I've been a card carrying Full Moon fanatic for ten or more years, have the tee-shirt, all the issue of the Moonflash Newsletter I got, a couple of comic books, a few saoundtracks, and a coffee mug or two (but no posters, damn...always ebay I guess), but Full Moon has dropped further and further beneath the radar, the sole exception seeming to be William Shatner's Full Moon Fright Night on Sci-Fi Channel and Tempe Video.
As you know, most Full Moon Movies barely hit the 75 minute mark, and that's with some of the longest and slowest credits out there so, even with Sci-fi Channels generous commercial interruptions, the movies struggle to fit a two hour timeslot and William Shatner does some interviews with cult figures if there is time left, which there usually is - victims have been Stan Lee, Heather Langenkamp, Stuard Gordon, Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, and...Charles Band.
Band, in his typical soft spoken and polite manner, talked about some of the serious problems Full Moon has faced (and will no doubt continue to do so). U.S.A. region theatrical distribution of films of Full Moon's type (and budget) are, sadly, a thing of the past, for a few years foreign ancillary markets (both theatrical AND video) infused the company with some cash, but they lost some major markets in the US (Blockbuster wouldn't stock them, for whatever reason) in the years following the dissolution of their partnership with Paramount (almost all of their titles from that time are still held by Paramount, which won't reissue them due to copyright problems - i.e. they won't have them for much longer, I think). Now the ancillary markets are starting to dry up (theater closings, recession, political climate, the reasons are no doubt many) and Band is again struggling to get his product (he hardly refers to them as movies or films) out onto the market. Luckily the American market (via and exclusive release deal with Blockbuster, much the same that Rapid Heart has, and cable and television) is opening up, a little.
But times have changed. I miss the OLD Full Moon, the one where the had a merchandising catalog where you buy posters, tee-shirts, card, comics, soundtracks and even scripts (all three pages of 'em!). I miss the toys, I guess ebay holds the key there.
And now there website has gone down, www.fullmoonpictures.com looks to be a thing of the past.
Well, Mr. Band. I hope you all the best and hope that you climb back up to where you were before. I don't care what some people say, movie like Puppet Master series, Dollman, Kraa! and others are a great way to waste am hour or two on the weekend.
Hopefully the Full Moon will rise again.
"But times have changed. I miss the OLD Full Moon, the one where the had a merchandising catalog where you buy posters, tee-shirts, card, comics, soundtracks and even scripts (all three pages of 'em!). I miss the toys, I guess ebay holds the key there."
Ain't that the truth!
Chad,
Great post. Like many other things I enjoyed in my youth, Full Moon is in a steady decline. Even though you can still purchase stuff through ebay, it's not the same as receiving a new "Full Moon" catalog with action figures from the latest films. I'm not sure why Blockhead video wouldn't stock them but that's a crying shame.
Kind of reminds me how I feel about the old WWF. New wrestling just doesn't do it for me. But if I pop in an old Pay Per View from 1990, it's like I'm 13 all over again.
Times change. Sometimes I wish it stood still.
Chadzilla wrote:
>
> But times have changed. I miss the OLD Full Moon, the one
> where the had a merchandising catalog where you buy posters,
> tee-shirts, card, comics, soundtracks and even scripts (all
> three pages of 'em!). I miss the toys, I guess ebay holds
> the key there.
Hell, I miss Charles Band's Empire days. To think that in the 1980's, Band was able to release CRAWLSPACE, RE-ANIMATOR, ELIMINATORS, TERRORVISION, etc. in theatres and make money. Out of all the films Charlie made, Empire is indeed my favorite.
Full Moons folding is almost related to Empire in a way, as Empire began in 1984 up to 1991 while Full Moon made headway in 1989 up to 2002! While I am not a big Full Moon fan, the company was inspiring to show that the independent product was still going strong after Empire folded.
Even so, with the amount of audiences who dispise Band's films (both Empire and Full Moon), I hope Band will continue on to make more films to entertain those who are interested. Besides, Charlie gave RE-ANIMATOR a chance and that shows that Band knows what will grab the audiences attention.
Like I said before, if I get into distribution as a career in the distant future I would definatly re-open Empire Pictures (using the same logo as well) and restore the legacy of the old Empire flicks. A pipe dream yes, but I am determined.
> Kind of reminds me how I feel about the old WWF. New
> wrestling just doesn't do it for me. But if I pop in an old
> Pay Per View from 1990, it's like I'm 13 all over again.
>
1990? For me, the heyday of the WWF was the mid-80s, when guys like Hulk Hogan, the Iron Sheik, Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant and King Kong Bundy were the big names, when Jesse Ventura was colour commentator to Mean Gene (the greatest announcer ever) and not a politician, when Wrestlemania was in the single digits and people bought tickets to watch it on a big screen in local hockey arenas. It was already going downhill by 1990, and I had pretty much lost interest. Might have caught Wrestlemania if it was playing at the bar, but didn't know who half the characters were and didn't really care. Today, I can't watch wrestling at all.
Chris K. wrote:
>
> To think that in the
> 1980's, Band was able to release CRAWLSPACE, RE-ANIMATOR,
> ELIMINATORS, TERRORVISION, etc. in theatres and make money.
>
>
Not true, Empire scored hits with Re-Animator and Ghoulies (a hit that befuddled even Band, no one thought it do all that well, but it did). Empire was only around for 2 years, maybe three, at the most. After Re-Animator and Ghoulies very few of Empire movies got strong bookings (From Beyond was the only one that really got anykind of wide release). The markets were drying up and moving to video. Band's movie did open in the seedier neighborhoods (would you believe TerrorVision played on a double bill wit Pretty in Pink its opening weekend?) in the grindhouse theaters ("Hear the hookers go down on their Johns! Hear the drunks snore and wake up during the screaming and go, 'Okay, I'm movin'! Damn!'"). Band couldn't give his movies away, which is why Empire folded and he started up Full Moon.
During Empire's brief life I saw the following on the big screen
From Beyond
Dolls
Necropolis
Prison
Ghost Town
Rawhead Rex
Transmutations
What I loved most about Full Moon was that they listened to fans. Charlie, or someone close to him, always answered my letters and e-mails. They seemed to really care about the fans. I miss that more than anything.
I just saw "Arena" last night, an Empire/Band picture. I thought it was pretty good actually. Kinda silly in some ways, but Shorty was really cool. the dialog was pretty good and the acting pretty good. It was plain and simple, a pretty good, creative, original, well done picture. I missed the Empire days, but is this is indicative of what they were doing, I wish I'd been there.
Seein Charles Band in the VideoZone segments after some Full Moon vidoes...I think he really enjoys making the movies and has a lot of fun. I wish him well
I really liked Eliminators. Guess I was just the right age for it when it came out. I saw the TV spot that introduced the characters, including the Mandroid in his mobile unit, and I was hooked. Didn't see it until its video release though, since I did not yet have a driver's licence and still relied on others to get into the city.
Thinking back, a lot of good movies made it into theatres back then that would never appear today. They would all wind up with a straight-to-video release, under the radar of many people. Either that, or they would be aired on a specialty channel. Sounds like Full Moon.
Both Charles Band's bad financial woes,as well as his handling of the company to J.R. Bookwalter,who has carelessly sank down the company with his Tempe Video-style acquirations of truly awful no-budget movies,are the main reasons behind Full Moon's downward descend.
I'll heavily have to admit this,but Band could surely use the helkp of both Fred Olen Ray and Jim Wynorski to write,produce and direct a handful of new genre movies that really could save the comapny from collapsing,especially since both Wynorski and Ray could need a few decent horror outings to get some respectability back into their careers(which are waning from all of those awful minium budgeted action films of recent years),and helping rebuild Full Moon with those two fillmakers would bring some stability and positive productiveness back into both the Full Moon "Empire",and the low budget horror market,in general(which is also in sheer need of a few good hits to put it back onto its feet again).
Here here! Get rid of Tempe and form a partnership with Ray and Wynorski! That would be quite a renaissance!
Chadzilla wrote:
>
> Not true, Empire scored hits with Re-Animator and Ghoulies (a
> hit that befuddled even Band, no one thought it do all that
> well, but it did). Empire was only around for 2 years, maybe
> three, at the most. After Re-Animator and Ghoulies very few
> of Empire movies got strong bookings (From Beyond was the
> only one that really got anykind of wide release). The
> markets were drying up and moving to video. Band's movie did
> open in the seedier neighborhoods (would you believe
> TerrorVision played on a double bill wit Pretty in Pink its
> opening weekend?) in the grindhouse theaters ("Hear the
> hookers go down on their Johns! Hear the drunks snore and
> wake up during the screaming and go, 'Okay, I'm movin'!
> Damn!'"). Band couldn't give his movies away, which is why
> Empire folded and he started up Full Moon.
TERRORVISION and PRETTY IN PINK opening on a double bill? Oh, if I would have been older then that would have been sweet to see. I know one thing, Empire was around more than three years, they were in existance up to six years. To my memory, their film list is:
THE ALCHEMIST (1981- released theatrically in 1984)
GHOST WARRIOR (1984)
GHOULIES (1984)
RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
TRANCERS (1985)
ZONE TROOPERS (1985)
CRAWLSPACE (1986)
DOLLS (1986)
FROM BEYOND (1986)
PRISON (1986- New World Video took over video distribution after released theatrically)
TERRORVISION (1986)
TROLL (1986)
ARENA (1987- briefly released theatrically in 1988)
GHOST TOWN (1987- New World Video took over video distribution after released theatrically)
THE CALLER (1988)
CATACOMBS (1988)
TRANSFORMATIONS (1988- briefly released theatrically in 1989, later New World Video took over video distribution releases; very RARE to find as well)
ROBOT JOX (1989- released theatrically in 1991 by both Empire and Columbia Pictures; last Empire film released)
RE-ANIMATOR and GHOULIES were two Empire successes (GHOULIES pulled in an amazing $32 million, quite good for a low budget picture), the others did make their money back but were not too successful. I do remember reading some old reviews of the Empire films and some were well recieved (one critic in England raved about TERRORVISION - raved I tell ya'). I also remember reading somewhere that Empire did get some wide releases in the U.S. and even got better playdates internationally. But, Empire's legacy still lives on to an extent.
True, Empire wasn't a big hit for Charlie until Full Moon came along. But my God, Empire made some nice looking films no matter what the budget was. To me, I think some of the Empire flicks are still playable and has audience value. I would like to give them a chance and re-issue them theatrically as a cult type, but like I said that's a long way down the road leading to my future career.
Supposidly, Band made LASERBLAST 2 in 1985 through Empire. But, the film has never even been found! Has anybody out there heard of this sequel or even seen it?
All of this is paraphrased from various things that Matt Glas of the Tempe Fan Club and Full Moon itself:
There's a new official Full Moon website opening sometime in the next week or so. URL is http://www.fullmoonfanclub.com - There will be an online store where you can purchase a whole lot of misc. Full Moon merchandise. Not even the guys at Full Moon know what they'll be selling right away because there's a ton of boxes to go through. Also on the site will be plot synopsis, description, images, etc. for over 150 films
Apparently the Full Moon label is being dropped soon and will be replaced by Shadow Entertainment or Wizard Video Presents. The name itself wont be retired, though. It'll still be in use. (William Shatner's Full Moon Fright Night is a good example of this.)
Full Moon Toys is and has been dead for a year or so now.
I think that about covers everything.
--Tony
You can't keep Charlie down, that's for sure. The man has all the business savy of Roger Corman!
Chris K. wrote:
>
>
> TERRORVISION and PRETTY IN PINK opening on a double bill? Oh,
> if I would have been older then that would have been sweet to
> see.
Needless to say, my friends thought TerrorVision was a heck of a lot BETTER than Pretty in Pink! :-)
>I know one thing, Empire was around more than three
> years, they were in existance up to six years.
True, my memory is getting faulty in my old age. Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn was a HUGE hit for Universal Studios. It was made by Band (and featured Tim Thomerson!!!) and, while it did rake in huge amounts of cash (more than Jaws 3-D, released that same year, did btw) Band wanted a bigger slice of the pie than Universal was willing to give him. Gee, some guys, they go out and work their asses of to make a movie and then expect to get most of the money it earns. Talk about greedy (hear the sarcasm there?).
One thing that Tobe Hooper, George Romero, Ken Wiederhorn, and Charles Band can tell you. No matter how much you try and protect yourself, when you inedependently produce a movie and sell distribution rights to an outside party, the DISTRIBUTOR will make the most money rather than the filmmakers, who did all the work. Believe, all were royally shafted by distribution deals.
>To my memory,
> their film list is:
>
> THE ALCHEMIST (1981- released theatrically in 1984)
> GHOST WARRIOR (1984)
> GHOULIES (1984)
> RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
> TRANCERS (1985)
> ZONE TROOPERS (1985)
> CRAWLSPACE (1986)
> DOLLS (1986)
> FROM BEYOND (1986)
> PRISON (1986- New World Video took over video distribution
> after released theatrically)
>
> TERRORVISION (1986)
> TROLL (1986)
> ARENA (1987- briefly released theatrically in 1988)
> GHOST TOWN (1987- New World Video took over video
> distribution after released theatrically)
>
> THE CALLER (1988)
> CATACOMBS (1988)
> TRANSFORMATIONS (1988- briefly released theatrically in 1989,
> later New World Video took over video distribution releases;
> very RARE to find as well)
>
> ROBOT JOX (1989- released theatrically in 1991 by both Empire
> and Columbia Pictures; last Empire film released)
>
>
Pretty good list there, some others are
NECROPOLIS
TRANSMUTATIONS (aka UNDERWORLD)
RAWHEAD REX
VICIOUS LIPS (an Albert Pyun mesterpiece that is allegedly quite painful)
> RE-ANIMATOR and GHOULIES were two Empire successes (GHOULIES
> pulled in an amazing $32 million, quite good for a low budget
> picture), the others did make their money back but were not
> too successful.
Not too many, Band himself talked about this after the Fall of Empire. The markets just dried up, he could not get bookings and most of Empire's profits were video sales driven. Let me paraphrase Band a little here - a movie is pre-sold to an ancillary market (here video) and turns a profit which is then invested in creating newer product, so the box-office success of Re-Animator and Ghoulies iced Band's cake for at least two years, but most other films could not get wider release (or just flat out did not do as well) because the same markets that were giving Band the money were also strangling his primary venue, the motion picture theater. By 1987 Empire was pretty much through. Prison and Ghost World were sold to New World and Robot Jox was sold to Columbia (which thought it would be a major hit, it did okay - I think 4 million or so in opening weekend sales). Catacombs eventually came out as Curse IV and it is a nifty little horror movie. In a huge irony, Teenie Weenies, a children's fantasy movie to be made by Empire was discarded, but bought up by Disney....and made as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!
>I do remember reading some old reviews of the
> Empire films and some were well recieved (one critic in
> England raved about TERRORVISION - raved I tell ya'). I also
> remember reading somewhere that Empire did get some wide
> releases in the U.S. and even got better playdates
> internationally. But, Empire's legacy still lives on to an
> extent.
>
I don't dispute that, TerrorVision is a pretty sizable cult movie (as far as satires go) and a hoot to watch. Most Empire movies are because there is an element of fun to the proceedings that is missing in a lot of other low (or no) budget movies. Zone Troopers is a hoot as well, and it's got Tim Thomerson!!!
> True, Empire wasn't a big hit for Charlie until Full Moon
> came along. But my God, Empire made some nice looking films
> no matter what the budget was. To me, I think some of the
> Empire flicks are still playable and has audience value. I
> would like to give them a chance and re-issue them
> theatrically as a cult type, but like I said that's a long
> way down the road leading to my future career.
>
False, Empire was hit before long before Full Moon came about. One thing Charlie Band has in spades is spotting talent AND spotting trends. Wizard Home Video (which got rich on an early video release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as well as Meda (soon Media) Home Video (which got rich off its release of John Carpenter's Halloween) were both started by Charles Band! I think what killed Band was that video sales could not longer make up the production costs of motion picture production and (like it did to the pre-sale driven Cannon Pictures) when the video marker crashed, it took a lot of the smaller studios with it. Savy Band just moved to video, if he had had been able to hold onto either Wizard (which seems to be making a comeback) or Media, perhaps Empire Home Video would have survived (unlike Vestron, who carried most of Empire's pics in the 80s).
As far as your other hope of releasing some old Empire movies theatrically. Well, good luck. You got at least one tick sold here.
> Supposidly, Band made LASERBLAST 2 in 1985 through Empire.
> But, the film has never even been found! Has anybody out
> there heard of this sequel or even seen it?
Both Empire and Full Moon (Band) would announce gazillions of titles with conceptual art before even having a finished script (once again, the art of the pre-sale). Sequels (Puppet Master versus Demonic Toys, Decapitron) etc. I know that Laserblast 2 was planned, but I don't know if it was ever made (or made under a different title, which might have been the case).
I'd watch it though.
So...um...you like Tim Thomerson?
Doesn't everybody dig Tim Thomerson at pages like this?
Well....guess not.
:-)
Yeah, when I'm looking at the video racks in 'rent/no rent' decision mode, Thomerson's name on the box definately tips the scales to 'go for it!'
Chadzilla wrote:
>
> Not too many, Band himself talked about this after the Fall
> of Empire. The markets just dried up, he could not get
> bookings and most of Empire's profits were video sales
> driven. Let me paraphrase Band a little here - a movie is
> pre-sold to an ancillary market (here video) and turns a
> profit which is then invested in creating newer product, so
> the box-office success of Re-Animator and Ghoulies iced
> Band's cake for at least two years, but most other films
> could not get wider release (or just flat out did not do as
> well) because the same markets that were giving Band the
> money were also strangling his primary venue, the motion
> picture theater. By 1987 Empire was pretty much through.
> Prison and Ghost World were sold to New World and Robot Jox
> was sold to Columbia (which thought it would be a major hit,
> it did okay - I think 4 million or so in opening weekend
> sales). Catacombs eventually came out as Curse IV and it is
> a nifty little horror movie. In a huge irony, Teenie
> Weenies, a children's fantasy movie to be made by Empire was
> discarded, but bought up by Disney....and made as Honey, I
> Shrunk the Kids!
Speaking of scrapped Empire projects, have you heard of one called PULSE POUNDERS? It was in production in 1989 during Empire's close and would use footage oif Jeffery Byron and Richard Moll from THE DUNGEONMASTER, and a storyline featuring Barbara Crampton and David Gale (and, I might add, Gale plays the role of a rat-like creature who lusts for Crampton-reminds you of some earlier Empire flick featuring those two)! Even though the footage of Crampton and Gale was shot, the rest of the unfinished film is said to be in Band's posession and has done nothing with it so far.
Also, CATACOMBS had two video releases. After being briefly released to theatres in 1988, CATACOMBS was first released on video by TransWorld Entertainment in 1989. Later in 1993, Columbia Home Video/Epic Entertainment released CATACOMBS on video as CURSE IV: THE UNLTIMATE SACRAFICE. I too felt CATACOMBS was a nice little horror film and had some likable characters.
Also, their has been some connection between Empire and TransWorld Entertainment (i.e. when ARENA was released theatrically in 1988 TransWorld was handling some of the distribution, also on the video for ARENA the old TransWorld logo appears before the film starts) during Empire's fall.
PRISION, GHOST WORLD, CELLAR DWELLER, and TRANSFORMATIONS were released on video through New World after Empire distributed them. PRISION, from what I heard, was another success from Empire that was well recieved (and supposidly it got a rave from none other than Steven Speilberg).
Chadzilla wrote:
>
> Needless to say, my friends thought TerrorVision was a heck
> of a lot BETTER than Pretty in Pink! :-)
Personally, I would agree with your friends. PRETTY IN PINK was okay, TERRORVISION had better pacing. Hey, I'm an Empire finatic.
I bought tons of Full Moon toys at Spencers. I got the movie replica Blade dolls for $3 each, I got 5 of them around my house. Blockbusters near my place cleaned out their storage a couple months ago, I got every Puppet Master movie they had, I saw some other Full Moon movies like Creeps. Everything Full Moon is on clearance everywhere at the mall. They're starting to dissapearing.
Just noticed that I forgot to add my two cents about the whole Paramount/Full Moon deal . . . Paramount owns the right to the Full Moon library until early 2004 at the very latest- it might even be sooner than that.
I am also a card carrying member of the Full Moon fanclub, and everytime I watch a film like Demonic Toys, one of the Puppet Master films, or especially one of the Trancers films- I sorely miss them.
I'm definately gonna start reviewing some of them at my site when I get a chance.
Also- I always thought I was the only Full Moon AND pro wrestling fan around. Nice to see that I'm not, although I can safely say that I'm not too crazy about American pro wrestling. Japanese puroresu and Mexican lucha libre are more my taste. I consider American "wrestling" to be a complete embarassment these days. I always did wonder what might happen if you were to put some of the full moon gimmicks in a wrestling ring . . . God knows I certainly wouldn't mind finding out. I wouldn't mind working the Jack Deth gimmick if I ever tried to get back in the ring one day, either . . . I don't think I would embarass myself too much, considering the guy I'd be trying to mimic- God himself, Tim Thomerson.
--Tony
Yeah, that's a pretty famous "lost" movie. Rumor has it that its trapped, incomplete (some post-production work still pending) somewhere in some vault (tied up due to bankruptcy litigation, I guess). Hopefully Band will get it out someday. I do know those involved in it would like to see its eventual release.
Steven Millan wrote:
>
> Both Charles Band's bad financial
> woes,as well as his handling of the company to J.R.
> Bookwalter,who has carelessly sank down the company with his
> Tempe Video-style acquirations of truly awful no-budget
> movies,are the main reasons behind Full Moon's downward
> descend.
> I'll heavily have to admit this,but
> Band could surely use the helkp of both Fred Olen Ray and Jim
> Wynorski to write,produce and direct a handful of new genre
> movies that really could save the comapny from
> collapsing,
Sorry, but wrong. Bookwalter had been doing post-production for Band for years, and since Band no longer afford ro produce his own movies (he couldn't even afford to pay himself), he started outsourcing. The budgets were already getting that low; Band couldn't find anyone else who could make movied for under $100,000. And then under $50,000.
And if you think that HorrorVision, Hell Asylum, Dead & Rotting, and such are sooooo much worse than Talisman or Prison of the Dead... well, you're definitely in the minority.
(As for Fred Olen Ray -- he did Sideshow for Full Moon, remember? And already Charlie was so out of money that he couldn't afford a good movie. Hell, Charlie can't even afford to hire himself to direct anymore.)
Nathan
I could swear I once read/heard that Band screwed a lot of people.
I've been a fan of some of the full moon movies for years (also a member of their fanclub) It is sad to see them degrade to the level they're at now but they've been heading towards that direction for at least a few years now. I still have several of their newsletters, pretty much all of their comics, cards, t shirt, cds, blade resin model statue, cards Charle's band signed (think it was some special mail away offer if I remember) etc. I can remember a few years back around Halloween I even got to ask Band a few questions because he appeared as a special guest at a chat room. Too bad not too many people were there who actually knew anything about the movies he's worked on.
Danny Draven (director of Horrorvision, Hell Asylum, Cryptaz, Deathbed) once joked that he was about to register "charliebandowesmemoney.com."
Nathan