Once upon a time, Warner’s was the bête noir of the genre film fan. With thousands of titles in their catalog, they seemed uninterested in releasing their impressive backlog of old horror and sci-fi titles.
This situation was exacerbated by the fact that Warner’s had a corporate policy not to lease out the rights to these films. In other words, if Anchor Bay wanted to issue films that Warner’s had no apparent interest in, that would have been a no go.
I used to have a theory that a lot of the problem was due to the fact that whoever was in charge of picking films for DVD release just didn’t like horror and sci-fi titles. I had no hard evidence on this, but I do remember an interview with the guy where the genre movie issue was raised, and the DVD head’s response was literally jaw-dropping, as he basically answered, “Well, you know, horror and sci-fi don’t sell well.” What a moron. Yeah, genre movie nerds are well known for their reluctance to buy stuff.
(This made the Warner’s policy of rights-selling even more unlikely to be by-passed. What if you told your corporate bosses, “Yeah, this stuff doesn’t sell well”, and then Anchor Bay rents and brings out the Warner’s catalog of, say, old Hammer horror movies, and they sell like hot cakes, and then your bosses call you back in and say, “Why is another company making this money instead of us?” In other words, sitting on the rights basically covered one’s ass.)
The dam broke, oddly enough, as a side effect of Universal’s The Mummy Returns. Somebody at Warner’s apparently decided to release Hammer’s The Mummy at the same time to capitalize. To the astonishment, apparently, of only the people at Warner’s, the title sold like crazy. Soon long-lusted after titles like Horror of Dracula finally starting seeing the light of day, and needless to say, they sold well too.
Meanwhile, again with zillions of titles to release, Warner’s started selling incredible box sets of material instead of releasing more marginal fare individually. This lead to incredible bargains, like the Val Lewton box set, in which nine horror movies, many classics and more of them unavailable since the dawn of the home video age, were to be had for $40 or so. Moreover, this set offered a new, full-length documentary on Lewton, and commentaries on nearly every film. It was a movie buff’s dream come true. The recent Hollywood Legends of Horror set was just as good, and even cheaper.
Warner’s now releases dozens of these sets, packaged around big stars or themes (Film Noir, for instance), all similarly cheap and plush.
Meanwhile, Universal started going even cheaper. Although lacking all the loving bells and whistles of the Warner’s sets, they would package bunches of movies, up to six or seven at a time, for as low as $20, or even less. These ranged from Abbott & Costello movies, to Ma and Pa Kettle, to the four Airport movies. Then, last year, sci-fi fans were treated to a set containing five great ’50s sci-fi movies, including the classic Incredible Shrinking Man, Tarantula, Monolith Monsters, Monster on the Campus and the Mole People. Although this set appears to be disappearing from online brokers, presumably because it’s about sold out, it was available for under $20. So jaded had fans become with these bargains that some complained about the fact that these movies didn’t have extras attached to them, as did the Warner’s sets.
Anyhoo, this trends happily continues, as several more titles I and others have lusted after are not only coming out soon, but in budget friendly sets. Per Dvddrive-com:
On June 26, Warner Home Video will release a line of Cult Camp Classic DVDs, available individually or as three-disc box sets. These releases will include Cult Camp Classics: Volume 1 – Sci-Fi Thrillers (ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN, THE GIANT BEHEMOTH, QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE), Cult Camp Classics: Volume 2 – Women in Peril (TROG, THE BIG CUBE, CAGED), Cult Camp Classics: Volume 3 – Terrorized Travelers (HOT RODS TO HELL, SKYJACKED, ZERO HOUR) and Cult Camp Classics: Volume 4 – Historical Epics (COLOSSUS OF RHODES, THE PRODIGAL, LAND OF THE PHAROAHS). Some of the titles will include audio commentaries and all but CAGED will be presented anamorphic widescreen. Each set will retail for $29.98 and they will all be available individually for $14.97 a pop.
Queen of Outer Space! Finally available in widescreen!! Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman! Trog! Hot Rods to Hell is a title I’ve wanted to see for years now. Zero Hour is the movie that Airplane! took its plot from. Several of these movies are ripe for a Jabootu review. And when all is said and done, these sets will be selling for about $20 each. Which means that for an $80 investment, you could own all 12 movies, or pick and choose as you like. Good times.
