Death Laughs Among Us: The Complete Works of John Schnall

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Death Laughs Among Us: The Complete Works of John Schnall

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SKU: VHSHitfest-013 SLIP+SHIRT-2XL

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This listing is for the standard edition Blu-ray. The limited edition slipcover (designed by Earl Kessler Jr.) was limited to 1,000 units and is sold out. The two versions are identical, aside from the slipcover. Note: Limited Edition Slipcover still available in the T-shirt bundles only.

VHSHITFEST has been uncovering and releasing movies on video for over a decade, across DVD and VHS, and is now moving into blu-ray, with the same goal to showcase the most unique, crazy, and obscure movies that they've discovered through years of collecting VHS, allowing even more people to actually be able to experience these nearly lost gems in the best versions possible.

To label the work of award-winning animation filmmaker John Schnall as simply “darkly comic” cartoons is, frankly, to miss the point. In their wide diversity of styles, techniques and subjects, Schnall’s films drag us to the edge of the abyss and dangle us there, then dance us back, laughing. With a career spanning over 40 years John has managed to make some of the most unique, hilarious and weird films you’ll likely ever see. Despite having worked for MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Disney and countless other companies Schnall’s work was criminally underseen and underrated until now. That is why VHSHITFEST is so happy to present the complete work of an unsung underground legend. Sit back and feast your eyes on hours and hours of greatness including a new career retrospective documentary!

directed by: John Schnall
starring: various
1982-2007 / 63 min / various / English DTS HD-MA 2.0

Additional info:

Region Free Blu-ray
Audio commentary with John Schnall
New Feature-Length Documentary
80 minutes of additional movies
Radio Shows
Easter Eggs
Music Videos
English SDH subtitles

Overall rating: 4.6626506 / 5 from 83 reviews.

AI Generated Review Summary

This Blu-ray collection of John Schnall's animated shorts offers excellent quality, inventive animation, and a great selection of bonus features. Customers highly recommend this release for its beautiful slipcover and comprehensive content.

Summary topics

Product Quality: 11%
Film Quality: 9%
Release Recommendation: 20%
Product Appearance: 9%
Bonus Features: 11%

Review topics: ["quality","looks","packaging","presentation","buy","set","piece","work","animation","release","collection","features","shorts","film","audio","humor","commentary","slipcover","pickup","scenarios","choice","fun","artwork"].

Review highlights

"Schnall's dark humor and the scenarios are fun and all the animation looks beautiful." — Jamie M.
"Fun quality collection" — Jared W.
"Love the features and films on this." — Josh B.

Reviews

Saturday Evening Cartoons

"The collection pairs a cynical worldview with unique visual storytelling choices across each short. It documents a period when animators worked free from studio interference."

— Kevin G. (5/5)

Quality Schnallity

"I love VHShitfest and together with "Lost Prophet" this is their oddest release to date. It is not a lost, barely released no-budget Horror movie or a SOV spectacle. It's a collection of animated short films from a certain John Schnall, which I had never heard of before. Apparently he also worked for MTV and SNL later. The main feature is barely an hour long, but the many extras make up for it. We get an additional 60 minutes of Schnall's shorts, even with additional commentary. And the best thing about this release is the newly produced documentary about John Schnall, where we really get to know this one of a kind artist. It's also an hour long. But there's more - music videos, archival interviews and some audio only stuff I did not check out. So this is almost a mini box set, the ultimate John Schnall experience. I loved it."

— Dominik F. (5/5)

the best

"Nothing more exciting than a whole collection of films from someone I knew nothing of previously. This is an exhaustive and amazing release that's worth every penny and then some. Hats off to VHShitfest for this mammoth project and getting these films out into the world."

— William M. (5/5)

Disarrayed Assortments Of Avant Garde

"The movie itself is only an 63 minutes long but with 6+ hours of extra material including archival interviews, music videos, a documentary, additional works and more - this is totally money’s worth. One can tell there has been countless time put into all these works. There’s really not much more I should say otherwise I’d spoil it. This is definitely a worthwhile pickup if you enjoy independent animation, especially from an underrated and gifted animator. The slipcover and case artwork is cool. It’s too bad there isn’t a play-all/repeat title feature because since this release consists mainly of a series of medleys I’d just let it play out for hours. Great score too, or I should say scores because there are several of them. There is also stop motion used as well as cut-out animation amongst other styles. I appreciated watching this much more than I thought I would. We’ve all been given a fortunate service by receiving this release."

— Rory K. (5/5)

Death Laughs Among Us

"Can’t wait to check out all of these from Schnall, has tons of features and excellent slipcover presentation"

— Spenser Y. (5/5)

Vhs shit fest best release

"Nice collection of shorts, much more watchable and fun than the usual shot on video"

— Rohan J. (3/5)

Uneven

"A very uneven collection of morbid animated shorts, some wonderfully inventive, others tryhard and humorless. Schnall's aesthetic doesn't really appeal to me all that much, except for when it closely matches the subject matter, such as in "GRIM," which follows the Reaper on a typical day of work. Maybe enough here to consider a blind buy, but I could personally have lived without it."

— Michael S. (3/5)

Hitfest, Not Shitfest

"Gotta love indie animation! A gem amongst the rough of VHShitfest."

— Thomasin G. (5/5)

Cool in the right mood

"Very cool if you're in a strange mood. I'm just not in that mood often."

— Alex B. (3/5)

Horror Cartunia

"A very appreciated release from the VHShitfest guys. A collection of animated horror shorts made by John Schnall during 40 years. Excellent image quality and enjoyable bonus features. Pretty dope. It's a must."

— Jaume M. (5/5)