PHANTASMATAPES (2025)

 THOSE FINE FOLKS AT AGFA HAVE STRUCK AGAIN!!!

Is there anything better than those recent AGFA mixtape blu rays.  The answer is no.  And here's another one with a twist. 

AGFA's Annie Choi and Joseph A. Ziemba (who previously this year brought us THE AGFA MYSTERY MIXTAPE VAULT as well as HEY FOLKS! IT'S THE INTERMISSION TIME VIDEO PARTY! and THE CULT OF AGFA TRAILER SHOW have just released yet another jewel in their mixtape blu ray series:  PHANTASMATAPES.  This time, however, they're doing more of a "WNUF"-style release.  PHANTASMATAPES purports to be a VHS tapes from a TV horror movie show from the 1980's.  The blu ray starts off with a damn Window Wizards commercial from Anderson windows we all saw back in the 1980's (unless you're a know-nothing-tot who wasn't around back then and, in that case, the angels will weep for you).  We even see the old WOR-TV Channel 9 New York station ID as we segue into the never-existed "Fright Night" horror movie programme which is featuring a double feature of

THE REVENGE OF DR. X and THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE

interspersed with actual vintage 80's TV cable commercials.  And that's not all . . . .
at one point, the infamous Max Headroom signal hijack happens for a few minutes.  Talk about awesome!   THE REVENGE OF DR. X is, of course, the ridiculous Edward D. Wood Jr.-written epic about a mad doctor who goes to Japan with a Carolina Venus Fly Trap plant and turns it into a half human/half plant carnivorous monster.  Then there's the classic THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE about another mad scientist who decaps his girlfriend in a car accident , keeps her head alive in a turkey basting pan full of blood and goes on a bimbo-body hunt to find a bod to attach her noggin to.  

These aren't the entire films but instead are artfully-edited-down versions of the two movies also with added video effects and a cool synth soundtrack from TAKEN BY SAVAGES (JUNGLE TRAP) which really works.  Also included are the full versions of both movies (in VHS Preservaation mode) as well as some shorts:  A GHOST which is all the scared reactions of people screaming "A GHOST!" from the Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoons which gets more and more disturbing as it goes on

plus  I WANT MYD&D which edits together Dungeons & Dragons game commercials and cartoons with "Satanic Panic"-style videos which warned that all kids playing D&D will become murderers and sell their souls to Satan.  Pure bliss!!!  We've all seen these movies a dozen times so the CLIFF NOTES' versions, filled with new synthesizer mood music and video FX is a nice addition and I loved it.  This newest AGFA "mixtape" blu ray is so well done and feels exactly like it was during the early 80's when you would videotape these late-night horror movie broadcasts (with the commercials left in) and watch and watch them.  Now that I have reached the age of 497, I find these nostalgia bombs really fun and I loved this one too.  Keep making them, AGFA, it's a public service!!!