De-hoarding My Horror DVD Multipacks: Part 1

As you can see, I've got quite a few of these Mill Creek Entertainment multipacks. In case you're wondering, there are nearly 700 movies in the picture above (give or take a few duplicated titles).

At first glance, they don't appear to take up that much space, but I have an idea about how to compact them even further. No, I'm not throwing any of them out even though most of the movies are crap and their transfers are terrible. Unfortunately, there are some movies which I haven't finished watching yet, and since I have no easy way of telling which discs they are on, I have to keep all of them until I'm done.

Of course, it'll be a red one!

What I intend to do is take out all the DVDs which are already in cardboard or paper envelopes and put them in one of those special DVD storage boxes from Target (AKA a shoebox).

I probably won't get into all the découpage and craftmaking that somebody who had the same idea before me did.

Having checked out the price of further Tyvek DVD sleeves ($5.99 for 100 on Amazon), I think this may be the ideal way to go with the rest of my collection.

Good idea? Bad idea? What do you think?

A new challenge begins!

Yes, it's the first "Woeful Wednesday" of 2013, so it's time to start another crappy "indie horror" challenge over at "The Pit of the Pendulum".

This month (and a bit), I will be working my way through the companion box set to "Tomb of Terrors" which came in the "Bloody Nightmares" 100 movie pack: "Decrepit Crypt of Nightmares".

If you've never heard of any of the following titles, it's no big deal. Nobody else has ever heard of them either. This is all the amateur junk that's supposed to be so liberating for filmmakers and actors... although you'd be hard pressed to use either of those terms to describe anyone involved.

Before I Die The Bewitching Blood Sucking Babes from Burbank Burning Dead A Candle in the Dark Catholic Ghoulgirls The Crate The Crawlspace Dead 7 Dead Body Man Dead is Dead The Dead Live Demon Slaughter Dominion Edgar Allan Poe's Madhouse Goblin Goth Hell's Highway Hellbound: Book of the Dead High Desert Hip Hop Locos Hollywood Vampyr I Dream of Dracula I Hate You Invitation

Las Vegas Blood Bath Matthew Mayhem Motel Nightmare Asylum Off the Beaten Path Prehistoric Bimbos in Armageddon City The River: Legend of La Llorona Scarlet Fry's Junkfood Horrorfest Serial Killer The Shunned House Slasher Suburban Sasquatch The Summer of the Massacre Tales of Terror Terror Toons Thirteen This Darkness Toe Tags Up For Rent Vampire Hunter The Veil When Heaven Comes Down Wishbone The Witching Zombie Rampage

If you aren't into this crap, I'll still be reviewing movies on "Dr Blood's Video Vault". Keep checking-in because I'm all about the best horror movies here.

I finally made it through "Tomb of Terrors"!

For the last two months, I've been watching one of these awful movies every day for my other blog - The Pit of the Pendulum - and I'm now pleased to say that I've finished the first box. Just in time for the world ending too! Yeah, like that's really going to happen.

It wasn't the first time that I've watched these movies as I skimmed through them when I first bought "Tomb of Terrors" back in 2008. A lot of the movies were also shown by Zone Horror in the UK before I moved so I've unfavourably reviewed a couple of them before.

I thought that, given a few years, some of these movies might improve a bit, but I was wrong. As entertaining as they are due to their ineptness, they are all amateur drivel which you have to have something mentally wrong with you to prefer over real mainstream horror. I gave each one a fair chance and tried to be objective, but a bad movie will always be a bad movie even when you are looking for something positive to say about it to redress the balance.

Some of the standouts which are sort of okay are the comedies. For a horror pack, "Tomb of Terrors" has an abundance of comedies with no less than 14 actual comedies and several more which qualify unintentionally. The best of these is "So Mort It Be" (2004) although "Reanimator Academy" (2002) also tickled me. I'm not a big fan of comedy except for "Laurel and Hardy" anyway since I have no sense of humour.

There are also a lot of "crime" movies in the pack which don't contain any horror whatsoever. The ratio isn't as bad as Mill Creek's "250 Horror Movies" pack which has less than 100 horror movies in it once you ignore all the sci-fi, sword and sandals, and ancient serial plays, but it's still annoying even for the original $5. Now that "Tomb of Terrors" costs over $30 in some places, it's really not worth the money if you are a horror fan.

Out of the "real" horror movies, the best ones (in order) are "Siege of Evil" (2005), "Soul of the Demon" (1991), "The Traveler" (2005), and "Inexchange" (2003). The final one barely qualifies, but it's quite a struggle to find any that do.

For those with slightly less discernment and a lot of patience, "Abberdine County Conjuror" (2005), "Massacre" (2002), "Strange Things Happen at Sundown" (2003), "The Vulture's Eye" (2004), and even "Gorno" (2003) aren't entirely awful for no-budget nasties, but they're still pretty bad.

There's no innovation or originality in this pack so "indie horror" fanatics can suck those stupid claims right up. Most of these movies borrow the formulas from more famous movies and then completely wreck everything by not having the talent to do anything with them. Homages and blatant rip-offs abound.

Some to just skip straight over are "Flesh Eating Ghouls from Outer Space" (2004), "Kill Them and Eat Them" (2004), "The Lunar Pack" (2004), "Nightmare Museum" (2006), and "The Woodland Haunting 2" (2005) unless you really like infantile YouTube videos.

As for the rest of the titles, it's all down to how many "pretty" girls you want to fast forward to see. In some cases, checking out the insides of other people's houses which are on show is even more fun than looking for "girl next door" types. Bear in mind that sub-porn movie acting and very softcore porn scenes abound depending on what you allow yourself to be sucked into.

I don't recommend "Tomb of Terrors" unless you can get it for the bargain price that I did. Even then, I still don't really recommend it.

My new 200 movie challenge!

Okay, so I couldn't leave Blogger alone for even a day. I've set up a new blog where I will be reviewing the absolute worst of the bargain DVD multipacks:

The Pit of the Pendulum

I think you can guess from the name of my new blog which multipacks I'm going to be watching for the next 5 months, but here they are:

As far as I know, nobody has ever been silly enough to have watched all these movies in their entirety and blogged about them. I can't imagine why.

Watch my descent into madness or my brain turn into mush as I boldly go where no-one with any taste or discernment has gone before!

Drive-in Cult Classics 32 Movie Collection

I know how you all like a bargain. I also know how some of you live vicariously through my trips to the pawn shops and other retail establishments as I go in search of cheap horror DVDs. This time, I went to Target to see what I could find.

Although the selection at Target was considerably better than the 20 or so titles in the horror section of Best Buy (which actually has a few good $4.99 deals at the moment), the only thing I left with was the "Drive-in Cult Classics" collection which is currently on sale at $9.99. Very appropriate since, according to Google, June 6th is the 79th anniversary of the first drive-in movie theatre.

Isn't the artwork lovely? Well, no, but I suppose it'll do.

I'd thought about getting this pack a few times before, but this time, I had $3.80 back from my recycled cans (yes, all Monster energy drinks) which sweetened the deal even more (especially as I already had a few of the films in other Mill Creek Entertainment packs).

Mill Creek have been releasing these mostly "Crown International" movies since they took over BCI's catalogue. There are quite a few more sets which again repeat some titles and/or add a few more. Whether you buy them depends on what you are looking for specifically or if you just like collecting Mill Creek packs (as I do). On my travels, I've seen "After Dark Thrillers", "Dangerous Babes", "Gorehouse Greats", "Cult Terror Cinema", "Girls, Guns and G-strings", and "Savage Cinema", but it's very likely that there are others.

Here is a scan of the back of the "Drive-in Cult Classics" pack (albeit with some of the titles incorrectly labelled) so you can see what it looks like. I know it's not that exciting. The DVDs inside do not contain the movies in the same alphabetical order which is a little bit annoying. I probably don't need to mention that they aren't the greatest transfers either, but I will since these are probably the only transfers of these films available anyway.

Since that second scan is hard to read, here are the now corrected titles (again in alphabetical order). The horror movies are highlighted in bold.

The Babysitter Best Friends Blood Lust Blood Mania Blue Money Carnival of Crime Cindy and Donna Click: The Calendar Girl Killer The Creeping Terror The Devil's Hand Double Exposure The Hearse Hot Target Land of the Minotaur Lurkers The Madmen of Mandoras

Malibu Beach Malibu High Night Club Pick Up The Pink Angels The Pom Pom Girls Separate Ways Single Room Furnished The Sister-in-Law The Stepmother The Teacher Terrified They Saved Hitler's Brain Trip with the Teacher Van Nuys Blvd. Weekend with the Babysitter

I don't really know if any of these movies were ever shown in a drive-in cinema, and I'm pretty sure that most of them aren't actually "cult classics", but the collection had to be called something. It's better than "The Bumper Pack of Crappy Movies Which You've Never Heard of Before".

Of course, only a small percentage of these movies are horror, but since only 5 of them were in the "Gorehouse Greats Collection" (Blood Mania, The Devil's Hand,The Madmen of Mandoras, Terrified, Trip with the Teacher), I thought it was still a very good deal. I haven't had time to watch any of them yet, but I'm sure I will when I've run out of modern movies later in the year.

I don't have cable TV or Netflix anymore, I don't leave the house unless I really have to, and obviously, I get bored a lot. That's my excuse for buying these Mill Creek Entertainment packs of terrible movies, and I'm sticking to it. I also like the cover-art, such as it is.

It appears that you can also buy these "Drive-in Cult Classics" in other smaller packs for exactly the same price if you are careful. Some of them are from Mill Creek Entertainment and some are by BCI with exactly the same artwork just to confuse you.

Just don't buy the BCI issued "Volume 4" as it has nothing worthwhile on it, it's out of print, and greedy sellers are now asking ridiculously high prices for it.

Mill Creek's Chilling 20 Movie Pack

I bought this 4 disc DVD set from Big Lots for $6 last year and have finally started reviewing the films on it over at "The Mill Creek Horror Watcher". I have to say that it is my favourite out of all the Mill Creek Entertainment multi-movie packs so far.

The movies themselves vary in transfer quality but they are all watchable especially on a laptop or portable DVD player. I've tried them on my big TV with an upconverting DVD player and, although the flaws are more evident, there's nothing too distracting.

I have the older version of this pack with Vincent Price's face on the front (above left) rather than the lovely new artwork that Mill Creek have replaced it with. The 4 DVDs (containing 5 films on each) come in a very well made black plastic DVD case rather than cardboard sleeves and each DVD has matching artwork on it rather than being blank looking flippers. There is also a previous incarnation of this set (above right) with 6 DVDs in it containing 20 movies too.

Something I found interesting was that the picture of the skeleton touching Carol Ohmart's shoulder from "The House on Haunted Hill" is the background on all the DVD menus. They must have been created to match the older packaging.

I'm sure you'll agree that the artwork on the new version is much more contemporary. All three packs still contain exactly the same movies though.

The only thing that would have improved this collection for me would have been if a couple of the more science-fiction titles had been replaced with "Carnival of Souls" and "Nosferatu". Even "Horror Express" would have fitted better into the "Chilling" category.

For $6 (or even cheaper used from Amazon), I can wholeheartedly recommend this movie pack to everyone no matter how old or young you may be or what your tastes in horror are. There's something here for everyone and some definite classics which you just have to have in your collection.


Chilling 20 Movie Pack

Astral Factor, The
Attack of the Monsters (NOT HORROR)
Blood Tide
Cosmos: War of the Planets (NOT HORROR)
Creature from the Haunted Sea (NOT HORROR)
Dementia 13
Galaxy Invader, The (NOT HORROR)
Gamera the Invincible (NOT HORROR)
House on Haunted Hill, The
Laser Mission (NOT HORROR)
Last Man on Earth, The
Little Shop of Horrors, The
Maniac
Moon of the Wolf
Night of the Living Dead
Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, The (NOT HORROR)
Snowbeast
Terror, The
They Came From Beyond Space (NOT HORROR)
Tormented

"This collection of thrillers features such Hollywood legends as Vincent Price, Jack Nicholson, David Janssen and James Earl Jones. Terrors from above and below, creatures real and imagined and beings from beyond space and time are presented to you in this 20 Movie Pack."

New Horror Movie Packs from Mill Creek Entertainment

I was just looking on the Mill Creek Entertainment website to see if there were any of their horror movie packs which I've missed and it seems they have three new ones!

Blood Bath - 12 Movie Collection
Angst
Brush With Death, A
Chambermaid, The
Death on Demand
Demonic
Hallowed
Harvest of Fear
Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine, The
Red Riding Hood (2003)
Shadows of Death
Twisted Sisters, The
Uninvited

Bloodsuckers - 12 Movie Collection
Blood Bound
Blood Sucking Babes from Burbank
Hollywood Vampyr
Immortal
Lifeblood
Mrs. Amworth
Night
Shower of Blood
Strange Things Happen At Sundown
This Darkness
Vampire Hunter
Vampire's Tale, A

Pure Terror 50 Movie Pack
Amazing Transparent Man, The
Anatomy of a Psycho
Blood Sabbath
Bloody Pit of Horror
Crucible of Horror
Curse of Bigfoot
Death in the Shadows
Death Warmed Up
Devil's Nightmare, The
Devil's Possessed
Doctor Jekyll and the Werewolf
Don't Answer the Phone!
Double Exposure
Dungeon of Harrow, The
Eerie Midnight Horror Show, The
Embalmer, The
Evil Brain from Outer Space
Fangs of the Living Dead
Frankenstein 80
Grave of the Vampire
Green Eyes
Guru, the Mad Monk
Hands of Steel
Horror Rises from the Tomb
House by the Cemetery, The
House That Screamed, The
It Happened at Nightmare Inn
Keep My Grave Open
Manos: The Hands of Fate
Manster, The
Monstroid
Mutant
My Mom's a Werewolf
Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, The
Night Fright
Night of Bloody Horror
Night of the Blood Beast
Oval Portrait, The
Point of Terror
Sadist, The
Satan''s Slave
Scared to Death
Tell-Tale Heart, The
Terror Creatures from the Grave
Terror in the Jungle
They Saved Hitler's Brain
Thirsty Dead, The
Undertaker and His Pals, The
Vampire's Night Orgy
Werewolf of Washington, The

They even have a couple of double feature BluRays called "Total Terror" although you can get those titles in the "Blood Bath" collection anyway. Tom Savini stars in one of them ("Demonic").

Total Terror Vol. 1
Demonic
Uninvited

Total Terror Vol. 2
Brush With Death, A
Harvest of Fear

Apart from the movies in the "Bloodsuckers" pack and a couple in the "Pure Evil" collection, I don't think I've seen or even heard of any of them before. I'm loving the new artwork on the Mill Creek packs though.