Summary

The American Genre Film Archive is the largest "exploitation film" archive of its kind housing more than 3,500 rare 35mm film prints and trailers. Many of the trailers sourced for this compilation were rescued from impending destruction and donated by Alamo Drafthouse Founder/CEO Tim League. In one instance, rumors of a hidden cache of trailers located deep within a South African warehouse led League to investigate. After a series of fruitless negotiations, a distant relative brokered an illicit cash exchange in a hotel lobby and smuggled 200 pounds of celluloid from Johannesburg back to Austin. In another excursion to a decrepit, partially-flooded storage facility in southern Missouri, League agreed to the take-all-or-none stipulation and loaded a truck rated for 13,000 pounds with 26,000 pounds of celluloid. "It was during this shaky, 30 MPH drive back to Austin while jettisoning soggy, damaged prints at rest stop dumpsters along the way where I conceived of the idea of the Genre Film Archive," says League, "I had to have some rationale for buying 500 35mm prints and countless trailers." Legendary filmmaker and "Trailers From Hell" creator Joe Dante (Gremlins, The 'Burbs, The Howling), lends an extensive interview on the Trailer War disc chronicling his early years as a trailer-cutter at Roger Corman's legendary New World Pictures. Also inclusive on the compilation is an audio commentary track from long-time Alamo Drafthouse Programmers and Trailer War curators Lars Nilsen and Zack Carlson. "From the high flying, explosive metal mayhem of Stunt Rock to Thunder Cops' disembodied flying head chaos, each 3 minute masterpiece is like a beckoning portal to another, more exciting dimension," says Nilsen.