House of a Reasonable Amount of Horrors

Scream Factory, Blu-rays, and Collecting

My first Blu-ray was from Scream Factory, and I didn't even have a Blu-ray player yet. However, I heard about the director's cut finally becoming available, and as a DVD was included with the release, I made my first pre-order for a film on disc in years.

For how much I write and podcast about Blu-rays, I'm pretty new to collecting them (I started in earnest in 2016!) However, I jumped on the DVD bandwagon starting as a teenager in 1999 and was hardcore into the collecting life for years. After much of my collection was stolen during a move, I gathered what I had left and then lost all interest in procuring new titles. I was just heartbroken and embarrassed.

Finally, after getting a PS4 and realizing it could play Blu-rays, I decided to grab a few cheap titles from Target. (If you're curious, the titles were Terminator 2 so I could compare the quality to my DVD, Romancing the Stone because I had never seen it and was $5 worth of curious, and Highlander because I had never owned it for some reason.) Next thing you know, I'm getting things from the Barnes and Noble Criterion sale two weeks later and I knew I was back in the game. Doomed. I thought I was out and they pull me back in etc etc. Soon I was grabbing titles I had missed on DVD or was craving a special edition for (Society and Street Trash were early discs I had to have) and seeing lush horror releases from Scream Factory just sent me. Also, it seemed that Blu-ray had largely dodged the kind of multi-release quagmire that collecting things like Anchor Bay discs would often get you into, so I appreciated the lack of a learning curve when I was getting back into it.

I'm incredibly happy about having the fixation kicked back in, though: I didn't like not being completely passionate about film, and for me, that includes ownership. I don't expect that of others, though, and I know I'm definitely more unusual for having that outlook. But being without that aspect made me feel somehow dimmed.

I love my collection, and it helped give me confidence back in my writing and also offered me opportunities both in that field and in podcasting, which is so strange and wonderful. I've also made some great friends and colleagues, which includes Brian Saur. This is my 21st episode of his show, and I was just a mutual on Twitter that he gave a chance to. I now consider him a really good friend and one of my favorite movie talking people, and recording these episodes are always a joy. Thank you for listening. 

Just the Discs: Underrated Scream Factory 

You gotta let boys come to Vegas to die if they have a mind too

I've now paired the absolutely intriguing, weird ride This Is Not A Movie with Pecker into the corner of my heart labeled "Proof that Ed Furlong didn't get a full, fair shake."

‘Tubi Or Not To Be’ Day 8: Stephanie Crawford On ‘This Is Not A Movie’

 

 

 

Podcasts seem to flourish during the pandemic

I was recently on the hilarious Ken Reid's super fun TV Guidance Counselor podcast, and he was cool enough to pick a Halloween week for me! If you're not familiar, Ken goes over an issue of TV Guide with different guests. They pick their ideal timeslot schedule and the conversation can go anywhere from there. It was a lot of fun to talk TV shows and things from my childhood/teenage years that I still love today, and I still get a kick out of how weirded out people are about the fact that I live in Las Vegas. Ken's a great host, and he gets actual famous and/or talented people on here (I'm the one outlier) so be sure to check out the past episodes!

 

I'm back on Just the Discs! I'm sorry if you're sick of me! This time we return to our "to watch" piles, and I absolutely love the diversity of titles that pop up with this segment.

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 418: Stephanie Crawford 

Just the Discs: The To Watch Pile Vol. 5

It's All Over For You Guys Now: I Got My Bonafides

A few months ago, Rotten Tomatoes had an open application period, and even though their guidelines mentioned needing to write far more reviews than I have, I figured I'd apply just in case. Shockingly, I was accepted, and I'm now an official Rotten Tomatoes approved critic! You can check out my profile here. Yes, I do plan on selling out. Shamelessly. We're talking Malcolm McDowell doing Lunchables commercials here.

Full Disclosure: Everything I do is to eventually angle myself into the Criterion Collection closet

I return to Just the Discs with Brian Saur to talk about a small stack of Criterion Collection discs we both recommend listeners check out during their current (and future!) sale, going on at Barnes & Noble right now! I've noticed a lot of people seem to really enjoy label-specific episodes, so we may have some more of that coming to you soon. But may, I mean we will! The scoops you can get only here, I'm telling you. 

Just the Discs: Criterion Sale Suggestions!

More podcast round-up!

I hate not updating with writing, but that well's been a bit dry lately, and most of my non-work time and energy has been going into my own podcast! That I'm starting myself! Where I have all the responsibilities! Did you know that learning audio software has a steep learning curve! Anyway, here are some qualified and talented podcasters who were gracious enough to have me as a returning guest. Thank Godzilla for charity, eh?

Kill by Kill: Bride of Chucky Vol. 1 - My third time on this wonderful podcast is to talk about the fourth (and best) Child's Play/Chucky movie. I try out a Jennifer Tilly accent and I promise it's out of love, and my lack of talent doing it wasn't meant as an insult. Why do people enable me to talk? I'll never know. I'll just never know.

Just the Discs: Criterion Sale Suggestions! Since we're in the end times, I have no idea if we'll even have the Criterion sale this round, but suggestions are always in style! Right? Eh?

Podcast Round-Up

Some (hopefully) fun stuff to listen to while the world's on fire.

Corpse Club: Celebrating Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee - I've been on Corpse Club (Daily Dead's fantastic podcast) a few times before, but it's always been an all ladies affair! This time I jawed with some dudes about some legendary dudes. Scott and I have talked about recording together for years, so this was pretty exciting for me.

Just the Discs: The To-Watch Pile Vol. 3 - Can you believe I've done almost 20 of these episodes? We do another round of Blu-ray discs we bought but still need to watch, which is a fun way to cover a lot of ground with releases. 

The Death of Death: George Romero and the Church of the Latter-Day Dead

(How about that ridiculous title, eh? I tend to use fake titles while I'm writing something, and I figure I'd share this one since you should know what kind of maniac you're dealing with.)

A few months ago, I randomly wondered how George A. Romero's later Dead movies held up. I did some lazy Googling and discovered Survival of the Dead's 10th's (theatrical) anniversary was coming up, so I decided to pitch a revisit to Bloody Disgusting. While this is a simple topic, I agonized over this even more than my normal insecure writer neuroses, which is saying something. I think the issue was 1) I'm an enormous fan of George Romero, but it was important that I was honest about what I thought of the quality of the films he made in the twilight of his life. Trying to balance that can easily fall into wishy-washy playing-both-sides kind of writing, which is basically worthless to everyone and 2) Bloody Disgusting has a very large, very vocal audience, and Romero is unquestionably on the horror Mount Rushmore, were such a thing to exist. If I fumbled this, it could be kind of gross.

Thankfully, so far, people have been incredibly kind about the piece. Writing about George Romero zombies during pandemic sure is a damn experience, but I'm ultimately glad I did. Hot takes get clicks, so it's actually pretty meaningful to me that something that doesn't use hyperbole, either way, got published. Anyway! I appreciate your time in checking it out if you do, and Godspeed.

‘Land,’ ‘Diary’ and ‘Survival of the Dead’: George A. Romero’s Dead Reckoning

 

I Will Make You Mine is a Valentine

I reviewed Lynn Chen's I Will Make You Mine, which while it stands completely on its own as a wonderful film, is also the conclusion of the terrific "Surrogate Valentine" trilogy. I had this one locked and loaded on my SXSW app, so seeing a digital screener was kind of a bummer as this film (among so many others) really, really deserved to have that splashy debut. But hey! Good news! Technology means you can watch it *right now!*

Daily Grindhouse: I Will Make You Mine Does Just That (review)

You can rent/purchase I Will Make You Mine here

Rent/purchase the previous films, Surrogate Valentine and Daylight Savings, here.

STREAM WARRIORS at Daily Grindhouse

Spearheaded by editor Rob Dean, Stream Warriors is a fun new weekly column over at Daily Grindhouse. Each week, a different writer picks a small handful of movie recommendations (less obvious choices that are hopefully still crowd pleasers on some level) that are streaming from (US-based) services.

I was up this week, and narrowing down the seemingly endless choices out there was trickier than I thought it’d be! I stake my non-existent reputation on my choices being solid, though, and seriously: At the very least, check out that short Godzilla music video from my childhood public access heroes. 

Stream Warriors: My Picks for April 24... and beyond