Had a great time at the ‘VHS Resurrection’ event that was part of this year’s Monsterfest on November 30th. The proceedings kicked off at Cinema Nova in Carlton with a VHS Swapmeet, which I believe is the first one of its kind held to the public in Melbourne. My only issue here is that this part of the event really needed to be held in a more suitable venue, as there was no proper room for people to display their tapes, so videos ended up being dumped randomly everywhere on the cinema seats, creating confusion as to who they actually belonged to. Otherwise, I had lots of fun zipping around the piles of tapes, checking out rarities such as the rare hologram edition of THE VIDEO DEAD (which I haven’t seen since 1988!), THIS VIOLENT WORLD, CARNIVAL OF BLOOD and the ever-popular ISLAND OF PERVERSION.
Soon after the audience settled in to watch the superlative documentary VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP & VIDEOTAPE (its director, Jake West, was meant to be in attendance, but unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute). If you haven’t seen the doco yet about this sorry chapter in censorship history, do so now!!!! The DVD has just been officially released in Australia for a measly $25 (consisting of a triple-disc set and free ‘Video Nasties’ poster). Next up was a very welcome surprise screening of the shot-on-video laugh riot BOARDINGHOUSE. I’m truly glad that I finally got to see THIS masterpiece, the very studly Warwick Capper-esque director/leading man resplendent in his seXXXy leopard skin speedos and gold jewellery won't fail to give me nightmares for weeks on end.
The director/star of Boardinghouse, Warwick Capper...oops, John Wintergate
