Dr Blood's August Pawn Shop Adventure

As I'm still struggling to get through a Spanish sci-fi movie which I started watching three days ago, let me tell you about my latest "Big Day Out" from Saturday instead.

I can't remember the last time I wrote one of these posts because I've been buying considerably less DVDs than ever before. I'm not rich enough to hit the big name stores for new releases, and I've got a little bit bored with seeing the same stock in the pawn shops, but owing to a very tiny windfall of Amazon affiliate money, I went to the largest swap shop in town for a snuffle round their "5 for $10" DVD section.

Here's what I got:

Yes, I now have the boxed (or slipcased) "2 Disc Deluxe Edition" of "Constantine" in perfect condition with the comicbook inside. I love this movie and already have the standard "rental" edition, but I'm going to keep both because I'm greedy like that.

I'm still missing "The Final Chapter" of the "Saw" franchise (aka "Saw 3D") because of a recently banned Listian who didn't send me my win (plus I had to go through the PayPal dispute process to get the shipping fees back), but now I have "Saw VI". Despite the Blockbuster stickers, the disc itself is perfect, so I doubt that anybody hired it before they sold it. I'll replace the case eventually because those stickers are a bitch to get off, and there's always a chunk out of the bottom corner of Blockbuster rental cases where some kind of security tag thing was supposed to go.

Moving on from horror, I grabbed the "Kill Bill" double-feature simply because it was there. Even though I moan about Tarantino a lot, I've got nearly all of his movies. I think I'm only missing that hotel one with Tim Roth in it and "Reservoir Dogs". I could have bought the latter when I got this, but it wasn't in very good condition.

The "Lethal Weapon" 4 pack has been tormenting me for years because I only like the first two movies and have them on VHS anyway. For $2 though, I had to make the upgrade. I now need to get the "Beverly Hills Cop" triple pack too.

Finally, although this was the first DVD which I picked up, I have the TCM Archives "Laurel and Hardy Collection". Really it's just two movies and a load of special features, but the word on the street is that this pack contains the best versions available of these particular movies. It sells on Amazon for between $25 to $99, so you can imagine how chuffed I felt to get it for $2.

I finished my day of adventure off by celebrating with a Chinese chicken curry and a litre bottle of Teacher's Highland Cream Whisky. Yes, a litre bottle of one of the top 5 brands in the world. I might not be much of a boozer, but when I drink, I know what I like.

Now you know why I haven't got any further with the sci-fi movie that I mentioned at the beginning. I got so drunk on Saturday night that it took me until half-way through today to be able to process more cerebral movies again. Having the intellectual capacity of every member of the Horror Lamers clique combined for three days has not been a fun experience. Never again!

Dr Blood's Big Day Out 2013

My "Big Day Out" for this year actually took place over Friday and Saturday, but what with one thing and another, I was too exhausted to write about it until today. I walked miles with the sweat pouring off me, got almost boiled alive by the humidity, and really had enough of going through rows and rows of dusty DVDs. There comes a point when you realise that you already have far too many DVDs and it's time to stop, especially when the pawn shops now have less horror DVDs than you do at home.

As you know, I used to love going round the pawn shops to see what I could find and usually tried to hit them whenever I had an abundance of "internet money" (from Amazon affiliate sales or whatever). Basically, it was like getting free DVDs so that I could do more blogging.

For those of you seeking online entertainment through my rants, you already know that I hate most of the DVDs I get. Somebody else hated them enough to flip them in the first place too. Unfortunately, with affiliate sales and blog traffic at an all time low right across the board, I haven't had one of these "Pawn Shop Adventures" for quite some time. I'm far from rich (at the moment) so most of my money goes on necessities such as Monster energy drinks, Funyuns, and cat food. Admittedly, I probably need to do something about my Monster addiction, but it stops my migraines. It's also a pity that cats can't eat Funyuns. At least we can share the tins of Friskies.

Anyway, here's what I got this time:

I know, I know... I said that I wasn't going to buy more "Midnight Horror" DVDs, but at $2.50 each (as part of a 4 for $10 deal) for another 16 movies, why not?

In the first pack, I have "Night of the Living Dead" (for the 15th time!), "Keepsake", "My Sweet Killer", "Interview with a Serial Killer", "Final Remains", "Dark Woods", and "Colour from the Dark". Other than "Night of the Living Dead", I have no idea what these will be like.

In the "Hatchets & Cleavers" pack, I have "Dirt Boy", "The Ridge", "Green River", "Animal Room", "Followed Home", "Loaded", "Hollywood Scarefest", and "The Killing Mind". The fact that I can't even find some of these titles on the IMDb doesn't bode well.

I've been intrigued by the Cutting Edge Cinema/Extreme collections from R Squared Films since they came out last year, but I have a feeling that they'll just be handycam crap. I wouldn't buy the one with zombies on it anyway. In this case, I now have "Extreme Monsters" which is made up of "Closet Space", "Dreams of the Dead", "Evil Offspring", "Little Red Devil", "Spirits of the Fall", "The Whistler", "Where the Dogs Divide Her" (I like the sound of this one!), and "They Must Eat". The DVD case was damaged (the clear plastic was completely gone), but the artwork is still perfect so I'll just put everything in a new double DVD case if the movies are any good... which I doubt.

I bought another Echo Bridge Home Entertainment 8 pack just to break up the monotony of horror even though three (maybe four) of the movies may be horror in this "Action Thrillers" set. Some of these I already have or have already seen: "The Faculty" (already have with "Phantoms"), "The Hole" (already seen), "Animal Room" (is on the other 8 pack above), "The Lookout", "Living in Peril", "The Road Killers" (really good Christopher Lambert movie), "Two Hands", and "The I Inside" (which sounds familiar to me for some reason).

From the more expensive "DVD and Games Exchange Store" next door, I found the newer "Special Collector's Edition" of "Pet Sematary" because I lost my older copy anyway. I wrote about how I lost it ages ago, and I still haven't found it. They also had the older version for the same $5 price, but I chose this one. The older version has the same artwork as the VHS but doesn't have Mary Lambert's commentary on it.

And finally, last and very least, I have a new double-pack of coasters to replace the "Halloween" coaster that I had to throw away after using it to scrape dried cat shit off the floor. Call me wasteful, but that's how I roll. I get used to things being a certain way, and using Rob Zombie's "Halloween" as a coaster for my cold Monster energy drinks is just one of the things that makes me special.

I finished my adventure off with a half-day at the local "Riverfest" where I ate a burger and three "Hello Kitty" ice lollies. I know you don't care about that (nor do I really), but here's the scan of two of the "Popsicle" wrappers because I'm a hoarder and they were still in my pocket when I got home.

Now it's time to start watching all these movies.

Dr Blood's November Pawn Shop Adventure

It's been quite a long time since I last went to the pawn shop. Actually, according to my blog, it was September 22nd, and I had trouble finding any horror movies to spend my money on.

I think people just aren't buying as many horror DVDs as before despite Wal-mart's Hallowe'en endcaps or Dollar General's fine selection of Echo Bridge multipacks. Most of the bargain titles are a load of crap, and Wal-mart's $5 bin is always so overloaded that it's irritating to rummage through without grabbing a shopping cart to heave all the westerns and lame teenage comedies into. Contrary to what some sites would have you believe, Blu-ray has made absolutely no difference to DVD sales. I've asked the managers of various stores and it seems that people aren't buying much on the HD format either.

I blame Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, and YouTube. There probably won't be any DVDs produced in a few years' time due to all this streaming. I'm not sure how I feel about that. As much as I like having a physical copy of my movies, if I wasn't blogging about them then I highly doubt that I'd ever rewatch 99% of them again.

Anyway, before I end up writing an article about how collecting movies is dying out or start ranting about how my favourite pawn shops aren't even carrying VHS anymore, I'll tell you about my latest purchases.

The first DVD I picked out was "Dark Ride" from the original 2006 Afterdark Horrorfest. For some reason, this was the only one which I didn't watch when it came out so I have no idea if it's any good or not. It still had its cardboard slipcase with a Wal-mart sticker on it (impossible to remove without wrecking it) and the insert which lists all the other Afterdark Horrorfest movies.

Sometimes, in moments of madness, I want to collect all the Afterdark Horrorfest DVDs even though I know that they range from mediocre to appalling. I wouldn't have any problem there as they keep on turning up in the pawn shops, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I still have a couple on the Afterdark Horrorfest III 8 pack which I haven't managed to get through, and I gave up on the final Horrorfest after "Lake Mungo". Life is too short for bad movies.

My second purchase was "The Faculty" and "Phantoms" double feature which I've picked up and put back again several times before. I've already seen both films, but I only like "Phantoms". "The Faculty" is just too much of "trendy teen horror" for my taste.

"Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" is a replacement for my VHS copy which I enjoyed watching again fairly recently. I could have got this as a double feature DVD with "Halloween 5" for $2 more, but I hate the latter too much to even buy it for completeness.

Finally, to complete the "4 for $10" deal, I got a still sealed copy of "Se7en" (or "Seven" if you don't like the stupid way the IMDb lists it). I can barely remember a thing about it apart from the torture scenes having most of their punches pulled for the R-rating so I'm hardly in any hurry to watch it again. I just thought that I'd better have it because it was there.

In other news, the 7/11 which replaced my local Wilson Farms has won me over with its selection of fine dining. I was quite depressed when Wilson Farms was replaced because it meant my source of "2 for $3" pizza slices had come to an end. Fortunately, the 7/11 is now doing $1 pizza slices (which are admittedly a little bit smaller so I have to get three of them each time) so I have nothing to moan about now. Their hot taco things which look like a crunchy hotdog have also become a nice treat. I've yet to buy one of their "cheeseburger rollerbites" because I ate far too many of those when I was selling them in my restaurant five years ago. Maybe I'll get one later today.

As you can see by the new daily tabs on the menu at the top of this blog, things are going to change on here next week with more articles themed to each day rather than individual movie reviews. I'm still going to be reviewing but in a slightly different way. With only 80 movies left in "The Vault" to rewatch and write about, I'd end up with a dead blog (and bored out of my mind) in a couple of months so, hopefully, I can resuscitate things even though everyone is burnt out after Hallowe'en.

How do you feel about the horror genre right now? Is it completely dead? Are you buying as many DVDs as you used to? Are you bored with mediocre movies? Is horror blogging as dead as a dodo now too? Let me know in the comments section below.

Dr Blood's End of September Outing

Contrary to what a Kentucky-based, former horror podcast which hardly anyone ever listens to anymore might like you to believe, I'm one Englishman who doesn't live in a dark basement surrounded by horror movies. Occasionally, I even leave my bright three-bedroomed house to work and buy things rather than ponce off my parents or welfare like they do.

If you don't know what any of the above refers to, never mind. I only know what was said through hearsay too. I have no time for the two talentless "Laurel and Hardy" wannabes who thought they'd be the new voice of horror way back in 2007 (although they always add a least one extra year onto the time they've been around), but, having failed miserably, now just take jealous potshots at other horror fans who they don't really know to claw back some credibility as "shock jocks" or something.

Did any of what they said bother me? No. "Dr Blood's Video Vault" has been around over a decade longer than they have and will continue to be long after they have disappeared back under the rock which they were stupid enough to crawl out from. They did give me something amusing to start this post off with though.

Anyway, yesterday, I had another long overdue "Big Day Out". I'm sure my last one wasn't when I went to the County Fair over a month ago, but it certainly felt like it was. The seasons have changed, there's new stuff in the stores, and there were even a few things to buy at my local pawn shop.

Finally, "The New Daughter" and "Orphan" turned up! I'd already hired them from Netflix and reviewed them favourably so I just had to have them. I'd never even seen "The New Daughter" for sale anywhere before but had picked up (and put back) "Orphan" several times in Target. At $2.50 each for immaculate DVDs (apart from slight security tape damage to the "Orphan" artwork), this was a done deal.

Then to complete the "4 for $10" ritual, I saw that "Van Helsing" and "Whiteout" were still on the bottom shelf so I grabbed those too. I know they weren't exactly brilliant movies, but I'm going through a phase of Kate Beckinsale idolatry right now which, hopefully, these will dissuade me from.

That wasn't all there was to my "September Outing" either. Once I discovered that I had more money in the bank account than I realised, I was off to "Dollar Tree" to check out all the Hallowe'en decorations and buy some of the foods I like which even dogs can barely stomach. I love their McRib clones!

I didn't buy any of the neat Hallowe'en stuff since every day is Hallowe'en for me anyway, but I did get three books which I had no idea about. I'm not much of a reader, but I'll give them a go eventually. I've looked them up now and I know I'll be disappointed, but for $3, it doesn't matter.

Here's a kind of collage of most of the things I bought from Dollar Tree:

I also bought more chocolate and a pound cake, but I'm sure none of that interests you.

I've bought enough snacks, drinks and sandwiches to least me for a little while now so my next "Big Day Out" will undoubtedly be just before Hallowe'en when my Aldi's $1.99 pizza supply runs out.

Now it's back to the dark room that I allegedly sit in all day being very English and watching 3D movies. That's much better than wasting a fortune on non-celebrity autographs at horror conventions or trying (and failing) to sell poorly-designed t-shirts and lame movie commentaries to some braindead podcast followers, right guys?

Pawn shop pickups from the Fairground

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may already know that I was forced, kicking and screaming, into going to the local County Fair last week. Honestly, for me to be away from a computer for more than a couple of hours fills me with such horror that, if it hadn't been for the promise of gyros (doner kebabs), I probably wouldn't have gone at all.

I have no interest in looking at cows, rabbits, or chicken in cages, and the rusty bolts on the rides have always put me off getting on one. I've seen "Final Destination 3" (it wasn't good) and "Rollercoaster" so I have no intention of getting my head squished like a watermelon when one of the cars jumps its tracks.

As I wandered around looking for apparently non-existent gyros, I happened across two pawn shop sellers who had set themselves up in tents to unload some of their stock. I didn't ever find gyros (I ended up with an overpriced $4 burger), so I decided to buy some $2 DVDs instead.

The first DVD I just had to have was "Pitch Black" (2000). I remember this as being very good indeed although I haven't rewatched it yet. Vin Diesel could do no wrong back then, and, of course, Claudia Black from "Farscape" was my main reason for buying it. I vaguely remember liking Radha Mitchell once too, but I'm not sure why.

I kept seeing the fullscreen edition of "Pitch Black" every time I went to my local pawn shop, but I was holding out for this widescreen "Unrated Director's Cut". I have absolutely no interest in the other Riddick Chronicles though since I'm not into childish cartoons or video games.

I bought "Frailty" (2001) just because it was there. I remember how a lot of horror fans seemed to go crazy and overrate it even though it isn't really a horror movie at all. I thought I'd give it another watch to see if was any better than the below average score which I gave it when it came out. I'm still not sure if I ever really liked Bill Paxton as an actor apart from his role in "Near Dark" (1987), but I'll find out.

As for "The Last House on the Left" (2009), it wasn't a bad remake plus, because we've already established in my previous post that I'm becoming some kind of pervert, I wanted to look at Sara Paxton again. Isn't it weird that these last two films had Paxtons in them?

So that was what I did last weekend. I have no idea why I didn't actually post this last week apart from the heat really getting to me and feeling pretty miserable all the time.

Sometimes the internet is just too full of too many other distractions as well so, occasionally, I neglect my blogging in favour of more interesting online activities. I'll tell you about those another time, but I have now discovered the 60 year old American version of me. Yes, I've been listening to a lot of his podcasts and I agree almost 100% with the things he said in his recent Saturday show.

There's a high probability that I will also make another "Bloody Podcast" later since I've been challenged to do something on the [REC] trilogy. I still haven't watched the third one so that's what I intend to do today.

Dr Blood's Big Day Out

The hot weather came back with a vengeance yesterday. I think it was over 95 degrees again and the forecast says that there is another week of this awfulness to come. It's pretty much killing me, destroying my concentration, and, most importantly, it's really disrupting my blogging.

Instead of going down to the basement, sitting in a corner and crying (which is what I felt like doing), I went out for an adventure. As you know, I don't like to leave the house or the cats on Saturdays (or most other days of the week for that matter) except to go to the pawn shop so you can guess where I went.

Yes, I went to the pawn shop again... but also to a few other places as well.

Finally! "Jennifer's Body" turned up! I'd been refusing to buy this from Wal-mart since it came out because the price never dropped below $10 for it. This movie is three years old so it should have been in the $5 bin ages ago. Now I have it and for only $2.50 too.

"The Midnight Horror Collection - Vol. 2" from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment was definitely in the Wal-mart $5 bin but I could never find it. I only collect the ones labelled "Midnight Horror" and not the "Masters of Terror" multi-packs.

Nearly all of the "Masters of Terror" collections are culled from the bigger 4, 5, 6 (and 11) movie Miramax franchise multi-packs but repackaged with a lot of crap from the earlier "4 Horror Films" collector's sets. The "Midnight Horror" multi-packs also contain a few titles from those earlier packs (especially volumes 4 to 6 which repackage all of them) but, since I never bought the final "4 Horror Films" collector's set, this had nothing on it which I've ever seen before. The titles are "Haunted From Within", "Doll Graveyard", "Watch Me", "The Fear Chamber", "Deadfall Trail", "Zombie Dearest", "Demonic Toys 2", and "Evil Bong 2: King Bong". I won't be buying the third volume because it double-dips 5 movies from the first two volumes and only adds three more really crappy ones.

I wish I had a better excuse for buying "Memoirs of a Geisha" other than it's probably the kind of thing which my mum would have watched if she hadn't died of cancer nine years ago. She used to watch all the period romances and she would have really liked this one. She worked in a Japanese hotel until four months before the end and she loved it there for some bizarre reason.

Apart from eating a lot of sushi, I'm not a big Japanophile. I do like all the Japanese people who I've met in real life and, yesterday, I went to a new Japanese restaurant to try it out so that's another reason why I bought "Memoirs of a Geisha".

Just to complete the "4 for $10" deal, I grabbed this "Pulp Fiction" Collector's Edition. It's a 2 disc set in that strange hybrid packaging of plastic and cardboard which things like the Universal Legacy Collection, "Unbreakable", and "Unforgiven" came out in. I think I may have a few more movies which were released like this but I don't remember which ones right now. I've already seen this movie dozens of times but my cats haven't.

That wasn't the end of my day. I also went to Target, looked through the DVDs, and bought absolutely nothing there. There wasn't anything new, no bargains apart from "Orphan" for $5, and I still didn't get that new Melissa George film since it turned out not to be horror after all.

I then went to Wilson Farms and bought two large tubs of Neopolitan ice cream since they had a "buy one get one free" deal going on. I didn't have to have Neopolitan but that's the only Perry's one I like even though the strawberry part has little bits of strawberry in it. I can't stand ice cream with bits in it.

So, that was my big day out. The heat and humidity was so oppressive that, when I came home, I was exhausted and had to go to bed early with the ceiling fan on full blast. If I hadn't woke up with toothache, I'd still be there completely oblivious to this Hellish weather. Sleeping is the only escape I have from this nightmare.

My last pawn shop adventure?

I'm getting a bit bored with going to the pawn shops. It's probably because I go to the same one every week only to find that there's hardly anything new.

All the big boys are going to FYE now but that's miles away from me and they have such a bizarre pricing system there that I have no idea if I'm getting a bargain or being ripped-off half the time. For instance, I could buy "Teeth" there for $2.99 brand new from their bargain bin (which I still might) or I could buy it used for $5.99. How does that work exactly?

Another oddity about FYE's pricing system is how single movie DVDs can cost more than the multi-packs which include the same movie plus three more. An example of this, which I saw earlier in the week, was "Bride of Chucky" for $12.99 while right next to it was the four Chucky sequels pack (which doesn't have the original "Child's Play" in it for some bizarre reason) for $9.99. Don't they have someone to go through their stock who would think, "Hold on, this isn't going to sell when customers can get more movies for less money"? I would even pay $2.99 for each of the Chucky sequels individually just to avoid the first two crappy ones, but $12.99? No.

Anyway, since I like to pay even less than that usually, here are my latest and probably my last "4 for $10" finds.

I'd been leaving "Frozen" (2010) in the pawn shop for some poor soul who hasn't seen it to get a nice bargain for $2.50, but it had been there for 4 months with no takers so I got it myself. It's not really horror but it was very nicely done, at least technically. Even though the story was a bit far fetched and made me want to slap some sense into the characters, it's definitely Adam Green's best work as a director so far.

Also, as much as I moan about the hipstery faux-grindhouse movies of Tarantino and Rodriguez, getting the two-disc special edition of "Planet Terror" (2007) at a bargain price was worth it. I'm not going to say that I'll never buy the other one, "Death Proof", but I really didn't like it as much. If it does show up then I'll get it for completeness (although I can definitely live without it).

I now have my own copy of "P2" (2007). I'd been meaning to get this for the last five years but just didn't see it anywhere after I rented it from Netflix. I'd still say that it isn't really horror so much as a thriller, but I liked it.

Finally, and this really might be the last DVD I ever buy from my local pawn shop, "Theatre of Blood" (1973) completed my four. This particular DVD had been on the bottom shelf of that pawn shop for the last four years since I'd been going there. It was still shrink-wrapped (albeit torn and now removed entirely by me). If I hadn't seen the film on one of the satellite channels just before moving to America, I might have bought it sooner. It has taken me that long to be in the mood to watch it again, basically because I'm getting older and a bit nostalgic. I don't think it's a particularly rare DVD (apart from on eBay where there are some stupid prices being asked for it), and, obviously, the title is spelled incorrectly (unlike the $39.99 version!), but it'll do for a Sunday afternoon later in the year when I'm really bored or snowed-in.

So, that's it. My horror DVD shelves are now full of nearly everything I like and I will probably be switching my allegiance to FYE for any future individual and/or more specialised purchases.

I think that, over the last four years, I've spent slightly over $1000 on used R1 horror DVDs and acquired titles which would normally have cost at least five times that amount. With every day that passes, they are all worth even less though. If I was to sell them all back to the pawn shop, I expect I'd be lucky to get even $200 for the lot and then it would be as a store credit rather than cash.

One day, I'll either have to sell them all at a yard sale or throw them away as the "disc rot" kicks in, but, for now, with at least 100 movies in my collection which I have never played, I'm just going to work through them and continue to review them on this blog.

Dr Blood's Giant Pawn Shop Adventure

Yes, it's that time of the month again! I held out against the sickness for as long as I could, but, yesterday, I just had to go back to the pawn shop in search of more horror DVDs.

As you can see, the two "Ghost House Underground" titles were still there (no big surprise) so I decided to put them out of their misery and bring them home with me. Since I'm still getting hundreds of hits every day on my Eurovision Song Contest posts, I thought it would be amusing to finally have a copy of the Lordi movie.

Once I'd found "The Devil's Curse" (or "Credo" as most Brits know it), I had to hunt for something else to complete the "4 for $10" deal but all I could come up with was a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. Who am I kidding? I love JCVD movies and I know this is one of his better ones.

But that really was it. After those DVDs, there was nothing left whatsoever in the pawn shop which I wanted. I would even go so far as to say that I would need to have a lobotomy before I'd ever buy any of the dozens of Disney movies, crappy American comedies, or anything starring puppies. To be fair, the DVD section has always been a bit of an afterthought in my local pawn shop. It's not as if they are worth as much as gold, silver or Playstation games and I know for a fact that the owner only pays 50c each for them.

So with much sadness... and then renewed joy... I went to the BIG pawn shop on the other side of town. Oh yes, an adventure!

With all their DVDs being in alphabetical order (floor to ceiling around the whole store), it was a lot easier to go through what they had. Of course, I had most of the titles already, but when I found that these DVDs were "5 for $10", as much as I wanted to stay selective, I didn't care what I grabbed.

Known as "Bay Coven" in the UK, which gives away the plot considerably (like a flaming pentagram on the artwork doesn't!), I'd been looking for this for a while. It has the actress who played Nancy Drew in it (not that I'd every admit to watching that series). I also grabbed "The Black Cat" because, well, I didn't have that either.

Things then started to get a bit silly because I bought two films which I don't like. I hate anything by David Cronenberg or Eli Roth but I missed these in the Big Lots $3 DVD madness a couple of years ago.

I've never heard of "The Dark Hours" before but the artwork looked interesting. As long as it isn't as crap as "Frailty", I will be happy. I'd seen "Alice Creed" on Netflix and since this was originally a $17.95 DVD from somewhere, it was a bargain at $2.

I was very pleased to find "Good Neighbours" even though it's spelled wrong. It's a Canadian movie so it should be o-u-r-s not o-r-s just as I would spell it. I've seen it already, but you know my thing about cats. "Laid to Rest" was a replacement for my other copy which freezes at the end.

And then I saw them! Yes, THEM! Twilight two-disc editions!!! The "originally $24.99 from Best Buy" editions! I had to have them. You can't even call yourself a real horror fan if you don't have these in your collection.

But wait, there's more! "Eclipse", oh yes! For $2, of course I don't care that it's a "Single Disc Edition". "Blood and Chocolate", well, that's just "Twilight" before "Twilight" existed or something. I don't care what you think, I like these films.

Finally, even though they are only $2.99 anyway in Kmart, I didn't have these Echo Bridge packs but I do now! "Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned" is the movie where Zoe Hunter shows her boobies (unlike in "Witchcraft 13") and "Curtains" in the other set isn't a bad film even though it's dated.

I looked for more horror DVDs but most of the weirdly titles ones with lurid covers were single disc editions of public domain movies. There were also a lot of handycam "no budget and no entertainment value" movies which can rot in their cases for all I care.

After two hours, and not very much money spent at all, I got some pretty nice bargains. I doubt that you are jealous. I know my taste probably isn't the same as yours. I'd like to think it is but, unfortunately, the reality is far different.

There were definitely a lot of movies there which some of you would have wet yourselves over but I couldn't care less about. I saw a "T2" steelbook for $2 but I hate that film and find Edward Furlong's interactions with Arnold Schwarzenegger cringeworthy. There were loads of Criterions too which, again, I have no interest in nor, apparently, does the pawn shop owner.

I've noticed that both pawn shops have increased their blu-ray sections considerably, have phased out their VHS entirely, and aren't paying "top dollar" for DVDs anymore. It's a shame in some ways that DVDs seem to be almost worthless now but they are still my main source of horror pleasure and I am reaping the benefits as other people with more money than sense upgrade.

Yes, I went to the Pawn Shop again!

Don't judge me! I know I'm addicted. It's 79 degrees outside and a thunderstorm is ready to break any second so I thought I'd show you what I picked up a couple of hours ago from the pawn shop.

She may not be the greatest actress in the world but Elizabeth Hurley is uber hot. I was hot too (and sweating my ass off) when I arrived at the pawn shop especially when this was staring me in the face. I have no idea if "Method" is any good or not. I expect it's horrible but it's about a serial killing actress from what I read on the sleeve so it might be alright. Even if it turns out to be complete and utter crap, I'll still keep it for the picture.

Moving on to the real horror finds, I finally bought "The Butterfly Effect" collection. I watched the third (extremely crappy) film on that "After Dark Horrorfest III" set which I got earlier and was disappointed, but I've heard good things about the first film in the series and I don't find as much wrong with Ashton Kutcher as other people do. Alright, so he married one of my celebrity crushes but that doesn't make him a bad guy. Whether he can act or not is another matter.

The "Children of the Corn" double feature had been haunting me for some time because I used to have all the sequels on VHS. There's not much left in the horror section now so it was worth it for $1.25 per movie.

To complete the "4 for $10" deal, I became "Mr Hypocrite" and got a copy of "The Strangers". It says that it's "Unrated" so, presumably, one of the major differences will be that Liv Tyler changes her expression from constipated to almost constipated more often in this one. I saw the movie theatrically and vowed never to buy it but you should never say "never" when pawn shop bargains abound. Why did I buy it? Because it was there. Yes, I do know what I did there and it was intentional.

I went over the $10 budget this time to buy "Witchcraft 13". Years ago, I interviewed Zoe Hunter, my MySpace friend, who acted in this terrible thing. I've only ever seen the first two "Witchcraft" movies on VHS back in the early '90s so I have no idea what this will be like, but, judging from the sleeve, it's also going to be low-budget, handycam crap of the highest order.

Did I stop there? No, of course not. Once I'd broken into the second $10 batch, I also picked up a copy of "Alien" to replace the UK one which was the first DVD I ever bought (and is famous for the errors on it due to a manufacturing defect). You don't need a picture of it, it's just the same green alien pod on a black background as every other "Alien" DVD in existence.

Finally, I bought "The Gift" (which is actually going to be a gift for someone), and "The Rock". I don't just collect horror movies and Sean Connery is awesome.

Apart from dozens of copies of the "Saw" movies, there are now only two horror DVDs left in my local pawn shop, "Trackman" and "Dark Floors" from the "Ghost House Underground" collection. I've seen both and didn't really like them (or any of the "Ghost House" movies) so I won't bother going back for a little while now.

I've left horror DVDs behind many times before (including anything by Eli Roth) and nobody has bought them for months. There's a damned good reason why certain titles end up in the pawn shop in the first place. I've never had a scratched up or faulty DVD from the place but I've bought some truly terrible movies.

Have you got anything good lately? How is your own collection coming along? Is DVD collecting a harmless hobby or a sickness? Leave me your comments below.

More crappy movies from the Pawn Shop

It was raining yesterday so I was in the mood to visit my local pawn shop again. I don't know what it is about rain and my desire to buy other people's discarded crap but it just goes together in my own mind.

Anyway, here's what I bought.

Again, because they were 4 for $10, I started off with a "Blockbuster Exclusive" version of "1408". I have no idea what makes it such an exclusive and I probably wouldn't have bought it if it hadn't been cheap. I saw the spine first and didn't know that the artwork was going to be all messed up with Blockbuster logos and other nonsense until I pulled it off the shelf.

I also decided to get "The Devil's Rejects" even though it was a full screen version because it's the only copy of it that I have ever seen in the flesh. I don't really like the film all that much but I do like Sheri Moon Zombie so it was a done deal.

Next, I saw the first two "Resident Evil" movies in a double feature pack so I had to get it. I like "Resident Evil: Extinction" anyway, and, having watched the first one again, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Getting what used to be a $13 double feature for $2.50 seemed worth it.

Finally, to complete the "4", I went for "Vacancy 2". The first one was good but I have a feeling that this one won't be. I've never seen it so it was a choice between this or "Creepshow III" which I watched ages ago and didn't like apart from the bit with the blonde prostitute. I'll probably review "Vacancy 2" later this week.

Do you like the pawn shops? How about the thrift stores and yard sales? What bargains have you found recently?

My latest Pawn Shop finds

Sometimes people ask me where I get all my DVDs from. Since I'm not rich or silly enough to afford the brand, spanking new releases from FYE or Best Buy, and I'm certainly not in the loop for screeners from any decent source, I usually get DVDs from my local pawn shop. At 4 for $10, it's almost like getting them for free anyway. That's the same amount as a Monster energy drink and a big bag of gummy worms (both of which I also purchased earlier).

Anyway, as you can see from today's purchases, there isn't much left for me to buy anymore. I've already had all the really good titles so now I'm just grazing through the movies which I never intended to buy in the first place.

"The Last House on the Left" isn't the new one, it's the old version with David Hess which is more my thing anyway. I'm slightly annoyed that it came in one of those "eco friendly" cases which means that the sleeve inside is dented (just above the "H") but it's still better than paying full price for it.

I also got "The Last Exorcism" which some poor soul must have paid $14.99 for from Blockbuster at some point. I'm leaving the stickers on it so that people will think that it was me.

The trouble is that when it's a "4 for $10" deal, as opposed to $3 each, the little greedy demon inside me causes me to have to actually save that extra $2 by buying something which I didn't really want at the end. This time, once I'd reached the "3" with "The Prophecy" (5 movies on 2 DVDs set), I had to buy an "After Dark Horrorfest" piece of crap as well.

So there you have it. Another $10 sort of wasted and yet sort of not. I'll watch all these several times over to see if I can find anything good in them to write about although I've already seen them all apart from the later "Prophecy" movies.

If you have a local pawn shop (or "Swap Shop" as they tend to be called round here), I advise you to check it out regularly. Take lots of cash with you as they usually don't accept debit/credit cards and see what you can find.

A visit to the Pawn Shop

As most of you already know, I love going to my local pawn shop at least once a week in search of DVDs which I'm too lazy to go all the way up to Wal-mart for.

This time, I just had to buy these 4 packs especially as they were 4 for $10. Yes, that's 16 films for $10. For that price, who cares that the Echo Bridge ones are all crap (and so are are quite a few of the others)?

Obviously I had to get the two Universal 4 horror movie marathon packs even though I already had half the films on them individually. That's another four films I can now sell at a yard sale and save two spaces on my DVD shelves.

I bought the "Dark Comedy" pack just for "Serial Mom" and "Very Bad Things" as I have no intention of watching the others. The Echo Bridge pack was still sealed so I thought that I might as well have it for one day when I absolutely have nothing better to watch on TV or a freshly painted wall to watch dry.

For those of you wondering what I got for my birthday earlier this week, it was a bottle of Christian Brothers Honey Liqueur, a bottle of Red Cat wine, a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry, a chocolate cat, 10 cans of Monster, a box of Gyro meat, and 50 DVD+Rs for burning Linux operating systems to as and when they are released.

I also bought myself another Echo Bridge "4 Sci-Fi Films Collector's Set" ("T-Force", "Lifepod", "Star Knight", "Hidden Agenda"), "Apt Pupil", "Strange Behavior" (1981), and "Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds". I'm sure you aren't interested in any of those though or the fact that I had a chicken jalfrezi for my birthday dinner.