Saturday, November 25, 2023

An Artist for Jennifer

How uncanny is it that three of the Dirty New Yorker films which featured on my physical media wish list earlier this year have now become a reality? For the unaware those are: After Hours, Blood Sucking Freaks and now A Gun for Jennifer. I was doubly prophetic by also naming Vinegar Syndrome as the film's licensed distributor. Neglected genre classic! Prestigious restoration label of forgotten cinema! A match made in heaven.

Don’t mean to sound a snob, like the late art critic Brian Sewell, but why does this release have such unsuitable and lacklustre artwork? It really doesn’t fit the dark and gritty nature of the film, neither does it look on par with the rest of the top notch package art from Vinegar Syndrome’s releases.

Vinegar Syndrome's A Gun for Jennifer front cover and reverse cover artwork. Gutted!

Beggars can't be choosers, I'm still coppin’ it; the picture quality for the new trailer alone looks better than my old German DVD of the film. Considering how many years I've been praying for a high definition release of this, it would be a bit rich avoiding this just for its disappointing new art.

In hindsight, considering the newly commissioned comic book style artwork, I ought to have also wished for an illustrator who would have been a far worthier candidate; like the legendary master of graphic sex and violence, Tim Vigil. Alternatively, I wouldn’t have minded the O.G. art from the nineties; evoking the omnipresent popularity of the erotic thriller from that era:

Original artwork for A Gun for Jennifer from 1997.

4 comments:

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

That O.G cover is a beautiful use of curves and negative space 🧐

Spartan said...

The rest of the alternative artist’s film poster art is somewhat lacking, too. 🤔

Did you watch that new Who episode last night? Supposedly an adaptation of Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons’s comic they did back in the day for the fourth Doctor.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Yeah, it's a classic comic strip.

I did and I liked it. Kinda hilarious that the #tokenwokery has managed to piss off gammons AND snowflakes this time.

Spartan said...

Can't please everyone.

Loving the new look of the TARDIS. Way better than the salt crystal lamps littered everywhere in the previous version.