One of George A. Romero‘s lesser known titles, mainly because it’s quite unlike any of his other output, this tale of a traveling troupe of motorcycle-riding jousters is often cited as one of his best by those that have seen it. This advance one sheet features superb artwork by the great Boris Vallejo. You’ll notice that the bike (a Honda CBX1000 apparently) has been rendered with careful detail and I’m a big fan of the tagline too. You might also spot that the title has been trademarked.

You can watch the trailer with or without a commentary from Mick Garris on the superb Trailers From Hell site.

Wonderfully detailed artwork by Ted CoConis for this classic fantasy tale directed by legendary puppeteer Jim Henson and starring David Bowie in one of his best-loved film roles as Jareth the Goblin King.

This is one of those films that had a huge impression on me as a child and there are countless scenes that have stuck with me to this day. The character design is superb and I’m particularly fond of Sir Didymus the fox knight and the detachable-limbed Fire Gang. The music is also hugely memorable and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has seen the film that can’t recite at least a few of the songs, with Bowie’s Dance Magic Dance being a definite favourite.

One particular costume worn by Bowie in the film has become fairly infamous. To see what I mean open up Google and type in ‘Labyrinth Bowie’ (without the quotes) and don’t hit enter. Notice what the first result in the more word suggestions field is!

Check out the recently released Manga Return to Labyrinth.

Here’s the original trailer.

This British quad for the sci-fi clunker Metalstorm was designed by Eddie Paul at the FEREF design agency and the artwork was painted by British artist Brian Bysouth. In 2012 I met and interviewed the artist and the resulting article can be read here.

Italian directors Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti are best known as the co-creators of the infamous Mondo Cane ‘shockumentary’, which consisted of a series of travelogue-style vignettes looking at strange cultural practices from around the world with the intention of shocking Western audiences. Made in 1962, the film had an emphasis on taboo subjects including sex, death, ritual killings and cannibalism, and it was such a success that it spawned a slew of sequels and copycat films, and created it’s own mondo genre of exploitation films. Despite being presented as genuine documentary footage, many of the scenes in mondo movies were clearly staged by the producers.

Mondo Candido, despite its title hinting at the previous shockumentaries in the series, is actually a fictional tale adapted from the popular satire Candide by the French author Voltaire. Unavailable on DVD and likely never shown on UK TV, it’s not a film I’m familiar with and there are a paucity of reviews on IMDb and other sites. One hints at the  broad outline of the film:

‘The plot concerns a very happy go lucky “skips everywhere with wild abandon” young man who falls madly in love with a princess. When he is caught in an inappropriate situation with her, he’s banned from the castle. Thus begins a quest to find his lady love and himself as he travels across a medieval landscape that becomes modern New York, Ireland and Israel. During the course of the journey he finds that all is not as happy and joyous as he once thought.’

Things apparently frequently take a turn into the surreal:

‘It starts off in period vein but then switches to more recent times and events (presumably for a greater political immediacy) – so that we see Candide & Co. involved with IRA bombings, Jewish freedom-fighters, even hippies; that said, it maintains a curious balance throughout of old and new: for instance, at one point Cunegonde is raped by a rocker dressed in a knight’s outfit(!) – which emerges to be perhaps the film’s comic/absurd highlight.’

It certainly sounds like an interesting watch and the full film is on YouTube should you be tempted.

This Japanese B2 poster clearly aims to emphasise the more violent, erotic elements of the film. Japan was one of only a handful of countries to release it theatrically in 1975.