I picked this disk set up because I like trailers. I had never heard of Stephen Romano who created this set (and whose name is on the title). Apparently a writer and screenwriter, Romano released a book called Shock Festival that spotlighted films that that did not exist. I have not read the book, so I cannot comment on it. To supplement that book, Romano released this DVD set, which included faux trailers for some of the "films" he created in his book. First off, the viewer is presented with a quandary. Are the fake trailers the main feature (they are listed first in the menu) or are the two disks of real trailers? I found it best for my enjoyment of the set to treat the fake trailers like a bonus feature.
Shock Festival features two feature length collection of trailers and two additional short collections. The first disk features "The Ultimate Exploitation Trailer Marathon." The description "Ultimate" might be pushing things a bit, but the collection did try to hit a variety of exploitation genres. Highlights included trailers for some of my personal favorites like The Last Days of Man on Earth, Venom, Venus in Furs, and Vice Squad. In addition, I now have to track down The Treasure of the Four Crowns based on its wild looking trailer (which began the set). Some trailers stumped me. The Female Animal, The Raiders of Leyte Gulf, The Seven Dwarfs to the Rescue, and Titillation (narrated by adult film actress Little Oral Annie) were all new to this viewer. I also got quite a bit of amusement from the teaser to the Albert Pyun's Captain America movie, which promises to be in theaters in 1990 (well, maybe a couple of theaters).
I am first a horror movie fan, so this first set is mildly disappointing for its lack of horror films. However, the second disk features a collection of only horror films. "The Ultimate Horror Marathon" kicks off with a personal favorite The Stuff and would deliver on trailers from Argento movies (Cat O' Nine Tails, Deep Red), Lucio Fulci projects (The 7 Doors of Death, and the Fulci produced The Curse), low budget ripoffs of Jaws (Great White, Grizzly), and bottom of the barrel schlock (Blood Sucking Freaks, Carnival of Blood). I was entertained and even stumped by one movie (Satan's Black Wedding).
In addition, disk two features TV spots, many for films that I am surprised got advertised (Beyond the Door II, Cry of the Prostitute), ten trailers for Independent International Pictures' movies, and a short interview with Sam Sherman who used to own IIP.
All of that are definite pluses. However, the much hyped fake trailers were neither convincing nor entertaining. The one (major) exception was the fun, brief trailer for Evolver. Most of the others looked like cheap 21st Century films trying to look like movies from an earlier time period. If these films really existed, Evolver is the only one I would watch. The trailers for the others failed to make me want to see the movies.
I also was not overly taken with what I heard from the two audio commentaries. Stephen Romano is a decent speaker and tells a few interesting stories on his two tracks, but he rambles and talks only sporadically about the movies featured on either trailer collection. The other commentary is from someone named Uncle Creepy, who thinks he is funnier than I do. I gave up after watching ten minutes of his talk on "The Ultimate Horror Marathon."
The bottom line is that one gets a lot of good trailers in Stephen Romano Presents Shock Festival (what an awkward title). It is well worth purchasing for them. As for the extras, one should watch with the fast forward button handy. The gold standard for trailer collections remains the Synapse 42nd Street Forever sets, particularly volumes three and four which have awesome audio commentaries.
