too brief performance. A United Home Video Release. Rated R. Also available on DVD from Retromedia Entertainment. { text from critcononline.com }
OUR WISH LIST OF MOST WANTED VHS COVERS/VHS TAPES
1. "Why Charlie Brown Why?" This is the very rare vhs where Charlie Browns friend gets cancer. The description on the case says "a classmate's serious illness becomes a lesson in life for the Peanuts kids". It is very very sad and the whole time you are watching it, all you can think is, why did they make this?
2. "Winnie The Pooh, To Smart For Strangers" This is crazy. It is a feature length film/tv show where the cast of Winnie the Pooh talk and sing about child molesters. Wikipedia says this is "a 1985 TV special (which was also released to home video), where Pooh and his friends explain to people about strangers and molestation and what to do." Again, why would they make this? It is just creepy. I would love to get a cover scan of this or, if someone wanted to really make my day and get promoted on the website for years to come, I would very much love to be sent a copy of the vhs itself to add to my collection.
3. "Dancing Grannies" This is exactly what it sounds like. A workout video where old women are breaking it down with their sweet dance moves. I have been trying to find this cover for a while.
4. "Bambi Vs Godzilla" (most often sold on vhs as "Weird Cartoons") This is a rare thirty minute collection of weird cartoons, including the classic BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA. Also on this tape are Betty Boop in CRAZY TOWN; Intermission cartoon YOU AUTO LAY AN EGG; Max Fleischer's SMALL FRY; Starewitch's FROGLAND and COBWEB HOTEL.
5. "The Devil And Max Devlin" and Other Old Live Action Disney VHS: It's not that rare and its not that weird but I love this movie and I have always wanted to add the cover to my collection. This odd little Disney movie features Bill Crosby as the devil (or at least, a devil). We are also looking for covers to "Mr Boogedy" and any other rare, strange or old Disney VHS (the kind that Disney seems to pretend they never made).
6. "Back Side to The Future" and other Rare Porn Spoofs: I love the fact that these strange oddities of porn ever existed. Edward Penis Hands, Backside To The Future, The Beavis and Butthead Porno, Beetlejism, Super Hornio Brothers, Jurassic Pork, Flintbones, Alice In Wonderland : An X-Rated Musical Comedy, Aventures érotiques de Pinocchio, Justice League XXX, The Maddams Family, Nightmare on Dyke Street, Nightmare on Porn Street, Penetrator, The Poonies, The Sex Files : le Portrait de Crystal, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Souperman, Splatman, Super Sexgirl, The Texas Dildo Masquerade, The Adult Version of Jekyll and Hyde, the rare German ET The Porno or it's strange Brazilian cousin, Keep Up The Lust ET. These rare porn rip offs are entertaining just in the fact that they where ever made and we would love to get scans (or copies) of any of them.
7. "Deception of A Generation" and Other Weird Religious Stuff: I love these things. They are so strange that it boggles the mind just to think about them. Time traveling Jesus and bizarre muppets telling kids not to touch themselves. Crazy Mormon claymation and preachers ranting about how Scooby Doo is a tool of Satan. We are always looking for things like this and the stranger, the better. Just when I think I have seen it all, I find one of these and think "wow... that's insane." And before people start sending me nasty emails for bashing religion (which oddly almost never happens) let me confess that I myself am Christian (something that most of my customers would never expect and my friends and family often give me a hard time about). But even a good Christian has to be amused by the some of the off the wall, pure insanity that comes form a lot of these wonderfully odd VHS treasures.
8. "How To Score More Points on Nintendo Games" and Other Old Video Game VHS tapes: Back in the stone age of video games, companies created a ton of these how to style VHS tapes for various game systems. Some other titles we are looking for include: Anything from the "Game Player's GameTape for Nintendo" series and anythign video game related. The older and stranger, the better!
Well, that's about it for now. We will be adding a ton more to this list as time goes on so check back often. Now... if anyone is interested in joining our team and contributing something from this list (or any rare or strange VHS cover to our site) read on for more details. Thanks for taking the time to read my mad rants and enjoy the site.
PS: Wouldn't you enjoy the site a lot more if you where part of it? Sure you would. Contact James at madhatterdesign@gmail.com to join our ever growing team!
ABOUT OUR WISH LIST OF VHS COVERS
I have been collecting hard to find VHS tapes for most of my life. My collection has gotten... a little out of control. The misses says I am not permitted to bring home any more bags (or boxes) of VHS tapes so most of the time I sneak them in when shes not home. Crap, she might actually read this. "I mean I... um... found those five truck loads of tapes". Er... "I'm just holding them for a friend?" Yeah, lets go with that one. Thankfully here in Bangor, Maine (home of Stephen King, SerialKillerCalendar.com and not much else) we live in the land that time forgot. While DVDs are quickly going the way of the dodo, here in the backwoods of America, VHS tapes are still extremely easy to come by. We have several pawn shops, Salvation Armies, Goodwills and other various thrift stores which normally carry a nice selection of discarded VHS treasures. We are also lucky enough to have an Edge Video and a Bullmouse (local video stores that sell their random VHS tapes for as low as 30 cents each. 30 cents EACH! How can any sane minded collector pass up a deal like that? I mean, you could easily turn around and sell most of the tapes they practically give away on ebay for 10 to 20 times that low low price.
Still, despite the abundance of VHS gold in my home town, there are many unusual masterpieces of VHS lore that I have not been able to find here in the quaint, creepy, secluded town of Bangor. Below you will find an ever growing list of the VHS covers that I would most like to add to VHS WASTELAND. Many of these can be purchased on ebay, Amazon, ioffer or other online stores. If anyone out there wants to contribute one or more of these rare gems to us, we would give you full credit on the site (on our links page, our thank you page, our staff page, any page that displays the cover(s) you submit, on this page and on many other pages of this website). You can submit one of these treasures by scanning the cover and sending it to James at madhatterdesign@gmail.com (click here to find out how) or if you really want to be our very best friend and get promoted like crazy all over the site like frikin royalty, you can contact James and find out where to mail the actual VHS tape to add to our dangerously large collection. If it was not obvious, this is the option we are really hoping you will pick.
WHAT YOU GET IF YOU SUBMIT ONE OR MORE OF THESE COVERS
That was a lot of text above, wasn't it? I understand if you decided not to read all that. So, to recap the important bits... If you submit a scan of one of the VHS covers below we will give you full credit on the site (on our links page, our thank you page, our staff page, any page that displays the cover(s) you submit, on this page and on many other pages of this website). If you are the best person in the world and decide you want to mail the actual VHS tape to add to our crazy huge collection of strange and wonderful VHS tapes, you will be treated like a god on this site. We will find many ways to promote you (And any site of your choice) and build new pages just to sing your praise. We will also show you ways to download all our covers at once, give you access to future posts (sometimes months in advance) before anyone else can see them, show you how to get almost all the videos that go with the covers on our site (we have ways) and shower you with praise all over the internet. Obviously, this is the option we hope you go with. Wither way, we hope you will decide to be part of the team and we really hope you can track down some of the amazingly strange items on our "please-send-these-to-us-and-we-will-be-your-best-friend list." Happy hunting.
WHERE TO FIND THE ITEMS ON OUR WISH LIST
If you are lucky, you may already have some of these in your collection. It may have been an impulse by at your local video store that has been gathering dust in the back of your collection for years. In which case, why not send it to us? We will gladly dust it every day. If you don't see anything below that you own, many of these strange gems can be purchased on sites like ebay, Amazon, ioffer and other auction sites or online stores. If they are not, try a google search. You never know what you might find.
WHAT WE DO NOT WANT
As much as we would love to get have you send us these VHS tapes, we really do not want them if they are missing the covers. After all, that's what this site is all about. We would still really appreciate the gesture and we would love to get any VHS tape in the mail (not just the ones below) but please make sure that the tape comes with it's cover. It does not need to be in perfect shape. Even if a big part of it is torn, splurred (made up word to describe when your kids spill grape juice on a $75 big box copy of Zombithon) or partially missing, we would still love to get it. But please do not send VHS tapes with no cover at all. That just makes us sad.
HOW TO SUBMIT COVERS
If you are interested in sending us a scan of one something from our wish list (or any other rare or weird VHS tape in your collection), click HERE to download a Photoshop template that shows the exact size and dimensions that your submission should be. PLEASE do not cut or take apart the VHS cover to scan it. That is a horrible horrible crime against nature and we would never condone someone destroying a VHS cover simply for the sake of posting it on this site. Scan the front, back and side of the VHS separately and then use a program like Photoshop to combine the three scans in to one file. Again, you can find step by step instructions on how to do this and a PSD template (that includes guidelines to separate the front and back covers from the spine, by clicking HERE. After submitting one or more scans, we will add you to our staff section (and give you a nifty VHS cover icon) and add you to our links page (if you have a website you want to promote). You (and, if you like, your website, ebay store, facebook/myspace account or other online location) will be given full credit for you contribution anywhere you VHS cover appears on the site. Note to ebay store owners: this is a really great way to send lots of traffic to your store (especially if you sell anything VHS related) since our many MANY daily visitors are the target demographic that would be most interested in what you have for sale.
If you are interested in being one of our favorite people and want to be promoted all over this site (and treated like the King of all VHS land), you can mail us your VHS tapes to add to our collection.
Regardless of how you want to submit (cover scans or mailing us your tapes) you can contact our fearless leader, James at madhatterdesign@gmail.com for more information.
A SPECIAL NOTE TO EBAY STORE OWNERS (AND OTHER ONLINE STORES)
Do you own an ebay store or ioffer store that specializes in VHS tapes or VHS related items? Do you sell rare tapes, dvds, movie posters or other interesting goodies that our visitors would like? If so, a great way to drum of traffic to your ebay store is to send us VHS cover scans (either ones on this wish list or other rare/weird gems). You would give full credit for your contribution anywhere that your covers appear on the site. We would also include a link that says something like "CLICK HERE TO VISIT HIS EBAY STORE OF STRANGE AND WONDERFUL THINGS" anywhere your contributions appear on VHS WASTELAND. The more covers you submit, the more exposure your store gets. And, of course, if you sell anything VHS related on your store, this would drastically increase the price your auctions sell for since our many MANY daily visitors are the target demographic that would be most interested in what you have for sale. There is no limit to how many covers you can contribute and for every link we put up, traffic to your store will increase. Not to mention the fact that having a ton of links from our site will greatly increase your search engine ranking on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. It's a win win for both of us!
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