One area of low-budget sci-fi and horror that has intrigued me for years has been Charles Band's 1980s "Empire Pictures" period. Even though his later involvement with Full Moon isn't to my liking (can a person actually hate an entire production imprint's output? I think I may be that one...), the Empire Pictures stuff makes me nostalgic for the Friday evenings I spent as a kid haunting the local mom n pop video rental place's horror and sci-fi sections.

I loved the first Trancers flick (produced prior to Band turning it into a franchise over at Full Moon). Still do....I actually think there's some....inklings...of cool concepts and ideas there in that film that the budget and talents of the film-makers involved just didn't either pick up on, or couldn't due to economic restraints. Laserblast is goofy-ass sci-fi fun. Parasite is probably one of the best Alien clones around, even if it mimics the tone, and couldn't have any hopes whatsoever of capturing the atmosphere of the latter film. TerrorVision is still hilarious, in my opinion. Robot Jox is another long-time favorite of mine, as is Eliminators.

Doing a little research on this period, though, I've noticed some odd patterns that keep repeating with the Empire Pictures product...

1.) The most obvious- after a fairly crappy theatrical release, they pretty much became HUGE in the video rental market in the 80s.

2.) A lot of the productions, especially those that were foreign in nature, were finished, and then sat on the shelf for around 2 to 4 years prior to a domestic release.

3.) The majority of the stuff has never had a Region 1 DVD release. What's weird about this is a ton of the stuff is owned by MGM (read: Sony) these days, and they made efforts to renew copyrights no more than a few years back...and then provided widescreen versions to major cable outlets (Showtime, Monsters HD, etc.,) or internet venues (some of the stuff pops up on Hulu a lot). One exception is [i[Eliminators[/i], which is owned by 20th Century Fox, who cranked out a widescreen presentation, renewed the copyright, and I saw it recently showing up alot on the digital television channel This!, along with the uncut* (!!!) "smoking boots" version of Timerider.

* It has all the original violence and sex scenes usually cut from VHS and DVD releases, but the sex is presented (on This, at least) with camera blurs covering up the actress' naughty areas.

Check out the list of titles yourself to see these odd patterns...

me, I like full moon almost MORE than Empire, but then, I have an unhealthy closet obsession with puppets myself. Empire always struck me as Full Moon without letting Band indulge in his microphelia.

At the end of the day, I'd say its the fact that Band and MGM don't see things eye to eye. I remember back in the day when it was a big deal that he was able to wrest the Trancers franchise into the Full Moon fold.

Empire gave the world the magic that is Re-Animator, so they'll always have a place in my heart.

I'm pretty sure Full Moon put out Dr Mordred, which I rather like.

Full Moon did some interesting stuff during their first several years, back when they occasionally made movies that weren't about wee little monsters that accomplished nothing but to make one wish to be watching the third segment of Trilogy of Terror instead. Their take on The Pit and the Pendulum is almost as good as the Roger Corman version from the 60's. Dark Angel: The Ascent is one of the most theologically thought-provoking no-budget horror movies I've ever seen. Subspecies was just about the last decent attempt to do something non-Anne Ricey with vampires until 30 Days of Night. Full Moon even managed to pull off one really good wee-little-monsters flick before they lost their major-label distro deal, in the form of Hideous! Looking at the two companies' output as a whole, though, I'm much fonder of Empire, simply because Empire's movies were so much less depressingly uniform.

I remember going to the video store with my neighbor, who was like a little brother to me, on his sixth or seventh b-day to rent a movie for his party. He held Dark Angel: The Ascent in his hands for a few minutes, but ended up going with Leprechaun 2.

What made me squawk with a combination of indignation and laughter when I first heard the premise of The Vampire Diaries is that its basic plot is exactly, but exactly, that of Subspecies, except that "Radu" is now a generically hot male-modelly type with a six-pack and an allergy to shirts. Frankly, if they had made him look more like Radu, I'd have been much more inclined to watch.

News Flash: Apparently there's a new Puppet Master film on the way, and word on the street is that it calls to mind the third film in the series, which is to date the highest budgeted and most polished Full Moon film ever. Like part three, everyone's favorite homoerotic filmmaker David DeCoteau is directing. Also like part three, Nazi killing.

I can now see scenes of frolicking, shirtless Hitler-jugend being slathered to death by the newest puppet, Oilslick.

Empire all the way. Zone Troopers -- "Pinch me, Dolan. Did I just K.O. Hitler?"