Bryanston Pictures

Background: Bryanston Pictures was a distribution company headed by Louis "Butchie" Peraino, a leading man in the Columbo Crime Family, and was created after the success of Deep Throat. Their first big deal came from distributing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the predecessor movie of the TCM franchise. However, shady business practices (such as giving directors FAR less than 35% of the profits made from the movie, and threatening theaters to fork over 50% of the profits) led them to be sued into oblivion in 1976. Reports from people who allowed them to distribute their movies said, "It was like making a deal with the devil". In 2005, the company was resurrected. You can find out the rest of their controversial history here.

Nicknames: "BP Box", "BP Box from Hell", "BP Box of Doom"

Logo: Against a black background, two yellow letters "BP" zoom out. Then, we see a series of small multicolored lines waver in the center, followed by a yellow multilined cross shape with the same "BP" in the middle, which leaves several multicolored residue trails. Then, the cross shape shifts a little taller while "BRYANSTON" and "PICTURES" in Microgramma D Bold Extended in yellow appear above and below, respectively. Then, all of a sudden, they dissolve, and forms the word "PRESENTS" in the same font, also in yellow.

Variants: Most of the time, the company name was not shown, due to the cropping or matting, typical.

FX/SFX: The zooming, stretching, trailing, and dissolving.

Cheesy Factor: This logo uses all manner of primitive (by today's standards) computer or Scanimate effects.

Music/Sounds: A series of random, warbly synth-like sounds produced by a Moog synthesizer: starts with an ascending whoosh, then descending beeping sounds, a loud descending chirp, an array of fast-paced ominous music with a sound that resembles the descending voices of the THX Deep Note, then warbly sounds that end with a droning synth hum and continuous synth beats and chirps.

Availability: Near extinction. Appeared on films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Devil's Rain, Bruce Lee's Return of the Dragon, Andy Warhol's Dracula and Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. All current DVD releases and TV prints of these films plaster this logo over or go straight to the opening scene; the VCI VHS of Dark Star also skips this logo. It does however appear on the United Home Video VHS, the UK Fablious Films Blu-ray release of Dark Star, and the Goodtimes DVD release of Return of the Dragon. Interestingly, most recent versions of the latter under the title Way of the Dragon utilize Golden Harvest's "international" print featuring the 1978 GH logo at the front (the previous CBS/FOX laserdisc and the 2001 DVD release feature the GH logo with a blue background and the Bryanston fanfare underneath!).

Scare Factor: High to nightmare, though it depends on how one feels about the darkness, horrible Scanimate effects, creepy sounds, and overall oddness.