By MICHAEL GINGOLD (1984 Publishing; 2018)
Now here’s a fun book: a handsomely laid out collection of horror movie newspaper adverts from the 1980s! Back then, in the pre-internet era, cutting and saving newspaper ads was not unusual among young movie buffs; I myself did a fair amount of newsprint clipping in the eighties, although the fruits of my labors have long since been lost. Luckily Michael Gingold, a former Fangoria editor and current Rue Morgue contributor, held onto his collection of “Newsprint Nightmares,” many of which are reproduced in this book, complete with opening dates, show times and New York area theater locations.
The book proceeds chronologically through the decade, starting with 1980 (the year of DON’T GO IN THE HOUSE, MOTEL HELL and FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH). Gingold helpfully provides some textual context on the films advertised (which were often re-releases of much older fare such as HALLOWEEN and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD), and vintage review excerpts, which often diverge mightily from from how the films in question have been subsequently accessed (although Gingold does, unbelievably enough, manage to find an enthusiastic New York Post comment about John Carpenter’s otherwise universally-despised-in-its-time THE THING).
For movie advertising buffs this book is indispensable, as it contains poster designs you probably won’t see anywhere else. A page of GREMLINS adverts from the summer of 1984 confirms this, containing ads tailored to July Fourth (“Gizmo, Stars and Stripe! The Only way to Spend the 4th of July”), the Olympics (“The unofficial Summer Games Movie!”) and back to school season (“See GREMLINS Again Before You Hit the Books!”). Also featured is an image-free ad boldly proclaiming ALIENS “The Scariest Movie…Ever” and one for JAWS: THE REVENGE in which an enthusiastic Time Magazine review is reprinted in its entirety.
The book concludes with a profile of the Manhattan-based Aquarius Releasing, who were responsible for much of the imagery showcased in these pages. According to Aquarius’s president Terry Levene, the key to a good ad campaign is “strong visual impact,” for which “you’ve got to have blood, action, gore, and, above all, women! If you don’t have those components, you are wasting your time.” That philosophy is certainly evident in AD NAUSEAM, which contains a wealth of gruesome treats for horror fans, as well as a nostalgic glimpse of a long lost era in which newspaper advertising really mattered.