“Radu, I will get you a sacrifice for tonight.”
Goth maids being disemboweled, freelance foot fetishes on display, helpless damsels tied up and struggling or strangled to death, mermaids rising from quicksand like a phoenix taking flight, gabby gossip, a long-haired naked beauty shrunk and eaten and a good ol’ fashioned mummy dungeon are some of the many bizarre incredibly lofi shot-on-video films made by Gary Whitson and his W.A.V.E. (Whitson Audio Video Entertainment) Productions. Whitson and his motley crew of misfits are given a loving and generous profile in the new documentary Mail Order Murder: The Story of W.A.V.E. Productions in what is a jovial collection of remembrances from cast and crew, copious clips from the over 400-film deep W.A.V.E. catalog as well as ruminations on the company by other figures in the underground indie horror scene.
The doc begins with setting up the environment which produced the New Jersey-based outfit by giving an overview of the inception and rise of shot-on-video horror in the early 1980s via huge fans of the work like the knuckleheads at Bleeding Skull as well as low budget filmmakers who were around at the time and witnessed it like Ron Bonk of SRS and J.R. Bookwalter, director of The Dead Next Door and Robot Ninja. This section is understandably fairly brief since the intent is more to set the stage for W.A.V.E. rather than act as a profile of the whole film movement (which would be an interesting documentary in and of itself).
After the SOV setup, it proceeds to go through the history of W.A.V.E. mainly via interviews and clips highlighting each of the cast and crew including Clancy McCauley (their first actress), Debbie D. (a pop singer and fashion model willing to strip naked for any weird thing they called her for), Pamela Sutch (lauded for her ‘girl next door’ qualities), Laura Giglio (a brash and boisterous brunette) and arguably their most popular actress Tina Krause, the exotic long-haired seductress who was previous showcased on the AGFA release of her film Limbo (which also included the hilarious W.A.V.E. film Eaten Alive as an extra) as well as several others involved in the production like Whitson himself and Aven Warren, their down ‘n’ dirty effects guy who was always willing to slather a winsome female with rotting animal guts for a quick stomach slicing scene.
As the film goes on, it follows the rise in popularity of W.A.V.E. as Whitson’s business savvy leads them into custom video commissions where any random yahoo could, for a fee, request W.A.V.E. make a film to their exacting and often weird and creepy specifications. This side of the business is what led to many of W.A.V.E.’s most notoriously ridiculous fetishistic films like many of the bizarre enticements in the intro to this review. Whitson, ever in pursuit of the almighty dollar, figured that if one person had this fetish, it stood to reason others would. So he would then offer these custom videos for sale via his Damsels in Distress Newsletter which kept fans of W.A.V.E. up to date on all the latest productions.
Throughout the film we are treated to more in-depth profiles of many of W.A.V.E.’s films with plot synopses, clips from the films and anecdotes from those involved. Recoil in terror at Sisters about a deranged sister who hires a killer to off her twin but fails to take into account daylight savings time! Marvel at the extreme tedium of the Sleepover Massacre as ladies improv their dialogue with no relevance to the murders that occur! Delight at the fearsome snake hand puppet in Rana, Queen of the Amazon!
So I enjoyed the hell out of this as a film. Even better news though is that the folks at Saturn Core, a new partner label of Vinegar Syndrome who seemed to have previously released primarily shot-on-video VHS, seem to have a real affection for W.A.V.E. and everything the company brought to the table. The video quality is to be expected of a documentary consisting of clips of wildly varying quality interspersed with talking head interviews from several different video sources. Obviously the end results aren’t going to look amazing across the board, but I also don’t think it’s possible for a film like this to look any better either. Audio-wise we’re in the same bucket. It’s generally clean and easy to understand but some of the audio sources are of sub-par quality. Fortunately it does include an SDH subtitle track which may be worth turning on just to catch some of the more muffled dialogue.
Another big positive of this release is that it is loaded with extras. We have an audio commentary from the directors of Mail Order Murder giving tons of additional background info on W.A.V.E. as well as many of their own personal anecdotes of and history with the shot-on-video industry. I’m not normally one to dig into commentaries, but this one is definitely worth a listen if you dug the doc itself and want more. The disc also has extended interviews with some interesting stories cut from the main feature (I need to see Pamela Sutch’s CAT-tastrophe immediately!) as well as a full clip from the cable access show The Video Makers (briefly shown in the film) featuring an interview with Aven Warren and Gary Whitson plus a theatrical trailer for the film. We also get the full 7-minute Debbie D. music video shown briefly in the film as well. I gotta say, Debbie D. made a good decision to get into acting with W.A.V.E. because her pop music is freaking terrible. The best extra we get on here is the bonus film WAVE of Terror (1988), a compilation of two bonafide W.A.V.E. films spliced together, Road Kill and Hadley’s Hellhole. Both of these are relentless cheap and stupid but also a lot of fun.
If you can’t tell already, W.A.V.E.’s particular brand of goofy, weird, low budget nonsense is directly in my wheelhouse and Saturn Core gives us pretty much the definitive overview of this illustrious film company and bundles it with lots of neat extras that provide legitimate additional context and do what extras should do with little in the way of pointless PR fluff. If you love shot-on-video horror or even just diving into an obscure, niche cult topic, this one is strongly recommended!