This year we have seen 4k releases of Mac & Me, The Garbage Pail Kids, and Troll 2. That's a real trio of suck right there and I'll likely end up owning all three.

Man, thought I’d beat the rush and hit the VS store close to opening at 2 pm today. Got here at 2:05 pm and it looks like some other folks has the same idea, even more so than last year.

I am having a huge internal debate over whether to pick up the double pack of Freeway I & II in the special case. They are down to less than 80. But it is cheaper to buy them separately, but you don't get the hard case. Crap. And I haven't seen Freeway in forever but I do remember loving it. I know I saw Freeway 2 once but remember zilch about it. Argh.

Nah, there's too many good movies from VS I could see myself buying, I don't need to hit up the suck, and I'm a hardcore VS fanboy.

Normally I don't purchase Vinegar Syndrome. Most of the titles are way too niche and I've never heard of them. But, I did indulge for BF for some 4K titles.

Invasion USA - Been wanting this one for a long time.

China O'Brien 1 and 2

and I also got the Angel trilogy on BD. They are total guilty trashy pleasures from the 80s that would air on Cinemax.

I can’t imagine any of these movies sucking less in 4K than they do on the other formats they’ve already been released on! Granted, one could say that about a lot of VS titles, especially considering how the company seems to foster a lot of blind buyers in the 4K category (the store didn’t even have the standard version of TROLL 2 on the shelf, which was telling) but those three really push it. I’m admittedly curious to see the extras on all three, but no way will I watch the films again. I don’t really get the ironic attachment that seems to exist for them in particular, but we’ve all got our vices. Forty-plus bucks (sixty-plus Canadian!) for them is a bit much.

In fairness, I did overhear more than one customer joke with the owner of the store yesterday that they were tempted by TROLL 2 but they really had to draw a line. I think that’s true of a lot of folks with a lot of VS titles. Like DJariya says, VS is pretty niche so you have to tread carefully, even with sale prices. I’m similarly a hardcore fanboy and the only reason I indulge more than I probably should in their sales is the potential resale value being fairly decent. If these standard versions last until a 50% sale or preferably higher, which is likely, I can see getting them for the supplements and then flipping them.

I will say that TROLL 2 would’ve been more complete for its fans if VS had included the BEST WORST MOVIE documentary like MGM did with one of the Blu releases back in the day. The doc is infinitely better than its subject matter, plus the DVD had plenty of worthwhile bonus material. That one seems to be with Terror Vision now.

Just went with New Rose Hotel. The more Abel Ferrara flicks on BD/4K the better. Dangerous Game is on sale and so is 4:44 Last Day on Earth. NRH is selling really well. It's down to just 795 copies from 3,000.

So my curiosity did indeed get the better of me at the store yesterday and I bought a copy of REVIVER 1.

Some time ago I posted the excerpt from the VS featurette that’s in this set and noted that someone in the YouTube comments had correctly ID’d the feature film seen in the footage within the featurette itself, but then there was speculation about whether VS was being cagey by showing footage from one movie but including a different film in the finished product. It turns out the film seen in the bonus feature very much is the one on the disc, a regional North Carolina cheapie with a country music vibe and ok production values. I won’t name it again here in case anyone has this on order, but if you’re even somewhat keen on the grab bags of regional American fringe-dwellers that often turned up on the Something Weird label, and which still turn up in the AGFA + Something Weird Blu-ray editions, you can probably handle this.

When I was at the store, I mentioned to the owner – who had seen it by then – what I thought the title might be based on the YouTube commenter, and how if that was true it struck me as the kind of picture that would’ve fit in another ‘Lost Films’ boxed set like that behemoth they put out a couple of years ago. He knows that crap is right up my alley alongside the SW schlock, but he still played it cagey and basically said “if you like that, you’ll probably enjoy this one.” And he was right. It’s no classic by a long shot, but for something that’s been ‘lost’ for over fifty years, it was a treat to discover that it was a sincere, corny, homespun effort by some folks who mostly didn’t go on to much. The director, J.G. Patterson, served in various capacities on Herschel Gordon Lewis pictures, though he’s somewhat less hacky on his own, and would go on to direct the better-known THE ELECTRIC CHAIR (1976), which was released on Blu-ray by Code Red years ago.

Two of the shorts seem like borderline home movies with ‘horror’ elements that probably never had public screenings outside of the living room projectors of the people that made them. One is silent, possibly intentionally because a couple of “acting” moments feel overly telegraphed to compensate for the lack of audio. Not sure, though. The third short is a tricentennial travelogue about South Carolina. Kinda artsy and poetic, more akin to the kind of things commonly found in the Prelinger Archives or AV Geeks.

In lieu of any bonus features relevant to the main feature – and frankly there’s not much they could’ve made – the extended version of the VS featurette offers a nice breakdown of the process of restoring these kinds of things.

New Rose Hotel is sold out.

I saw that movie many years ago and had no clue what was happening. I didn't see it as a needed purchase.

I did buy Cannibal Girls as it's getting low in quantity. Oddly enough, I already have a Shout DVD of the movie that I haven't even taken the shrink wrap off of yet. At least I can dump that at a local store that specializes in horror movies from boutique labels, I have zero doubt they'll buy it from mem

I ordered The Stendhal Syndrom as it is a favorite. Just made a second order for 4Ks of Freeway, Tammy And The T-Rey and the masterpiece The Howling II: Your Sister's A Werewolf. Threw in the BD for Argentino's Trauma since there is no telling when a 4K UHD will be announced.

The ultra rare Quentin/Dario cut?

Since I already have shipping paid for since I ordered Timecrimes, I keep wanting to order the new slip for Thriller since my copy doesn't have one. But I know it is dumb and not something I need, but I feel like I should bundle something in with Timecrimes.

Get some movies then! There's plenty of good titles you can order. Some recent VS titles I enjoyed include The Black Room, Pale Blood, Scared to Death, Riddle of Fire, Corpse Mania, Viva Erotica. Along with older fare like Deadline, Prey, Snapshot, Sudden Fury, Malibu High. Tons of good movies there, tons. Ok, and a lot of bad ones too...

Nothing wrong with wanting a slip for your discs. I think it dresses them up nicely and looks better on the shelf. Same reason I like Steelbooks. They just look cooler in my opinion.

I am not obsessive about either, but I still like having them if there is an option and don't mind paying a little more money for them. At this point my buying has slowed down so much that I figure I can splurge on stuff like that if I really want and like the movie.

I ended up ordering the Thriller slip and the Vice Academy set and A New Leaf. The problem is that between the Shout/Scream Factory blow out sales, BF deals, Criterion sale, and the new releases of Hard Boiled and The Killer this has been a pretty expensive month before factoring in the Vinegar Syndrome sale.

Yeah, I hear ya, man. I'd budgeted $100 each for the VS sale and Record Store Day. My first VS order was $115 and I went back three more times over the weekend. Record Store Day set me back another $180 too (but damn I got some good stuff)

Yeah I was relieved that there were no RSD exclusives that interested me, and I am pretty caught up with old stuff that I want on vinyl.

I did pass on The Man Who Could Cheat Death, mainly cause I know that Hammer is planning their own release of that and I think that I would rather have whatever they do instead of the VS release.

Partners Only month is up. I’m cutting and pasting this direct from their email so hopefully it displays alright. Order stacking with BF orders is still enabled, for the moment. Personally I’m most keen to eventually get Joe Dante’s MOVIE ORGY as that has been mentioned many times over the years in DVD Savant columns here (it seems to be selling fairly well, too, which probably scotches my hopes of holding out for a sale, at least on the slip). Also gotta admit, sometimes I get weary – and wary – of all the new labels popping up these days:

Interesting cover for The Sadness.

Will be curious about the price of Hundreds of Beavers. I liked it but hopefully they'll keep the price nice.

It's the same price as the original limited edition slipcover version for Hundreds of Beavers.

Any fans of Asian cinema seen the two movies that comprise Courtesans & Criminals: The Underworld of Hideo Gosha? I'm interested in that one, but I'm not as quick to blind buys these days.

Has anyone had any luck with cancelling orders? I was on the site last night, and saw they had a handful of copies of Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-in, hardcover edition. I jumped at the chance and ordered it before going out of stock. Only afterwards did I see that Amazon has plenty of copies in stock, and more than $20 cheaper.

Hoping I can get my VS order for it cancelled. I emailed them, no word yet

ETA: nevermind, they took care of me. Great company.

That certainly gets to the core of the movie in a single image! And I’m sure the Taiwanese hardcore porn stars who rather famously participated in those scenes might be pleased to see themselves given such prominent treatment on a home video release.


I ended up biting on this one after all, as the quantities on both versions just got too low overnight. It’s the only one that has sold out both slip and non-slip variants so far (a few other titles have sold out their slip variants as well). I’d have preferred to wait for a sale on the slip version but no luck, so I used some points to offset the pain a bit.

Not sure about VS shipping schedule since I don't order a lot directly from them. I placed an orders on Nov 28 and another on Dec 1 and neither has shipped yet, will they wait until that partners thingy ends before sending them out?