OZPLOITATION TRAILER EXPLOSION

In 2011, Severin Films announced that they'd be handling all production and marketing for titles released by the then-freshly rekindled Intervision Picture Corporation label. It was music to the ears of anyone old enough to remember this brand from the days of pre-certificate videos.

Since then, the label hasn't been too prolific - but what they have released, has certainly been of intrigue. Jess Franco's PAULA-PAULA and rarity SINISTER EYES OF DR ORLOFF, the scarcely seen 80s slasher SLEDGE HAMMER ... all well worth checking out.

And now, it makes perfect sense that their latest release is a DVD trailer compilation of Aussie exploitation flicks from a Golden era (1970 - 1986) which ties in neatly with two dual format Special Editions being released on the same date by Severin, DEAD KIDS and THIRST.

So what we get here then is no less than 65 trailers for films that rode the glorious Australian wave of exploitation cinema creativity in the wake of the International success enjoyed by films such as WAKE IN FRIGHT and STONE.

Before we even reach this region-free disc's main menu page, it's worth noting that the VHS-quality Intervision logo which opens the DVD is a burst of raw nostalgia guaranteed to put a kick in the pants of anyone the wrong side of 40.

The menu itself divides the fun into three sections: 'Sexploitation and 'Ocker' Comedies', 'Horror and Thriller' and 'Cars and Action'. For those who thought ahead and are prepared with their beers and snacks, there's also the option of selecting "Play All" and enjoying it all in a single 165-minute sitting.

Are you sitting comfortably? Okay, the fun begins with a preview for a raunchy little oddity entitled THE NAKED BUNYIP. This is clearly an Aussie riff on those cheeky faux documentaries about sexual liberation that ran riot throughout the early 1970s. It looks like it could be entertaining, albeit in a rather timid sort of way.

Bruce Spence, best known as the Gyro Captain in MAD MAX 2, turns up as the geeky virginal star of the 1971 comedy STORK. It looks pretty terrible to be honest, though perhaps not as bad as the next offering: THE ADVENTURES OF BARRY MCKENZIE. A great cast - Dennis Price, Peter Cook, Spike Milligan etc - can't save this one from looking dire. "Go and stick your head up a dead bear's bum", suggests one character. Thanks, I think that would be preferable to checking out your film, cobber. BARRY MCKENZIE HOLD HIS OWN looks to be ruder and graced with a bigger budget, but just as painful a proposition.

LIBIDO looks like being much more up my street. It's a wacky, at times psychedelic mixture of comical situations and rough-looking sex, with cute female nudity and a nicely subversive-looking jab at organised religion. Worth tracking this one down, methinks.

ALVIN PURPLE "spends most of his time on the job", in a sex comedy that comes across as being some odd hybrid of Benny Hill and bohemian hippy hi-jinks. Meanwhile, the tongue-in-cheek narrator of ALVIN RIDES AGAIN's trailer talks us through what sounds like being the film's entire plot. Which is good, because now I don't have to ever see it.

PETERSEN looks raunchy and stylishly shot, while its titular character is a hard-drinking, foul-mouthed womaniser. Jack Thompson is a real cad in the lead role; the women are all attractive. I like the look of this one.

THE LOVE EPIDEMIC is an early offering from Brian Trenchard Smith and its 3-minute trailer is indeed beguiling. Lord knows what type of film it's striving to be - erotica? Comedy? Historical document? - but Albert Finney's in it and it looks worth tracking down nevertheless.

WOMPERS ("the true story of Eskimo Nell") looks rubbish; PLUGG has just enough charm and boobies to make its screwball comedy endurable; the trailer for THE BOX is too brief to give enough of interest away; THE GREAT MACARTHY relies on folk with fake beards and loud fart gags to elicit its laughs.

ELIZA FRAZER must surely be the most handsomely mounted softcore comedy caper amongst this lot, starring the lovely Susannah York in the title role and benefitting from well-produced period detail. Its trailer is a bit of an epic one too, clocking in at just under 4 minutes in length.

DON'S PARTY looks a little bland; the trailer for the rock 'n' roll drama OZ is far more lively. The John Holmes soft-core romp FANTASM and FANTASM COMES AGAIN both manage to look a lot more enticing in their trailers - "filmed in Hollywood by Australians" - than the end products ever were; THE ABC'S OF LOVE AND SEX, AUSTRALIAN STYLE is another soft sex film masquerading as an instructional guide, replete with soft-focus scenes of bondage, sensual massages and coy homosexual couplings.

The preview for FELICITY successfully conveys the film's eroticism; Bruce Spence is them back again in another goofy lead role, in the dismal-looking DIMBOOLA. CENTRESPREAD shows more promise, of the more fetishist variety; PACIFIC BANANA has a novel premise, I suppose.

The tone then shifts dramatically as we enter the second section of the show, heralded in by a brief but effective clip for WAKE IN FRIGHT (titled OUTBACK here). NIGHT OF FEAR looks great - how have I managed to miss this? INN OF THE DAMNED is of less interest, while END PLAY looks perilously close to being an Antipodean giallo. That can't be a bad thing.

Nick Tate brings gravitas to an obvious low budget in the creepy-looking SUMMERFIELD; "hasn't the weather been strange?" asks the sombre voiceover dude at the opening of the preposterous Richard Chamberlain vehicle THE LAST WAVE. The trailer for PATRICK is a timely reminder of how simplistically classy this film is, ahead of its Special Edition blu-ray release from Severin; LONG WEEKEND's preview makes fine use of its set-pieces and haunting sound design to promise arguable more than the film its promoting actually offers.

THE NIGHT THE PROWLER looks like it would be mildly diverting. SNAPSHOT suffers from a horrid 80s pop song on the soundtrack: some nice nakedness compensates.

A trailer for the aforementioned THIRST is appropriately sensational; I'd forgotten how much I like HARLEQUIN until the 99-second teaser here reminded me.

NIGHTMARES is a film I'd previously dismissed but the exciting trailer has successfully made me reconsider it. The lovely Jenny Agutter livens up a rather crude preview for THE SURVIVOR; the 3-minute trailer for DEAD KIDS is good but spoilerific.

ROAD GAMES is an underrated film, as exampled by its tightly edited clip here. THE KILLING OF ANGEL STREET looks to be an angry little obscurity filled with super 70s trappings.

HEATWAVE is crap and the trailer can't disguise that; A DANGEROUS SUMMER co-stars James Mason and Tom Skerritt. It, too, looks crap - but in a guiltily enjoyable fashion. NEXT OF KIN looks noticeably like a product of the 1980s - cheap and tawdry. THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS and CASSANDRA both benefit from a more timeless veneer, but look incredibly cheap at the same time.

STONE is a personal favourite of mine and the 3-minute trailer does this violent, engrossing forerunner to MAD MAX total justice.

The third and final segment opens with THE MAN FROM HONG KONG. This delivers fast-paced, mad Jackie Chan-style stunts; Dennis Hopper gives "the finest performance of his career" (!) in MAD DOG MORGAN; RAW DEAL looks like an alarmingly charisma-free western; I'm not sure what period drama THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY AMONG WOMEN is about but the opening gambit of a naked woman running in slow motion certainly held my attention. The crazy sped-up editing technique employed during the clip for THE FJ HOLDEN didn't do the sale of the film any favours.

MONEY MOVERS looks mediocre; STUNT ROCK gets a suitably raucous, though brief, advertisement. I've never seen THE CHAIN REACTION but it's another one I'll be keeping an out for from now on. Not so YANKEE ZEPHYR, which looks well-intended but cack. ATTACK FORCE Z doesn't look much classier.

TURKEY SHOOT ... well, we all know of this one, right? The trailer's a real class act, set in the futuristic year of 1995 (!). Fast-moving and sweaty, this does a great job of selling the film on the strength of its cartoonish violence and unrelenting action.

I've not heard of FREEDOM or MIDNIGHT SPARES: both look average. BMX BANDITS is one that I'm familiar with from the old days of VHS, admittedly. Seeing its time capsule trailer again is fun in a guilty kind of way.

THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE is a clumsy, unfunny comedy with clear influences in both SUPERMAN and STAR WARS. One thing's for certain: it surely didn't deserve Christopher Lee appearing as its singing and dancing villain.

SKY PIRATES is cheap fun; FAIR GAME gets a short (1 minute) but breathless trailer which manages to cram in nudity, motorbike stunts, customised cars and houses being demolished - all to startling effect; DEAD END DRIVE IN gets a slick preview that helps sell the film better than it deserves to be.

Finally, we get the original trailer for THE TIME GUARDIAN. This looks like a great slice of sci-fi trash from the 80s along the lines of STARCRASH or RAGE WARS.

So, there you have it. A fine selection of the good, the bad and the ugly from the heyday of Australian exploitation cinema. Quirky characters, insane stunts, wanton nudity and lots of excitable, over-the-top music accompaniment. What's not to love about the world of Ozploitation?

In my view, trailer compilations such as this one should serve three purposes. First, they should act as a reference guide to films you've never seen/heard of and point you in the right direction. Secondly, they should effectively remind you of all the gems lurking forgotten in your existing collection - you know, prompt you to suddenly think "God, I love TURKEY SHOOT, I haven't seen it in yonks ...", that kind of thing. Thirdly, they should be able to fit the bill as a party disc: invite friends round or simply dim the lights and crack open a few tinnies by yourself, and enjoy an evening of non-stop 'coming attraction' shenanigans.

OZPLOITATION TRAILER EXPLOSION works on all three levels. The picture quality is admittedly variable throughout, as you'd expect. But it's always watchable, never terrible. And the English mono audio never fails.

Highly recommended.

By Stuart Willis