Silver Bullet Pictures Puts BLOOD ORGY AT BEAVER LAKE on VHS and Prepares to Unveil More Analog Awesomeness with Autumn Home Entertainment!
Watch out now, Videovores, ‘cuz there’s a new crew of video vindicators on the block and they’re armed with an arse-anal of blood, boobs and bodacious beaver boners. It seems there’s blood-drenched playful perversion aplenty streaming out of the Silver Bullet Pictures camp, and now, for the first time since 2003, they’re looking to the almighty analog format to unleash some of their awesomely independent cinematic beasts. First up from SBP to be committed to magnetic magic, we have BLOOD ORGY AT BEAVER LAKE, which promises to be as sanguine and beaverific as the title suggests. But there’s also another assortment of video revival assembling with their sister brand Autumn Home Entertainment, with two slices of plastic gold just about ready to roll. So fire up your VCRs, Tapeheads, and grab a butt. Mike Hartman's Silver Bullet Pictures and their analog-inclined independent sentiment have got some fresh VHS flesh comin’ right up…
SBP's lovingly 80s logo. Look at the little bullet in there. I'm surprised it's not a boob, honestly. Still rad, though.
LM: Tell us a little bit about Silver Bullet Pictures. How did you get started? MH: Silver Bullet Pictures started back in ‘97 with our first movie WRATH OF THE SKUNK APE. We have been putting out a new feature every couple years since. SKUNK APE was shot with an 8mm video camera and edited with 2 VCRs. We didn't have a lot of equipment or experience back then, and even though the movie is VERY hard to watch today, we were really proud to have actually finished a movie for the first time! We were equally proud of the “Ape Rape” scene! After SKUNK APE, Silver Bullet started to grow. We started a commercial video business and moved from a tiny bedroom in my house to a tiny office in Royal Oak, Michigan. We just moved again and now have studio space with a giant green screen wall and lots of room to work. We’re building space ships, monsters, and rubber butts here and I couldn't be happier!
Boobies, bullets, beavers and backwoods boneheads. Can't beat it.
Your latest release is titled BLOOD ORGY AT BEAVER LAKE. Sounds like a rollicking good time, my man. What’s the flick all about? We always make movies that we would want to see and I wanted to write something that was just non-stop gore, sex, and comedy. BLOOD ORGY is the touching story of Cletus and Clem, two inbred hillbilly brothers who mistakenly mix an experimental party drug into their moonshine. The brothers become blood thirsty cannibals with an insatiable appetite for mammary meat! It’s 72 minutes of Blood, Boobs, and a 7-foot beaver with a huge boner.
The VHS package for BLOOD ORGY in the Boner Box! What's that the beaver's chewin... on... oh, man. Makes sense.
Why’d you decide to put this flick on tape? I just love VHS and we had not put a movie out on tape since BEAVER LAKE ZOMBIES in 2003, so I thought it would be fun to give BLOOD ORGY a VHS release. You’ve titled the VHS release The Limited Edition Boner Box. So… what’s in “the package”? How many are there? Green tapes, right?! We made 25 green tapes to match the green goo that Cletus and Clem add to the moonshine. It’s called the Boner Box because it comes in a hard box and it just seemed like a fitting name. Each box comes with a sticker of the original DVD cover art.
Mike's homage to Troma-rific reels of ridiculousness. Brutal axe, brotherrrrr.
You seem to have an association with TROMA. How’d that come to be? I have been a huge fan of Troma since I was 11 years old. I wrote HEAVY MENTAL as a Troma style movie. While I was writing it, I noticed that Lloyd Kaufman was on Myspace, so I messaged him and told him about the movie. I had never met him in person before and I was blown away that he messaged me back! We kept in touch during the production of HEAVY MENTAL and Lloyd even came out to act in it. Once the movie was finished I gave him a copy. A week later I got a phone call from Troma offering to distribute the movie. Lloyd was a huge help in promoting BLOOD ORGY… he even shot a scene for us in New York (saving us a ton of money by not having to fly out there with all our equipment). Silver Bullet partnered with Troma again this summer to produce TromaDance Detroit. I'll always be grateful for Lloyd and the Troma Team for supporting us and independent filmmakers everywhere. Look for Lloyd Kaufman to appear in CHUBBIES next year!
A still from the CHUBBIES trailer... bound to full of Halloweenies.
Yeah, I was gonna ask about CHUBBIES! Can you tell us a little about that one? Will that be receiving the analog treatment? CHUBBIES is our homage to the great 1980s creature movies like GHOULIES and CRITTERS. CHUBBIES will definitely have a VHS release! CHUBBIES Synopsis: It's Halloween night at the Bowl-O-Rama where Samantha and her friends are having a party. Everyone's having a great time... until the Chubbies arrive. From the distant planet of Snerd, where sex is outlawed, come the Chubbies. A race of grotesque, and horny little creatures, hell bent on global domination by invading your body through any orifice they can find. The party dies and the horror is born when the teens are held captive by the Chubbies and must fight to keep their butt holes tight in this action packed, horror comedy.
One of the upcoming video vindications from Autumn Home Entertainment. Lookin' GOOD.
You’ve got another brand happening, also doing VHS, called Autumn Home Entertainment. You’ve already got a couple slabs o’ analog redemption lined up. Can you tell us about those? Our first two Autumn Home Entertainment releases will be the erotic witchcraft movie BLACK CANDLES directed by Jose Romon Larraz (VAMPYRES) and featuring a mind blowing Goat fucking scene! DEMON WITCH CHILD is a really weird Exorcist rip-off from Amando de Ossorio (TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD). We’re super excited to release these movies! I think VHS collectors are really going to dig what we have done. www.autumnhe.com will be up and running in December 2013.
Blue tapes lookin' groovy, mang. BRING ON THE SATANIC SEXUAL CONGRESS!
Why’d you decide to start AHE? Just want to branch out, have a different outlet…? The Idea for Autumn came on an 8 hour trip to New Jersey. My friend and I were driving to Monstermania and we started talking about how much we love the artwork that we used to see on big box VHS tapes. By the time we got to NJ I had just about everything figured out. When we got back to Michigan, I acquired a few titles, ordered a bunch of colored VHS tapes, a duplicating machine and we were off and running. The most important thing to me is that we create really cool artwork for the big clam shell cases and be true to the original style of big box VHS. I hired my friend and favorite artist Slasher Dave to design the first covers. We’re working on two more titles right now and plan to release more in 2014.
Horror artist extraordinaire Slasher Dave RULES. Check out his new album, mang. IT'S GROOVY.
What is it about VHS that really does it for you? Why do you want to put flicks on tape? Why do you think it’s important to keep VHS around and alive? I grew up on VHS. My film school was the video store on the corner. I remember walking up to “Video Tonight” with a note from my mom saying that it was ok for me to rent R-rated movies. I would walk home with a stack of movies like BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS, THE MAD BUTCHER, and MICROWAVE MASSACRE, all with amazing art work in huge plastic boxes! It was like Christmas every day! I would watch these movies over and over again. I was, and still am a huge horror nerd. I would study these movies and take notes on the effects, camera angles, dialog… everything about them was amazing to me and there were hundreds of tapes on the video store shelves! I was totally inspired by these movies and the people who made them. I don't know if we will ever see such an explosion of independent art as we did in the heyday of video tape.
Looks like a fantastic Friday night to me, mang! Damn, these are some goodins.
Anything else you’d like to say to all the Videovores out there? Thanks for giving me the chance to talk about horror movies! Keep VHS alive! Keep supporting independent horror! And make more movies on VHS!Damn, we couldn’t agree more, Mike! Thanks for making groovy horror movies and putting them out on tape. Without peeps like you, and the army of analog-championing entrepreneurs out there, our VCRs wouldn’t have the chance to chew through all this fresh VHS glory, man! And, you! Yeah, you reading this! Don’t forget to groove on over to the Silver Bullet Pictures Official Site and their Official Facebook to give 'em a like and some love!
Groove and Groove and Watch The Bloody Brood.
Josh Schafer