Black Glove Analog is a new kid on the block of the SOV analog video, and here’s how I’ve come to know it. I’ve ran into Steve during my more active days of movie collecting (that means, translated to normal speech – when I’ve used to spend far more money on movies than I am now, lol) and because we both share our love for the trash cinema, we followed each other on social media.
And it was on social media where I’ve spotted his announcement of forming a new movie label dedicated to VHS releases – for those youngsters out there, before streaming, there were Blu Ray discs, even before DVDs, video CDs…and VHS tapes (myself I’ve never ran into Betamax), so much for home cinema entertainment – and of course, I couldn’t resist to get more information about it, could I?
So, let’s see what’s Steve and Black Glove Analog is about.
Hello, Steve, how are you doing these days, mate?
I’m doing well thanks, using the quarantine to spend more time with the YouTube channel (called Steve’s Horror Cave) and label, catching up on movies I’ve bought a year or so ago and haven’t even unwrapped yet.
As I’ve mentioned in the introduction, you are one of the co-founders of Black Glove Analog, would you mind to tell me – and our readers – something more (everything!) about it? What made you to decide to start an analog movie label? Any particular inspiration for it? Especially in these days of digital …everything?
Digital just doesn’t have the same feel as watching a physical release, and we believe physical media is the superior way to go, whether it’s VHS, DVD, bluray, cassettes, CDs, or vinyl, once you own that, you own it for life where all it takes is a little hard drive crash to lose your entire digital library. I also feel like bringing back VHS is like bringing back a simpler time to when I was a kid. I’d run to the horror section of any video store and just stare at the awesome cover art, hold the case in my hands while watching the movie trying to keep an eye out for the scenes they showed on the back of the box.
I know you already have one title secured for the release – what can you reveal about it? Why did you pick this one and what can you tell us about the dealing with the director of the movie to secure the rights? Did it go easy way or was it about hard negotiations?
Demon Queen (our review here) was quite an easy and fun process to secure the rights. Donald Farmer has been a gem to work with and hope to do more releases of his in the future. We chose to go with DQ because it was one of Donald’s first feature length movies and he is one of the OG’s of SOV film. For folks who haven’t seen it yet, be ready for a sleazy, blood filled fun time!
Do you already plan some other releases in advance? Can you reveal any future titles?
We are currently working on the releases for the next 3 months, titles are staying hush hush for now, but we may drop some hints around the time of our release for Violet, coming around mid July.
I am not sure if there’s a resurgence of the genre, but I can see quite a few adverts for SOV low budget movies around, most of them thanks to Tony Masiello’s label SOV Horror, and obviously, the availability of the recording equipment makes SOV movie-making very enticing. But obviously, there’s a difference between old school SOVs, done back in the days of 1980s and 1990s and modern ones. Are you planning to concentrate only on the efforts of re-releasing the old(er) movies, or aiming also on the possible new titles to release through Black Glove Analog?
We are going to be releasing both newer and older releases, the upcoming release Violet by Samuel Vainisi is a movie that just came out last year, and working on releasing another title that has just finished filming. That will be announced in August for a September release.
I just want to give love to the old flicks that time may have forgotten and to new flicks that a lot of today’s studios wouldn’t give a second glance at. There’s still a lot of heart left in the modern indie horror scene.
Now, let me ask you about your personal journey up to this point… how did you start with serious movie watching and what movie or movies are guilty of dragging you into the sewers of cinematic trash?
Well I remember back in like grade 2 seeing movies like Monster in the Closet, Toxic Avenger, Halloween and Child’s Play and realizing that “regular” movies just weren’t for me. My friends would be on the playground talking about Transformers and shit and I’d be bored outta my mind. Later on when I discovered what I consider the holy trinity of horror, The Last House on the Left, I Spit on your Grave and the almighty Cannibal Holocaust, I couldn’t get enough of the exploitation and the tales of revenge, the underdog coming back and kicking ass and overcoming all the odds.
I know you are quite fond of extreme horror, or torture porn, as it is also called, with output from studios like Unearthed, Toetag and the like. What interests you in these and what other genres you could name as your fave ones?
Think I kind of touched on that with the last answer, I see them as great tales of the underdog overcoming everything and putting the assholes of society in their place. It’s somewhat relaxing to me. Honestly I don’t really watch many other genres of movies, if I want “comedy” I’ll throw on a horror com like Tucker and Dale vs Evil or Cabin in the Woods, if I want a heavy, serious type of flick I’ll throw in something like Carcinoma. Now when it comes to tv shows though I rarely watch horror and tend to stick with the old 90’s sitcoms, again going back to those easier times of childhood lol.
I am sure you also keep your eyes on new releases, so, tell us – what titles you can’t wait to grab to add to your library?
My friend Nathan Rumler has a new movie coming out called Amityville Vibrator, which I was lucky enough to see a first cut screener of, dying to put that up on my shelf when the dvds are ready, also Joe Meredith’s newest flick coming soon called Variant, which is a continuation of his South Mill District and Teratomorph movies (copies of the VHS containing both shorts available on www.blackgloveanalog.com)… if you’re into sci-fi alien parasites and stop motion you need to check his work out. Also really looking forward to the newly remastered version of The Untold Story being released from Unearthed. That was the first Cat III flick I watched back as a teenager and got me hooked onto the Asian side of horror movies. Would love to see Ebola Syndrome get a shiny new remaster one day too. The Hills Run Red recently got a proper bluray release so looking forward to that arriving as it’s a very underrated “slasher in the woods” type movie. There’s soooo many more that I need but those titles mentioned are top priority for me.
Well, that would be all for today, bro, any final message?
Thanks for wanting to do an interview with me, Rudolf, and thanks for helping spread the word of Black Glove Analog, I greatly appreciate it and keep kicking ass with your new YouTube channel!
