My Favorite Poster for H.O.T.S. is from the Turkish Release
The poster at the top of this page is the Turkish poster for H.O.T.S. from 1979.. It was released in Turkey well after it’s domestic release and showing at the Cannes Film Festival, and the poster is a curious mashup of two different films. Unlike some regions where H.O.T.S. was paired with other films like the Swinging Cheerleaders and Revenge of the Cheerleaders (renamed H.O.T.S. II and III respectively even though both were released years before H.O.T.S. was conceptualized and filmed), this poster was just for the film itself. But it incorporates the poster from the 1971 film Dagmar’s Hot Pants, Inc for some inexplicable reason.
H.O.T.S. (1979) poster riffed (or ripped) off the Animal House poster from the year before.
The Turkish poster takes the four founding members of the H.O.T.S. sorority and places them over a badly cropped poster for Dagmar’s Hotpants, Inc. Perhaps it is because of the term “Hotpants?” The most likely horrible Google translation of the title is “Girls, run to help” which is an interesting take as well. Perhaps it is a throw-back to a sexual cheerleading trope of “Help Out Team Score,” which is one of the few explanation that is not used in the film to explain the acronym.
Animal House (1978) poster
The poster for Animal House was a charactature of many of the film’s scenes and elements, and H.O.T.S. adopted this strategy as well for its poster. It makes sense since H.O.T.S. was envisioned as an Animal House-like to ride on its popularity as a college sex comedy but from a sorority perspective.
Dagmar’s Hot Pants, Inc. (1971) poster
Dagmar’s Hot Pants, Inc (1971) has no relation to H.O.T.S. It is a Swedish sex comedy about a prostitute who retires to get married and the fall out for her clientelle. I have no idea why this was used in the poster for the Turkish release of H.O.T.S., but I kind of love that it was.
It also made me want to find and watch it. As of the time of writing, it is available to stream on MGM+ if you are a subscriber. H.O.T.S. is finally available on several ad-sponsored streaming sites.
Watch Dagmar’s Hot Pants, Inc on MGM+ (while available).
