Editorials
Long Live Physical Media: 5 Labels Every Horror Fan Should Know
Right now is an excellent time to be a fan of the horror genre and collector of physical media, as there are so many incredible companies doing great work in the space.
Here are five labels every horror fan should be aware of…
Vinegar Syndrome
If you have a deep interest in film preservation and film archives, you may already know the term “vinegar syndrome” which refers to the chemical process that causes a breakdown of film reels over time. These reels smell strongly like vinegar, hence the name.
Vinegar Syndrome the label was founded in 2012 with the goal to preserve and restore films from the 1960s through the 1980s. Preservation has always been top of mind with Vinegar Syndrome. Still, because of their fantastic preservation and restoration work, we also get some of the best DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K releases on the market from their archive.
While Vinegar Syndrome got its start releasing a lot of X-rated, exploitation, and erotic films, they began to shift into more cult horror as they expanded. Their current lineup of available 4K and Blu-ray restorations include more recognizable movies like Madman, From Beyond, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and The Amityville Horror, but they also have a ton of deep cuts available as well. If you want a Blu-ray copy of The Devonsville Terror, Graduation Day, Hobgoblins, or Blades, they have you covered there.
Vinegar Syndrome puts a ton of effort into its physical media releases, with high-quality packaging and unique artwork, loads of special features, and simply the best film restorations available in the genre. Watching some of their restorations is truly like watching a movie again for the first time. Since 2012, Vinegar Syndrome has also expanded quite a bit with partner labels which can be found on their website including The American Genre Film Archive, Deaf Crocodile, Culture Shock, and others that add to their impressive catalog.
If you are a horror fan, do yourself a favor and check out Vinegar Syndrome. They are worth every penny, and you simply will not find a better release of their movies anywhere on the market.
Shout! Factory/Scream Factory
Shout! Factory has been around in the home entertainment game since 2002 and is well known for its DVD and Blu-ray releases of many classic TV shows, animation, and cult movies. For horror fans, Shout! Factory become a household name when it announced the creation of its partner label, Scream Factory, in 2012.
With the launch of Scream Factory came dozens of new “Collector’s Edition” Blu-ray releases of some of the best movies the horror genre has to offer. These Collector’s Editions come with slipcovers featuring new artwork, tons of special features, and occasionally an optional full-size poster or other add-ons that make them one of the best labels at catering to the collector and hardcore fan.
Scream Factory may have the most extensive catalog of any label on this list, especially in the slasher subgenre, including films like Sleepaway Camp, Child’s Play, Carrie, The Thing, The Burning, and Terror Train. Scream Factory has also released incredible box sets for Friday the 13th, Halloween (with new 4K UHD releases for the first 8 films), Critters, The Fly, and collections focused on stars like Vincent Price and Paul Naschy.
Scream Factory also has a licensing deal with IFC Midnight, one of the best horror movie production companies out there today. If you want an IFC Midnight film on DVD or Blu-ray, chances are Scream Factory will have it.
Scream Factory is probably the most accessible label on this list, with recognizable titles and price points that will make your wallet happy. If you are looking for a place to start a physical media horror movie collection, Scream Factory would be a great starting point.
Arrow Video
In 1991 a small family-owned film distribution company called Arrow Films was founded in the United Kingdom. For years they focused on theatrical distribution, but in 2009 they launched the Arrow Video label to release cult/horror movies on DVD & Blu-ray to the UK market.
Since then, Arrow Video has expanded outside of the UK to offer releases to the North American market with an extensive catalog of impressive movies, restorations, and collectible packaging. Arrow Video has become well known for their Limited Edition releases which typically feature a hard case box with newly commissioned artwork. Each box includes double-sided posters with both the original art and the new art, a book with essays and critical analyses of the film, and of course, the Blu-ray or 4K UHD release of the film.
Arrow Video offers a wide variety of horror movies including limited editions of genre classics like Tremors, The Hills Have Eyes, and An American Werewolf in London and other great Blu-ray/4K releases of films like Hell High, Children of the Corn, and Society. Arrow also has a special focus on foreign horror, with incredible box sets for series like Ringu (The Ring) and Ju-On (The Grudge) as well as their Giallo Essentials series and fantastic release of Dario Argento’s filmography including Deep Red, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and The Cat O’Nine Tails. Outside of horror, Arrow has plenty of other films from genres like Asian Cinema, Film Noir, Cult Cinema, and Sci-Fi including their excellent Shaw Brothers box sets, True Romance, Robocop, and Wild Thing.
One thing to keep in mind when buying from Arrow Video is that their releases do vary depending on the location, so some of what is available in the UK will not be available in the US/Canada, and vice versa, so pay attention to the region coding of the discs. But no matter what is available in your area, Arrow Video makes fantastic box sets and limited editions that are sure to make any horror collector happy.
Vestron Video Collector’s Series
Vestron Video is likely a name that longtime horror fans know well, as it was one of the most popular home video distribution companies from the 1980s through the early 1990s. However, the label was brought back from the grave in 2016 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment with a new line of collectible Blu-ray releases beginning with cult classics Blood Diner and Chopping Mall.
For this new label, Lionsgate took the Vestron Video logo and gave it a fresh update, added spine numbers to each release, and introduced new artwork and slipcovers that have had horror movie fans chasing these Blu-rays to complete their collection.
The Vestron Video Collector’s Series has introduced a wide range of horror movies to Blu-ray for the first time from various production companies. There are a handful of popular Vestron Video titles, but the line also includes titles from Lionsgate and their production companies like Artisan Films and Trimark Pictures.
Some of the movies in this Collector’s Series include classic horror movies like Maximum Overdrive, Slaughter High, The Gate, and Waxwork. More recently, the series has shifted to include more cult films like Steel Dawn, Earth Girls Are Easy, and Dream a Little Dream, but the series remains horror focused as their most recent releases include The Silent Night Deadly Night Collection and The Dentist Collection.
With 29 titles as of the publishing of this article, the Vestron Video Collector’s Series is slowly growing but is still small enough to make for a fun project for collectors to acquire a complete set. I will say, they look great on a shelf, especially with those individual spine numbers!
Blue Underground
Blue Underground is a label that has been around for roughly twenty years but really picked up steam for collectors in the last several years as they released several extremely high-quality Blu-ray and 4K UHD movies. While their early history tended to skew more toward erotica, they have recently shifted more toward horror.
The Blue Underground catalog is a bit smaller than the others on this list but in this case, it is a matter of quality over quantity. Blue Underground has some of the finest 4K UHD video restorations available and packages them with lenticular slipcovers of original theatrical artwork. Most releases include hours of special features on a second disc, and some even include CDs containing the original soundtrack.
The catalog here has some deeper cuts than the average horror fan may recognize but includes titles like House by The Cemetery, Zombie, Uncle Sam, Daughters of Darkness, and The Toolbox Murders and films from directors like Dario Argento, Larry Cohen, George Romero, and Larry Cohen. Whether you see a title you recognize or not, these movies are well worth checking out to expand your horror movie experiences, and well worth the purchase as a collector.
While these five physical media labels are all great choices for horror movie fans, they are certainly not the only options. Some honorable mentions that could have easily made this list include Synapse Films, Severin Films, and the newly formed Terror Vision, but don’t forget about the work that larger labels like Kino Lorber, Criterion Collection, or Paramount Presents are doing for the genre either. While horror may not be their main focus, there have been plenty of great horror Blu-rays from each company that are worth a collector’s time.
Long live physical media!
Editorials
‘Bloodstone: Subspecies II’ Revisited: A Bigger, Bolder Follow-Up to Full Moon’s Vampire Cult Classic
Horror sequels are a peculiar thing. In most cases, follow-ups to scary movies tend to retread the same formula with different victims and more over-the-top scares. This is because audiences tend to be more interested in the antagonists of these pictures than anything else, with even main characters becoming disposable when the time comes to produce a sequel.
That’s why some of the most memorable horror sequels are the ones that actually manage to hold onto interesting survivors from previous films while also pushing the story forward instead of having the same thing happen again to a different group of people. From Scream 2 to Dream Warriors (and arguably even The Exorcist III: Legion), there are quite a few of these innovative sequels to go around.
However, if there’s one franchise that deserves more attention when discussing bigger and better continuations that make the most of episodic filmmaking, it has to be Ted Nicolaou’s Subspecies.
The Full Moon classic spawned an indie horror icon, but bizarre sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II is even more beloved than its predecessor.
Building a Bigger Vampire Saga
While the film itself takes place almost immediately after the events of the first movie, Bloodstone only entered production a couple of years after the release of the original as both Charles Band and Nicolaou weighed the pros and cons of returning to Romania to continue the series. In an effort to maximize efficiency, the team decided to invest in a trilogy where parts II and III, now fully written by Nicolaou, would be filmed simultaneously over the course of a single grueling shoot.
Much like the first Subspecies, Bloodstone’s low budget meant that the filmmakers once again had to cut corners and re-use as many of their resources as possible. Thankfully, the process was much easier this time around as Nicolaou, with the help of Romanian cinematographer Vlad Paunescu and his wife Oana, became more acquainted with local customs and made new friends. Shooting abroad still came with its own unique set of challenges due to a lack of translators and the occasional safety concerns, but the crew managed to make things work by filming things guerrilla-style and setting up shop in abandoned caves and real medieval ruins.
The director’s newfound contacts, coupled with the relative success of the first movie, meant that he was basically given free rein over an assortment of shooting locations usually considered off-limits for indie horror. That’s why Bloodstone features insanely ambitious lighting and effects work even during scenes shot in the middle of a bustling Bucharest. The filmmakers went so far as to project Radu’s Nosferatu-like shadows over local monuments as if he were a Romanian boogeyman, an idea that was actually encouraged by local cinephiles.
In fact, many of the more elaborate scenes here had originally been planned for the first movie before being discarded due to the lack of available resources. It was only with the support of Romanian fans and filmmakers that Bloodstone was able to give Radu a chance to be even more menacing the second time around.
Michelle’s Transformation Takes Center Stage
However, when it came to the American part of the crew, not everyone was able or willing to return for another round of Romanian adventuring. That’s why Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) is unceremoniously killed off at the beginning of the film while the role of Michelle had to be recast. Denice Duff took over for Laura Mae Tate, with the character now being joined by her sister, Rebecca, played by Melanie Shatner (yes, that Shatner).
In the finished film, we follow Michelle as she awakens to her new life as a vampire and discovers that Radu has murdered her lover. Struggling with grief and her newfound bloodlust, Michelle contacts her sister overseas, with Rebecca soon travelling to Romania on an ill-advised rescue mission. Meanwhile, Radu (Anders Hove) reaches out to his undead Mummy (Pamela Gordon, underneath heavy layers of impressive makeup effects) and promises to deliver her the coveted Bloodstone artifact while also making Michelle his eternal consort.
Revisiting the movie, I was impressed with how introspective this story is when compared to the original. The sequel assumes that you’re already familiar with the previously established characters, so the story wastes no time in exploring the immediate aftermath of the previous film’s events. From Michelle’s reluctant transformation into a creature of the night to Radu’s obvious mommy issues, Nicolaou is way more interested in pushing these characters into new and uncharted territory rather than recycling existing plot points.
Practical Effects and Gothic Atmosphere Still Impress
Yet, much like the first film, it’s Romania itself that makes the movie worth watching. The ruins of Castle Vladislav are even more majestic now, and visiting the moody streets of Bucharest with its surprisingly punk-rock nightlife made for a nice change of pace when compared to the original film’s quiet village setting. Once again, the abundance of interesting locations makes the movie feel much more expensive than it really is, with the filmmakers surrounding our characters with a living, breathing environment that would be impossible to recreate in a studio.
The increased freedom also allowed Nicolaou to flex his filmmaking muscles and tackle more ambitious blocking/composition in the sequel. The low budget and tropey script mean that the visuals don’t always work, but it’s consistently clear that this neo-expressionist style could only come from a passionate team attempting to pay homage to the shadowy horror classics of yesteryear. If the retro atmosphere isn’t enough for you, there’s enough practical gore here to satisfy even the most demanding of horror hounds!
Radu himself is also far more interesting now that Hove is more comfortable working alongside an international crew, with the actor having gone on record explaining that, while he spent more time drinking vodka than working while shooting the first movie, the sequel was a much more creatively satisfying experience for everyone involved. The character’s relationship with his abusive Mummy is also a highlight of the expanded mythology, especially since the practical effects that bring her to life are just as freaky now as they were back in ’93.
My only real gripe with the horror elements of the picture comes from the glaring absence of the diminutive stop-motion minions from the first film, though I guess the surprisingly entertaining addition of Professor Popescu (Michael Denish) and his archeological antics mostly make up for that.
Bloodstone: Subspecies II is obviously the middle chapter of a trilogy, with the ending feeling a lot less definitive than its predecessor as several plot threads are left to dangle in the wind, but I appreciate how the flick explores new ground while remaining faithful to nearly all the ideas that made the original such a good time. While I don’t think it’s as big of an improvement over the first movie as some fans make it out to be, Bloodstone is definitely worth revisiting if you’re a fan of old-fashioned vampire yarns.
Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion to this initial trilogy, Bloodlust: Subspecies III!
You must be logged in to post a comment.