kidglov3s

Hi everyone,

The DVD event release of the Summer has arrived, Mill Creek's Dangerous Babes, released Tuesday, and I figured it rated a thread. This 12-pack features 11 titles new to Mill Creek's series of releases that feature Crown International Pictures in assortments of a dozen, the majority of which were featured in BCI's After Dark Thrillers 8-pack (reprinted by Mill Creek without changes and currently in print).

Here are the titles in the set, with other Mill Creek/BCI Crown sets they appear on noted in parenthesis:
-Blue Money (After Dark Thrillers (8), Drive-In Cult Classics 32 Pack)
-Click: The Calendar Girl Killer (After Dark Thrillers (8), Drive-In Cult Classics 32 Pack)
-French Quarter (After Dark Thrillers (8))
-Hot Target (After Dark Thrillers (8), Drive-In Cult Classics 32 Pack)
-Night Club (After Dark Thrillers (8), Drive-In Cult Classics 32 Pack)
-Noon Sunday (Advantage Collection: Fast Cars, Bikers and Babes (8, OOP, BCI set not reprinted by Mill Creek))
-Separate Ways (After Dark Thrillers (8), Drive-In Cult Classics 32 Pack)
-Sextette
-Sister In Law (Drive-In Cult Classics Vol. 2 (8), Drive-In Cult Classics 32 Pack, Big Screen Bombshells (12))
-The Virgin Queen of St. Francis High (NEW TO DVD!)
-Weekend with the Babysitter (Drive-In Cult Classics Vol. 2 (8), Drive-In Cult Classics 32 Pack)
-Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold

The most notable titles are the two new to these budget releases, Sextette and Yellow Hair, and the one new to DVD, Virgin Queen. A quick check proved disappointing for the former two, which are both presented in old 4:3 fullscreen transfers despite these titles being available in widescreen on individual releases, however, luckily, Virgin Queen is presented in anamorphic widescreen. As usual compression abounds with 2 movies stuffed on both sides of three double-sided single-layered discs, but I find them watchable from my viewing distance. As for other titles that I checked (I didn't look at the After Dark Thrillers titles to compare to that set, I hope/assume they used the same, or better, transfers), Noon Sunday and Weekend with the Babysitter are both in anamorphic widescreen.

They're getting to the end of the Crown library and I want them to finish it out but I don't like that a 12-pack title was duplicated for the first time in Sister in Law, and hope that practice doesn't continue. It would've made more sense for them to have included Double Exposure instead, as it's the only title remaining from After Dark Thrillers that does not yet appear on a 12-pack, though it is on the Pure Terror 50 Pack which features the not-otherwise-on-budget-sets-from-Mill Creek/BCI Crown titles Don't Answer the Phone and Point of Terror as well as They Saved Hitler's Brain which has not appeared on a 12 pack yet (though the film it is a slight variation of, Madmen of Mandoras, has). Did anyone else pick this up?

Thanks and take care.

mdnitoil

While I appreciate the head's up, I just can't get past the compression issues on these Mill Creek sets. I've got many of the BCI original releases and will never give them up due to this issue alone. If Mill Creek ever decides to devote a decent amount of disc space to a transfer, I'll be happy to jump back in.

kidglov3s

The compression can be really trying, it's a shame that the eventual BCI practice of one movie per side (as well as the whole business of actually putting time, thought and effort into new transfers, finding the best elements, etc) didn't carry over to Mill Creek along with the Crown license.

GoldenWheels

If they double the number of discs (one movie per side) I imagine that would translate pretty directly to price, which would probably translate pretty negatively to the sales.

salamander2

Id rahter pay more for a 16x9 widescreen release in either stand alone or in a double bill set than these full frame ones with mega compression issues IMHO.

kidglov3s

I don't know how great a factor that plays. They found it worthwhile to repress some of the BCI sets that featured one movie per side (Drive In Cult Classics Vol. 2 and Vol. 3) complete without changes, and also kept the one-sided format of those respective titles on the Mill Creek produced combo release Drive In Cult Classics 32 Movie Collection (which is DiCC 1-3 and After Dark Thrillers (minus French Quarter from AD and including Lurkers and Carnival of Crime in place of it and the duplicated The Pick Up). It would've been simple for them to utilize their 2/single layer side encodes of these titles if manufacturing cost was the only factor in why the 12 packs are presented the way they are. I think it comes down to either them not realizing this is something that turns people away or a more calculated thought of keeping the window open for future Mill Creek releases of these titles, such as the Blu Rays they've released for Galaxina and The Crater Lake Monster.

As far as where things go from here, with this set now released there are 10 titles listed on the Crown International Pictures website as part of their catalog that have yet to appear in a 12 pack, here is the list of them with DVD releases listed in parenthesis where applicable:

DOUBLE EXPOSURE (After Dark Thrillers (8), Drive-in Cult Classics 32 Movie Collection)
MALIBU HIGH (Drive in Cult Classics Vol. 1 (8), Drive-in Cult Classics 32 Movie Collection)
DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE (Pure Terror 50 pack (uncut, open matte), released by BCI in an anamorphic SE)
POINT OF TERROR (Pure Terror 50 pack (complete, anamorphic), released by Scorpion in an SE)
WELCOME HOME BROTHER CHARLES (released by Xenon under the title Soul Vengeance)
STAKEOUT (unreleased on DVD)
SEVENTH COMMANDMENT (released by Something Weird, oop)
VENGEANCE (unreleased on DVD)
HOUSEWIFE FROM HELL (unreleased on DVD)
CATALINA CAPER (appeared on MST3K Vol. 1 from Rhino unMSTed alongside its episode)

There's nothing to stop them from finishing off the library with one more release, as far as I can tell, but who knows what they'll do. I hope they don't drag it out with sets filled with repeats such as Sister in Law and 2-3 new titles per set or something like that.

GoldenWheels

Trust me...it's a big factor.

The only 8 pack they have made since the drive in packs has been the After Dark pack, themed by it's subject matter. Every other pack--and there have been bunch of them--have been 3 disc 12 packs. Sure looks to me like they realized it WASN'T very worthwhile to do single sided 8 packs.

JMO but I imagine they "kept" that format for the 32 set because they already had mountains of discs pressed from the other sets.

Pricepoint is pretty much everything for Mill Creek, they need to get in at certain point for the big boxes to get placement. Frankly it is folks who think quality is something to complain about with them that are missing the entire point of what their product is. These aren't for true fans of the films and never will be--It's all about a bang for your perceived buck.

Not that I don't share the groans when a movie I like gets poor treatment on one of these things!

EDIT: You over at AVmaniacs too? Very similar post to yours over there.

kidglov3s

Yeah that's me, I tried to join there when I found a high quality image of the cover of this, that I was able to read all the titles on, when there was the low quality image that people were guessing the titles from.

kidglov3s

Mill Creek has written about future releases on their Facebook page:
It seems that, much like Drew McIntyre's push, the par'e may be o'er.