Stars: Robert Nolfi, Julia Rust, Robert Lengyel, Lisa Pak
AKAs:Hell Island, Beast Creatures
Verbatim Box Synopsis
A terrible storm at sea turns an ocean liner's luxury voyage into a nightmare!
Those lucky enough to survive the sinking ship soon find themselves stranded on an uncharted island. A living hell breaks loose when the survivors encounter gruesome, flesh-eating Beast Creatures!
It's time for Challenge #19 here at the ol' Arcana! Can you identify this week's mystery photo, scanned direct from The Holecheck Archives? If you think you recognize it, post a comment below. As the week goes on, if no one guesses correctly I'll begin adding some pretty useless hints. Easy, right?
Here ya' go -- good luck!
UPDATE:
The Swedish shinobi strikes again! Fred Anderson (Ninja Dixon) plucks his second win by identifying Umberto Lenzi's Eyeball (1975). Unjustly maligned by most, I think the film serves as one of the director's most enjoyable romps; it's a sleazy, slash-happy giallo concerning a ragtag group of tourists -- a lesbian photographer, a shady priest, a cheating wife, a slutty schoolgirl, and more! -- having their numbers trimmed by an ocular-obsessed psycho in a red rain slicker. And, of course, it's all set to an infectious Bruno Nicolai score. What's not to like? Snobs, I tell you.
Eyeball received its belated Stateside release in 1978 courtesy of exploitation magnates Joseph Brenner Associates, Inc., who saw fit (as usual) to rework the title sequence and speed up the tempo by deleting some extraneous investigation footage. It was a badly cropped version of this edit that hit the VHS scene in 1985, adorned with some of the most boring cover art you're likely to see, from JBA's usual standby, Prism Entertainment. (My first knowledge of the film actually came from the cross-promo inclusion of its awesomely trashy trailer on the Prism tape of Pete Walker's Frightmare II.)
The earliest DVD on the scene was the 2002 Labyrinth des Schreckens (Labyrinth of Fright) disc from Germany's Marketing Film, which featured an anamorphic transfer of the original European version in its full 2.35:1 ratio, along with some stills and a trailer. (Seeing the film properly presented definitely boosts one's opinion!) This print was later recycled for the 2004 rerelease from X-Rated Kult Video. There's also a 2007 Italian disc from Pulp Video, though I'm unsure if this offers an upgrade or not. For some inexcusable reason, there hasn't been a domestic DVD release to date, a situation that desperately needs to be remedied. (Severin? Midnight Legacy? Synapse? Anybody?! Somebody start a petition!)
For a look at our last entry, click here. And don't forget, our Upcoming Releases List (the best on the 'net) is constantly updated, so stop by and preorder some cool stuff!
It's time for Challenge #14 here at the ol' Arcana! Can you identify this week's mystery photo, scanned direct from The Holecheck Archives? If you think you recognize it, post a comment below. As the week goes on, if no one guesses correctly I'll begin adding some pretty useless hints. Easy, right?
(And forgive the lack of non-Challenge posts lately; I had one lined up for the weekend, but Blogger was kinda being a dick. Fear not, there'll be posts aplenty soon enough; I currently have four interviews in the works, two random articles, a few top ten lists and some rare behind-the-scenes stuff I think you guys will dig. Stay tuned!)
Anyway, here ya' go -- good luck! (And could my still get any more beat up?)
UPDATE:
Kudos to Chris Poggiali (Temple of Schlock) for making it a hat trick (our first!) by identifying William L. Rose's Girl in Room 2A (1973). Ostensibly a giallo following the demented goings-on at a way-out boardinghouse, it's usually derided for being slow or nonsensical, but when has that ever bothered us? For the less-demanding viewer, there's plenty of fun to be found here.
Girl in Room 2A is probably most notable for its oddball mutt pedigree. Filmed in Italy with an Italian crew, the director is actually an American known to Something Weird followers for his '60s New York-based roughie work like Rent-A-Girl and the Olga series. Production duties were shared with notorious exploitation producer Dick Randall. The cast is a hodgepodge of Eurotrash perennials, including Daniela Giordano, Brad Harris, Karin Schubert and even a small role for Rosalba Neri!
Joseph Brenner Associates, Inc. gave the film a domestic theatrical release in 1975, and, like most of their holdings, it was issued to VHS by Prism Entertainment in 1985. Unfortunately for fans, that's pretty much it. It hit theatres in Italy under its original handle La Casa della Paura, but I don't think this version ever made it to video. There are clips on Youtube containing Japanese subtitles, but I've never come across that edition (nor seen a cover scan!) and I'm not sure if it's any different than what JBA presented Stateside. I was hoping Mondo Macabro would issue it on DVD as part of their Dick Randall Collection, but was told Spectacular Trading doesn't hold the US rights. I guess all is we can do is wait and hope that someday everything will get sorted and we'll get a proper release!
Here's the trailer, not exactly safe for work. (Did Brenner's crew make the best trailers or what? Eyeball, Beyond Erotica, Torso, Because of the Cats... someone needs to make a custom comp of these suckers!)
(Since this post was originally written, Mondo Macabro did sort out Girl in Room 2A for DVD. It can be purchased from Amazon here.)
Poster art courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art. The newspaper ad, as usual, was swiped from Fred Adelman's excellent Critical Condition. I should probably start paying these guys royalties.
For a look at last week's entry, click here. And don't forget, our Upcoming Releases List (the best on the 'net) is constantly updated, so stop by and preorder some cool stuff!
ATTACK OF THE BEAST CREATURES
(1973). Ostensibly a giallo following the demented goings-on at a way-out boardinghouse, it's usually derided for being slow or nonsensical, but when has that ever bothered us? For the less-demanding viewer, there's plenty of fun to be found here. 
and the 
. Production duties were shared with notorious exploitation producer Dick Randall. The cast is a hodgepodge of Eurotrash perennials, including Daniela Giordano, Brad Harris, Karin Schubert and even a small role for Rosalba Neri!
