Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[cakefactory]

I bought Pumpkinhead on impulse after seeing it in a store for 20 bucks, it was the rare horror movie I saw as a kid on cable back in the day that lived up to my memories of it. It is one of the most atmospheric-looking horror movies of the 80s, and the monster effects all still hold up. The thing that stood out the most to me on this watch, though, was how much care was taken to at least make all the teenagers 2 dimensional instead of one dimensional cannon fodder. I liked that almost all of them immediately try to help the kid and even the "bad guy" is given a strangely noble moment where he sees all the destruction and runs out to offer himself to save the rest. Weird. Lance Henriksen is also good, and that darn little kid is cloyingly cute in a very effective way. The only thing in the whole movie that didn't work for me was the dog. All of us watching groaned when they cut to a shot of the dog looking sad right after the kid died! What a deflation of the drama. It's very economically plotted and for what it is, it's near flawless. I definitely wouldn't rank it with the very best horror movies of all time or anything, but it's hard to do much better for a grim monster movie.

The special features were fun, too, lots of good interviews and behind the scenes stuff, especially for a lifelong stan winston geek like myself (as a kid, I always recognized him way more than most actors cause I owned all the books on the making of Jurassic Park, etc). One of the most striking things in the interviews was that Cindy Bain looks, if anything, BETTER than she did in this movie and practically the same age, even though it was 26 years ago. I want some of whatever she's on. Everyone else definitely looked like it had been 26 years.

Anyway, yeah, I highly recommend this, it's probably in my top 5 scream factory movies.

[dwk]

Originally Posted by zbinks

It wasn't really specified whether it would be a Scream Factory set or not. Supercop, maybe?

Assuming Miramax still has those, it could be something HK related (Sammo Hung box set would be great.) I remember, back when he was at BCI, Cliff had licensed 25 HK action classics from Miramax, but they (BCI) were shut down before any were released. (, all the great stuff BCI was working on...)

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by dwk

Assuming Miramax still has those, it could be something HK related (Sammo Hung box set would be great.) I remember, back when he was at BCI, Cliff had licensed 25 HK action classics from Miramax, but they (BCI) were shut down before any were released. (, all the great stuff BCI was working on...)

To think BCI could've grown into another Shout Factory with Cliff at the helm had they not shut down. The former owners are probably still kicking themselves.

[MTRodaba2468]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

Sadly, doesn't change the fact that they have done this before.

They turned down Return of the Living Dead because they thought they'd never be able to best the Region B locked Second Sight blu ray (which is probably true)

I don't know how it is in other countries, but in Australia, it's $60 to go region free, to buy a dirt cheap player with a remote button combo that changes regions. If it's that cheap in other places, I think everyone should go region free

In fairness to them on RotLD, while it is technically region locked, it's one of those discs where hitting the Top Menu button on the remote will bypass it, letting you play it. I was able to watch it using my PS3, long before ever getting a region free player...

[redrunner97]

I must agree, Scream Factory needs to JUMP on titles that are obscure-ish but in the realm of "I really want that to have an official / recent release". There are so many out there, it would just be a matter of if they can get their hands on them or not.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Scream, what about releasing Session 9 since Universal seems to have no interest in releasing this themselves.

Just going to bump this to ask Scream Factory and cmac when they plan on releasing this title.

[jond76]

Originally Posted by MTRodaba2468

In fairness to them on RotLD, while it is technically region locked, it's one of those discs where hitting the Top Menu button on the remote will bypass it, letting you play it. I was able to watch it using my PS3, long before ever getting a region free player...

I found out the top menu trick by accident a while back. I was so thrilled. The only reason I got that release is because it contains the original stereo soundtrack without the alterations of the later DVD and blu releases.

[Lucy Ashton]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

I must agree, Scream Factory needs to JUMP on titles that are obscure-ish but in the realm of "I really want that to have an official / recent release". There are so many out there, it would just be a matter of if they can get their hands on them or not.

Agreed! Personally, I would love for them to release much more 70's stuff, for instance. We have Squirm coming up, and we already have The Incredible Melting Man, The Legend of Hell House, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Nosferatu: The Vampyre, The Vampire Lovers, and The Amityville Horror as well as some Vincent Price titles in their respective box sets.

But off the top of my head and without regard to who has the rights (many are indeed with other companies), there are so many iconic, gritty, scary, and downright over-the-top fun horrors from that decade to mine: Alice, Sweet Alice, Blood and Lace, Blue Sunshine, The Car (Arrow has a nice release, though), The Dark, Embryo, The Fifth Cord, It's Alive, Kingdom of the Spiders, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Lemora: A Child's tale of the Supernatural, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, The Manitou, Phantasm (there's probably a reason why SF hasn't already released this, though), The Prophecy, Psychic Killer, Raw Meat, Rituals, Silent Night, Bloody Night, Sssssss, and What Have You Done to Solange?

SF has already cut out a large piece of the 80's, but there is certainly more to find. Much of the stuff from the 90's and onwards, though, could just as easily find its way to blu-ray via other lables, though.

[demonknight]

Originally Posted by Lucy Ashton

But off the top of my head and without regard to who has the rights (many are indeed with other companies), there are so many iconic, gritty, scary, and downright over-the-top fun horrors from that decade to mine: Alice, Sweet Alice, Blood and Lace, Blue Sunshine, The Car (Arrow has a nice release, though), The Dark, Embryo, The Fifth Cord, It's Alive, Kingdom of the Spiders, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Lemora: A Child's tale of the Supernatural, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, The Manitou, Phantasm (there's probably a reason why SF hasn't already released this, though), The Prophecy, Psychic Killer, Raw Meat, Rituals, Silent Night, Bloody Night, Sssssss, and What Have You Done to Solange?

Alice, Sweet Alice, Prophecy, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, and It's Alive are all WB... So highly unlikely (as opposed to the outright no they would have gotten two weeks ago).
Lemora is Synapse.
Code Red plans on doing SNBN.
The Dark is Scorpion, Dark Sky, or Severin (can't remember which) and has no film elements left.
SF no longer has Kingdom of the Spiders.
A good portion is PD, so unlikely unless a box set occurs (Boggy Creek Trilogy?)
Phantasm is with Coscarelli, so very much a possibility.
Most others are ones that I have no idea who the rights holders are or what they are.


I do think we'll be seeing a lot more of Mr. Coscarelli in 2015... Bubba Ho-Tep and a Phantasm set are both very likely. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Kenny & Co. ended up as a bonus feature on a Phantasm set, as that is where Coscarelli realized he liked to scare people.

[Lucy Ashton]

Originally Posted by demonknight

Alice, Sweet Alice, Prophecy, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, and It's Alive are all WB... So highly unlikely (as opposed to the outright no they would have gotten two weeks ago).
Lemora is Synapse.
Code Red plans on doing SNBN.
The Dark is Scorpion, Dark Sky, or Severin (can't remember which) and has no film elements left.
SF no longer has Kingdom of the Spiders.
A good portion is PD, so unlikely unless a box set occurs (Boggy Creek Trilogy?)
Phantasm is with Coscarelli, so very much a possibility.
Most others are ones that I have no idea who the rights holders are or what they are.


I do think we'll be seeing a lot more of Mr. Coscarelli in 2015... Bubba Ho-Tep and a Phantasm set are both very likely. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Kenny & Co. ended up as a bonus feature on a Phantasm set, as that is where Coscarelli realized he liked to scare people.

Wow, very informative - thank you for sharing!

I wasn't sure Lemora was still with Synapse - I've asked them, and they haven't responded (they are usually good enough to do so).

The Dark is indeed with Scorpion. I do remember Walter stating that there are no film elements left. I know it's wishful thinking, but I'm still hoping something usable will turn up. It has happened with other movies.

SNBN is public domain, but VS isn't dismissive of doing it either, should the proper elements be found. So PD status does not necessarily mean that a legitimate release is out of the question.

Kind of depressing that Kingdom of the Spiders is no longer with SF. I wonder why they didn't do a Blu when they had the chance?

It would be great if WB would sublicense some of those titles, as they don't seem to be in a hurry to release them themselves.

Thanks again!

[dsman71]

Originally Posted by Lucy Ashton

Agreed! Personally, I would love for them to release much more 70's stuff, for instance. We have Squirm coming up, and we already have The Incredible Melting Man, The Legend of Hell House, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Nosferatu: The Vampyre, The Vampire Lovers, and The Amityville Horror as well as some Vincent Price titles in their respective box sets.

But off the top of my head and without regard to who has the rights (many are indeed with other companies), there are so many iconic, gritty, scary, and downright over-the-top fun horrors from that decade to mine: Alice, Sweet Alice, Blood and Lace, Blue Sunshine, The Car (Arrow has a nice release, though), The Dark, Embryo, The Fifth Cord, It's Alive, Kingdom of the Spiders, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Lemora: A Child's tale of the Supernatural, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, The Manitou, Phantasm (there's probably a reason why SF hasn't already released this, though), The Prophecy, Psychic Killer, Raw Meat, Rituals, Silent Night, Bloody Night, Sssssss, and What Have You Done to Solange?

SF has already cut out a large piece of the 80's, but there is certainly more to find. Much of the stuff from the 90's and onwards, though, could just as easily find its way to blu-ray via other lables, though.

Solange is (or at least was) with Media Blasters
Sssssss is with Universal as is the Car
The Manitou is with Anchor Bay I think
Raw Meat is with MGM
The Prophecy - if you mean the 1979 film Prophecy starring a giant mutant Bear that's with Paramount (??)
Alice Sweet Alice is with VCI the last time I read/heard. (they also have What the Peeper Saw lined up for 2015)

All we can hope for in some cases is for the rights to expire like they apparently did with Alligator, Necronomicon and hope Scream picks them up

[RyGuy1496]

Geez the new batch of $10 off coupons really went by quick. They just posted it 2 hours ago and they already say unavailable.

[Lucy Ashton]

Originally Posted by dsman71

Solange is (or at least was) with Media Blasters
Sssssss is with Universal as is the Car
The Manitou is with Anchor Bay I think
Raw Meat is with MGM
The Prophecy - if you mean the 1979 film Prophecy starring a giant mutant Bear that's with Paramount (??)

All we can hope for in some cases is for the rights to expire like they apparently did with Alligator, Necronomicon and hope Scream picks them up

SF has sublicensed several titles from MGM and some from Universal, if I'm not mistaken, so maybe there's still hope there. Anchor Bay has had an awful month with one botched release (H4), and one where they apparently didn't put any effort into it at all (SNDN). Other vintage genre releases have been lacklustre as well (The Entity). I certainly hope the rights have expired for many of the movies that were their claim to fame back in the day. And is Media Blasters even in business anymore?

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by Lucy Ashton

The Dark is indeed with Scorpion. I do remember Walter stating that there are no film elements left. I know it's wishful thinking, but I'm still hoping something usable will turn up. It has happened with other movies.

The same fate befell MUTANT, the 1984 zombie flick starring Wings Hauser. But lack of elements didn't stop Scorpion from issuing DVDs for AMERICAN NIGHTMARE and HUMONGOUS. The INCUBUS also fell victim to a lack of source materials but Walter still released the film, which I'm grateful for as it's now among my best blind-buys. They probably don't bother much with these lesser films because of people whining about transfers "looking like VHS". Personally, this doesn't bother me much. If it's the only way to own a legitimate copy of a film I enjoy so be it.

[kong73]

Originally Posted by dsman71

Solange is (or at least was) with Media Blasters
Sssssss is with Universal as is the Car
The Manitou is with Anchor Bay I think
Raw Meat is with MGM
The Prophecy - if you mean the 1979 film Prophecy starring a giant mutant Bear that's with Paramount (??)
Alice Sweet Alice is with VCI the last time I read/heard. (they also have What the Peeper Saw lined up for 2015)

All we can hope for in some cases is for the rights to expire like they apparently did with Alligator, Necronomicon and hope Scream picks them up

I want The Prophecy 1979 NOW!!!!

[Lucy Ashton]

Originally Posted by cine74

The same fate befell MUTANT, the 1984 zombie flick starring Wings Hauser. But lack of elements didn't stop Scorpion from issuing DVDs for AMERICAN NIGHTMARE and HUMONGOUS. The INCUBUS also fell victim to a lack of source materials but Walter still released the film, which I'm grateful for as it's now among my best blind-buys. They probably don't bother much with these lesser films because of people whining about transfers "looking like VHS". Personally, this doesn't bother me much. If it's the only way to own a legitimate copy of a film I enjoy so be it.

I'd gladly buy American Nightmare, Humongous, The Incubus, and The Dark with a disclaimer that the source elements were less than optimal. I can accept 'best with what was available' when 'perfect' is not an option. But maybe I don't understand the technical side of things well enough: Wouldn't a Hi-Def transfers from the same materials MB used for their DVD of The Dark look better than the DVD? Pardon my ignorance.

[The Great Owl]

I keep hoping for Wolfen, but it's a Warner Bros. title.

Scream Factory could do some great things with this one.

[dsman71]

Originally Posted by Lucy Ashton

SF has sublicensed several titles from MGM and some from Universal, if I'm not mistaken, so maybe there's still hope there. Anchor Bay has had an awful month with one botched release (H4), and one where they apparently didn't put any effort into it at all (SNDN). Other vintage genre releases have been lacklustre as well (The Entity). I certainly hope the rights have expired for many of the movies that were their claim to fame back in the day. And is Media Blasters even in business anymore?

I know they've sublicensed from MGM and Universal. Anything held by MGM has a chance..I was just listing who had what. MGM sublicensed + or - 100 titles to Scream.. over 100 if you include Kino and Twilight Time
Scream has no deals with Universal going on at the moment.

That Anchor Bay botch job was made worse when they lied about the movie being 30 years old so they cant fix the synch .. yeah sure you cant lol
AB is not what they once were and Media Blasters while still in business also isn't what they used to be.. and was made worse by the way they handled Megalon and Destroy All Monsters.. but then again Toho is terrible to deal with. They deprive fans of some potentially really good ultimate releases but not allowing extras and no tampering with their lackluster HD film elements

[Spooked]

I don't mind Scream Factory re-releasing films already on Blu-ray with additional special features and new artwork, actually. A lot of the films I see being requested here are getting to be too obscure. As in Scream would more likely than not lose money trying to produce them. I definitely appreciate the line they're walking. It is going to get harder and harder for them to find marketable titles to put out as time goes on, however. That's partially the reason I wish they didn't release so much so quickly, but in this game, if you don't release it first, someone else certainly will.

[csg91]

I'm thinking Sometimes They Come Back and Raw Meat might be potentials. I remember seeing this 6 film MGM dvd set with Pumpkinhead, Dolls, Scarecrows, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Sometimes They Come Back and Raw Meat. So the potential could be there.