From the Vaults: Gorehouse Greats Collection DVD Review

I bet you are wondering why I am revisiting this review of a box set that can easily be found for under $10 all over the place now. Well, that’s the reason why. This inexpensive little set is an instant horror collection that is a lot of fun and is too cheap to be passed up. So without further ado….

Everyone that likes horror has their own little niche of fandom, whether it is Zombie movies, Steven King adaptation, Exploitation films, Slashers, you name it. One of my favorites is not a type of movie such as vampire or zombie, rather a period of time. I have a thing for horror movies that were released in the early 70’s. The feel and storylines of these films is totally unique to the era and can never be duplicated, no matter how hard directors try to recreate it (nothing personal Rob Zombie!) I have been watching a lot of these movies lately and trying to add them to my collection.

Looking through the new releases, I came across the GoreHouse Greats collection. I have been watching these movies over the past few weeks and have really had fun. A couple of films included have nicer releases, such as the Navarre release of Stanley from last year but some movies, such as Blood Mania and Trip With Teacher are nearly impossible for me to find.

Now, be warned up front, the transfers for these movies vary wildly in quality from nearly unwatchable to very good. Probably the worst of the bunch is Blood of Dracula’s Castle, which has 4 to 5 prominant scratches that run through the middle of the transfer, making it difficult to see and there is the inexplicable inclusion of 1991’s Brain Twisters, a very unwatchable sci-fi movie about subliminal messages in computer games. Mixed in with the bad transfers are gems such as Terror a 1978 classic that has a pretty solid transfer.

The best of the bunch in my opinion is Satan’s Slave, about a girl who goes on vacation with her parents to the countryside, only to see them killed in a car wreck and then to be manipulated by her mad uncle and his perverted son. Also excellent is The Devil’s Hand starring Robert Alda and Nightmare in Wax, because I love a good Wax Museum horror film! Exploitation fans will have fun with Trip With Teacher starring a young Zalman King who would later go on to create the old Red Shoe Diaries series and direct Two Moon Junction and Wild Orchid.

This is the best compilation of 70’s horror and exploitation I have come across in quite a while. Sure a few of the transfers are rough…ok, ……is REALLY rough but one could argue that it adds to the Grindhouse, er I mean Gorehouse ambiance. These movies were a lot of fun to watch and are a welcome addition to my collection. For horror fans who are still building up a collection this is a great way to add 12 movies to your collection for easily the cost of one. Horror hounds with extensive collections, you may have 2 or 3 of the movies such as Stanley and Prime Evil in your crypt already but I would almost wager that this is the first release for a few of these films. I highly recommend picking this set up.

The Gorehouse Greats Collection contains the following full length movies:

Blood of Dracula’s Castle
Blood Mania
Brain Twisters
The Devil’s Hand
Madmen of Madoras: They Saved Hitler’s Brain
Nightmare in Wax
Prime Evil
Satan’s Slave
Stanley
Terrified
Terror
Trip with Teacher

Gorehouse Greats is available now, courtesy of Mill Creek Home Entertainment.