AGFA is excited to announce its initial slate of theatrical and home video releases in collaboration with Seattle’s Something Weird. After a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015, AGFA purchased a 4K film scanner to create new digital transfers of titles from the Something Weird library. AGFA will begin distributing their new transfers theatrically and on home video in the summer of 2017.
Each home video release will feature a main title, a “b-side” bonus feature, and trailers and shorts from the Something Weird archive. Select releases will include interviews and commentary tracks with Something Weird’s Lisa Petrucci, filmmaker Frank Henenlotter (BASKET CASE, FRANKENHOOKER), filmmakers involved with the movies, and more surprises along the way.
Mike Vraney founded Something Weird in 1990. Sadly, he passed away in 2014 after a long, heroic battle with lung cancer. Legendary exploitation warlock David F. Friedman deemed Vraney “the forty-first thief,” which was the ultimate compliment to this exploiteer, who dedicated his life to unearthing and preserving the most radically insane exploitation and horror movies of all time.
AGFA has partnered with Something Weird’s Lisa Petrucci, Mike Vraney’s widow and partner, to redistribute titles from the massive 35mm film collection.
“Our mission hasn’t changed, it has evolved,” says AGFA Director Joe Ziemba, “AGFA will always be dedicated to preserving and sharing 35mm film prints. But by scanning these fragile elements and distributing them as new digital transfers, we are making the movies even more accessible than ever. At the same time, we are helping Lisa Petrucci of Something Weird ensure that Mike Vraney’s legacy will continue to grow.”
Read about the first wave of releases:
THE ZODIAC KILLER
Made in hopes of capturing the real-life Zodiac Killer, but the plan didn’t work. Instead, we got the most outrageous and compelling “tabloid horror” vortex in the history of the universe. Paired with ANOTHER SON OF SAM, a lo-fi proto-slasher that has nothing to do with Son of Sam, let alone another Son of Sam.
THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP
If FRANKENSTEIN was re-imagined by Kenneth Anger as a softcore body-horror epic with a monster who plays guitar, it still wouldn’t be as wild as this legendary Argentinian mind-melter. Paired with PROFESSOR LUST, a goth-horror nudie-cutie that owes as much to Jekyll and Hyde as it does to acid-fueled freakouts.
POT! PARENTS! POLICE!
This is an After School Special gone bad about a teenager’s slow descent into weed-fueled mania. FYI, this was the first — and last — movie made to play exclusively at Jerry Lewis’s chain of theaters in the 1970s. Paired with THE DEVIL’S JOINT, a bizarro anti-weed documentary that was definitely made by art school drop-outs.
FLESHPOT ON 42ND STREET
A gender-bending NYC smut-opera and accidental masterpiece, and also the greatest film from infamous no-budget wildman Andy Milligan. Paired with GURU, THE MAD MONK, Milligan’s unhinged, DARK SHADOWS-inspired gore opera.
SATANIS, THE DEVIL’S MASS
Unseen and unbelievable cinéma vérité expose on Anton Levay, America’s favorite leader of the Church of Satan. Paired with SYNTHIA, THE DEVIL’S DOLL, an art-horror mind-blast from legendary Hollywood outsider Ray Dennis Steckler.
SHE MOB
The greatest girl gang sexploitation gutter-epic that John Waters never made. Filmed in Texas, where life is cheap! Paired with HOTTER AFTER DARK, a gutter-noir private eye sex-party that was filmed in Florida, where life is cheaper!
Future releases include:
AROUSED paired with FLY NOW, PAY LATER
THE GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS paired with THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT
LOVE AFTER DEATH paired with THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL
THE LOVE FEAST paired with NECROMANIA
THE MONSTER AT CAMP SUNSHINE paired with TALES OF A SALESMAN
SATAN’S CHILDREN paired with THINGS TO COME
VOICES OF DESIRE paired with SEX ON THE GROOVE TUBE
THE VIOLENT YEARS paired with ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO
And many, many more!