Friday, November 8, 2013

Meet the Witchmaker!

I have quite a few vintage film distributor press kits in my personal collection, and I thought it would be fun to share one since not only do they contain tons of info about the movies themselves, but they also contain some fascinating insight into the time era as far as 60's marketing and promotions went-- for example these kit excerpts for an odd little fright film I like a lot called The Witchmaker from 1969 (see the trailer HERE.) This press kit is a treasure trove of behind the scenes production info, advertising variant imagery for posters, displays, and photo stills, publicity material and bios, plus radio / television spot coupons-- but most importantly, all of the excitingly hilarious, and gimmicky exploitational promo ideas via stunts and contests to stir up excitement in your community during theatrical engagements. Read 'em and weep, man... seriously, if theaters did stuff like this in our day and age for films (outside of San Diego Comic Con, I mean) people would most likely get arrested! And hey, those of you unfamiliar with the film itself, check it out-- it truly is an underrated, creepy cool drive-in classic!




















4 comments:

Crafty C said...

wow! i haven't seen this but it looks cool!

i find it hard to believe that theaters would orchestrate those weird little stunts around town though. i mean i've seen pics of the stuff they did inside the theater lobby and the theater and I can seen the sexy witch parading around the well-travelled sections of town with a sign on her - but things like that Heart Throb Witch thing seem really odd. i wonder how many stunts like this actually took place.

these things are really cool! i've never really seen that many. thanks for posting it!

Mr. Cavin said...

I love press kits. I wish I could order a bunch of posters and a thousand ankhs using these forms plus a check or money order. Of course, I pretty much wish something similar with each new catalog or novelty ad page you post.

JMR777 said...

If anyone is interested, Bleeding Skull reviewed this movie a few years ago.

Sometimes a horror movie is just the thing to watch before and after the month of October. Why should one month have all the horror fun?

Mr. Karswell said...

I have the DVD and love it-- fans of the pre code horror stuff I post at THOIA should check it out because it seriously feels like some crazy ass 50's story from ACE PUBLICATIONS