(1982)
Dir - John Landis
Overall: MEH
Overall: MEH
Serving as both a love letter to and an effective enough promotional tool for Universal Pictures, John Landis' Coming Soon scratches that nostalgia for nostalgia's sake itch effectively enough. Landis was on a role at the time, having come right off of An American Werewolf in London and recruited Mick Garris here for his first writing gig alongside The Making of The Thing which was produced the same year. Yes this collection of trailers does feature dialog as it is hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis who was in peak, scream queen form as well in 1982. The selections are rather standard for the most part. Pretty much every Universal monster movie is represented as well as Alfred Hitchcok's inventive sneak previews which instead of showing any actual footage from his films, featured the director walking around the set and almost giving away plot points before catching himself. Some 50s sci-fi and a few more forgettable B-movies get their due as well and the only section that does not fit is some behind the scenes footage from E.T. shoehorned in at the very end.
(1984)
Dir - Andrew J. Kuehn
Overall: MEH
Released theatrically and a commercial success at that, Terror in the Aisles is a cinematic greatest hits of horror movies. It is fitting that it was directed by Andrew J. Kuehn, the man who contemporized movie trailers in the early 60s. Cherry picking from eighty thriller and horror films ranging from 1935's Bride of Frankenstein to 1984's Firestarter, Kuehn crafts a kaleidoscope of images by quickly inner-cutting between various works the way a hip-hop producer would use samples. At least this is when Terror in the Aisles works best, focusing on a particular trope at a time and jumbling up its appropriate clips accordingly. On the other hand, the narration from hosts Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen gets silly and heavy-handed, especially when it cuts back to the movie theater setting where we get to see the audience member's forced, exaggerated reactions as well. It is a hit or miss affair in this regard, but for those who have seem many of the films present, this collection may work on a nostalgic level and for film editing aficionados, Kuehn's style is admirable.
(1987)
Dir - Jim Monaco
Overall: MEH
Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell has some abysmally amatuerish S.O.V. charm to it, but is it essentially another predominantly boring collection of horror trailers, most of which are shown in their entirety. The premise is too stupid not to laugh at, (or maybe too stupid TO laugh at), and features a dorky ventriloquist and his outrageously unfunny zombie dummy as our hosts. Mad Ron himself is a dim-witted projectionist and the whole thing takes place in a contemporary movie theater that gradually gets overrun by other rather loud zombies. The gags are horrendously lame and lowbrow enough to match rather well with the series of exploitation grindhouse previews. There lies the collection's biggest draw as everything from influential works like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Last House on the Left co-mingle with quire obscure trash like The Undertaker and His Pals and Wildcat Women. Focusing on such horror works, it provides a sort of checklist for those movies that are primarily living out on the fringes of the mainstream. The whole thing could probably do without puppets making jokes about their wieners, but who is to say for certain?
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