BAMF’s Movie Poster Hall of Fame – GUYANA: CULT OF THE DAMNED

I know. I know. I know. This poster violates the most fundamental rule of my Movie Poster Hall of Fame—it has photographs instead of illustrations/paintings. And as a rule, I always prefer posters that are illustrated, but every now and then there is a classic exploitation poster that uses photographs, and I’ve decided to profile a select few of those, starting with Guyana: Cult of the Damned. To be honest, I’ve never seen this movie, but I remember the ads that ran on radio and television when I was a kid, and those freaked me out. I believe I saw this poster hanging in a theater lobby, and I likely saw the artwork in newspaper ads as well. Either way, this film made a lasting impression on me during my youth, even though I didn’t see the damn thing (and from my understanding, it sucks). Still, there is something about this poster—perhaps it is that it looks so cheap, that it captures the true nature of this grindhouse gem. It has all the classic trappings of true B-movie poster art, complete with a central figure, surrounded by images that convey the action, violence, and sex the movie has to offer. At the same time, it looks like the film’s distributor was too cheap to hire an illustrator, so they had an intern snag some stills, and paste this nonsense together in about an hour.