The CineFiles & AVManiacs.com Present: An Interview With William Lustig

Here's a first - a co-production between The CineFiles and AVManiacs.com! In this exciting departure from our regular format, we present an interview with Bill Lustig, director of numerous exploitation films. A few of which might be familiar to our fans: Maniac, Vigilante, and The Maniac Cop series. He is now the head of Blue Underground, which is one of the premiere DVD and Blu-Ray labels for cult movies.

In our brief discussion - Lustig speaks about how he got into the film industry; his influences; getting into the video industry and even announces a few upcoming titles from Blue Underground.

We hope to make this is a semi-regular feature, so if you enjoy the interview, please be sure to let us know by commenting and giving us a rating.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• CineFiles
• AVManiacs
• William Lustig
• Maniac
• Maniac Cop
• Blue Underground
• Bill Lustig
• Joe Spinell
• DVD
• Blu-Ray
• Interview
• Edwin Samuelson
• Eric Cohen
• Mike Foltz
• Jeff Gallashaw.

[Villesanti]

I remember a time when movies like Maniac Cop, Child’s Play, Zombi, etc were released in movie theaters. Now most of these movies go directly to DVD and most are even unnoticed. I think that DVD is both a curse and blessing.

[cinefiles]

@Villesanti DVD and Blu-ray sales are down because cable tv and netflix have killed them. It seems every few years that a new format destroys the previous one. Think about: when was the last time you went to a video store to rent a movie? I don't think I have done it in at least 7 years.

[Villesanti]

@cinefiles Me too, I haven’t rented a movie in years. I grew up in the VHS era and I miss going to the video store to scout for movies, now everything is so accessible that it doesn’t feel exiting to watch a movie anymore.

[cinefiles]

@Villesanti I grew up in a video store when labels like Media and Vestron were the best friends a cult film lover could ever have. It's wonderful to reflect on those those times. Today, it's all gone and will we'll never have anything like that again. As Lustig stated, the future is digital delivery, which will be great that you can access anything at anytime, but I do miss holding it in my hands and looking at the cover and reading the box copy, What a great era that was!

[TheRealNormanBates]

Anyone know who DOES have the rights to SUSPIRIA? I heard it was the Weinsteins... if so, anyone know what can be done to buy it back, since their Dragon Dynasty doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a competent release.

[cinefiles]

@TheRealNormanBates The Weinsteins do own it. They bought because they were intending to be a remake. A pretty bad idea if you ask me as there's nothing original about the story; it's an exercise in style. A remake would be pointless.

[andellzor]

@cinefiles

I dont think the physical formats are going away, i think there are to much collectors. I mean there is nothing collectable about netflix. Also are´nt many of the people watching these cult movies the sort of people who like collecting them. Already if you dont want to buy a movie, download it, for free. Why pay for a digital file? I will never pay for non physical movies. If i pay i want to put it in my collection, not on some hardrive and downloads have been around for a while now.

[Villesanti]

@cinefiles Me too, I haven’t rented a movie in years. I grew up in the VHS era and I miss going to the video store to scout for movies, now everything is so accessible that it doesn’t feel exiting to watch a movie anymore.

[ufuckfacesonofabitch]

Maniac, Maniac Cop, Maniac Cop 2, Maniac Cop 3

This guy had a real imagination for film titles.

[disgustingduo]

Mr Lustig's a cool guy - we met him at a film festival in London in the 90s.

[maxruehl]

It's refreshing to hear such honesty regarding the quality of some of his films. Even I, who worked a couple of days on Vigilante and whose brother did voiceovers on the film, have to admit the movie has its problems.:)

[stevenandnicola123]

Great interview. Bill always seems like a nice fella.

[Bloodsport1]

@Villesanti Nah man, these type of movies still come out in the theaters but they dont get any promotion or they're pulled from the cinema like Hatchet 2.

[colemartinst123]

When is there gonna be more videos uploaded?

[Villesanti]

@cinefiles Yeah, I agree. Times have changes. It is like we live today in our own box and our only window to the world is through a monitor. But I miss do those good old day when I was a kid and just going out to the driving theater, the cinema, the local video rental, the arcade, etc was part of socializing. Kids today don’t know what they are missing!