Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 24, 2021 10:15:57 GMT
Having gone through a bit of my horror movie collection, specially the zombie releases, this winter. I noticed all the releases I had picked up, from my former favorite DVD distributors/companies, and where three pretty obvious big acts, within the 70s and 80s cult, b-movie, horror and sleaze/exploitation genres surely stood out:
Back around in 2006-08, I would say that about almost 7 or 8 out of 10 films that I picked up, would usually or always be from either of these companies, and they rarely disappointed me. Sure, Shriek Show, I am not sure if they switched names to Media-Blasters or if it was the other way around, but I remember that my favorite movie stores, all of sudden stopped selling DVDs with the Shriek Show logo.
I guess Anchor Bay were the biggest name, or one which brings most feel-good/nostalgia, as they seemed relentless in coming up with so many great and cool looking titles, every week, I would have bunch of titles lined up. Still, I also do remeber I did a lot silly double and triple dipping, where certain films or franchises, seemed to be re-released almost every other year, with little or new bonus material included, maybe the artwork or design would be different, or they would come up with some kind of a idea of how to fool buyers into picking them up, through one of their "collections", such as the The Cult Classic Film Series, which I picked up a few titles from, and seemed like the only difference to a few of my older Anchor Bay DVDs, were that these new ones, arrived in a paper sleeved hardcover.
Of the ones I surely got the most out of, were Road Games (1981), The Wicker Man (1973), The Quiet Earth (1985), Class of 1984 (1982) and Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988).
I also picked up Return of the Living Dorks (1999) and much later C.H.U.D. (1984), but the last one was not the DVD which had a similar hardcover paper sleeve attatched to it.
Also, had I found or knew of Fitzcarraldo and The Long Good Friday were to be included in that series, I would surely have purchased them as well.
Still, I guess this was part of the whole b-movie/retro trend of that time, where several similar themed/designed movie artwork/covers seeemd to look like something out of a movie poster for a drive-in film from the 70s.
Anyway, around spring/summer of 2006, another very promising challenger arrived, with the danish/scandinavian Anotherworldentertainment, which started up with releasing a bunch of infamous video nasties, which I believe were for the first time, given a complete uncut and remastered release in Norway, at least so it said on the cover. And where Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox and a few other Cannibal films of the late 70s and early 80s, were among the first ones, and I picked up every damn title. Then came the italian zombie releases, and not long after it just continued on with a whole bunch of sleazy, slimy and very exciting b-movie and cult-releases, before around spring 2007, they really kicked in, with Re-Animator, The Toxic Avenger, Maniac and AWE soon became my favorite DVD company, and for a few years, they never let me down. Every month, they would deliver the goods.
Sadly, things started to halter or slow down, specially within the films or genres, which was what they first started up with, a brought them out to the movie buying masses, the cult and b-movies. Instead, they began to focus more on "artsy-fartsy" indepedent dramas and the absolute trashiest DTV/VOD releases of fallen action heroes of the 80s and 90s, but not much in between. Now, it seems they have just completely lost that magic which made them so special, and worse, the original company have split into different countries, the norwegian one is as crappy as they could come, just either dull and boring looking indie-films, and pure trash of DTV/VOD releases.
Such a shame, but at least between 2006-2009, they were outstanding for fans of cult and horror films of the 70s and 80s.
Beside the mentioned names/companies, I also picked up a few cool DVDs from Subversive Cinema, around 2006-07, and where I first stumbled upon the awesome release of Future-Kill (1985), which came with a nice movie poster by H.R. Giger inside. Again, for a short while, their releases always stood out in the video stores I visited, and then all of a sudden, they were gone. Seemed like their homepage also got lost not long after.
Always wondered what other interesting titles they had out in the catalog, but I guess by now, most of those have probably been out of production for years.
Speaking of The Toxic Avenger, of course Troma is hard to ignore, but sadly, over the time, I realized that other companies would hand out the classic Troma films, in far superior picture and sound quality, such as the danish AWE, and also include subtitles and informative booklets.
As the years have gone by, I guess so has many of these companies as well. Some are still around, others have either moved on/changed name or just disappeared from the face of earth.
Of the ones I have discovered over the last few years, and seems to always return to more frequently, I guess Arrow (they have never let me down when it comes to their Blu-ray releases, and has a very impressive and varied collection of genres and titles), 88 Films (another company, which I seem to always come back to, and I love how much love they seem to put down in their often impressive remastered DVDs and Blu-rays, often towards films, that is probably a long shot away of "deserving" that kind of treatment), 101 Films (like 88 Films, they just seem to love b-movies, cheese, sleaze and, yeah surely my kind of entertainment), Final Cut Entertainment is also one worth to check up on, as I have from time to time, noticed that they put out some really wanted and rare/almost impossible to find DVDs/Blu-rays of horror releases from the 70s, 80s and early 90s, and, yeah that is how I found them.
Of the ones, I often see noticed/mentioned online, but rarely (if ever) have picked up on, yet, is that of the australian Umbrella Entertainment and the German Koch Media.
There are probably a few more, that I have forgotten, but I like the way that there still are so much love and care for horror, cult and b-movies, and it would be interesting to hear if there are other horror fans and movie collectors in here, and who or which places they prefer to do their movie online shopping from.
Back around in 2006-08, I would say that about almost 7 or 8 out of 10 films that I picked up, would usually or always be from either of these companies, and they rarely disappointed me. Sure, Shriek Show, I am not sure if they switched names to Media-Blasters or if it was the other way around, but I remember that my favorite movie stores, all of sudden stopped selling DVDs with the Shriek Show logo.
I guess Anchor Bay were the biggest name, or one which brings most feel-good/nostalgia, as they seemed relentless in coming up with so many great and cool looking titles, every week, I would have bunch of titles lined up. Still, I also do remeber I did a lot silly double and triple dipping, where certain films or franchises, seemed to be re-released almost every other year, with little or new bonus material included, maybe the artwork or design would be different, or they would come up with some kind of a idea of how to fool buyers into picking them up, through one of their "collections", such as the The Cult Classic Film Series, which I picked up a few titles from, and seemed like the only difference to a few of my older Anchor Bay DVDs, were that these new ones, arrived in a paper sleeved hardcover.
Of the ones I surely got the most out of, were Road Games (1981), The Wicker Man (1973), The Quiet Earth (1985), Class of 1984 (1982) and Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988).
I also picked up Return of the Living Dorks (1999) and much later C.H.U.D. (1984), but the last one was not the DVD which had a similar hardcover paper sleeve attatched to it.
Also, had I found or knew of Fitzcarraldo and The Long Good Friday were to be included in that series, I would surely have purchased them as well.
Still, I guess this was part of the whole b-movie/retro trend of that time, where several similar themed/designed movie artwork/covers seeemd to look like something out of a movie poster for a drive-in film from the 70s.
Anyway, around spring/summer of 2006, another very promising challenger arrived, with the danish/scandinavian Anotherworldentertainment, which started up with releasing a bunch of infamous video nasties, which I believe were for the first time, given a complete uncut and remastered release in Norway, at least so it said on the cover. And where Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox and a few other Cannibal films of the late 70s and early 80s, were among the first ones, and I picked up every damn title. Then came the italian zombie releases, and not long after it just continued on with a whole bunch of sleazy, slimy and very exciting b-movie and cult-releases, before around spring 2007, they really kicked in, with Re-Animator, The Toxic Avenger, Maniac and AWE soon became my favorite DVD company, and for a few years, they never let me down. Every month, they would deliver the goods.
Sadly, things started to halter or slow down, specially within the films or genres, which was what they first started up with, a brought them out to the movie buying masses, the cult and b-movies. Instead, they began to focus more on "artsy-fartsy" indepedent dramas and the absolute trashiest DTV/VOD releases of fallen action heroes of the 80s and 90s, but not much in between. Now, it seems they have just completely lost that magic which made them so special, and worse, the original company have split into different countries, the norwegian one is as crappy as they could come, just either dull and boring looking indie-films, and pure trash of DTV/VOD releases.
Such a shame, but at least between 2006-2009, they were outstanding for fans of cult and horror films of the 70s and 80s.
Beside the mentioned names/companies, I also picked up a few cool DVDs from Subversive Cinema, around 2006-07, and where I first stumbled upon the awesome release of Future-Kill (1985), which came with a nice movie poster by H.R. Giger inside. Again, for a short while, their releases always stood out in the video stores I visited, and then all of a sudden, they were gone. Seemed like their homepage also got lost not long after.
Always wondered what other interesting titles they had out in the catalog, but I guess by now, most of those have probably been out of production for years.
Speaking of The Toxic Avenger, of course Troma is hard to ignore, but sadly, over the time, I realized that other companies would hand out the classic Troma films, in far superior picture and sound quality, such as the danish AWE, and also include subtitles and informative booklets.
As the years have gone by, I guess so has many of these companies as well. Some are still around, others have either moved on/changed name or just disappeared from the face of earth.
Of the ones I have discovered over the last few years, and seems to always return to more frequently, I guess Arrow (they have never let me down when it comes to their Blu-ray releases, and has a very impressive and varied collection of genres and titles), 88 Films (another company, which I seem to always come back to, and I love how much love they seem to put down in their often impressive remastered DVDs and Blu-rays, often towards films, that is probably a long shot away of "deserving" that kind of treatment), 101 Films (like 88 Films, they just seem to love b-movies, cheese, sleaze and, yeah surely my kind of entertainment), Final Cut Entertainment is also one worth to check up on, as I have from time to time, noticed that they put out some really wanted and rare/almost impossible to find DVDs/Blu-rays of horror releases from the 70s, 80s and early 90s, and, yeah that is how I found them.
Of the ones, I often see noticed/mentioned online, but rarely (if ever) have picked up on, yet, is that of the australian Umbrella Entertainment and the German Koch Media.
There are probably a few more, that I have forgotten, but I like the way that there still are so much love and care for horror, cult and b-movies, and it would be interesting to hear if there are other horror fans and movie collectors in here, and who or which places they prefer to do their movie online shopping from.
