Masters of Horror (Showtime) news
 

Please tell me that they're not going to release this series one episode at a time, and eventually release a season set. I don't have Showtime, and was really looking forward to picking up this series, but not at $15 for a 1-hour episode. That's just insane!

Yeah, that's a bit expensive! $17 for 1, $30 for 2? Not worth it!

Very lame indeed. Hopefully the full episode box set will follow suit shortly after.

I might buy some of them at $5 each. Even that would be a ripoff compared to a season set. Of the episodes aired so far, the only one I'm dying to have on DVD is John Landis' "Deer Woman," which had me laughing out loud.

Those are likely the MSRP, which we all know won't be the in-store price unless you frequent Suncoast or Barnes & Noble. My guess is if you bargain hunt, it'll end up closer to $10 an episode, maybe cheaper. As for the show, the only ones I've seen are Sick Girl and Cigarette Burns. They both were obviously made for TV, but I really liked the latter of the two.

-JP

Even at $10 an ep, that's still going to be $130 for the whole series. Other Showtime series such as Dead Like Me, The L Word, and Queer as Folk have been more moderately priced, and you can pick those up for $40-50 a season.

Geez, I figured they would release a box set of the season when it was over. I refuse to buy each episode individually. I've got them all on my DVR, anyway.

Yeah, but you've got to figure that production values for this show are higher than any of the series that you've mentioned thus far. These are, for all intents and purposes, mini-movies from various different directors (most of which are relatively highly acclaimed). Not to mention, it's all about marketing. I think this is a product that will appeal to more than just fans of the series...and when you put "John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns" out there as it's own release, you'll get the Masters of Horror fans, along with the Carpenter fans, and maybe even a few casual passer-bys.

While it's going to cost fans of the show a lot more, I have to say, this is exactly the type of release that I expected...

-JP

I don't see how they plan on selling many of these at $10 per episode... So far the series just hasn't been very good.. I stopped watching my DVR'ed episodes after the 4th episode.. Has it picked up at all since that point?

It's a shame those costs don't show up in most of the episodes.

The only good thing about seeing this on dvd might be that the episodes will be completely uncut. One thread in TV Talk stated that one or two have been edited by Showtime.

In other news they are stating that "Homecoming" will be free on dvd if anyone will take it.

When I first heard about Masters of Horror, I expected it to be a pretty amazing series coming from Showtime, so it's really disappointing that most of the reviews here for it have it seeming pretty lackluster. If there's an entire series release, I'll have to read more reviews then, but it doesn't have the same interest it did at the beginning for me.

+Danny

Same here. Pretty bad idea on their part,IMO.

That's way too high and a pretty lame way to release these. Oh well. Instead of getting them asap, I will wait for either prices to drop or an actual box set to hit.

It's Anchor Bay aka they will release as many versions as they can!! :)

And yet "Tales from the Crypt" doesn't get sold as one episode per release, does it? And their roster of directors includes Robert Zemeckis, Tobe Hooper, Walter Hill, Russell Mulcahy, Mick Garris, John Herzfeld, Jack Sholder, Stephen Hopkins, Gary Fleder, Brian Helgeland, John Frankenheimer, Fred Dekker, William Friedkin, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (!). Even that silly "Robert Zemeckis Collection" had 3 episodes.

This kind of marketing is nonsensical. Given that Anchor Bay is involved in these productions, I'm shocked that they're not doing a season box. Trying to appeal to a single director's fans will not also get every "Masters of Horror" fan. If anything, it will allow "Masters" fans to pick and choose among episodes they liked. Putting out a box will get just about every "Masters" fan who's in the market for DVDs to buy the entire season, along with fans of each director, since every director's name would be emblazoned on the box. This then encourages, say, a fan of only John Carpenter to buy the entire season box; under their current plan, that fan would only buy the single disc and forgo the rest of the series. Each individual release will therefore have limited appeal, since Tobe Hooper fans may not necessarily want to spend $15 on a 60-minute TV show directed by Don Coscarelli.

As for passersby, a mid-priced boxset that looks to be loaded with many episodes of a popular TV anthology series from many well-known directors is more likely to be attractive than...a single disc that looks like a straight-to-video movie of the sort that gets ignored every day. How many passersby does crap like "Wes Craven's Carnival of Souls" attract? Surely not enough to warrant repeating their marketing techniques. It's a loser of an idea all around.

When the discs don't move at all, hopefully they'll have the insight to put together a boxset rather than abandon the entire thing due to lack of interest. For a single low-budget 60 minute episode that I'll already have on my DVR, even with some sort of extras, they can shove their $16.95.

DJ

I, for one, wouldn't buy a full season set--unless the quality improves significantly. So far, out of the six I've watched, the only one that I'd want to revisit was the first ("Incident On and Off a Mountain Road"). I'd buy it for $10 if it were fairly loaded.

As for the other five I've watched:

2. "Dreams in the Witch House" is okay, but the rat man is just silly. Nice boobage on the witch though. :)
3. "Dance of the Dead" has pretty decent acting, but the story sucks and the camerawork is nauseating. (Hooper is overrated, IMO.)
4. "Jennifer" is so predictable, but does have the gore going for it.
5. "Chocolate" has an intriguing premise, but ultimately fails. The lack of an explanation for the events is disappointing; this is a story which needs it.
6. "Homecoming" is a liberal jab at politics. I'm moderate, so I could appreciate it to an extent, but it also offends me because it's so blatant.

Not to thread crap, but since the quality topic has come up, I'll chime in as well. I've seen every installment thus far and am very disappointed in the series. John Carpenter's episode is airing this weekend and I view it as its last saving grace.

I don't see myself buying these DVDs, but it did get picked up for a second season so there is room for improvement.

I am glad they are doing this. I only want the John carpenter episode regardless of how good or bad it is. I was just going to download a copy and make my own dvd but this is better news. I have 21 carpenter dvd's and need more! :)

Yeah, it's rip-off pricing, but the series hasn't been good enough for me to buy anyway, so I'm not getting too concerned about it. You all know a season set will eventually come. In fact, we'll probably get several variations: first the individual DVDs, then a special pricing (getting rid of left-over stock) by putting all the individual DVDs together in a cutesy new container (Anchor Bay does this all the time), then a real "season set" (maybe with new extras and/or packaging). It's called multiple bites at the apple :). But we all pretty much know this is coming -- it's just your choice when/if you buy.

An hour for 1 DVD seems pretty skimpy, unless there are "extended" versions of the episodes that actually run feature length (but I'm pretty sure they didn't film like that). For those that haven't seen it, I wouldn't recommend a blind buy anyway -- do rental instead.

I think you'll like the Carpenter episode. I thought it had the same made-for-TV feel (mainly because of the lighting, and the fact that it was shot digital, not video), but the story and acting more than made up for that. I mean, hell, it's Udo Kier and Norman Reedus. Not to mention, there's I was just entirely intrigued by the story, even before any elements of horror came into play. That's not to say that it'll save the series for you, but it was definitely pretty solid.

-JP

There was a lil' more than just boobage :eyebrow:

I can understand where the disappointments come from, but there's still a few more episodes to go before I fully accept/decline this purchase.

And yeah, the price is pretty steep.

I seriously doubt Anchor Bay is going to sell many of these at that ridiculous price-point. A year from now, all the unsold stock will be packed onto those $3 bargain-racks at Best Buy.

Maybe AB will finally learn a lesson and realize that they can't keep screwing over horror fans when these DVD's go completely bust. I encourage others to not get taken this time around by their premeditated re-release strategy.

Updated release list over at tvshowsondvd

I absolutely refuse to buy these. Especially considering the extremely mediocre overall quality of the show, I wouldn't pay any more for this than a similar amount of Tales From The Crypt content. Makes me glad I have them all backup up so far. Purely on principle, can't touch these. I imagine 24: Season 5, Volume 1 (of 12) will be next.

Same here. Release it as a box set with a regular tv series box set price and I'm all over it. I'm not going to waste my money buying these separately. Too bad for AB as I was looking forward to picking this up when it came out on dvd along with about 5 of my friends, all who have no interest in buying it now.

More of the same.... too pricey. This should be a $45 boxset of the whole first season.