Defunct, but not forgotten.

I've had a bit of a backlog of new to new-ish Blu Rays to check out, and when I popped in Heathers for a trip back to memory lane (the disc looks great by the way. even with the soft filter on the camera, it's pretty impressive how good the movie looks), a logo popped up that always brings fond memories: New World Pictures.

To give you some idea of why a film company would interest me in the least, the Cap'n needs to take you back to those halcyon days of VHS. If you rented indiscriminately, as I used to, after a while you'd notice a pattern about certain movies major studios didn't release: specific types of films came from different independent distributors. For example, if you had something that was action/sci-fi/sword and sandal, odds are it came from Cannon Films. That was their specialty. If you found something truly bizarre with bright colors on the front, I'd be willing to bet you had a Troma tape in your hands. Periodically, you'd find a Hemdale Home Video release (most notably The Terminator, Platoon, or Return of the Living Dead), but the one I remember the most is New World Pictures.

Odds are, if you know this logo, you've seen more than one of their movies


New World Pictures started as a Roger Corman in 1970, but spun off in the early 80s from AIP, becoming its own entity. Unlike Cannon Films, New World made all sorts of films, and it's hard to imagine that regular readers of the blog haven't seen at least three of them. In fact, I'm positive I can name three every one of you have seen:

Heathers, Hellraiser, and C.H.U.D.

If those don't ring a bell, New World is also responsible for the following VHS tapes we watched as irresponsible youths:

Death Race 2000
Big Bad Mama
Cockfighter
Children of the Corn
The Stuff
House
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
House 2: The Second Story
Creepshow 2
Android
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
Dead Heat
Hell Comes to Frogtown
Dead End Drive-In
Reform School Girls
Vamp
Transylvania 6-5000
Deathstalker
The Slumber Party Massacre
Sorceress
Return to Horror High
18 Again!
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (remember that one?)
Warlock
Fitzcarraldo
The Brood
The Punisher
Return of the Killer Tomatoes
Return to Horror High
Piranha
Soul Man
Rock N Roll High School

New World doesn't exist any more, as its now a part of Newscorp, the Rupert Murdoch owned company that also runs 20th Century Fox. If half of those ring a bell, it's because Anchor Bay has the rights to most of New World's catalog, including Sledge Hammer!, a series produced by the company. In fact, Corman films aside, I'd say most of those movies are currently dvds I have (or have seen) thanks to Anchor Bay.

If you want to see what else you might have New World to thank for distributing, feel free to check the IMDB list out. I left quite a few notables out; for example, I had no idea they released Federico Fellini's Amarcord here in the states. Cool beans.

At any rate, to this day when I pop a movie in and see the New World Pictures logo, I know I'm in for a unique experience, if not a frequently good one. For an indie distributor, they weren't a Lions Gate or even an Artisan for their day, but New World put out some quality product for low budgets.