Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[sasdragon]

My humble little collection

[deltatauhobbit]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

From Beyond and Demented both arrived in the mail today from Amazon Prime. I didn't realize that Amazon delivered on Sundays, so that's cool.

From Beyond did not come with a slipcover, but that's okay. I simply flipped the cover around to show the reverse art, because that's the artwork that I grew up seeing, so all is well.

Yeah, it is kind of nice getting packages in the mail on Sunday although I'm a bit surprised they still delivered on Easter Sunday when even most of the grocery stores aren't even open today.

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

P.S. I thought Dolls was terrible and sold it, but my horror tastes are kind of a mess.

Say whhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt?

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The Shout Factory releases of Fists of Fury and The Chinese Connection have both earned high marks for picture quality, so I'm optimistic about these next two releases.

Even if they do have issues, the chance that the presentations will be better than my experiences watching these types of movies pan-and-scan on Kung Fu Theater before Elvira's Movie Macabre back in the early 1980s is probably 100%.

Yeah. I adore those releases (it's even better for me because I never pulled the trigger on the Bruce Lee set from the year prior), but I'd rather just wait it out to make sure there's no kinks in the release. However getting the discs two weeks early is kinda sweet.

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by sasdragon

My humble little collection

Got some similar titles in my collection. Thumbs up for the Astron-6 film.

[Christophah Maghen]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I'm one of the biggest proponents of paying up for catalog releases on this forum. However that doesn't mean that when I'm eyeing an older release I never got for one reason or another I don't wait for a sale, since they tend to happen. It's all about balance. Pay full price for some stuff, wait for a sale on other stuff. Very few can buy every single thing they're interested in every week at full price.

P.S. I thought Dolls was terrible and sold it, but my horror tastes are kind of a mess.

I completely understand waiting for sales and not being able to buy everything under the sun, of course, unless you are totally loaded or live with your parents and dont have to pay rent or any other bills it isn' possible.

Not only is there an issue of money there is a much greater issue of time, if you could buy everything under the sun would you really have the time to watch 10,000 blu rays more than a few times each in your entire lifetime? That is another issue for another topic, anyway, the overall impression I got from reading those price complainy posts was that these companies are unreasonable cutthroat profiteers for charging more than $10 or $15 dollars a blu.

[painiac]

Originally Posted by Christopher Morgan

I completely understand waiting for sales and not being able to buy everything under the sun, of course, unless you are totally loaded or live with your parents and dont have to pay rent or any other bills it isn' possible.

Not only is there an issue of money there is a much greater issue of time, if you could buy everything under the sun would you really have the time to watch 10,000 blu rays more than a few times each in your entire lifetime? That is another issue for another topic, anyway, the overall impression I got from reading those price complainy posts was that these companies are unreasonable cutthroat profiteers for charging more than $10 or $15 dollars a blu.

i have a problem where i really want to see as much as i can, so i buy up a lot of stuff. i could probably trim my collection substantially if i ever go for that (which i might soon with a potential move coming up)

[NeonStreetMelt]

Even with Spring Fling sale I still find getting from Scream direct less economical than just going the Amazon/ebay route. I did direct cart to cart comparisons and still wasn't getting the best deal with Scream themselves. Why is stuff like They Live that came out 5 years ago and still isn't OOP still regularly priced at $20+? Used DVDs of the same content go for less than $5, why are their prices not decreasing?

I will pay up for super limited editions (Twilight Time The Blob, Steelbook Demons) or limited runs like some Code Red stuff but more common 80s titles such as They Live I'm not going to pay 20 or more for. Most of my blu rays are catalog titles and I paid less than $20 for most single titles, and any box set I have I got a deal on, and I buy everything new. With some exceptions. I paid 20+ for Wild Beasts cause that just came out and that never even had a US DVD release and I really like it, and I did get Day Of The Dead direct from Scream around release because that is also 1 of my top favorites, and I knew it was the best home video transfer ever of the film, and I wanted the new art on the posters they were including, I guess it depends but generally if stuff's been out for years and isn't OOP I expect price drop or I'll just go for whoever has the discounted price, I just won't buy every Blu on release, I have no shortage of things to watch.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I'm one of the biggest proponents of paying up for catalog releases on this forum. However that doesn't mean that when I'm eyeing an older release I never got for one reason or another I don't wait for a sale, since they tend to happen. It's all about balance. Pay full price for some stuff, wait for a sale on other stuff. Very few can buy every single thing they're interested in every week at full price.

P.S. I thought Dolls was terrible and sold it, but my horror tastes are kind of a mess.

I've almost blind bought Dolls quite a few times. I have no way of renting it or seeing it first which I hate when that happens. I've heard mixed things about it.

[Jlouisbarrett]

I, too, went back and forth on whether or not to buy Dolls but I finally bit the bullet recently and I'm glad I did -- I thought it was a ton of fun.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Jlouisbarrett

I, too, went back and forth on whether or not to buy Dolls but I finally bit the bullet recently and I'm glad I did -- I thought it was a ton of fun.

It does strike me as at least a fun October watch for when I do my annual Horror marathon all September-October long. You just never know though.

[Novelist]

For those of you who are slipcover nuts. I picked up Psycho II the other day from BestBuy.com and it did come with the slipcover.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

I've almost blind bought Dolls quite a few times. I have no way of renting it or seeing it first which I hate when that happens. I've heard mixed things about it.

If you like Full Moon type stuff you might like it. I like cheesy and silly horror but not to that degree. Also I just didn't think it was that well shot and constructed. Again though, I'm not some super uber horror fan. I'm into supernatural fantasy more than horror.

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by NeonStreetMelt

Why is stuff like They Live that came out 5 years ago and still isn't OOP still regularly priced at $20+? Used DVDs of the same content go for less than $5, why are their prices not decreasing?

When something is one of a label's top-selling discs without discounted pricing, what is the incentive to lower the price further?

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

When something is one of a label's top-selling discs without discounted pricing, what is the incentive to lower the price further?

Because by this point sales of said title have undoubtedly slowed. So a permanent (or even temporary) discount would likely have the effect of bringing in folks that have been on the fence and encourage them to finally pull the trigger.

As I originally stated in my post which kicked off this most recent price discussion... if I've waited 7 years on a title like The Step Father, it's unlikely I am going to suddenly decide that I'm ok with paying the current price. The same could be said for They Live. Another title that I've never gotten around to pick up thus far and while I would like to pick it up eventually... just can't see myself doing so for more than $15.

Beyond that, NeonStreetMelt does bring up an interesting topic as well... that is why the heck it costs more to buy directly from a company than it often does from an e-tailer. I understand the discounts and all of that, but when Scream Factory can't beat an ongoing retail (or sale) price from a place like deep discount, blowitouttahere, Best Buy, Amazon, etc. when they are offering one of their sales throughout the year it is quite frustrating.

Again we're not asking for Bargin Bin prices, just competitive prices on titles that have been around longer than many of the members of this board. At a minimum A title should see a discount after 5 years. That's just good business and would likely encourage another wave of sales. Asking/expecting a title to carry a more reasonable price tag after half a decade is certainly the better alternative when compared to the other option of buying used from ebay or any other number of people/places. Case in point on how much this mindset can actually impact sales... Wal-mart has a $7.96 dump bin filled with movies right? I rarely purchase titles from it as more often than not the price compared to the value I get from them just isn't there. However this last December the Bin changed to 5.96 for about 2 months and I went nuts. Suddenly all those $6 titles were very very appealing and I bought a staggering number of them. In the end I saved $2 per movie, but I bought soooooo many. Applying this same concept to older Shout Factory titles would easily result in the same experience.

I'm not asking for under $10 prices. I'm not asking for price cuts during the first year (or two, three, four) of release, and I'm not asking that everything be available at all times at lowered prices... however at a minimum, like the Arrow sales, titles should see price reductions by at least the 5 year mark, they should regularly have sales which you can count on to pick up as more titles that you may not have otherwise considered, and titles should be featured in more than one sale. So many of Scream/Shout Factories sales seem to feature titles once, and they they are forever neglected in the future.

Bottom line, When ordering from Scream Factory directly during a sale I should be able to...

A) Buy titles for $15 or less.
B) Get free shipping on all purchases of $30 or more.
C) See multiple titles from the entire lifespan of the line included, not just the year or two.

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

Because by this point sales of said title have undoubtedly slowed. So a permanent (or even temporary) discount would likely have the effect of bringing in folks that have been on the fence and encourage them to finally pull the trigger.

As I originally stated in my post which kicked off this most recent price discussion... if I've waited 7 years on a title like The Step Father, it's unlikely I am going to suddenly decide that I'm ok with paying the current price. The same could be said for They Live. Another title that I've never gotten around to pick up thus far and while I would like to pick it up eventually... just can't see myself doing so for more than $15.

Beyond that, NeonStreetMelt does bring up an interesting topic as well... that is why the heck it costs more to buy directly from a company than it often does from an e-tailer. I understand the discounts and all of that, but when Scream Factory can't beat an ongoing retail (or sale) price from a place like deep discount, blowitouttahere, Best Buy, Amazon, etc. when they are offering one of their sales throughout the year it is quite frustrating.

Again we're not asking for Bargin Bin prices, just competitive prices on titles that have been around longer than many of the members of this board. At a minimum A title should see a discount after 5 years. That's just good business and would likely encourage another wave of sales. Asking/expecting a title to carry a more reasonable price tag after half a decade is certainly the better alternative when compared to the other option of buying used from ebay or any other number of people/places. Case in point on how much this mindset can actually impact sales... Wal-mart has a $7.96 dump bin filled with movies right? I rarely purchase titles from it as more often than not the price compared to the value I get from them just isn't there. However this last December the Bin changed to 5.96 for about 2 months and I went nuts. Suddenly all those $6 titles were very very appealing and I bought a staggering number of them. In the end I saved $2 per movie, but I bought soooooo many. Applying this same concept to older Shout Factory titles would easily result in the same experience.

I'm not asking for under $10 prices. I'm not asking for price cuts during the first year (or two, three, four) of release, and I'm not asking that everything be available at all times at lowered prices... however at a minimum, like the Arrow sales, titles should see price reductions by at least the 5 year mark, they should regularly have sales which you can count on to pick up as more titles that you may not have otherwise considered, and titles should be featured in more than one sale. So many of Scream/Shout Factories sales seem to feature titles once, and they they are forever neglected in the future.

Bottom line, When ordering from Scream Factory directly during a sale I should be able to...

A) Buy titles for $15 or less.
B) Get free shipping on all purchases of $30 or more.
C) See multiple titles from the entire lifespan of the line included, not just the year or two.

To be fair I got 3 title for $13 and change, 2 for $15 and change and two for $17 and change and free shipping through this sale.

Your third point is taken though. They need a better way of showing what their full catalog is, or at least an alternate/additional way.

EDIT: But I have no idea how you can assert that amazon/ebay is cheaper when you have to add 3 or 4 bucks to each title alone for shipping. That's just factually incorrect. I've never seen amazon/ebay prices considerably cheaper for these titles. Never.

[s7e]

As a crazy person trying to get every scream factory release if can hurt when the prices often don't dip below $18. I have only purchased 5-10 from scream sales, just because the prices are often higher than I can find throughout the year from normal retailers. In the past deepdiscount has been my go-to, however lately it seems they don't have the price drops they used to during the 15% off sales. The buy 2 get 1 free from Target this year was great catching up on some for under $14-15. I probably spent over $400 on scream titles during the sale catching up on titles I missed over the past year. Might sound like a lot of money to spend, but it really adds up when you go crazy during these sales. I can't afford full price $22-24 titles when 5-6 come out in a single month.

Scream factory is near the top of my favorite bluray companies. Lots of great movies and even the newer stuff and IFC/scream releases are entertaining. Overall good releases PQ/AQ/features wise, original arts, they do it all pretty solid.

I hope they start catching any of these errors and disc replacement problems in the future before releasing them for sale to the public. It would be nice to actually see some deals during these shout/scream sales, since they are selling direct to consumers. When they have almost 300 scream titles having 20-30 titles go on 'sale' with mediocre prices isn't really a sale to me.

I wish they would even re-release some titles like Body Bags with fixed audio and reversible art.

[Christophah Maghen]

Originally Posted by NeonStreetMelt

Why is stuff like They Live that came out 5 years ago and still isn't OOP still regularly priced at $20+? Used DVDs of the same content go for less than $5, why are their prices not decreasing?

Is They Live a limited edition?

[tru_to_blu]

Thinking about picking up The Texas chainsaw Masacre 2 and The Thing. Whats the chance of getting a slipcover for these?

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by tru_to_blu

Thinking about picking up The Texas chainsaw Masacre 2 and The Thing. Whats the chance of getting a slipcover for these?

Chances are good for both, but TCM2 less because it's now been out for a year.

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

Again we're not asking for Bargin Bin prices, just competitive prices on titles that have been around longer than many of the members of this board. At a minimum A title should see a discount after 5 years. That's just good business and would likely encourage another wave of sales.

The only way that is "good business" is if they make more profit by doing that than by not doing it, and I think you have to make too many assumptions in order to conclude that that would be the case here.

why the heck it costs more to buy directly from a company than it often does from an e-tailer.

As a broad generalization, the costs of having an on-line shop are distributed across a lot more merchandise in e-tailers than in label-specific stores.