Bleeding Skull: A 1990s Trash-Horror Odyssey

Bleeding Skull! #2

by Joseph A. Ziemba, Annie Choi, Zack Carlson

A celebration of the most obscure, bizarre, and brain-busting movies ever made, this film guide features 250 in-depth reviews that have escaped the radar of people with taste and the tolerance of critics — Goregasm! I Was a Teenage Serial Killer! Satan Claus! Die Hard Dracula! Curated by the enthusiastic minds behind BleedingSkull.com, this book gets deep into gutter-level, no-budget horror, from shot-on-VHS revelations (Eyes of the Werewolf) to forgotten outsider art hallucinations (Alien Beasts). Jam-packed with rare photographs, advertisements, and VHS sleeves (most of which have never been seen before), Bleeding Skull is an edifying, laugh-out-loud guide to the dusty inventory of the greatest video store that never existed.

Genres: Horror, Film, Media Tie In, Nonfiction, Humor, Essays, Biography

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2021

Reviews

[DJMikeG · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been obsessed with "Trash Horror" films since my childhood in the 80s, when I would slaver over all the big boxed insanity the horror sections of the video stores in my hometown had to offer. I have brought this obsession with me through every phase and era of my life, scouring small town video and thrift stores and flea markets, constantly finding tapes and DVDs of movies that nobody never knew existed. I carried the obsession into the internet age, finding cheap tapes and DVDs on ebay and amazon and in facebook VHS groups, ordering bootleg tapes and dvds and finding streams and before that torrents of movies that nobody knew existed. All of that endless scouring, from one end of this country to another, and there were still surprises on every other page of this book. The BS crew has really compiled the ultimate bible of trash horror films with their website and this book. The writing is fun and engaging, and doesn't ruin the movies. The pictures are insane. The introduction by Mark Polonia is amazing. This book is truly incredible and speaks to years of hard work and passion. My only beef is, the blurb on the back cover says something about "the dusty inventory of the greatest video store that never existed." It did exist, it was called I Luv Video in Austin, TX, and it is were I rented most of the movies in this book!
That quibble aside, this is a monumental book, and it was a joy to read. My movie list just got wayyyy longer!

[Michael Audet · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you can spend even just two minutes flipping through this book and not feel your brain about to explode under the strain of all the titles you're trying to remember to track down later, i cannot stress the extent to which you are not invited to my birthday party

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second Bleeding Skull suffers from the same problem as the first which is the reviewers feeling the need to add their life story to every review, few of which are actually believable. This is fine in small doses like reading a review on the website but here it drags badly. I just want to read about obscure "trash horror" I may or may not have already seen. This isn't a huge problem but the Bleeding Skull "style" isn't anything new and varies between hilarious and irritating. The scope of films covered here is admirable though they don't seem to be into many of my favorites or like them for the wrong reasons, films like Darkness, Violent Shit 2, The Burning Moon and Zombie 90. They seem to be more into movies where mundane things are featured, things that most people would find dreadfully boring while also denouncing other films with dreadfully boring features.

Where the book really disappoints, egregiously so is with Annie Choi's misandry and the fact that it is dripping with vile, anti-White Antarian bigotry. And yes, self-professed (in a degrading way of course) White Man, Joseph Ziemba you can be prejudiced against your own race. Jokes are made at the expensive of White men almost exclusively which would be fine if it just came off as humor and wasn't almost solely directed towards one group but you can see the self-loathing bile in much of it. Most of this is from Ziemba himself who I'm sure if he could would scrape off all his "loathsome" White flesh. All 3 are guilty of diminishment though by always decapitalizing White when referring to people and always capitalizing Black when referring to people even once doing it in the same sentence just highlight their biased bigotry! Does Ziemba and crew understand that 90% of the films his book highlights were made by "evil" Whites. That his questionable writing career wouldn't exist if it wasn't for these "damnable" Whites who in the sick minds of the writers of this book probably denied video store shelf space to minorities just by engaging in their passion to make an extremely low budget movie. It's fine to champion the films of Black and other filmmakers who aren't as active in the "trash horror" field but to brazenly think your droning reviews are somehow championing these filmmakers is both delusional and pandering. It's extremely unlikely a Black filmmaker is going to pick up a camcorder because you mentioned the merits of The Embalmer or Chester N. Turner. Could it possibly be that "trash horror" may just be a mostly White thing and that may just be okay?

Unfortunately the 90s version of Bleeding Skull is marred by bigotry and a foolish agenda. I would look forward to a 2000s book and beyond but this filth which is now acceptable in every institution just blights the entire thing and makes me not want to give a dime to these hate-mongers. If you want to read about these fascinating films just go to their website or borrow the book if you're fortunate enough to have friends with this kind of taste in movies, please don't give these chumps any of your money.

[🐴 🍖]

read over 6-12 mos exclusively on sunday mornings, & ideally suited for such. the annie choi reviews are a special treat

[Blair Hoyle]

This is a must-read if you're into regional horror cinema (especially shot-on-video movies of the 1990s). It's simultaneously laugh-out-loud hilarious and informative. As a resident of Austin, Texas, I've attended countless theatrical screenings introduced by these three, and it's quite charming how their writing mimics their real-life diction.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

KC's Todd Norris' THE PARANORMAL gets a listing, but the patron saint of this book is KC's Todd Sheets...

[no elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

hell yea pimp

[Granit Hysiqi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time for some backyard, DIY KINO greatness!!!!