We've been addicted to Joe Dante's "Trailers from Hell" website for many
years. If you haven't experienced its retro-related treasures, it's
time you did. What is "Trailers from Hell"? Well, who better to ask than
the esteemed director himself. Here's Joe's description:
"Around 2007 I was in a
quandry as to what to do with my 35mm trailer collection. Opportunities to
screen this kind of material were pretty rare, even in Hollywood. So I thought,
why not put them up on the internet? But that seemed underwhelming by itself,
so I decided to add some voiceover commentaries on my own. I think the first
ones I tackled were The Terror, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and The
Unearthly. At first the idea was to mainly cover sci-fi and horror
titles, but when a few of my friends got wind of the idea they asked to broaden
the sphere and talk about their own choices. So anything we could find a
trailer for was fair game. It took awhile, but soon our roster of commentators
(we call them Grindhouse Gurus) started to swell. The only rule was they had to
be film professionals, not critics or academics. Today we proudly feature
commentaries by over 75 contributors, running the gamut from early adopters
like John Landis and Edgar Wright to the likes of Guillermo del Toro, John
Sayles, Illeana Douglas and Roger and Julie Corman. We have writers, directors,
producers and craftspeople of all kinds, each with their own unique takes on movies
they think other people should know about.
Part of the impetus for all
this was the fact that younger audiences tend to be unfamiliar with the
treasures of the past, even the recent past. There are just so many other
attractions competing for their eyeballs. With almost two thousand entries, TFH
hopes to make a dent in the miasma of "stuff" that's cluttering all
our lives and alert people to movies and artists they may not have encountered
anywhere else. It's kind of a mission for us. And it's fun! And now, having
added our podcast The Movies That Made Me, we're finally gaining some
traction. We certainly feel it's something that would appeal to readers of
Cinema Retro, and thanks for your support in the past."- Joe Dante