The Alamo Drafthouse didn’t break the attendance record last Tuesday for the most to witness a public screening of David A. Prior’s Sledgehammer at once, it g-damn POUNDED IT TO A PULP! An insanely brave, sold-out crowd of 186 showed to the event to experience the first-ever SOV slasher on the big screen. Tuesday also marked Sledgehammer’s who-would-have-thought-it debut on a 21st century medium and it’s triumphant return to its native format with Mondo’s limited edition VHS reissue. Our team celebrated the release and the relaunch of the Intervision brand with a trip to Austin, TX for this special gala event.

More after the jump, including the Sledgehammer VHS tapes, the sound check, Drafthouse programmer Zack Carlson’s hilarious introduction, and BBQ!!

The Sledgehammer VHS tapes arrived at Mondo on Monday afternoon. We giggled to ourselves for awhile and then took some photographs comparing the new(!) tapes to some older favorites. The tapes went on sale Wednesday via Mondo’s website, which broke another Intervision record, selling out in 13 minutes!

In preparation for the event on Tuesday, the Intervision team spent a few hours perfecting the bass levels in the projection booth prior to the show for the desired transcendent audio/visual experience:

Outside the theater, a TV was set up with some Werther’s Originals and Sledgehammer VHS tapes for the waiting attendees:

Sledgehammer was programmed as part of the Drafthouse’s famed “Terror Tuesday” weekly series and Destroy All Movies!!! co-author Zack Carlson (also present on the Sledgehammer DVD in his own featurette) introduced the film seminar style, which included a very special surprise for Ted Prior fans (which has been slightly edited to adhere to Vimeo’s content restrictions – the crowd experienced all of Prior’s immense talent during this introduction).

Viewing Sledgehammer with a capacity crowd was a rare treat. The brothers Prior only intended their accidental stroke of surrealism to be shown on modest home entertainment systems, definitely not an 18-foot screen with enough Dolby bass power to launch an unsuspecting 186 to the moon. We didn’t see anybody exiting the theater without a smile on their face. We love the Alamo Drafthouse and hope to be back soon.

Oh yeah, and BARBECUE!!!!