APRIL 29
Bloody Axe Wound [2024]
PHYSICAL MEDIA: DVD
DIRECTOR: Matthew John Lawrence
WRITER: Matthew John Lawrence
PRINCIPAL CAST: Sari Arambulo, Molly Brown, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Burke, Chet Siegel, David Littleton
SYNOPSIS: Abbie Bladecut is a teenager torn between the macabre traditions of her family’s bloody trade and the tender stirrings of her first crush. In the small town of Clover Falls, Abbie’s father, Roger Bladecut, has built an infamous legacy by capturing real-life killings on tape and selling them to eager customers, but as Abbie delves deeper into the grisly family business, she begins to wonder if it’s time to take the family tradition in a new direction.
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
RATING: Not Rated
RUN TIME: 83 Minutes
STUDIO: RLJE Films
https://letterboxd.com/RLJEFilms/
https://www.facebook.com/RLJEfilms
https://www.instagram.com/rljefilms/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6975842/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DVZR1W6B/
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Birth/Rebirth [2023]
PHYSICAL MEDIA: Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: Laura Moss
WRITER: Laura Moss, Brendan J. O’Brien
PRINCIPAL CAST: Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, A.J. Lister, Breeda Wool
SYNOPSIS:
*This listing is for the standard edition version and does NOT come with a limited edition slipcase!*
A single mother and a childless morgue technician are bound together by their relationship to a little girl they have reanimated from the dead.
Bonus Features:
1. Commentary with director/co-writer Laura Moss, executive producer/co-writer Brendan J. O’Brien, actress Marin Ireland, actress Judy Reyes and medical advisor Emily Ryan
2. Medically Squeamish: The Making of Birth/Rebirth – a 40 minute documentary featuring new video interviews with Laura Moss, Brendan J. O’Brien, costume designer Annie Simon, and editor Taylor Mason
3. Theatrical trailer
4. Booklet with an essay by film critic Katie Walsh
GENRE: Horror, Thriller, Drama
RATING: Rated R
RUN TIME: 101 Minutes
STUDIO: Shudder
https://www.facebook.com/shudder
https://www.instagram.com/shudder
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9048804/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ3WJZ7J/
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Spoonful of Sugar [2022]
PHYSICAL MEDIA: Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: Mercedes Bryce Morgan
WRITER: Leah Saint Marie
PRINCIPAL CAST: Morgan Saylor, Kat Foster, Danilo Crovetti
SYNOPSIS: Millicent is taking a semester off from her studies to take care of Johnny, a sickly, mute child with severe allergies. His mother, Rebecca, is an author and his father, Jacob, is a carpenter.
GENRE: Horror
RATING: Not Rated
RUN TIME: 94 Minutes
STUDIO: Shudder
https://www.facebook.com/shudder
https://www.instagram.com/shudder
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21815772/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ46D3GK/
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Cannibal Girls [1973]
PHYSICAL MEDIA: Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: Ivan Reitman
WRITER: Robert Sandler, Daniel Goldberg, Ivan Reitman
PRINCIPAL CAST: Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Ronald Ulrich, Alan Gordon
SYNOPSIS:
*This listing is for the standard edition version and does NOT come with a limited edition slipcase!*
These girls do exactly what you think they do!
During a winter road trip, young couple Cliff (Schitt’s Creek’s Eugene Levy) and Gloria (Black Christmas’ Andrea Martin) get lost and make an unplanned stop in Farnhamville, Ontario, a snowy small town known as “The Friendly City.” When they hear the legend of three local women with a history of murdering men, they playfully investigate. But to their horror, it seems the killers are still active, police and other locals are complicit, and they’re all feasting on the victims. When the cannibals develop an appetite for Cliff and Gloria, they race to get on the road – before they get on the menu.
A decade before achieving blockbuster status with Ghostbusters, director Ivan Reitman put himself on the map with this more unsettling stab at horror comedy featuring future icons (and SCTV stars) Levy and Martin. Drawing inspiration from the Manson family and other shocking, drug-fueled horrors of the hippie era, CANNIBAL GIRLS is a gruesome Canuxploitation classic that set the stage for the provocative horror films – including Shivers, Rabid, and the Ilsa series – Reitman went on to produce at Cinépix. The film also made a splash in the U.S. where American International Pictures added a gimmick worthy of William Castle: a “warning bell” preparing viewers for “scenes of an especially erotic or gruesome nature.”
Bonus Features:
1. Scanned in 2K with new color grade and extensive dirt and damage repairs
2. Alternate AIP “warning bell” soundtrack
3. New audio commentary featuring Paul Corupe of Canuxploitation.com and film historian Jason Pichonsky
4. 2 Guys and a Chainsaw episode on the film with a new epilogue on Canadian horror featuring hosts Craig Higgins and Todd Kuhns
5. Reitman the Fright Man (2024, 20 min.) – New interview with film historian Chris Alexander on Reitman’s horror period
6. The Horror Horn (2024, 5 min.) – Alexander on AIP’s “warning bell” soundtrack
7. Cannibal Guys (2010, 27 min.) – Archival interview with Reitman and producer Daniel Goldberg
8. Meat Eugene! (2010, 20 min.) – Archival interview with star Eugene Levy
9. More Meat (2024, 21 min.) – Never-before-seen outtakes from Meat Eugene!
11. French opening credits (1973, 3 min.)
12. Theatrical trailer
13. TV spots
14. Radio spots
15. AIP pressbook
16. Archival image gallery
17. Orientation (1968, 25 min.) – Early Reitman short uncut on home video for the first time
18. New Orientation commentary featuring Hamilton Babylon author Stephen Broomer
19. Booklet featuring an archival interview with Reitman and Goldberg, plus a Motion Picture Purgatory comic strip by Rick Trembles
20. Reversible cover artwork
21. English SDH subtitles
TAGLINES:
- These Girls Eat Men
- They do EXACTLY what you think they do!
- They love every man they meet: first to death, then for dinner
- The Picture With The WARNING BELL! When it rings – close your eyes if you’re squeamish!
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
RATING: Rated R
RUN TIME: 83 Minutes
STUDIO: Canadian International Pictures
https://www.canadian-international.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CIPreleasing
https://www.instagram.com/cipreleasing
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069841/
https://www.amazon.com/Cannibal-Girls-Blu-ray-Ivan-Reitman/dp/B0DZ3YTS12/
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Short Night Of Glass Dolls [1971]
PHYSICAL MEDIA: 4K UHD/Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: Aldo Lado
WRITER: Aldo Lado, Rüdiger von Spies
PRINCIPAL CAST: Barbara Bach, Ingrid Thulin, Jean Sorel, José Quaglio, Mario Adorf
SYNOPSIS:
From the fringes of the giallo genre, writer and director Aldo Lado (WHO SAW HER DIE?, NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS) delivers a debut movie that pushes the boundaries of convention with “an ending that is one of the best, truly shocking giallo finales ever put on film.” (Geoffrey Thomas, Collider)
American foreign correspondent Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) is on his final assignment in Prague before transitioning to London. He plans to bring his beautiful Czech girlfriend Myra (Barbara Bach) with him, freeing her from the shackles of oppressive Iron Curtain politics. But their plans are suddenly derailed when Myra vanishes without a trace.
His investigation into her disappearance makes him realize that decadence, superstition, and hunger for power run deep in the City of a Hundred Spires.
And then his own body turns up in a park…
With no sign of life or rigor mortis, doctors prepare to perform an autopsy to discover the cause of his mysterious and symptomless death. What they don’t know is that in his mind, Greg is frantic. Silently screaming. “I am alive!”
Newly restored and presented in 4K ultra-high resolution for the first time, “Short Night of Glass Dolls” is “easily one of the most intelligent and stylish gialli” (Shaun Anderson, The Celluloid Highway). The film will surprise you with its remarkable narrative, distinctive photography, and stellar cast that also includes Ingrid Thulin (THE SILENCE, WILD STRAWBERRIES) and Mario Adorf (THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS).
Celluloid Dreams is proud to present this newly scanned version, restored in 4K from the original camera negative, along with countless extras.
Contains 4 discs.
Bonus Materials
- 35mm Grindhouse Version
- US Pan&Scan VHS version (as ‘Paralyzed’)
- Isolated Score
- Commentary Track by Aldo Lado and Federico Caddeo
- Commentary Track by Guido Henkel
- ‘The Nights of Malastrana’ 2015 Interview with writer/director Aldo Lado (97 mins)
- ‘The Most Beautiful Voice in the World’ Interview with soprano Edda Del Orso (21 mins)
- ‘The Quest for Money’ Interview with producer Enzo Doria (20 mins)
- ‘Cuts Like a Knife’ Interview with film editor Mario Morra (23 mins)
- ‘To Italy and Back’ Interview with co-producer Dieter Geissler (29 mins)
- Retrospective Featurette by Howard Berger
- Long-lost, export ‘Malastrana’ credits
- 64-page Booklet
- Image Gallery
- Italian Trailer
- English Trailer
- English Trailer (as ‘Catalepsia’)
- 2018 Interview with writer/director Aldo Lado (25 mins)
TAGLINE: When things are not what they seem…
GENRE: Horror, Mystery
RATING: Not Rated
RUN TIME: 97 Minutes
STUDIO: Celluloid Dreams
https://www.celluloid-dreams.com/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552600199555
https://www.instagram.com/celluloiddreams_/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067384/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPBF9KVR/
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Night Train Murders [1975]
AKA “Last Stop on the Night Train”
PHYSICAL MEDIA: 4K UHD/Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: Aldo Lado
WRITER: Roberto Infascelli, Ettore Sanzò, Aldo Lado
PRINCIPAL CAST: Enrico Maria Salerno, Flavio Bucci, Franco Fabrizi, Gianfranco De Grassi, Macha Méril
SYNOPSIS:
For far too long, this 1974 shocker directed by Aldo Lado (WHO SAW HER DIE?) has been dismissed as a LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT knockoff. Now it can be experienced as a classic “more intense and disturbing than the film that inspired it” (DVD Talk) in UHD for the first time ever: When two young girls taking a train home for the holidays encounter a pair of sadistic thugs, it will trigger a nightmare of sexual brutality and parental revenge. Flavio Bucci (SUSPIRIA), Irene Miracle (INFERNO), Macha Méril (DEEP RED) and Enrico Maria Salerno (THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) star – with a powerful soundtrack by Ennio Morricone – in this “damn fine film that stands on its own merits” (Screen Anarchy) – also known as LAST STOP ON THE NIGHT TRAIN, THE NEW HOUSE ON THE LEFT, SECOND HOUSE ON THE LEFT, DON’T RIDE ON LATE NIGHT TRAINS, LAST HOUSE PART II and XMAS MASSACRE – scanned in 4K from the original camera negative with over 5 hours of Special Features.
Special Features on UHD
- Audio Commentary With Director Aldo Lado, Moderated By Freak-O-Rama’s Federico Caddeo
- Audio Commentary With Ultra Violent Magazine’s Art Ettinger And Cinema Arcana’s Bruce Holecheck
- Trailer
Special Features on Blu-ray
- Audio Commentary With Director Aldo Lado, Moderated By Freak-O-Rama’s Federico Caddeo
- Audio Commentary With Ultra Violent Magazine’s Art Ettinger And Cinema Arcana’s Bruce Holecheck
- Hear My Train A-Comin’ – Interview With Director Aldo Lado
- The Veiled Lady – Interview With Actress Macha Méril
- Back On The Train – Interview With Actor Gianfranco De Grassi
- Train In Vain – Interview With Actress Irene Miracle
- NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS And Sadean Women: Power, Pleasure And The Subversion Of Morality – Video Essay By Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness
- Trailer
Bonus Materials
- Audio Commentary With Director Aldo Lado, Moderated By Freak-O-Rama’s Federico Caddeo
- Audio Commentary With Ultra Violent Magazine’s Art Ettinger And Cinema Arcana’s Bruce Holecheck
- Hear My Train A-Comin’ – Interview With Director Aldo Lado
- The Veiled Lady – Interview With Actress Macha Méril
- Back On The Train – Interview With Actor Gianfranco De Grassi
- Train In Vain – Interview With Actress Irene Miracle
- NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS And Sadean Women: Power, Pleasure And The Subversion Of Morality – Video Essay By Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness
- Trailer
TAGLINES:
- The perfect weekend hide-a-way where you make the first move … but it may be YOUR LAST! (“Last House – Part II” tagline)
- For those who survived the “First” (“Last House – Part II” tagline)
- Eve of the end… (‘Xmas Massacre’ tagline)
- Most movies last less than two hours! This is one of everlasting torment!
- The windows look out on hell…a view that will take your breath away…permanently! (as “The New House on the Left”)
- SEAL OF CONSUMER AWARENESS: The price of admission to this motion picture is only the down payment. The balance will be extracted from you nerves…minute by minute.
- Even PSYCHO, LAST HOUSE and EXORCIST let you off before the end of the line…NOT THIS TIME!
- You can tell yourself IT’S ONLY A MOVIE – but it won’t help!
GENRE: Horror, Thriller
RATING: Rated R
RUN TIME: 94 Minutes
STUDIO: Severin Films
https://www.facebook.com/severinfilms
https://www.instagram.com/severinfilms/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073836/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DV9TLS17/
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Shanks [1974]
PHYSICAL MEDIA: Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: William Castle
WRITER: Ranald Graham
PRINCIPAL CAST: Marcel Marceau, Tsilla Chelton, Philippe Clay, Cindy Eilbacher
SYNOPSIS:
*This listing is for the standard edition version and does NOT come with a limited edition slipcase!*
Malcolm Shanks (Marcel Marceau, Barbarella) is a deaf, mute, reclusive puppeteer who lives with his overbearing sister (Tsilla Chelton, Peppermint Soda) and her lush of a husband, Mr. Barton (Philippe Clay, French Cancan). The only source of joy in his harsh world is his puppets, which are noticed by a beguiling inventor named Dr. Baker (also played by Marceau), who promptly offers him a job as his assistant. Upon Dr. Baker’s sudden death, Shanks discovers that he can, with the aid of electrodes, reanimate the dead, bringing a new reality to their experiments.
The final film from gimmick-prone, American genre film icon William Castle (The Tingler, The House on Haunted Hill), SHANKS is a decidedly surrealist amalgamation of quirky fantasy and mid-70s character-driven horror. Anchored by a delectable dual performance from celebrated French actor Marcel Marcau, with potently eerie camera work by 13 Ghosts cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc and an atmospheric score by legendary composer Alex North (Spartacus, The Bad Seed), Cinématographe is proud to present William Castle’s often overlooked slice of mid-70s alienation in its 4K UHD debut from a brand new restoration from its original negative.
Bonus Features:
1. 2-disc Set: 4K Ultra HD / Region Free Blu-ray
2. New audio commentary with film historians Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw
3. No Words for the Dead: Reanimating William Castle, Visual Language and The Path to Shanks – a new video essay by Daniel Kremer
4. Marcel Marceau on Shanks – an archival interview with the actor
5. Vintage radio spots
6. English SDH subtitles
TAGLINES:
- Deliciously Grotesque.
- A new concept in the macabre in which the Good come out of the grave and the Evil are sent to fill the vacancy.
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
RATING: Rated PG
RUN TIME: 93 Minutes
STUDIO: Cinématographe
https://www.facebook.com/vinsyn
https://www.instagram.com/vinegarsyndrome/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072149/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ3QM4Z6/
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Devil Fetus / Her Vengeance Set
PHYSICAL MEDIA: Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: Hung-Chuen Lau, Ngai Choi Lam
WRITER: Man-Wah Cheng, Ging-Jiu Lo, Suet Lai Woo
PHYSICAL MEDIA: Eddie Chan, Yung-Chang Chin, Pak-Kwong Ho
SYNOPSIS:
*This listing is for the standard edition version and does NOT come with a limited edition slipcase!*
Vinegar Syndrome specializes in the masterful restoration and distribution of cult, horror, and erotic films from the 1960s-90s.
There was nothing quite as outrageous as Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s. From horrific black magic to spellbindingly choreographed action and dark and lurid stories of revenge, Hong Kong filmmakers created genre cinema that broke new ground. Amongst the companies producing some of the craziest films was Golden Harvest. Legendary for their martial arts epics, Golden Harvest stormed full force into every corner of genre filmmaking, and presented here are two of their most memorable and audacious works.
DEVIL FETUS:
A young woman purchases a suspiciously phallic-looking antique vase from a street auction only to soon become the target of a lustful demonic spirit. When her husband discovers her fornicating with the evil entity, he destroys the vase, leading to his and his wife’s grotesque deaths. Fearing that the entity may have impregnated the recently deceased woman with a demonic fetus, a priest seals off the evil spirit in the woman’s bedroom so as not to be disturbed. However, several years later, the young woman’s family accidentally breaks the seal, unleashing a supernatural force upon their household. As the family attempts to battle this malicious entity, they must find the priest who originally trapped the demon in order for him to return and finish the job once and for all.
Given a “Category III” rating upon its initial release, thanks to its unrelenting feast of on-screen grotesqueries, DEVIL FETUS’ home video history has been marred by releases that were either cropped from its original scope framing or heavily censored. Jumping from a stylish Hong Kong supernatural thriller to an over-the-top gore and action spectacle featuring intricate wire-work, astonishing visual effects, maggot-covered corpses, sexually perverse creatures, and a multitude of inventive death sequences, Vinegar Syndrome is proud to present this unforgettable Hong Kong horror on Blu-ray for the first time, completely uncut and in its original aspect ratio, unseen since its theatrical release!
HER VENGEANCE:
Ying is a mild-mannered hostess at a local nightclub where, one night, she accidentally insults a group of drunken thugs. While returning home later that night, Ying is attacked by the drunkards and is viciously beaten and assaulted. Seeking retribution, Ying enlists the help of a former Triad member who is now confined to a wheelchair. Although reluctant to help in her pursuit of vengeance, he offers Ying a job at his bar to help her get a fresh start. However, soon after, she encounters one of her attackers and, seizing the moment, kills him. With blood now on her hands, Ying is set on a path of violence that she can no longer walk away from, leaving those in her life caught up in the bloodshed.
With its feet planted firmly in the world of exploitation cinema, HER VENGEANCE plays as an even more extreme version of I Spit on Your Grave, filtered through an action movie structure. Directed by one of Hong Kong’s most notorious filmmakers, Ngai Choi Lam (Riki-Oh: Story of Ricky, The Seventh Curse), HER VENGEANCE is a brutal and unflinching study of a woman hell-bent on revenge. Initially released with a “Category III” rating due to its shocking depictions of violence and assault, the film was subsequently re-edited into a less graphic “Category IIb” version intended for a wider release. Vinegar Syndrome is proud to present this unflinching thriller in two of its most complete versions: the original CAT III version, featuring all of its shocking sex and violence, as well as the more commonly seen CAT IIb version, which tames the brutality while adding more story and character development not present in the CAT III version.
Bonus Features:
1. Versions included: Devil Fetus: 1983 / 92 min / 2.35:1 / Cantonese, English, Mandarin Mono; Her Vengeance (CAT III): 1988 / 83 min / 1.85:1 / Cantonese Mono (two versions); Her Vengeance (CAT IIb): 1988 / 90 min / 1.85:1 / Cantonese, Mandarin Mono
2. 2-disc Region A Blu-ray Set
3. Newly color-graded and restored by VS from studio-supplied masters
4. Commentary track for HER VENGEANCE with Bruce Holecheck (Cinema Arcana), Art Ettinger (Ultra Violent Magazine), and Ryan Smith (Dreamhaven Books)
5. Commentary track for DEVIL FETUS with film writer Travis Woods
6. “Eagle Blood & Pig Intestines” (12 min) – an interview with actor Hsu Meng-Kuang on DEVIL FETUS
7. “Her Vengeance in Four Cuts” (7 min) – a video essay written and narrated by John Charles
8. “Her Vengeance and Category-III Rape Revenge Films” (11 min) – a video essay by author and film historian Samm Deighan
9. Original trailers for both films
10. Promotional image gallery for DEVIL FETUS (courtesy of Ryan Smith)
11. Alternate “crime doesn’t pay” ending for Her Vengeance
12. 20-page booklet with an essay by John Charles
13. Reversible sleeve artwork
14. Newly translated English subtitles
GENRE: Horror
RATING: Not Rated
RUN TIME: 175 Minutes
STUDIO: Vinegar Syndrome
https://www.facebook.com/vinsyn
https://www.instagram.com/vinegarsyndrome/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085953/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092254/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ44TWZR/
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Cannibal Orgy and the Films of J.T. IV [1985]
PHYSICAL MEDIA: Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: J.T. IV aka John Henry Timmis IV
PRINCIPAL CAST: John Henry Timmis IV, L.D. Groban
SYNOPSIS:
*This listing is for the standard edition version and does NOT come with a limited edition slipcase!*
Shot on Super 8 film and edited on decaying VHS tapes in Chicago, the experimental horror movies of late musician and filmmaker J.T. IV (aka John Henry Timmis IV) feel like an unholy alliance between David Bowie and Charles Manson. CANNIBAL ORGY AND THE FILMS OF J.T. IV is an historical archive that collects Timmis’s collage-like films for the first time on home video. This includes CANNIBAL ORGY—a Satanic panic ode to BLOOD FEAST, Lucio Fulci, and stoned glam rock. It does not include THE CURE FOR INSOMNIA, Timmis’s 85-hour movie that holds the Guinness World Record for the longest film ever made. Although he mainly identified as straight, J.T. IV was refreshingly open about his same-sex relationships in his autobiography FROM THE INSIDE, making these works exciting discoveries in the realm of alternative and underground cinema.
Bonus Features:
1. Preserved from the only VHS masters in existence, as the Super 8 film elements are lost
2. CANNIBAL ORGY (1985)
3. CANNIBAL ORGY: Commentary on the R-rated version with J.T. IV historian Robert Cole Manis, moderated by Bleeding Skull’s Joseph A. Ziemba
4. NIGHTMARE CITY (1984)
5. Short: THE CURE FOR INSOMNIA (EXCERPT)
6. Short: DESTRUCTO ROCK
7. Short: IN THE CAN
8. Short: EVERY DREAM HOME A HEARTACHE
9. Short: SUNDAY MORNING
10. Short: SONG FOR SUZANNE
11. Short: DESTRUCTO ROCK (LIVE)
12. Short: KILLER SHREDDING
13. Short: I LOVE YOU
14. Short: REEL TO REEL FOOTAGE
GENRE: Horror
RATING: Not Rated
RUN TIME: 4 Hours, 28 Minutes
STUDIO: Bleeding Skull/Vinegar Syndrome
http://bleedingskull.com/cannibal-orgy-1985/
https://www.facebook.com/vinsyn
https://www.instagram.com/vinegarsyndrome/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ3X469T/
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