Since the birth of DVD in 1996, 2006 must go down as the greatest year for adult DVD releases yet. Many of the greatest adult films that were previously neglected by VCX and many other adult companies have found themselves released in almost pristine condition thanks to Media Blasters. With the recent DVD releases of 'The Devil in Miss Jones,' 'Insatiable,' and 'Debbie Does Dallas,' the raincoat theatre is being resurrected after a lengthy sojourn in the doldrums of negligence. There has never been a more opportune time to be a 70's porn fan - although, some still might find it difficult in getting past the hairy bush. However, hairy bush or no hairy bush, 70's porn has not been labelled the classic era of hardcore pornography for no reason at all.

You don't need me telling you that DVD releases of the classic era of hardcore pornography has been wholly neglected and shamefully lauded as "definite versions." For many years, VCX were releasing the greatest adult classics of all time on meagre DVDs that were very fortunate to play in your DVD-player. 'The Devil in Miss Jones' especially was given the poor treatment. The original VCX DVD release was extremely grotty and appeared nothing more than a rushed job. However, the recent Raincoat Theater edition of 'The Devil in Miss Jones' is substantially superior than the VCX version in that the Raincoat Theater edition possesses more colour vibrancy and is virtually absent of film grains and artefacts. It's almost impossible to level criticism at Raincoat Theater for their hard and laborious work in granting the 70's porn fan an admirable release of one of adult cinema's greatest treasures, but this release of 'The Devil in Miss Jones' could have become the holy grail of adult DVD releases if Raincoat Theater had released it anamorphic. But still, Raincoat Theater/Media Blasters should be thoroughly congratulated on a job well done!

Alpha Blue Archives have also been releasing their collection of hardcore adult treasures, and some of their releases in 2006 have insulted the moral fabric of public society with some downright malevolent yet delicious releases. Alpha Blue Archives have led the way in releasing hardcore pornographic roughies for quite a few years now, and 2006 is perhaps their greatest year to date. However, I do not praise Alpha Blue Archives here without levelling some criticism towards them. They released 'Femmes De Sade' onto DVD in the early part of 2006 in a butchered version that was heavily cut. The scene where the dog in the S&M orgy walks up to lick the exposed pussy of a female participant is missing, and so is the scene where the Frankenstein-like rapist attempts to force the female victim to give herself oral sex (one of the most disturbing and unnerving scenes in the history of adult cinema, especially when considering that the rapist blows himself to orgasm beforehand). A large amount of the pissing and revenge scene towards the end is cut, as well. Before Alpha Blue Archives began releasing feature films onto DVD you could purchase the uncut versions of Femmes De Sade on VHS from their website. However, they do not sell VHS anymore and any attempt to track down the uncut version will be difficult, although you could try Witching Hour Video. Now the praise.

Back in mid winter 2006, Alpha Blue Archives released 10 feature films onto 10 DVDs, the first singular DVD releases from them since September 2004 when they released Zebedy Colt's most finest film, 'The Devil Inside Her,' and the utterly kinky, 'Anyone But my Husband.' Since the releases of those pornographic jewels in 2004, Alpha Blue Archives have been releasing a whole cache of box sets featuring some of the most depraved adult cinema you could ever stumble across. From the catalogue of depravity evicted from the mind of Shaun Costello to the insidious evil of the Satanic Sickies collection, Alpha Blue Archives have brought us the chance of seeing for ourselves the absolute dark side of adult cinema in 12-hour box sets. However, this year they have begun releasing singular films onto DVD once again that didn't find a home amongst their Brutal Underground or Avon box sets. One of my favourite releases of this year has to be the Alpha Blue Archives release of the British inclusion to the 70's adult roughie genre, a perversity called 'Diversions.'

Derek Ford's 'Diversions' was released in 1976 under the title 'Sex Express,' and was one of the many British sex films to populate our cinemas in the mid to late 70's. In the same year we had the release of 'Keep it up Downstairs,' and the legendary 'Come Play with Me' was released one year later. Back in the sexually repressed seventies, British films had to avoid the hardcore pornographic stuff to even be considered achieving a certificate at times, but the Continental market at the time demanded harder material to titillate the cinema audience. There was no pissing about with the Europeans; they wanted it all and all is what they got. 'Diversions' was released across the Continent and the United States with an extra 30 minutes of material. This extra 30 minutes is without-a-shadow-of-a-doubt the most perverted, degrading, and shocking sex scenes ever filmed on British soil. 'Diversions' took the concept of bloody sex and erected an instant classic. Piccadilly is often regarded as London's Times Square, and 'Diversions' is Piccadilly's entry into the adult roughie genre.

The story of 'Diversions' follows the extreme sexual fantasies of a woman, called Imogene, who has just been sentenced to life-in-jail for committing murder. It is on her train journey to prison that she sinks into her shocking fantasies of sexual perversity. Her fantasies range from nazisploitation to bloody vampires, from appalling rape to bloody cock sucking. If you are a man who enjoys having a female sucking your sperm-dispenser, Diversions just might put you of blowjobs for life. Imogene is played by the beautiful British sex actress, Heather Deeley - a voluptuous woman with well-endowed breasts and a fully natural figure, a figure we rarely see in the mainstream porn industry today. Heather Deeley mysteriously disappeared from the cinematic screen in 1977 and has not been seen since. If she had continued to star in British sex pictures, she perhaps would have given British sex siren Mary Millington a run for her money. Who knows where she is now, but at least she has given us a few appetizing performances to treasure. 'Diversions' is a roughie for fans of freaky cinema and for its star, Heather Deeley. 'Diversions' should make you proud to be British. Alpha Blue Archives release of 'Diversions' is uncut.

Alpha Blue Archives released many more DVDs in 2006 that deserve a mention. In January and February, they released a series of discs under the caption Cult 70s Porno Director. Each of these discs feature two or three pictures that creates a minute collection of films from specific directors, including the incredibly zany Zebedy Colt and the shameless Alex DeRenzy. One of these Cult 70's Director DVDs feature the two most infamous films of Roberta Findlay's film career. Roberta Findlay was one of the very few female porno directors in the 1970's. She was a woman who possessed an eye for detail and charged her pictures with galvanic erotica. Her films had a certain "woman's touch" that appalled her mostly male audience as much as turning them on. Her films also possessed a blemish of violence and vehemence that made her films nightmarish and disturbing standouts. The Alpha Blue Archives release of the Roberta Findlay DVD featured her two most notorious works: 'The Tiffany Minx' and 'A Woman's Torment.'

Back in the summer of 2002, I browsed the internet for banned horror films after reading SexGoreMutants and the true horror stories of custom seizures orchestrated in the 1990s on the MelonFarmers website. I have often thought that all what banning has ever achieved is make the banned appear more alluring. I therefore browsed the internet for copies of William Lustig's 'Maniac' and Wes Craven's 'Last House on the Left.' I suddenly found myself reading a list of horror films that went into the thousands on a website called Video Dungeon. Video Dungeon, which mysteriously vanished late 2003, was a website that sold VHS and DVD copies of our favourite horror films, and some of their releases contained a genre that I never thought possible. I found myself reading graphic descriptions of pornographic roughies. With lurid descriptions of various adult films from the 70's such as 'Hot Summer in the City,' 'Femmes de Sade,' 'Hardgore,' 'The Devil Inside Her,' 'Water Power,' 'Forced Entry,' 'Wet Wilderness,' and 'Through the Looking Glass,' I was hooked within a second and craved to get my hands on some of this stuff, merely out of interest. One of the films that stood out was 'A Woman's Torment.'

'A Woman's Torment' is about a female serial killer who murders the men she has sex with. The film is surprisingly erotic and even has some gore for you gore hounds out there. 'The Tiffany Minx' is another psychological and twisted porn picture about a woman who escapes to a beach hut after murdering a one-eyed hit man with a pair of scissors, but her devastated life won't rectify itself that easily.

Another highlight released by Alpha Blue Archives was the Zebedy Colt Volume 2 disc stashed under the Cult 70s Porno Director collection. On this DVD, we have three of the most degenerate films of Zebedy Colt's film career: 'Affairs of Janice,' 'Terri's Revenge,' and 'The Erotic Dr. Jeckyll.' Zebedy Colt's 'Affairs of Janice' is a psychological thriller that combines psychosexual imagery with audacious sexuality. Zebedy Colt plays the role of a painter who catches his wife being seduced by her male model. Zebedy then plots to kill his wife and her lover. Things take a supernatural twist towards the end as the spirits of the murdered victims seek revenge. 'Affairs of Janice' has Zebedy Colt's signature written all over it.

Many pornographic roughies of the 1970's portray an innocent woman being raped by a butch, hairy man who never considers the consequences of such heinous behaviour. Many of the female rape victims end up obtaining sadistic and justly revenge on the male rapist by utilising many methods of murder and humiliation. The Frankenstein-like rapist in 'Femmes De Sade' is lured into an S&M orgy and is rendered incapable of defending himself when his female victims begin urinating and shitting on him; the two kidnappers in 'The Taking of Christina' find themselves lured to the doorstep of the victim's house by her undetected machinations and end up shot in the balls by a shot-gun; and the two unfortunate victims in 'Terri's Revenge' decide to create "W.A.R" (Women Against Rape) in response to their trauma of being raped, accept this is no feminist or violence against women campaign group. Instead, this is two women taking their vengeance on convicted rapists in a vicious orgy of pissing, testicle torture and anal rape! Fuck the Spice Girls; this is girl power 70's style! Needless to say, every second of these films by Zebedy Colt is roughie paradise. If you haven't seen any Zebedy Colt roughies before then you've missed a treat.

In the summer of 2006, Alpha Blue Archives released the 'History of Rape' box set featuring four DVDs of the notorious 'History of Rape' loop compilations. In autumn, they released seven box sets with four DVDs in each of them. The box sets were 'Young Lust volume 1, 2, 3 and 4,' and 'The Roughies Brute List, Cum Crimes, and Sexual Assault.' I have seen some of the films included in these roughie box sets and many portray the familiar twist of the female victim obtaining revenge on the rapist or bad guys. I shall hopefully review the roughie box sets when they are eventually sold at a cheaper price at www.cdmovies.us.

The quality of these Alpha Blue Archive releases leave a lot to be desired, but I'm sure you all know this after me constantly stressing this point in previous reviews.

These are just a small number of films that I have enjoyed this year. I would go into further detail and list the other films I have enjoyed, but this rundown of my highs and lows of the genre this year would perhaps be as long as my Brutal Underground review. The adult DVD genre of 70's porno is really beginning to take off, and 2007 is shaping up to be a good year if 2006 is anything to go by.

Stay sick and happy nightmares!