EXTREME CANVAS: HORROR MOVIE POSTERS FROM GHANA’S ‘MOBILE CINEMA’ PERIOD
Recently downloaded a batch of these movie posters from Ghana without having any idea what I was getting into. it was a horrifically pleasant surprise. Seems that during the mid 80’s to mid 90’s there was in Ghana some thing that has come to be known as ‘mobile cinema’. VHS tapes of western films (and African films as well) were transported from village to village and shown on a television set that was powered by a generator. To promote the shows artists painted images from the VHS cover when available, or from the film if they had the chance to see it or sometimes they created a painting based on what they thought the film might be about without ever having seen it. The paintings were typically done on old flour bags and one see the damage and wear many of them accrued after countless displays in the isolated rural villages where the films showed. The paintings are raw and intense and are in many cases more entertaining than the originals. In particular I like the Cujo painting that really seems to have little connection to the actual film, and the Friday the 13th painting seems to show some woman who looks a lot like Hillary Clinton terrorizing a puppet sized Jason. The mobile film movement did not last long but its brief history is recounted in the book Extreme Canvas: Movie Poster Paintings from Ghana from where these exciting images were scanned. I don’t know what most people think but I find these much more vibrant and enticing than the glossy, Photoshopped stuff you see in cinema lobbies these days. Makes me want to see Hostel and Evil Dead II one more time each.
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November 9th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
I never knew about such posters. I also never knew that movies were carried around like that from village to village. That’s really cool. Man, I learn something new here all the time at your blog. I love it.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I stumbled upon this information only recently as well. People in this small communities just wanted to gather together and see films. I read they would walk for miles to get to the place where the films were shown on an old TV set.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Cujo the killer Bloodhound? That is a great poster. Have you seen those mad Polish posters of well known horror films? Evilontwolegs.com have done a nice feature : http://www.evilontwolegs.com/2009/08/horror-posters-poland/
November 11th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Igloo Keeper
Thanks for the comment and informatin. I am not aware of the Polish posters but willl head over to Evil on Two Legs shortly to check it out. I may try to find stuff from other countries. I am sure places like Cambodia or Vietnam must have some similar offerings.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Bollywood also has some amazing horror film posters in a similar style. Bollywood horrors have names like ‘Bhoot’ and ‘Chupp’ and are generally just stolen bits from western horror films acted by Indians and interspersed with dance routines and comedy subplots. Which in a way makes them better. You can see some here (poor image quality though): http://www.thehotspotonline.com/eyecandy/horror/gall02Posts.htm
November 11th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I am going to go check this out. Thanks. I have to admit a total ignorance when it comes to Bollywood. I was going to dowmnload a couple Indian horror flicks the other day but held off until my current downloads have finished. I have to argee that there is something about the way these developing nations portray horror (not to say that Poland is a developing nation… or is it? I need to keep up with these things) movie images that surpasses the glossy poster art that usually accompanies the film originally. I really love the old posters, especially of the 60′s and 70′s. Horror. Exploitation. Even mainstream posters like Serpico and Dirty Harry really just grabbed you. Of course I like some modern stuff, especially what is coming out of Japan and South Korea and there is a post coming up on that after I finsih my article on the French film Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage). Any Bollywood horror recommendations will taked seriously. Thanks.
November 14th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Hi,
any chance of you doing some more on this? Loving these posters.
Oh I notice a mention of Bollywood there. Out of interest there is a Bollywood musical remake of Lucio Fulci’s “The Psychic” out there!!!!
November 14th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
More coming up in the future. Did an Asian poster post today just to keep my blog alive with some sort of pulse. HAve some reviews on the back burner but can’t seem to finsih them off. Some Polish posters may be next and a commenter suggested some Bollywood which I need to check into. Of interest to you may be that I just watched Bird with the Crystal Plumage and liked it overall. The ending was over the top but I expect that now from giallo films. Probably do a review of that soon.
November 15th, 2009 at 1:06 am
I am not the biggest Argento fan in the world to be honest but yeah Crystal plumage is pretty good. I guess I ll have to get around to reviewing that one too at some stage. Though personally there are loads of gialli I can think of that are miles better than most of Argento’s efforts,
November 15th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Sure. I try him out as people rave about him sometimes. BWTCP was, to me, one of his better works but it was not a great film at all. The ending was contrived and they offer the police psychologist explnantion as to why the killer did it all a minute or so before the credits roll, as if to give the convolute plot was credibility as the ship is sinking. But I liked Tony Musante in it.