62 - Hell Squad (1986)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EPISODE 62 - HELL SQUAD (1986)
Months ago a listener and great friend of the show sent in his 5 star review on iTunes for the Grindbin, he had a simple request, review the movie Hell Squad on a future episode. We agreed - we've done this a number of times before - how hard could this be? It's just a movie right?!
Hell Squad (1986) is not readily available on any sort of streaming service - that's to be expected for over half the films covered on this podcast - but it's not impossible to find; there was a DVD copy for sale from an individual seller on Amazon. After ordering a copy and waiting weeks for it to arrive the package finally showed up. To nobody's surprise, the DVD claiming to be Hell Squad (with completely different box art than anywhere else) was in fact a bootleg copy that simply wouldn't play in any of the DVD players or computers we had.
After a few more weeks of trying to secure a copy we dove down into the deep recesses of the Internet and tracked down a fairly nice quality VHS rip of the film; Great! We are making progress.
A few weeks later we finally recorded the episode about this movie - our troubles were over; or so we thought. As I was about to upload the episode a terrorist attack happened in London and the episode we recorded about a bunch of Showgirls going to kill terrorists - complete with jokes about ISIS and people flying on magic carpets - didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.
And here we are... an episode that has taken us literally months to produce, record and release is finally here. Was it worth it? Probably not - that's not for us to judge.
What I can say is that this is a great insight into the world of lost cinema and the challenges we face in furthering our addiction to find and review some of the most obscure movies on earth to see if he we can uncover a buried treasure. Much like Indiana Jones, sometimes the quest for the objects are much more satisfying than the objects themselves. A forgettable movie with a story we can tell for a lifetime.
Luckily (depending on your opinion) we live in a society where movies like Hell Squad just won't die. Their obscurity is calling card for those of us addicted to cult films - a challenge to be fulfilled; to find a way to share it with the world. It doesn't matter if the movie sucks, it's about resurrecting it and preserving it for future generations of bad movie aficionados.
Our work is never done. We have a list that numbers in the hundreds of movies we are currently seeking and currently have no way to secure a copy of. We will find them one day, the movies will probably suck but the story and the episodes that follow hill hopefully be worth it.
