ARROW
NOTE: Film biz veteran and CEO of U.S.-owned Anchor Bay Entertainment U.K. MO
CLARIDGE died on X Mas day of heart failure. Here’s Dan Palmer of
FREAK OUT
addressing the loss.
Dan Palmer: I just wanted to let
everyone know of the sudden passing of a true pal of movie geeks everywhere;
MO CLARIDGE, who sadly died on Christmas Day.
Mo was the head of Anchor Bay UK, although you would be forgiven for not knowing the name I’m sure all film-geeks, DVD nerds and fans of genre cinema will be extremely aware of his
ingenious William Castle-esque output.
Mo kicked off his career with the hit video release of ‘Transformers: The Movie’, but it was as CEO of AB UK where he came into his own. He was the mastermind behind the home video release of
The Evil Dead Trilogy (which is still one of the most popular video titles in the UK), his marketing magic also gave us the ‘Hellraiser Configuration Box Set’
and ‘The Phantasm Sphere’ and it was his mettle that eventually sated every horror nut’s salivating taste buds with the first ever COMPLETE collection of
Halloween movies.
I had not known Mo for long, but during our brief acquaintanceship had worked closely with him. Mo was a real character in every sense of the word.
In almost every film related meeting I have attended over the last year and half, whenever we referred to Anchor Bay, someone would always mention Mo and it would always be followed with a complimentary remark and a funny story.
But the thing I will always value about Mo, for the rest of my career, is that he was one of the few to put faith in us and our work. The amount of doors we had slammed in our face getting our no budgeter;
‘Freak Out’ to film fat-cats had pretty much hit its peak by the time we got the news that Mo, the beardless Santa Claus, and Anchor Bay wanted to release our humble home-made movie.
It was something of a trend for Mr. Claridge who had also been responsible for championing the likes of; Don Coscarelli’s
Bubba Ho-Tep, Sheldon Wilson’s Shallow Ground, Jake West’s Razor Blade Smile
and The Spierig Brother’s Undead, to name but a few.
He saw potential where other near-sighted big-wigs half his age did not, we (and the above filmmakers) are forever indebted to him for doing so.
We will miss him and his involvement in the final stages of our film.
It is too late to literally credit the movie in his honor but in spirit we hope we can do him proud.
Our thoughts are with his wife Liz and his family.
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