Over the past several months, I’ve been looking outside of the U.S. for cool things to add to my collection, be it horror memorabilia, apparel, or movies. I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff, and a couple things I missed out on (a Dellamorte Dellamore limited Blu-Ray Mediabook by 84 Entertainment and possibly a Mark of the Devil Blu-Ray), as I quarreled with whether I really needed them (in reality, I don’t, and my girlfriend (Heather) will strongly attest to that), or did they seem worth the money?
But, I did pick up a few things, and here are my scores:
From an Australian company called It’s Only a T-Shirt, Patrick and Wolf Creek limited edition T-shirts in VHS collector boxes. Wolf Creek also came with a poster signed by the director (tube on the left).
From the U.K.
Demons 1&2 Blu-Ray (Region B)—I would have picked up Arrow’s steelbook, but I wanted the different artwork options, and seeing these side-by-side looks awesome.
Eraserhead Blu-Ray (Region B)—the U.S. DVD is out-of-print, and to see David Lynch’s classic in high def, I say, Hell yes!
Return of the Living Dead Blu-Ray Steelbook (Region B)—other than just being badass in look and steelbook form, this has the original soundtrack (not on the U.S. release) and the documentary, More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead, which was released separately in the States.
Nightmare on Elm Street Blu-Ray Boxset (Region-free)—this contains the original 7 movies (only the first 3 have been released in the U.S.), commentaries and interviews, and a couple of episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares. Plus, it's region-free, so this was a no-brainer.
Phenomena Blu-Ray (Region-free)—an older Arrow Films release, which isn’t Argento's best, but still decent, and since AF almost always does top-notch work, I felt compelled to add it to my collection, only ever having owned the cut version (Creepers) on DVD.
Outside of the early 2000s, it seems the U.S. almost always falls short on their releases, when other countries do it much better and seem to keep the consumers and collectors wants in mind. For example, the U.K. will get steelbooks of E.T. and Jaws (both Region B), while it’s only rumored that Best Buy may have a digibook of Jaws.
Why do major studios in America no longer want to put in the extra effort? Do they feel we've become so consumed with digital delivery and throw away media that collectible packaging is no longer important to the mass majority? You can guarantee quality releases from independent studios like Blue Underground and Synapse, and every once in a while Anchor Bay (who dominated horror releases in the early 2000s) will do something noteworthy, but flubbed on the recent release of Battle Royale, only issuing a limited number of the Mediabooks, but keeping the same SKU for the first run of the Amaray case, which made ordering a potluck. Wisely, Amazon now has two separate listings for these.
Speaking of Anchor Bay and anticipated releases, when are we going to get Blu-Rays of Cemetery Man aka Dellamorte Dellamore and Re-Animator**? I e-mailed them last week, but have yet to get a response. I don't use Twitter, but last year, Barbara Crampton tweeted that a Re-Animator Blu was getting the final touches and should be out in the next 6 months, which that time came and went with no other word. But, I did get an e-mail today from U.K.'s Second Sight Films (who did the ROTLD Steelbook above) that Re-Animator, From Beyond, Bride of Re-Animator, and Society are all getting special edition treatment this Fall/Winter, and a Basket Case Trilogy Blu-Ray Steelbook** (the first Basket Case is available on BR in the U.S.) will be released in October with new artwork by the original illustrator, Graham Humphreys. Again, it just goes to show that some companies have their shit together while others do not.
Although you may already have a Blu-Ray player, most of these discs are locked Region B and/or have supplements on PAL DVDs, so you’ll need to pick up a Region-free player, which can be found on E-bay and trusted sites like 220-Electronics. Just make sure it will read Blu-Ray Regions A-C and DVD Regions 0-8, then you won’t miss out on any of these sweet releases while U.S. companies sit on their asses pondering what their return on investments will be.
**Update: Image Entertainment will release the Re-Animator Blu-Ray on Sept. 4th, 2012, and Second Sight Films has confirmed that the Basket Case Trilogy will be Region-free.
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