We all enjoy a good old school B-movie, but there are so many out there that finding new ones to watch can be a daunting task. Enter the new book It Came From the Video Aisle!: Inside Charles Band’s Full Moon Entertainment Studio, which gives a thorough account of the ’90s most legendary B-movie studio and all of the obscure titles it had to offer.
If you’re not familiar (you are), Charles Band’s Full Moon Features produced a number of cult films during the “Golden Age” of VHS home video; the types of films whose wild covers would entice you as you made your way through the aisles at your local Blockbuster. We’re talking movies like Demonic Toys, Dollman, and Mandroid, as well as franchises such as Trancers and Puppet Master — plus tons more awesome movies you’ve likely never even heard of (Castle Freak, anyone?). The new book, compiled by Dave Jay, William S. Wilson, and Torsten Dewi, contains over 60 interviews with the cast and crew who worked on these campy treasures, and also features 430 images that range from rare examples of artwork to posters to behind-the-scenes photos — many of which have never been published before.
Here’s the publisher’s official statement on the book:
“Full Moon transformed the VHS experience for fans worldwide, bringing the inner workings of the movie-making process into the living room, and in turn creating a ravenous fanbase that remains to this day. This book tracks the history of the company, from its late ’80s birth among the ruins of the American drive-in through to its bid to survive in the modern digital world … This is an essential read for any cult film fan still lamenting the death of the ‘mom ‘n’ pop’ video store.”
In other words, this is a book for all of us. The 480 page tome will be available in October from Schiffer Publishing, where it retails for $34.99. You can both preview the book and pre-order it here.
