(P.S. Happy Halloween)
We begin our tale of terror two years back, in the appropriately numbered 13th year of our new millennium. Scream Factory, the horror-themed division of the home video publisher Shout Factory, had just released a high-quality compilation of six worthy films from the ouvre of the esteemed actor Vincent Price, the "master of horror." Miss Scarlett, just beginning to dip her toes into the world of classic (and non-gory!) horror films, takes note but does not spend the $50-odd price ticket for entry. Presumably because she was spending it on other things that have been lost to the dim and dreary mists of time.
Every so often, she glances at the Amazon wishlist where it sits, consigned to wait like a locked box full of secrets and curses stuffed into a haunted attic. Until one day, two months ago, when she happened to glance at her wishlist again...
TO SEE IT REMOVED FROM STOCK.
With her heart pounding in her throat, her fingers leap across the keyboard, shaking with fear. What could have happened? She wonders, with baited breath and wide eyes. It's only been out for two years, what could have happened? And when she navigates to Scream Factory's website, there--there she sees it, written in bold font, the chilling truth revealed to all--
OUT OF PRINT.
NOOOOOOO, she wails, the echoes bouncing around within the confines of her tormented skull (because she is at work, and it is very unprofessional to scream at one's desk for no apparent reason), NO THIS CANNOT BE! It was so young, so new and fresh! I should have had more time before the print run sold out! How could it have lapsed before its time?
And scrolling down the page, fingers trembling upon her mouse, she reads what she dreaded the most, the unspoken fear lingering in the back of her mind:
"We unexpectedly lost the rights to sell these films as a collection."
The ending to this story is a bittersweet one. I scoured my usual haunts to desperately find a copy that didn't have its price jacked up to the skies. (I found out that it had actually gone OOP almost a week and a half before, and since I didn't have Scream/Shout Factory "liked" on Facebook, has completely missed both the notification and the chance to purchase a copy at less than MSRP.) I first ordered from Best Buy, who then canceled my order two hours later from "lack of stock." I then frantically checked Amazon again, to luck out during a very incredibly brief window of offering it at the $79.95 MSRP as a "temporarily out of stock, but we will get more copies in a week or two, so you can reserve a copy." Amazon.ca offered the same deal, so I placed an order for both...I did get a copy from Amazon, and am waiting to see what the deal is with Amazon.ca, since I haven't heard anything back. So I finally have a copy, but at far more than the $50-something cost that Amazon had been offering when it was in stock. Above, you can see the damnable box in all its shrink-wrapped glory. I particularly like the portrait cover art, as it feels straight out of an art gallery in one of the dilapidated mansions you'd find in these films.
The collection features six classic horror films: The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Haunted Palace, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and The Witchfinder General. The first four are (sometimes loose) adaptations of works by Edgar Allen Poe, directed by Roger Corman, the "King of the B-Movie," Corman directed a whopping total of eight Poe-adapted films, all starring Price; some of the rest are available in the second collection (which I do not own yet). I must say that I would have liked a collection of all of Corman's Poe films in one set, but we can't be having everything, I suppose. The set is packed with special features, which I'll go over in more detail later.
Inside the case is a thin paper booklet (as seen on the right) together with the BD case itself. Note how the ghostly ladies flanking VP are now skeletal and decayed. Very Disney's Haunted Mansion-esque. I like. Great design, overall.
Two of the discs have two movies each on them, while the last two discs have one movie each. I'm not sure why they were split up this way, but I'm guessing that the sheer amount of bonus features for Witchfinder General meant that there wasn't enough space on the disc for another movie. Just a guess.
The booklet itself is mainly comprised of an essay about Price and his work, which is interesting and everything, but not something I'd read multiple times. I'd prefer to read a biography of Price as opposed to a brief essay. The booklet is only about 20 pages long, and this essay only takes up a few pages, so it isn't a huge deal.
But the last few pages are packed with tons of scans of movie posters and promotional photos. They look fabulous, and I'd love to have some of them as high-resolution scans to print out as posters.
The back of the booklet has credits, special thanks, etc. Nothing of any particular note.
Now, onto the content itself!
All of the movies--except for Dr Phibes--feature an introduction and conclusion video from Price himself. It seems that back in the early 1980s, a PBS station in Iowa, of all places, aired a special weekly Vincent Price movie program, and managed to get the maestro himself to host the series. I enjoyed hearing about some of the backstory behind the creation of the films, plus his own tidbits about his experiences and roles. He particularly relished playing Roderick Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher, and eagerly described how he chose to portray and visualize the character. The major downside to these wonderful featurettes is their abysmal quality; it looks they were copied straight from a VHS tape (they probably were, given the circumstances, and most likely came from a moldy VHS tape sitting in that PBS station's archives), in all its blurry, fuzzy glory. It probably wasn't possible to fiddle with the video quality, in my best guess. What is very odd is that the movies are listed out of chronological order on the back of the box; if you want to watch these with the Price introductions, start with "House of Usher."
The video quality of the movies is wonderful, though. The colors are rich and vivid, more so than one would think given the dark, Gothic content of the movies. Nothing is washed out, and the blacks of shadows and night skies are deep, inky, and mysterious. There are one or two moments in "House of Usher" and "Pendulum" where there seems to be some issue with the camera focusing, but that could be a problem inherent with the original film and not the transfer to Blu-ray. Audio is crystal-clear, no problems.
And boy, are there special features galore here! Besides the Price featurettes mentioned above, there is at least one audio commentary for each movie (The Haunted Palace has one by film historian Tom Weaver, who did commentaries for the Universal Monsters Blu-ray; I highly recommend listening to him, fascinating man), along with theatrical trailers and promotional pictures. There are interviews with Price, with Corman, and even one with Price's daughter Victoria. "Witchfinder," in particular, has two interviews, a commentary, tons of trailers, featurette, and the introduction by Price. It is pretty much everything you could ever want, feature-wise; especially for me, since I love commentaries!
I'm not doing a "Miss Scarlett suggests" for this review because I'm aware of how contentious this could be. These six films are easily available for purchase separately on Amazon; there are several movie box sets and double-feature DVDs to be had for cheap. So if you are simply concerned about price and availability and don't mind the lack of bonus features and lower visual quality, that is an option available to you. If BD quality and special features are a must, you could track down a copy of this release (copies seem to fluctuate in price on eBay and the Amazon Marketplace, but seem to average about $150), or consider importing one of Arrow Film's BD releases of these films from Amazon.uk. The only caveat to the latter is that you will need a region-free BD player, as the UK utilizes a different region lock on their BDs; and you might end up spending the same amount as you would buying a single copy of the release here. Truly ghoulish, indeed.
From what I have been able to glean from their social media posts, Shout Factory cannot sell the films together as a collection, there is a possibility that the films could be sold separately. Of course, they have stated that there are "no plans at this time" to do so. They still have the rights to sell the second box set as a collection, and there is no danger "anytime soon" of losing the rights to do so. There will be a third box set this spring of some other Vincent Price films, though.
This next bit is my own opinion, but I think that if enough interest is presented to them for getting single releases for the movies in the first collection, they would likely pursue them. Their website, social media sites, and pretty much every website that allowed for chatter about the release are full of angry and unhappy VP fans. It would make sense to me if they began to offer the films in single releases, but only time will tell.
And I'll leave you here, all you ghoulies and goblins. Happy Halloween, and happy haunting, from the Hobby Haven!
