UK-based distributor Shameless is known for releasing films which tend to be known as "guilty pleasures", films with an above-decent amount of nudity and/or violence. And instead of hiding the sleaze-factor, Shameless often accentuates this in the packaging they use, which is rarely subtle. For example: in the past, they have used lenticular fronts on their releases, and moving the angle of the image a little would reveal a breast, a muzzle flash, an exploding head...
Well, a few weeks ago they released a DVD of Ruggero Deodato's sleazy 1993 thriller Mortal Vortex aka. The Washing Machine, in which a woman discovers a corpse in her washing machine. And Shameless did something special.
They got Graham Humphries (who recently made that gorgeous poster for Astron 6's The Editor) to design a steelbook which looks like... a bloody washing machine.
How shameless!
So we took a few pictures of it. Enjoy...
And this is what it looks like: a steelbook, with the front resembling a washing machine with a bloody corpse inside. Cute.
Also, seeing as how the film inside is considered to be a "giallo" of sorts, the case is suitably yellow.
As you can see, this is not a regular steelcase: the corpse is actually printed on the front of the DVD itself, and visible through a plastic window in the steelcase.
Opening The Washing Machine.
It's a simple idea, but very well executed.
I love what designer Graham Humphries did with Ruggero Deodato's name. Clearly, everybody over at Shameless had tons of fun with this one.
The back, which is written as a manual of sorts. It's full of lewd remarks taken straight from a washing machine's functions, like having "hot" and "cold" settings for sleaze, "tumble drying" and so on. Shameless!