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Hey couch potatos! It's Dr. Shock! What's that you say? Who the hell is Dr. Shock? Well, if you have to ask that, then you must not be from the Toledo, Ohio area. Dr. Shock appeared late, every Saturday night from 1989 until 1992 on his own program "Dr. Shock's X-Ray Chiller Theater", and treated the people of Ohio to a manically lunatic journey into the macabre! Horror flicks were the name of the game, and like any true Horror Host, the Doctor soon had a cult following. Unfortunatly, sometimes the almighty dollar replaces common sense and in a travesty of justice, Dr. Shock was replaced with late night infomercials. Wasn't that around the time of the Thigh Master? Wow, I don't see a lot of those around anymore! But you know what I do see? F*@#ING horror movies! And that is all thanks to guys like Dr. Shock! You see, when it came time for Doug Agosti (Dr. Shock) to hang up his x-ray glasses and laboratory coat, he says to himself..."I can do this", and the next thing you know, he is on set doing special make-up FX for independent filmmakers. Soon enough, this experience is taken behind the lens, and Agosti is cranking out a series of horrifically low-budget gross out fright flicks. Now, to properly understand the tenacity of the good Doctor, you need to understand that the way he got his job on TV was by making a tape and shopping it around. Grassroots baby. But the way he films his movies? Oh yeah, even MORE grassroots. You see, when Agosti and his partner in crime, Lance Otto Smith, start making movies, they do it on a VHS camcorder. That's right. No digital, no lights, no sound, no budget, no equipment. We are talking VHS tape technology here. These two guys, and their production company After Shock Productions (GET IT! After (Dr.) Shock!) shoot their films on weekends, on and off, with no crew and again...no equipment. Aspiring filmmakers, take some notes. So what IS the budget for one of these grisly exploits? Well, in the case of The Town That Loved Pizza, about $350 bux. That's less than some people pay for their camera case...people who aren't out there shooting films! So now, after 3 years of filmmaking, Dr. Shock has a few short films under his belt, that have been wildly successful in his home market and widely received on Internet venues. It is only natural that eventually the circulating video tapes would gather some attention and these babies would get picked up for distribution. As Dr. Shock put it, "We figure if we throw enough shit out there, somebody's gonna step in it." Soon enough, Darrin R. of Brain Damage Films has got himself a steaming pile of After Shock Productions droppings on his shoe, that he sees for what it is...a releasable set of four short films. The best news for everyone? Dr. Shock will RETURN to host the DVD! And in the words of another fine Doctor, "It's Alive!". Dr. Shock's Tales Of Terror is born! So what we have here are the first four masterpieces of madness by these two gentlemen, which I will summarize for you now. "The Garden Tool Murders" is about a series of murders committed with...well that one is pretty easy to guess from the title now isn't it? Basically, if you have ever wanted to see a face get torn off by a fan belt, always dreamed of a disembowelment by hedge-trimmer, or if you just didn't get enough lawnmower action from Dead Alive...this is the short film for you. The story is...well, damn, there is no story. And the plot is...well, yeah, no plot either. Actually, there really isn't a whole lot here except some people, a park, a tool shed, and a lot of tools getting covered in gore. Surprisingly though, this was one of my favorite of the entries; even though it was the studio's first! The gore effects in "The Garden Tool Murders" are on a different level than on any of the subsequent shorts. Gore junkies, this one is for you! "Demon's Day" takes a look into the strange realm of cloning. Now cloning isn't all that strange on its own, but consider if you will, what would happen if one were to clone THE DEVIL! Dum-dum-dum... You got it folks, dueling devils! There is a lot less in the way of gore on this particular tale, but things get pretty wild with more Halloween-mask demons running about than you can handle. Throw in some special effects (fireworks?) for some magical demon-battles and you have a royal rumble of Biblical proportions; all shot in Hell-O-Vision of course! A unique idea to be sure, but "Demon's Day" is the one (and only?) weak link on this disc. "The Town That Loved Pizza" marked a return to the basics of gore-galore for After Shock. I can only describe this tale as Blood Feast meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre...but all done hillbilly style! Two crazed backwoods hicks (these guys could be right neighborly with those Wrong Turn folks) set up their pizzeria just outside of town and quickly begin gathering the necessary ingredients. The sign that says "Meat Pizza Only" should give you some idea of what is going on, but if it doesn't...let's just say some folks go missing, and that the most expensive part of this film's production was the rental of a wood chipper. 'Nuff said about that, I would say. Don't worry, not all the gore comes out in a red spray, as there are plenty of hooks lodged in spines and hands through meat grinders. This short is good eatin'!! "Bullet For A Vampire" is the most stylish project, and the most recent. Coincidence? Probably not, since the After Shock guys have expressed interest in doing something with a budget some time in the future. I for one am surprised that hasn't happened yet (hey Rob, these guys would be a great help for that House Of 1000 Corpses sequel!). We have all seen the mob and vampires mixed up a time or two (think Innocent Blood), but I have never seen the mob, vampires and fortune teller voodoo in the same film! When a Mob Boss' men ruff up a local fortune teller, she creates a future for them all on her own by raising a corpse and transforming it into a vampire of vengeance. After saving the Boss' daughter from a violent assault, the vampire is welcomed into the Mob's fold...making his revenge that much easier. The first of the films to concentrate on script writing and dialog (much to the chagrin of the actress playing the daughter apparently), "Bullet For A Vampire" is a great showcase of Agosti and Smith's talent as filmmakers. Now, tie together all four of these rauchous and raunchy flicks with some over-the-top antics from Dr. Shock, and you have one hell of a way to spend an evening! For those of you who have never lived in a place that had a midnight horror host, or just long for those days of yore, pick this one up for a real treat. Gore hounds will also find a lot here that they can sink their teeth into. Regardless, this is by far one of the biggest "little" releases this year. And if After Shock Productions gets their way (and I am sure they will), we haven't seen the last of these folks by a long shot. Rumors abound about an eventual Dr. Shock's Scary Stories and Dr. Shock's Frightening Fables...and Agosti is again shopping around to get Dr. Shock back on the tube. Either way, I'll be his couch potato any day! -aaron-
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