Something Weird Video
| Private | |
| Industry | Film |
| Genre | Exploitation |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Founder | Mike Vraney (December 29, 1957 – January 2, 2014) |
| Defunct | January 2, 2014 |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, United States |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
| Products | VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc |
| Services | Film distribution |
| Website | somethingweird.com |
Something Weird Video is an American film distributor company based in Seattle, Washington. They specialize in exploitation films, particularly the works of Harry Novak, Doris Wishman, David F. Friedman and Herschell Gordon Lewis. The company is named after Lewis' 1967 film Something Weird, and the logo is taken from that film's original poster art. Something Weird usually focus on B to Z movies. Something Weird has distributed well over 2,500 films to date.
On January 2, 2014, the company's founder Mike Vraney died after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was fifty-six years old.
Something Weird Video was founded in 1990 by Mike Vraney in Seattle, Washington. He was inspired by his teenage job as a theater projectionist. His love for the obscure films that never made it to video prompted him to transfer hundreds of ancient reels of film to VHS and DVD. On the company website, Vraney explains the label's genesis:
In my mind, the last great genre to be scavenged were the exploitation/sexploitation films of the '30s through the '70s. After looking into this further, I realized that there were nearly 2,000 movies out there yet to be discovered. So with this for inspiration, my quest began and wouldn't you know, just out of the blue I fell into a large collection of 16 mm girlie arcade loops (which became the first compilation videos we put together). Around the same time I received an unexpected phone call that suddenly made all this real: my future and hands-down the king of sexploitation Dave Friedman was on the other end of the line. This would be the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship for both of us. Dave's films became the building blocks for our film collection and he has taught and guided me through the wonderful world of sexploitation, introducing me to his colleagues (Dan Sonney, Harry Novak, H. G. Lewis, Bob Cresse and all the other colorful characters who were involved during his heyday) and they've been eager to dive into the business again.
...
Wikipedia