Hello everybody, and welcome back to Disconnected. I'm here with Ross from Saturn's
Core Audio and Video, which, in my opinion, one of the most
exciting and interesting partner labels of any of your syndrome. Ross, how are
you doing today? I'm doing well. Happy to be on the show.
Always enjoy your videos. So thanks for having me. Thanks. That means
the world. I mean, I was shocked when you said you watch.
It's so weird when you hear somebody that's, you know, running one of
these labels that they share that they've seen something like this. And I think
that a brand like Saturn's Core will ever get enough love. And I am
always happy to share that appreciate it. So, I mean, Saturn's Core,
how do you how do you get into this from the very beginning?
Have you always been into physical media? Oh? Yeah, I mean I
mean look at the background first of all. Yeah, I mean this is
all VHS. Started buying vhs like in eighty seven. I would say that's
when I first started buying movies basically, and then you know the massive,
massive VHS collection, upgraded everything onto DVD, upgraded everything on the Blu Ray,
upgrading everything onto UHD. You do, but still have a lot of
love for VHS and the analog format. Obviously, the analog format is a
great question because a lot of people tend to scoff at Saturn's Core. So
what, how would you like describe the specialty behind Saturn's Core. Well,
I mean Saturn's Course started actually in twenty fourteen, right, and it was
a VHS label. So basically I was licensing VHS rights for movies mostly shot
on video, but some that were shot on film, underground stuff that I
was a fan of, and just releasing very limited runs twenty five pieces,
thirty five pieces and just selling them online. And you know, did well
with that and then I really never thought that it would turn into a Blu
Ray label. But here we are, and yeah, I mean very happy
with the way things are going. So but yeah, I mean, look,
shot on video movies, it's never going to be for everybody, you
know what I mean. I mean these movies were reviled at the time they
came out, regardless of how innovative they are. People just could not wrap
their heads around the format because for some people, it's not a movie,
it's a video. For me, I mean, I grew up renting dhs,
and that's when I fell in love with movies. And I guess based
on growing up in the late eighties early nineties with MTV and cable access,
like video never bothered me, Like I just instantly accepted it. When I
rented you know, stuff like video violence and death Row Diner and redneck zombies,
you know stuff I rented in the eighties, Blood Culton boarding House,
I just instantly accepted it. And as you know, a fan of underground
music and punk music, to me, it was like a very attainable format.
You know, you did need studio backing, or you didn't need you
know, studio execs or notes or test audiences. It's just you were only
limited by you know, the filmmaker's imagination in his pocketbook. And somehow these
movies would end up in the video store, like right next to Kerry or
like whatever the studios had to offer. So really sort of the last bastion
of you know, that drive in era, that film hucksterism, where all
kinds of things were just sort of popping up on shelves and people were renting
these things unbeknownst. But I feel like since then that a lot of a
lot of people are not so put off by that format anymore. I feel
like some people are coming around to it, and then there's a huge audience
of people that just love shot on video movies like period. Right. But
yeah, it's not for everyone, and we get it. That's fine.
And you, I mean you still do some of the VHS stuff, right,
Yeah, I mean we put out one VHS last year. We're definitely
gonna do some this year. They're usually tied to like some kind of event
that we host or something where they start exclusive to the event and then whatever
is left over we kind of put into our store and sell the rest off.
But yeah, we plan on doing some things that are VHS exclusive,
so that's hopefully going to continue. Interesting. I'm kind of taken by what
you just said a moment ago about the last bashion of the DIY aspect and
talking about growing up with punk and perhaps that's why a lot of what I
have inside of me and I've never really approached this so pardoned me. But
my mind's blowing a little bit. I grew up in like the indie punk
scene in southern California, so I've always been attached to SOOV stuff in an
odd way. I've not been able to put it into words, but thinking
about that, I mean, this is truly like the garage show of cinema.
This is the sort of thing that you know, is the house show
of it. It's it's below indie basically. Yeah, And it was really
the same time that I started going to you know, punkin hardcore shows in
like ninety three ninety four. That's when it really took off. Yeah,
is when the SOOV thing in my eyes sort of exploded. You know.
I mean in the eighties you had a lot of movies that were shot on
video, but there wasn't like a unified scene, and there wasn't fanzines and
stuff. I don't think the filmmakers really knew one another. It was all
just sort of like happening here and there. But you know, in that
era in the nineties, like mainstream horror was awful. I mean, you
know, it was just all like bad sequels and Stephen King adaptations. And
then you know, I started to stop reading reading Fangoria because like it had
you know, the Adams family on the cover, And that's when I discovered
film threat and alternative cinema and Drakuelina and all these magazines and started buying the
movies from the ads, and my head just exploded. Like ninety four,
particularly as you could probably see from Saturn's Core, We've probably released like ten
movies from nineteen ninety four and there were more coming. I just feel like
that year was so amazing. I just kept buying things that just blew my
mind. And so that's really like, you know, I mean, I
continued on all the way, you know, through the two thousands and watching
and loving shot on video stuff. What's funny is you mentioned you've done ten
from ninety four. You've happened, as far as my count is correct,
through the partner label, put out ten so far. Yeah, we haven't
really then, but with your eleventh already announced for this month, so I'm
curious, how do you make the jump from VHS to Vinegar Centron partner label.
Well, that came essentially from the documentary that I co directed with my
partner in Saturn's Core, which is William Hellfire, the legendary underground filmmaker.
We made a documentary called Mail Order Murder. We submitted it to many distributors
to try to find distribution, and one of the people that are groups that
responded was OCN and we signed a deal with them for distribution, and it
was right around the time that they were doing partner labels, starting the whole
partner label thing, you know, expanding it from beyond AGFA and some of
the others that were already there, and that that's how it happened, and
we decided to give a go to putting shot on video movies on Blu Ray.
You know, based sort of around the first ten or fifteen minutes of
Male Order Murder is sort of like trying to encompass the entire like camcorder movie
movement, like in the span of ten minutes, like right, So I
think based on that was sort of like, you know, are people interested
in these things? And they definitely are, whether or not they're interested in
them on Blu Ray as a whole another discussion, I guess. I watched
Male Order Murder again last night. This is my second or third time watching
it, and for those that haven't seen it, highly recommend it. It
is it is pretty much my favorite type of documentary and it's kind of hard
to it's not like a genre, but it's one of those things where it
is a group of people that I knew nothing about at that time, but
you can sense the sheer passion about what they were doing and how attached to
what they were and there's nothing negative about it at all. It's all presented
with a this is what was happening. They're happy. Look, how amazing
this is. Tadah, that's it. Yeah, it's an interesting thing.
If you're from New Jersey. It's sort of I don't know, we just
kind of took it for granted basically, and you know, it's just wave
is a thing that you know, everybody in Jersey knows about for the most
part, especially if you attend conventions and stuff. But he quickly realized that,
like, nobody outside of New Jersey really knows about this, and that
is what sort of spawned the whole thing. I mean, not to toot
my own horn, but I think that I may be one of the only
people that has been watching and buying and collecting wave movies, not for any
sexual proclivity whatsoever, just for the fact that to watch them as like brain
melting cinema, and so you know, I have probably two hundred and fifty
original wave tapes, which I was outside of like some pervert old man,
that's probably the largest play with collection that there is. But yeah, I
just I just always enjoyed watching that group of people have to, you know,
interact in the parameters of what some financier decided that, you know,
they should do that day. And I like the sort of played pretend aspect
of it. And obviously my partner William worked with Wave and directed Wave features,
and so when we hooked up and became good friends, I just was
constantly talking about Wave. We started watching Wave movies and I wanted to write
away book, and he convinced me that we should make a documentary, which
is what we did. I say, why not both, It's clear the
way you directed this that there is an obvious passion in it, and I
can't imagine how great a book could be, and so many of the stills
that could litter those pages. I'm assuming that there's a treasure trove of history
backtor Well, yeah, I mean, as you know, it's it's a
catalog of nearly four hundred features. We probably used about ten percent of those
features and clips in the movies, so it's never ending. I could still
be pulling clips for that documentary. It's a never ending treasure trove. I
guess to me, I think that this is the obvious clear way to get
into Saturn's core for anybody that's looking through any of these that have been released
so far. And obviously we only have ten here with an eleventh on the
way. But one big thing that you brought up already is making the jump
for mesov so Blu Ray. So I'm curious how and I'm not gonna put
this down that this is not meant as a gotcha or anything like that.
What do you use to rationalize putting shot on video on Blu Ray? Well,
to me, it just seems like that that's the format that everyone likes
to watch their movies in at this point, right, And I definitely feel
like there's I mean, there's been lots of companies that were doing them on
DVD, like a lot earlier than we were, of course, but there
seemed to be some back and forth about does anybody want this on you know,
SRS Cinema has been doing them on Blu Ray for a long time,
Ron Delly, But I think the most eye opening would probably make Flix.
Jared Bookwalter, I mean the results that he was getting on his releases was
pretty eye opening. And you know, if you uh, you know,
you can only do so much. As we put the warning on the boxes,
they're they're limited to the you know, to the format. You know,
you can only do so much. But you have to keep in mind
that these features were most cases edited using equipment that every time you laid music
in, every time you laid effects in, you're going down at generation,
down a generation, down a generation. So the versions of these movies that
we've all been watching for years, whether they be on DVD or vhs,
are third fourth generation in some cases. And when you use the technology that
you have now and do basically what you know we did with Shattered Dead and
take the original tapes and replace each shot which you know the director Speoter McCrae
oversaw and did. I mean, the results are pretty amazing. So,
I mean, certainly polarizing movie has its fans, has its taters, and
that's fine, but I think it's hard to deny, based on the DVDs
and tapes that have come out, that that is a huge jump in quality
from what we've seen previously. And the other thing is that you know,
we can load these things with special features like endlessly We're putting entire second movies
on there for people, trying to load them up with as much content so
that it's basically the be all end all release until the next format comes,
whatever that may be, then you'll get all of them on one disc.
Right. So, you know, when I'm talking to filmmakers and trying to
convince them to, you know, so let us put their movie out,
I basically say, you know this is let this be the be all end
all. Let this be a snapshot into that era of when you were making
this. So we want everything. We want your short films, your music
videos, your photos, you're you know, anything that you got, your
industrial videos and commercials, and like we can just load all that stuff on
the disc because we're not using the space to house you know, four K
transfers. So well, you took one of the things I was about to
say is I've had a lot of people ask me why, you know a
lot of the shot on video, Why would I buy it on Blu ray?
You know, we don't need it. It's not getting any quality uptick.
And there's two things I always tell them. The first is that DVD
is a lot more scratch resistant. They are way more prone to wear than
blue rays. The format itself, it is leaps and bounds, and a
lot of people that haven't made that jump truly don't understand that. Yeah,
but the storage man, that is the biggest argument is I I was really
ready with this long list of thank you simply to you, because the amount
of content on some of these discs is fucking mind blowing. It is ridiculous
what is on here. And I mean literally multiple films, tons of you
know, behind the scenes featurettes, interviews, an old late night you know
showing up on some public access TV show. It's incredible everything you're getting for
these And I think that alone is enough to welcome this as like a win
for archival reasons, right, that's another reason. Yeah, Yeah, I'm
blown away. I really wish people would actually make the jump into check some
of these out and hence wanting to have you on here. I've been wanting
this for a long time, and I really once I got a couple more
under my belt, I was like, Okay, now I can finally come
up and talk and reach out. And I mean, this is I think
legitimately one of the most important partner labels that we have right now. Because
of how much could be lost if we don't shine a light on some of
these creators. Yeah, and and with a lot of these movies, you
know, we're scanning and encoding these master tapes and I mean we're baking them
because they're destroyed to get the image off of them. So like, this
stuff is on the verge of disappearing, so let's preserve it, let's archive
it. And for the people that love this stuff, which is a large
audience, they they love having this stuff with the fancy slip cover and stuff
exactly. It's you know, like I said, it's not for everybody,
and that's fine, but and I'm seeing that, you know, I think
it's helping to turn the corner seeing that, you know. I mean,
Severn just put out a shot on video movie on Blu Ray, so you
know where previously all of theirs Interivision stuff was DVD. So I think we're
gonna see more of it, which I think it's cool. I agree,
And I think that a lot of that as you guys to think for it.
So I'm curious because I enjoyed this so damn much. Is there anything
else like this in your future? Any other documentaries you want to work on.
I mean that is uh, definitely something we want to explore. I
mean we're still you know, the Saturn's Core thing has kept us pretty busy,
I'm sure, especially with the amount of releases we've done. But you
know, we certainly plan at some point of doing a now a documentary.
It's just a matter of finding the right topic and at you know, I'm
with you, you know, I love movies, documentaries about making movies,
so it would probably be something in that vein. But we're still kind of
writing the Wave of Mail or Murder. We were just nominated for a Fangloria
chainsaw Award for Best Documentary, so I saw that's awesome. Uh, curious
on that too, the way the documentary was made. How how do a
lot of these people look back on their work, because some of them,
some of the bigger names, you can tell that they they look at it
fairly fondly, and a couple of them with minor like why anybody into this?
But uh, what what do you get the general feel from a lot
of these people. I think it's a mixed boat. You're talking about the
people from Wave that are like in Mail or Murder. Ye, I think
it's a mixed boat. I mean some most of them look back obviously,
look back on it fondly. Anyone who doesn't wasn't said no, you know
what I mean, like I don't want to appear in your doc write so
which was very few. It's probably like two people that said though from from
the Wave Gang, because Gary is still making Wave movie, you know,
and like it's all the same girls, like they're still doing it, so
obviously it's not a thing that they look back on poorly. And obviously,
you know, the interesting thing is that they all became scream queens like their
their job is acting, you know what I mean. So like they got
their star doing some silly shit with Wave for sure, but like now they're
you know, actresses that act for a living. So you know, I
think most all look at it fondly. And you could see some of them
think that it's good work and some of them think that it's ridiculous work,
and you know, both have their merits. So one of I mean,
the scream queen aspect was one of my favorite parts of the documentary. When
you had somebody show up at a convention and suddenly have notoriety from literally doing
if I understood it right, literally one film. Yeah, and that,
I mean, that's such an amazing turn for somebody to go from away film
into scream queen status. The nineties was an interesting time for scream queens.
I mean, obviously, you know we had Linea and Brink and Michelle from
the eighties. But you know where I am in North Jersey, We're right
by Chiller Theater, and Chiller Theater was wild, man. I mean,
you could be a scream queen and not even have been in a movie there.
We're just like scantily clad girls there, like signing autographs like it didn't
really matter. It was a very interesting place for the creation of instant scream
queens. You know, the wild wild West of scream queens. I love
it. Yeah, yeah, So, I mean the big thing. Have
you guys even missed a month with the release since you put out Mail Order
Murder? I don't put out so many. I don't believe we have,
but I could be wrong, but that that is such an immense accomplishment for
jumping in feet first into something like this, I mean with Mail Order Murder.
Obviously, on a documentary like that, you hope that you're going to
get the interest, but to follow that up with I mean, we're up
to already ten more releases, and assuming there's a lot more on the way,
that is an incredible start. That's amazing. Thanks. Well. I
mean a big part of it is the filmmakers that we're working with like our
friends. They're my friends too, you know what I mean. So,
like, there are people that I've been communicating with as a fan for many,
many years, and in a lot of cases, in the case of
Psychosisters and Savage Harvest, we did them on tape already, so there was
already a relationship there to say, hey, we have this opportunity, are
you interested in doing this on Blu Ray? And so a lot of it
was just sort of like checking back in with people to see if they were
interested in wouldn't be I mean, you know, the audience for these things
was always so small, and now is the opportunity for probably hundreds of people
to check these movies out, and you know, probably hundreds of them are
going to hate it and never want to see another movie by that filmmaker.
But there is gonna be a majority of a small majority of people that are
gonna be like, wow, this is cool, Like I want to see
what else this guy or this gal made, and you know, check out
what they're doing now, because a lot of these people are still making movies
today. So I don't necessarily want to have you go through every single one,
But is there certain releases that stand out as maybe not just somebody's entrance
into so OV, but maybe an entrance into Saturn's core that represent you personally
more than any of the others. Well, obviously the wave stuff we've done
is very decisive, but I mean, I our aesthetic is basically either really
innovative stuff or like really brain damage stuff. So we're kind of like it's
one or the other. And that's sort of where you know, my love
and film altogether kind of is. So you know, I mean to me,
Shattered Dead is one of the greatest, most innovative, thought provoking,
never mind shot on video films, just independent films, zombie film like no
other. And this is the back for everybody that doesn't have it, and
so, uh, you know, Scooter's work is really amazing. The movies
of Charles Pinion, Red Spirit Lake and we await, I mean, Charles
is someone that I've been a fan of for a really long time, and
you know it is not only part of the shot on Video Universe, but
was also you know, tapped into the sort of New York underground on cinema
transgression scene. So really great soundtrack, very interesting cast if you're into underground
movies, and just super innovative and weird. Brad from Vinegar Syndrome was on
here just a few weeks ago and really talked up Burglar from Hell. What
do you what is your personal history with that one. I have a pretty
deep history with Burglar from Hell. Obviously, I'm a fan from the VHS
days, and I screamed Burglar from Hell at the Alamo Draft House here in
New York, and we did that several years ago, and then I screamed
it again at the Morning Drive In Outdoors on the Giant drive in screen,
and so I've been kind of pushing Burglar from Hell along and singing its praises
over the years, and so doing it we did it on tape, and
doing it on a Blu ray was sort of a no brainer. What was
holding us back was that the Masters were believed to be destroyed, oh no,
Superstorm Sandy, so there was really nothing to work with and then Lo
and Behold, like Kiss met. Right around the time that the Saturn's Core
Thing Blu Ray thing happened, the director Phil Hermann found a box in his
closet with the SVHS master of Burger from Hell and he's never before released the
debut the Wrong Side of the Town, Wrong Side of Town, which is
also on the disk, and a few others. So the masters were just
recently unearthed, and that's what prompted us to do a Blu ray. That
is amazing. And from what I remember, Sandy seemed to take out like
a crazy amount of masters, and not just like smaller things like this.
There's a lot of random ass movies that were just lost during that storm.
Yeah, certainly here on the East Coast we hear that a lot from filmmakers
when we reach out for either art or masters or things, you know,
with tapes obviously destroyed and it's just like you know, with film, it
happens. So that was a wild week. I it was, I believe
it was twenty twelve when that happened. I worked for the federal government and
I was a part of some leadership training thing and I had to fly into
d C twice and the second time. I flew in on Sunday, and
that was the weekend that Sandy hit. So I went there and I was
staying in the hotel right next to FEMA headquarters. Yeah, that was a
weird time. I lost like half of my seminar because of the storm.
Yeah, so obviously you have all kinds of stuff. Oh there is this
one got announced and all kinds of people were up in arms over what it
was about. Why don't you share some thoughts about Duck? Okaycre Yeah,
I mean Duck is a movie that is very infamous here on the East Coast.
Obviously, it was directed by William Hellfire, who is the co owner
of Saturn's Core and my directing partner on Mail or Murder. And it's probably
his most known film because it was made literally weeks after the Columbine tragedy,
and it's again it's a very decisive film. You know, some people are
appalled by it, and people say that it shouldn't exist, and you know,
and I don't really feel that any movie shouldn't exist. You know,
if the drive Ins were still alive, there would have been a Columbine movie.
There would have been a nine to eleven movie. You know, exploitative
movie. So that's what Duck is. And obviously, you know, William
was arrested when making it, and so it got all over the news here.
It was on every news station, hard copy and Nancy Grace and and
you know, I mean, we had all of that news stuff, and
we have the masters for Duck, and you know the he has the rights,
So it was one of the Yeah, it was one of the first
things that we discussed when we wanted to start doing Blu rays was doing done
so and every time it comes out its controvers It was when it came out
on DVD, it was pulled from Best Buy, and it's just everywhere it
goes still because you know, from what it was made to now, the
school shooting thing has not gotten any better. It's just got worse. So
it continues to be controversial everywhere goes. And again it's not for everybody,
but we think that it's important and worth checking out. So I pretty much
feel the same way about any type of movie like that. And it's important
to really remember how much art can play a role in I mean shared like
Catharsis, as a society, as a country, as a family. There's
so many different things, and people have a different way to cope. And
you don't have to watch everything. You don't have to. I mean,
if it puts you off, don't watch it. But there's you know,
one thing I say on here all the time is that everybody is Every film
has been somebody's favorite film, and even something like Duck somebody has found an
immense appreciation for sure, guaranteed. Yeah, So for you as a person,
maybe outside of SOOV, what are some some other major films that have
shaped you? I mean I like all kinds of stuff from the uh you
know, artsist fartsist art films, the you know, Criterion stuff too,
obviously, the you know, dregs of the cinematic bottom of the barrel.
But you know, some of my favorite filmmakers are probably you know, outside
of the the you know, s O. V. Realm Are, Lars
von Trier, Alejandro Jodorowski, Andreas Lawawski. But you know, I mean
I love Argento and Folci and Sergio Martino and all the Italian stuff and all
the classic horror that everybody loves, like Carpenter and Craven and all of that
stuff. So, uh, just about everything. I'm probably more tough on
mainstream stuff than I am. You know, like I'll I'll get in there
and you know, critique a Christopher Nolan movie, you know, real good.
But you know then I'll come home and you know, watch splatterfuck.
So you almost have to critique those movies, I mean, take them down
a notch, make them understand that they're just a movie, just like everything
else. Right, And I watch I mean pre Pandemic. I went to
the movies every week. I see all the art house movies that come out,
and you know, do my little top fifteen list every year. So
I'm watching everything both genre and you know, our house pretty much. So
that's fantastic. I again just want to share how much I'm excited that stuff
like this continues to come out. It is again, I don't really understand
why the whole shot on video on Blu Ray is controversial, especially when you
dig into why there's so much that you can fill on these discs and the
storage alone is mind blowing that you can do with it. So I thank
you. I commend you for Saturn's Core. Obviously it's called Saturn's Core Audio
and Video. What other stuff can people look into to support you that's not
on the VINEGERSONERM website because obviously a lot of these people are going to one
site and buying everything and calling it today. But you're bigger than that.
Yeah, I mean, we have a big cartel site where we put the
tapes in and stuff. Most of our stuff was super limited, so it's
mostly sold out, but there are a few where the directors did not request
them to be limited, so there are some tapes on there that people can
buy. Beyond that, I contribute to other companies discs and stuff. I
do a lot with make Flix, Jare book Walter do a lot of commentary.
I write all the liner notes for his releases and stuff like that.
And beyond that, you know, we Saturn's Core is the co host year
along with lunch Meat magazine for the VHS Fest at the Mahoning drive In,
so anyone that's on the East Coast. It's a two day thing where we
play VHS error movies at the drive in on the huge outdoor screen projected from
VHS tapes, So we literally put the tape in the VCR and then it
plays on the giant drive in screen and we bring out guests. We've had
Liney Quickly and Fred Olin Ray and Mark Polonia and Jared Bookwalter and lots of
people that directed Saturn's quorter movies like Eric Stanzy and pe Chack Alone and they
DISTI own and we do it every year. It's July eighth and ninth at
the Mahoning drive in. This year, you line up and guests have not
been announced, and it's two days. During the day, it's a giant
physical media swap meet, so I mean it's mostly tapes and tape training,
but there are lots of DVDs and blue rays there that is awesome. I
got to ask, how does something like Burglar from Hell play for a crowd
at a drive in. I mean, people that come to that event know
what's up. You know, they know that they're going to watch some pretty
brain damage and ship. So the more brain damaged it is usually the better
it goes over. So Burglar from Help played great, and uh you know,
like I said, we played Savage Harvest on the giant outdoor screen and
uh, you know, we've done all kinds of stuff, killing spree and
all kinds of wild stuff. That is another one. A lot of people
complained that it was coming out on Blu Ray and we're saying this is shot
on video. Why is it on Blu Ray? It's not shot on video.
That's one of the biggest misconceptions the entire micro budget movie scene. Is
that Killing Spree and Truth and Truth or dare shot on video. I don't
know why, but I don't get it. Just the thing. All you
gotta do is go on IMDb and click the button that says format and you'll
see there's a bunch of them. I mean Leaf Jonker's Darkness, which were
shot on Super eight Wisconsin. I've seen like Horror Hound Magazine put that,
like top sovs and others, The Abomination and you know a lot of Super
eight stuff seems to get sort of mixed in. I mean it's similar aesthetic.
But yeah, no reason that Killing Spree should not be on You're right,
and it looks great. I mean that new release that just came out
from TerrorVision looks fantastic. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh, No Resistance you just
announced that one. Can you dive in and try to get some people hyped
up for that, maybe sell some copies. Sure, No Resistance is one
that I it's from nineteen ninety four, and it's another one that I saw
right around that time that just totally blew my mind. I mean, at
the time it was a a cyberpunk thing, so it seemed very futuristic,
and now it's sort of, you know, not so futuristic, but it
still was very prophetic in a lot of ways about what was going to happen
with technology. And the director, Tim Thompson is an incredibly intelligent, smart
guy, and I had contacted him about doing a tape way back and we
were just talking and talking about it and never got around to it, and
then when the Blu Ray thing came, it was like a perfect opportunity to
do it. But you know, obviously it gets comparisons to Blade Runner and
stuff, but yes, it's it's shot on video, so it's it's not
Blade Runner, but it's definitely you know, I I usually put it in
the realm of like dead Beat a don it's probably Yeah, it's probably the
first thing that we've done that is you know, sort of in the action
realm and in the sci fi realm and kind of less horror. Definitely not
slasher, but if you like the boundary pushing innovative s ofv stuff that we've
done, like Shattered Dead like the Charles Pinion stuff. No Resistance like fits
in that aesthetic like so perfectly. And I think that the reason why people
are a little unsure about it is because it's like never been released on physical
media basically, right, it was released on a VHS tape but was like
basically just distributed regionally around Texas. So there has never been a DVD and
obviously has never been a Blu ray and the tape, I mean, I
have one, but I don't know any other human besides the filmmakers that happen.
So, and we're gonna be doing a lot of that Saturn's core.
It's something we did with the v Chess releases that I want to continue with
the Blu rays is basically putting out stuff that has never been out period,
either was distributed through mail order or just regionally or in some cases never at
all. So there's gonna be more of that stuff coming. But yeah,
if you like edgy cyberpunk action stuff, No Resistance is a hot ticket.
And the trailer looks great, genuinely looks like a very exciting release for you
guys. Again, loaded all kinds of commentaries and interviews and music video featurettes.
I think I saw on there just all kinds of stuff on here and
it's region free, so anybody can purchase this one, multiple music videos looking
at it now, trailers. So he was a Houston He's from Houston,
right, I know it's set in Houston. Yeah. Yeah. Did they
have a big scene like that to what's that? Did they have a big
s of v scene down there? There were somewhere, but yeah, yeah.
But you know, with Tim, he kind of had a little group,
was a lunatic fringe. His writing partners are the actors in the films,
and they had a little collective. They made No Resistance. They did
another short afterwards that was part of one of the Creature Realm movies, which
was like a shot on video anthology that Kevin Lindamith made. So that's the
only other Tim Thompson thing that's kind of been released on vhs and stuff.
But this definitely has the best I would I would say the best featurette that
we've had on any release so far. The Cyberpunk You Jimbo featurette with Tim
Thompson is pretty amazing. The whole history of the project with tons of photos
and like the whole backstory of the whole production. So that's the kind of
thing I love. I can't wait to dive into that one when I get
it at the end of the month. Again, I'm going to link the
store below and other than that, other than linking all the releases or is
anything else you want people to share get excited about for the future. I
know you can't reveal any titles, but anything that you can tease or allude
to. I mean, we've got a lot coming and you know, we're
going to continue to do it as long as they let us do it,
and you know, we hope people dig it. And you know, I
just want to thank everybody that's been checking them out. And you know,
I mean people that love shot on video movies are the easy ones to get
because everybody wants this stuff. You know, has the overall has the response
been decent? I'm I'm happy, you know. You know, some of
our slipcovers are getting low in numbers and stuff, so I think people are
are checking stuff out, and you know you can usually get them at conventions
and stuff, you know where vinegar syndromen c end titles are set up,
so a lot of people are checking them out that way, which is really
cool. And again because of O c N. You can get these literally
Amazon, you can get them through tart last I checked, right, they're
all for sale yeah, Amazon, targeting on Target, Walmart online obviously.
You know. Wait, I can't get Burglar from Hell in store at Walmart
be able to special order, no slipcover. Uh yeah, that's right.
Again. I there's not much else I can do other than you just constantly
praise you because there is so much that you can feel. The passion and
the connection to a lot of these come through, and when when a label
comes out that genuinely gives that off, it is so exciting and so easy
to attach to because you if you watch enough of them, you feel like
you're involved. You feel like you're somebody that has immersed themselves in this culture,
in this brand and been a part of it. And you, even
just ten releases deep, are clearly giving that off. Thank you. Yeah,
And I mean, you know, Bill and I are curating the saturns
core stuff, and like we're just releasing movies that we like. So everything
that we release, you know, we're not looking to release every shot on
video movie ever made, that is, but we're just trying to put stuff
out that we love and kind of say, hey, you know, this
one we think is important. Check it out, see what you think.
You know. So everything that we put out comes with my sealing of approval
anyway. It's genuinely a movie that I love that I'm very passionate about,
which is why I, you know, weasel my way into the commentaries and
everything. So, uh, last, just last ditch pitch out of the
ten that'll come out already, is there one that maybe people are not appreciating
as much as you think they should and you hope they jump onto. I
mean, I feel like they've all been appreciated about the same. I guess
probably one that we didn't talk about, a Savage Harvest, which you also
have a long long history with. It's you know, Eric Stanzy is still
making movies that are totally incredible, and he's to me, is just like
the indie Cronenberg. Like the guy just has been making movies since the early
nineties and he just puts one out every two or three years and they're all
amazing. They're all genre, but you can watch his progression as a filmmaker.
Like obviously Savage Harvest is like unevil dead type ump with chainsaw violence and
demons and all kinds of crazy shit. But like he is, you know,
at this point, he is making like really challenging, thought provoking genre
fair So Savage Harvest is a good place to start with with Eric's work,
and then just I recommend everybody just follow it to where he's at now.
His latest is called In Memory Of and it's absolutely amazing. So I love
his stuff and I'm really happy to be working with him. So it's one
of the cool things about not just shot on video, but a lot of
the indie stuff that seems to go into the radar for a lot of people
is the the budget limitations really kind of inspires that the obvious creativity that is
required for some of these because you want shots, but you don't have one
hundred thousand dollars to make a shot, so you have to go and find
a way to you know, literally, like in Mail Order Murder, you
smear cow liver across your belly to make it look like you're being ripped apart
or something, and it's it makes it that much more tangible in such a
beautiful way. At the end of the day, Yeah, you could see
a lot of innovation and stuff, and you know, a lot of thought
put put into stuff, and then on the flip of the coin, there's
like there's no one to censor anybody and be like no, like you shouldn't
you know, have sex with that ventral I was dummy, Like, you
know, like there's just anything can happen in some of these and some of
them are just so jaw dropping that like they hurt your brain. So and
then, like I said, that's kind of the the the gamut that we're
running is like, you know, really what we consider to be important.
And you know, I'm not going to sit here and tell anybody that sororitians
sorority slaughter is like an important piece of work. It is what it is.
It's you know, they wash a car for like six minutes, you
know, but there was nobody there to be like, no, you can't.
You can't wash a car for six minutes, you know. So it
is a brain damaging, you know, in the same way that champagne and
bullets is. You know, it has its charm, so right, that
is something to keep in mind with a lot of these things. Obviously they
had a reason to be made. Most of them have found an audience,
and perhaps you could be a part of that audience. So please check out
Saturn's Core all the links from the description below. Ross, thank you so
much for your time. I've appreciated everything. You're fantastic. Thanks Ryan,
thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate it happily. Hopefully we
can talk again soon and until next time, Like I always say, from
one collector to all of you, have a good night. Tell me no