R.I.P. Bill Barounis

The owner of Onar Films, one of the extremely few dedicated distributors of rare Turkish films, has sadly passed away earlier this month and the news has not been widespread. My condolences to his family.

So, what happened?

It's been nearly a month since the last update, do not despair, Forgotten Junk is not falling into the previous trap of being on hiatus for nearly a year. There are some important factors in this though... I now work, this cuts down my time a little bit more, and right now as I'm sure you're all aware, England is in a state of panic because of several kids with no education and because England has always been a nation easily controlled by fear. I am due to down in London in two days as well, so here's hoping I don't get mugged or shot, and actually come from. Things are on their way, but they have had to be obstructed for the meantime.

-James

New bootleg releases of Phantom Soldiers & Death Warmed Up

Revok.com provide us with more bootleg DVDs of hard-to-find titles, upping their availability. This time being the elusive Filipino action epic Phantom Soldiers, easily the best movie of Teddy Page's junky career directing explosive, exploitative spins on the Vietnam war, and Death Warmed Up, New Zealand's first zombie movie, preceding Peter Jackson's tasteful Bad Taste by three years.

Click here to find Revok's DVDs for purchase.

Hell of the Living Dead DVD re-release in Japan

Better late than never, Japan now have a new DVD release of Bruno Mattei's Hell of the Living Dead AKA Virus that is up to par with the Blue Underground all-region DVD, in fact, it appears to be the same disc! The original Japanese DVD is now long out-of-print and looks like it may have been a cut down, 4:3 VHS-ripped presentation, so this justice is long overdue. While seemingly having no features already not on the Blue Underground DVD, the cover is now colourful and lavish, and it is nice to see Mattei still being relevant. Two of his more recent films, The Jail and Island of the Living Dead, were both previously released on DVD this year also in Japan, Rats is most likely to be next for a re-release, now if only we could get his other films remastered and re-released.

-James 

A bigger and better trash pile

For those of you who have been catching up with this new home for Forgotten Junk, we are still in the process of moving. It's tedious we know, for now though it has come to mine and Oli's attention that we are unhappy with some of the quality of our previous reviews. This is speaking from the heart too; copying and pasting all our massive old reviews and breaking them into new paragraphs feels quite unsatisying. Therefore, we want to re-write some, do not despair though, new content IS coming! Sooner than you think too, for now, stay tuned with our evergrowing new YouTube page, which will be far be more dedicated to our topic of bad taste.