There's definitely a great documentary to be made about this subject but by ANYONE other than this director who seems content to just string together trailers (with no captions to tell you what the movie was) and interview subjects telling amusing anecdotes from shooting these crappy movies.
This needed a framing narrative explaining the whats and whys of the genre, some look at the major players, tropes, etc. Instead, we get nothing but interviews (shot with a terrible side angle used for who knows what reason) and clips from (mostly Full Moon movies).
Like literally ANYONE could have done this better...
Direct to Video: Straight to Video Horror of the 90s
2019
Action / Documentary / History / Horror
Direct to Video: Straight to Video Horror of the 90s
2019
Action / Documentary / History / Horror
Plot summary
The documentary contains exclusive interviews with 20 Directors, Actors, Writers and Special FX artists from the 90s Direct To Video scene such as Clint Howard, Lloyd Kaufman, Kelli Maroney, Jeff Burr, Jim Wynorski, Brinke Stevens, Fred Olen Ray and Kenneth J. Hall.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
A good idea but awful execution
Direct to oblivion
Bad low-budget horror movies from the 80s-90s was a great subject for a documentary, addressing why this phenomenon occurred parallel to the cinema, the expansion of the home video market, the talents that emerged from there, etc. However, this film is nothing more than a series of tedious interviews with characters who are practically not identified with a character generator (there is a special effects technician, a music composer, actresses in decline),whose anecdotes would be attractive if they had been edited and also accompanied by videos of the films they are talking about, which apparently the production had neither rights nor images. Many promotional shorts for films are included, but they have no greater relation to what the interviewees speak before or later, they go from one thing to another without a narrative thread and the result is a disaster worse than the films that went directly to video .
Its an acceptable old fashioned documentary.
Which is appropriate as its about 30 year old movies. The documentary creators dont try to wow the audience with a fantastic show all by itself. They keep it simple. This is mostly a collection of interviews from people famous in the B-movie industry and well-loved by fans of the community. Its also wonderful information for movie fans who didnt watch a lot of 90's horror and need some background info or perhaps a launchpad into the genre. They actually cover many movies and actors and producers & the interviews reveal lots of good info especially when paired with clips, but most of it is interesting only to B-movie fans. A wonderful example is Deborah Dutch explaining her introduction to machine-gun fire and squibs. Theres also an in depth explanation of the animation sequences in Evil Toons.
If you think you might like this I guarantee you will. If you arent sure then you are probably not going to love it. Overall I think its a great way to kill an hour and forty-five minutes not to mention get some inside stories from a lot of wonderful people.