FILMCZY

It all but seems that the following Euro-cult labels are pretty much out-of-business:

Blue Underground (web site not updated since 02/06)
Mondo Macabre (one new release in Aug '07)
Synapse
and of course Anchor Bay (or "Starz")

Is the Euro-Cult dvd supply all washed up or have people stopped buying?

Mondo Kane

A prediction that came true:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=494245&page=1

islandclaws

Blue Underground is basically done with. Lustig said as much in a recent interview, plus their recent releases show a lack if titles and effort.

Synapse is coming back strong this year. They've got some good Asian and Swedish titles on tap, plus some classic 80's horror titles coming such as Basket Case 2.

I think AB has started trying to get a little more mainstream so they're not focusing on certain genre titles. They're slate has been fairly weak for the last couple years. Best thing they've done in a long while was the Jodorowsky box set.

Not sure about Mondo Macabro. Shame since they always had great transfers and decent extras.

Panik House is dead.

BrentLW

Not entirely true. Scroll down to the 4th post which is by Synapse's Don May Jr:

http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/forums/sho...ht=panik+house

islandclaws

Great. Good to know. I liked PH and was hoping that wasn't entirely true.

KFelon

Some that are still going strong: Deimos, Severin, Subversive (kind of)

MIA: Barrel hasn't been releasing much of anything lately either I don't think.

Zen Peckinpah

Blue Underground has been reissuing a lot of older Anchor Bay titles.

Anchor Bay is becoming eerily mainstream. An AB title used to be a big deal, but now that Starz ate them up their output seems to be more direct-to-DVD crap than great cult cinema. Luckily they got the Re-Animator rights (haven't picked it up yet as my ME is signed by Jeffrey Combs) as well as Phantasm (hopefully Phantasm II will be acquired soon; I read Coscarelli is trying to get the rights back).

If AB wants big sales, Fred Dekker should buy the rights to Night of the Creeps and give it to their hands. If they managed to rescue The Legend of Billie Jean from $ony as well it would be killer.

The Bus

Honestly, there's only so many cult films you can put out. You've got a group of ten or so that sell very, very well (The Evil Dead, for example), then you've got a group of 100 that sell very well (say, Eraserhead), then you've got a group of 1000 or so that sell OK, then after that there's thousands and thousands of titles that are just not going to sell that well, ever.

I mean, I can tell you that I will pre-order Detective School Dropouts (a Golan-Globus euro gumshoe farce) the minute I can, but I doubt if more than a few dozen people besides me feel that way. And I don't mean here on DVD Talk. I mean in the world.

The trouble is that, for the most part, these movies don't come out anymore. There's a limited library and once the "big guns" come out, that's it. The well is dry. I mean, sure, "genre" stuff will come out every so often but not as much as it did before.

TomOpus

Back in the 80's you knew you were in for quality viewing when you saw "A Golan-Globus Production" on the screen. Good times....

I'm glad to hear that these companies aren't quite belly-up yet since I'm looking forward to some of their releases. I just wished they could update their websites with a little news.

SamDVDCompare

Not sure if you're multi-region but Another World Entertainment from Denamrk are releasing some extraordinary discs. Certainly a company on the heels of BU and AB if they were still how they used to be.

Disc-Flipper

None of them have managed to release "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" or a region 1 "Cat in the Brain".

old-boo-radley

It doesn't help that a lot of these titles are always more expensive than flicks put out by other companies. People aren't into spending $15 per DVD anymore. Especially since a lot of these movies are hit or miss and blind buys. Look at the Severin company... I'd buy 2 of their titles, but they're like $20 each at their cheapest. And, that's US, by the time I convert that to Canadian with shipping and customs, you're looking at $30. I am sure Perversion Story would be worth it for a Fulci nut like me, but the other film I want is the Franco Blind Dead rip-off and I'd be willing to bet a big sum that it's pretty much garbage.

RyoHazuki

Damn I'm really gonna miss Blue Underground.

pro-bassoonist

NoShame are also on the way out....

Pro-B

old-boo-radley

Where'd you hear that?

logboy

there's varying reports.

BU is reissuing stuff, have a few new things coming soon (stendhal syndrome) but lustig has said there's not much left he's interested in dealing with.

synapse are handling some of their own things, as well as helping on panik house's 6 new pinky violence things. they're also allowing a company to access their distribution.

noshame are both said to be gone and coming back this summer.

anchor bay... dunno. bava set one wasn't that long ago.

pro-bassoonist

On a different forum was noted that much of the company stock (titles ready for distribution) was offered for sale via unconventional vendors. This leads me to believe that a) either they will be taken over a larger owner, which is unlikely at this point as I have good contacts within the industry and have not heard anything or...b) the company is having serious issues which as we have seen already have caused them to stop production.

Finally, by all means, don't forget that NoShame is a one-man show. Anything could happen!

Pro-B

Giles

oh now that sucks.

logboy

i saw the note of what appeared to be noshame stock for sale in bulk. now, noshame is an italian company that set-up an american arm - it's not beyond reason to think that the reason they're inactive and jetisoning of old unsold stock is to do with reevaluating their situation rather than simply closing down, more about getting unnecessary stuff which didn't sell (i couldnt make sense of a large majority of their choices, personally) and licensing new stuff which it thinks may have a better chance at appealing to USA customers. granted, companies usually do this without interrupting their release schedules, but since many titles didn't seem to take, and because each company will apply a little individuality to their practice, they may be simply doing things differently.

noshame's usa offices may have only been staffed by one person, but it's a case of having what's necessary to deal with the management of what may have been an attempt to move into the american market. there have been mentions of situations beyond the sale of old stock in bulk, and they include that they're working on new licenses for new releases (noshame italy continues to issue stuff) and that they're simply taking a break from it to gather their thoughts, and that there have been mentions of specific titles for upcoming USA releases as they start up again : one of which is suggested to be argentos 'porta sul buio' (door into darkness; issued by dragon in europe as a limited edition several years or more back) and one or two others.

i would like to see 'rome armed to the teeth' and 'milano violenta' from their italian range make it across to the USA. other than that - sub the italian releases from now on...

FILMCZY

So basically what this means is we'll keep getting fourth, fifth, and sixth releases of "Robocop" "Evil Dead" and "James Bond" while hundreds of others movies just sit because the studios don't want to waste their time with them. No wonder I'm not buying anymore. Long Live the CULT DVD!!!

Chad

Don't forget Code Red and Dark Sky.

logboy

well, you can blame the companies and you can blame those that buy reissues. you'll never quite deal with the potential that one new format brings for them to be sold again, i think. and you'll never persuade everyone that something new might turn out to be better than the best things they've ever yet to see. and you'll never persuade every company there's a lot people are waiting for which would be welcomed before another release of a film available elsewhere. and so on...

Giles

Matthew Chmiel

Four Flies on Grey Velvet is still owned by Paramount in the states.

I'm still hoping BU gets around to re-releasing the Argento flicks on DVD that Anchor Bay put out that were non-anamorphic (Tenebre, Phenomena, Demons, etc).

FILMCZY

Does Paramount still hold the rights to "Four Flies on Grey Velvet"? Perhaps they have poor film elements. But again they did release "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" which I'm sure has/had a large cult following so I think there is still hope for "Flies". I just hope when it is released they allow a third party to help with supplements like they did with "Danger: Diabolik."