Bad Movie Depression

[Will]

Okay, here's the thing. I've been searching out and discovering and collecting mongrel movies since the early 90s, right? That's not even that long compared to some of you.....

So here's what kind of depresses me.
On the one hand, the last 4 years or so of prolific production of hard-to-find mongrel flicks on DVD has been great! I have located stuff I never thought I'd find....and all I have to do is type in the title on amazon.com or google and I'll find it and get it.

But therein is the source of my ambivalence. On the one hand, it's great that I can find these things, but on the other, part of the thrill for me before was seeking them out in obscure little video shops--seedy stores on the bad side of town, mom and pop shops at beaches, etc--and having exciting discoveries.....

I remember a few years ago I went to Anchorage, Alaska for work and located, after an hour of browsing, a copy of Blood Freak in a small video store. I convinced the owner to part with it and VOILA!  How exciting was that for me!

Then a few weeks ago I'm browsing Amazon and a special edition of Blood Freak is available with tons of shorts and bonus stuff. I order it, it arrives, boom.

Hmmm.....

And the same with Hawk the Slayer. I had been looking for it since I was a 13 year old D&D player and everyone told me that movie was the s**t. I find it after I graduate college and move to a tiny town in Kentucky for work. Who knew that's where it would be? And again, it comes out on DVD in a few weeks.

I don't know, I like this new availability of things, but I miss a big part of the thrill of discovery now.

[Will]

Oh, come on. I know there are some old schoolers out there who remember how hard it used to be. No stories, no yeas, no nays?  Bummer.

[J.R.]

I kind of see what you mean. I love to find old treasures in kwik-e-marts and pawn shops. But you know what? I'm really lazy. Being able to obtain good transfers of cheesy movies, in a format that will never wear out, with extra features, with a few mouse clicks and keyboard taps sure is convenient. But fond memories of nacho-stained VHS tapes and odd conversations wih shop keepers over the price of a Fred Olen Ray film will always be with me.

[Andrew]

I know what you mean, since my shelves are filled with hundreds of VHS tapes.  However, look at it this way:  at one point the tapes had just been released and were more common.  Over the years the movie becomes more difficult to find, until we arrive at a scarce film like "Blood Freak."  The cycle is pretty certain to happen all over again.

[AndyC]

I posted something similar to this a while back, commenting on how specialty cable and satellite channels seemed to be taking some of the thrill out of it. I recall being called a poseur and accused of pouting because the exclusivity had gone out of my hobby.

Actually, these new developments were making me feel foolish. I'd dig up an old VHS treasure, and tell my brother about it the next time he called, and he'd tell me it's on Space, or some channel, about every couple of months.

Having gotten a satellite dish since then, I must admit to watching those channels as much as possible. I also agree that I'd rather have DVD quality, especially when showing movies to friends.

Still, the thrill of the hunt is all but gone, and I really miss it.

[Bernie]

I understand your ambivalence.  As a collector of unreleased recordings by the likes of Dylan and the Beatles, the flood of archival material in the last 5-7 years have left me feeling a bit letdown, too.  The thrill of the chase and all that, you know....

[Dano]

Will:  nobody's really stopping you from hunting, you know.  There are folks out there who grow their own vegetables.  Sure the supermarket is way easier, has bigger carrots and broccoli than they can grow, and perhaps even cheaper... but they do it for the joy of growing and eating their own vegetables and the presence of a supermarket doesn't ruin it for them.  So don't worry about the Internet.  Hunt and be merry, right?

The real problem -- at least where I live near a major east coast city -- is that the mom&pop shops are going the way of the dodo.  Hollywood and Blockbuster have driven all but one stalwart in my area out of business.  There's the real danger to your hobby.

[Mofo Rising]

I see what you mean about the "thrill of the hunt", but I sure as hell don't miss it.

I grew up in a fairly isolated town.  There were not a lot of places to get movies, CDs, books or magazines.  There were no good mail order outlets available,  I had to stock up and get most of my stuff on my families summer vacations.

Now with the internet and eBay, you can get most of the stuff you want without much hassle.  I would have much rather had that availability when I was a kid.  Not even just movies, but books and information in general.

Of course, the hunt isn't really gone.  You just have to make what you seek more obscure.

[John]

>Of course, the hunt isn't really gone. You just have to make what you seek more
>obscure.

 Yes, like Traci Lords porno movies. There's something you can't just order over the net. You could go to another country and buy them legally, but then you have the fun of smuggling them back into this country without getting nabbed for having kiddie porn.

[Vermin Boy]

Gad, don't get me started on Blockbuster. When I was real young, there used to be an excellent mom & pop video store in my area called Empire Video-- They gave free popcorn with each rental, had a two-level castle in the children's department to play in, had little booths where you could actually sit down and watch the movies playing on a big screen TV... Then Blockbuster bought them out. All of it's gone; I can't even go in there without getting depressed.

Still, there are a surprising amount of indie rental shops still open in my area. The best one (just in the next town over) always has a few walls of old, obscure videos from the 80s for sale. If I ever miss the thrill of the hunt, I just go there and pick up 3 horror movies I've never heard of for $10.

[AndyC]

Yes, Blockbuster is really ruining things. The thing I've noticed lately is that the selection seems to be shrinking as they try to cram more stuff into the store. Now that all the new movies are coming in on VHS and DVD, they already have half the space. Add the movies for sale, snacks, merchandise, accessories and a growing section full of X-Box games, and there isn't room for bugger all. The selection is pathetic and getting worse. I think they either need bigger stores, or they need to focus a bit more. Are they a video rental store, a video retail store, an electronics store or a video game store?

As for great stores I remember, we used to have a small chain around here called Bandito Video. They had a huge store, full of every kind of movie, old, new, popular, obscure. They're long gone.

Jumbo Video, the big Canadian chain, has been trying so hard to compete with Blockbuster, they've lost anything that made them good. Around 1990, The Jumbo Video in our area had a selection similar to Bandito. They also had a horror section so big that it got it's own dimly-lit  room, decorated like a gothic castle. That all disappeared. In a couple of years, the horror section was a few shelves on the far wall. Today, Jumbo video pretty much focuses on guaranteeing the latest new realeases.

Now, I grew up in a small town just outside the city, where small, independent stores are still operating. Unfortunately, I think they're just trying to imitate the big chains. The one guy, for years, has been selling off anything that hasn't rented in the last month or two. I'd come in looking for something I'd been thinking about renting for a while, and it would have just been sold. I complained to the guy a few years ago, suggesting a bigger selection was better, and  that two rentals would make him as much money as selling the movie for $5. He basically told me that all the stores were doing it, that nobody felt it was worth keeping a big selection around, even the places that used to pride themselves on it. It was all business to him, and he was just following the trends. This would be the same guy who would get in one copy of a really good movie that would never be in, and ten copies of an overrated pice of crap, eight of which would never leave.

I have, however, found one independent store here in Waterloo, owned by guys who obviously have a passion for movies, and are trying to fill a niche. With two universities nearby, I think they have a built-in clientele. I've been going to this place for a few years now, since before I evn lived anywhere near it.  They have old black and white classics, kaiju, sci-fi, horror, foreign films, cult films, westerns, musicals and an entire room of anime. They pack their shelves, and I've never known them to sell off a title. When DVD started becoming popular, they wasted no time in investing a pile of money in the best DVD selection I've seen for rent. No half measures, no sticking only to the really popular stuff. It looks to me as if they tried to get as many old and new titles as they possibly could. As a nice touch, they've also had the courtesy to put their titles online, where I can see if they've got something before driving down there. Check it out: www.genxvideo.com

Wish they were a chain.

[wheresthecarrot]

The part that you do still have though are the origional VHS versions that you find in tiny little shops with dollar stickers on them.....that's always cool, even if you can get a super duper remastered DVD for 14 bucks.  I have the great AOD DVD with all the extras, but that doesn't mean I didn't almost cry when I found the origional release (you know, with the cheesy black and white printed sticker and everything) at this old dude's garage sale for fifty cents....those things will never get old for me.  Even if I'm guaranteed a copy of it from Amazon or whoever, I still love the thrill of the hunt, and all those sweet deals.