In the early 1980s, when the VHS rental business was in the process of being crowned King, Full Moon founder Charles Band was breaking the rules with his pioneering genre film home video distribution arm Wizard Video. Primarily a vehicle for Band to buy up European exploitation films, purchasing the VHS rights in perpetuity, and weave them into the market, Wizard Video was eye-catching then and iconic today due to Band opting to package the tapes in oversized “Big Boxes” with the cassette in a plastic tray inside. This is something that the adult film industry was doing with great success and the philosophy was the same: by making the real estate on the covers of the boxes BIGGER, the art could be almost album-cover size, with more room to show more visual information. But while porn was relegated to behind the beaded curtain at video stores, Wizard’s horror and fantasy gems were massaged into the general release racks. And the larger canvas was all-the-better utilized due to the fact that Band hired amazing Italian artists to paint some truly stunning and memorable box art.
But some of the Wizard Video releases were culled from existing promotional art, including the “maggot-eye” ghoul from Lucio Fulci’s Zombie and of course, the toothy monster from Band’s own 1982 3D shocker Parasite, a movie that did great business in 3D and even better business on home video in its 2D form.
Now, Full Moon has created a new batch of those beautiful original Parasite VHS “Big Boxes” designed for the collectors market. The Parasite “Big Box” was different in that it actually opened up like a classic “gate-fold” record album and had some very cool images from the film on the inner left-hand flap, with the tape embedded in the box on the right. Full Moon has gone to great lengths to reproduce and exact clone of the original and only 1000 have been produced, with 700 of those beauties being distributed via MVD and 300 via Full Moon's store. Those 300 are signed and numbered by Charles Band and they simply won’t last.
And to make it more interesting, Full Moon is giving every serious VHS collector who orders a copy of their Parasite classic VHS an incredible extra in the form of the latest issue of Delirium Magazine, the 17th issue. This GOREgeous magazine is in fact a full-blown love letter to Parasite, with in-depth interviews with cast and crew and tons of rare, amazing photos plus a look at the 1980’s 3D craze that helped birth Parasite.
Essentially, this glorious issue serves as the “special features” to the VHS release and every single fan who orders one of the 300 units of Parasite get a copy of the mag for FREE. No other entertainment company is offering a double shot of analog, retro awesomeness like this. Two limited edition collectibles that also serve as a portrait of horror film history. You can’t beat it.
To get your signed and numbered Parasite retro VHS release AND your FREE copy of Delirium #17 go to www.FullMoonDirect.com.
