Empire Pictures

yeah my question is what makes you decide to release sets like this and how are they very popular because i imagine they are because i looked at you i'm gonna have that even though the films maybe aren't the greatest

well that one in particular is really interesting so the the thing that those films all have in common was that they were all made by a kind of a studio or a studio it's kind of a independent production company in the 1980s called empire pictures which was run by charles band a And Charles Band, obviously more better known now for Full Moon Pictures, which is the company he's set up since.

But Empire, those were the films that when I was a small kid and looking at the video shelves and seeing the cover of something like Troll, the VHS kind of case and cover for Troll was one of these kind of totemic objects that as a child, seeing that on a video store shelf, I was like, what is that? I want to see that.

uh and so we were gonna do try and do a empires pictures box set that was kind of there's a documentary that's been made that we were hopefully going to get the rights for and that was something where we were hoping that we would be able to do a big empire pages box set based around these films and for whatever reason the documentary fell through we weren't able to get that and so And we weren't entirely sure how to proceed because if it was going to be an Empire Pictures box set, then maybe there were other films that we would have wanted to get instead.

It was a little bit of an odd mix of stuff.

And so we thought, okay, what's a different angle that we can take on this? And so I kind of thinking about those video store memories and just about seeing Troll or whatever the other films were kind of on the shelves, I thought, okay, what about enter the video store? What about something that's going into...

about recapturing that experience of going into a video shop and again, having worked in one, you know, I knew all of that and that's where we took it and people really embraced it.

Like people beyond the Empire Pictures audience, which, you know, one of the things from a commercial point of view that you want to do is try and expand beyond the established kind of fan base for a film.

Now, we're only covering the first movie in here.

This is Enter the Video Store, kind of similar to the Empire Pictures one they put out, which was a great set here.

This one here has six titles.

It has Ministry of Vengeance, The Final Alliance, Rotor, Hangfire, and Joshua Tree.

I can't remember who got this location for us for free.

Charlie Band from Empire Pictures who really wanted Hobgoblins but didn't offer enough for it.

um his this was his office building on la brea and sunset for empire pictures and they had folded gone out of business were in the process of it um so basically the business was closed but the building was still there with the furniture in it and i someone knew the security guard and we were able to get in there for one day.

So they were closed after this, but this is the last, I mean, has our cheap posters on the wall, but this was the last look at Empire Pictures.

Obviously they did not have that big seal on the wall, but it's just kind of interesting history that, although I've never done a film with Charlie Band, that

somehow his location wound up in my

She would always tell that story, so the name Bambi Jo Cream Cheese, it made it into one of my films, just like everything else does that I borrowed.

Walking into another broom closet.

Tubi will air anything because why not? However, if you don't want to be bothered with Tubi, and, you know, who can blame you, this was released on DVD.

In 2005, Empire Pictures released a single DVD with several half-hour US episodes.

The one big difference between the original shows and these on the DVD is a laugh track was added, for better or for worse.

Alliance Atlantis Home Video in Canada, they released a three-disc box set of 13 full-length episodes in 2006.

Dolls is his third film, but it's actually his second.

So Charles Band started making a little bit of money with his Empire Pictures.

And so he bought a castle studio in Italy.

To make everything as cheap as possible for him to produce.

What a year.

But I remember seeing it at, I think I did definitely see Re-Animator at the IH House, but I think they did, like, an Empire Pictures night.

Oh, okay.

So, which was Empire Pictures was Charlie Band's company before Full Moon, and he produced-

What?

... a lot of, like-

And we're talking 1986 Troll.

Empire Pictures, produced by Charlie Band, directed by legendary director...

I meant legendary special effects...

A guy turned director, John Carl Buechler, who did, of course, Friday 7, and he also did Cellar Dweller and Ghoulies 3.

But he's good at this.

He's a freaking dweeby dad.

It's got the kid from, of course... geez never-ending story as the kind of main kid um and he's got a sister i don't know the actress's sister and then we got shelly hack in here um sonny bono is in this movie um yeah it's kind of nice little cast in this one i know i'm missing probably a couple phil fondicaro and i love phil fondicaro you know he plays uh you know the small person in a lot of the full moon and empire pictures uh he's in ghoulies too which is one of my favorite movies i know i know and uh he plays this really kind of sympathetic character who's a professor who lives in this apartment complex who's suffering from an ailment But essentially the story is the Potters move in, Harry Potter Jr., Harry Potter Sr., that's the name.

And they move in this apartment with a wide variety of weird, bizarre characters.

It's a banger from what I remember because you cannot find this thing like anywhere.

But yeah, 1986, Empire Pictures, Mandroid.

He's like half man, half tank.

I mean, they actually put a dude on treads.

But I didn't do that back then.

But, yeah, I couldn't really – I never really – played as him or with him because it was just not possible really to do but uh yeah man if anything at this point the the the vhs cover lives rent free in my head that poster lives rent free in my head

yeah and fun fact empire pictures which kind of evolved eventually into full moon entertainment charles band the whole deal uh he made a movie called mandroid which is not anything nearly as good as the Eliminators.

I actually own Eliminators on DVD, Blu-ray before it got pulled.