Where do you get your "fix?"

[Vermin Boy]

Anyone here have a particular place they go to for bad movies? I have a really big, really old video rental place about 15 minutes from my house (The Music Forum) that constantly has well over a hundred b-movies for sale. I have a shelf in my house (Recently full) where I keep all the stuff I've gotten there: Devil's Rain, Flesh Eating Mothers, Theatre of Blood, The Brainiac, Schlock, J-Men Forever (What's Up Tiger Lily-style film by members of the Firesign Theatre), Bad Taste... The only problem is that I'm not the only one onto it, so I have to be fast: Cemetery Man, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-A-Rama have all passed me by. Anyone else have a place like this?

[Andrew]

I used to frequent a chain called "Forbes" when I was based in Virginia.  Nowadays all I need do is turn around and decide what to pull down off the reference shelf.  Several years of collecting (along with Forbes and others going out of business) have seen my number of on hand movies increase dramatically.

Andrew

[Will]

I've got about 1000 in my collection, about 700 I consider b.  I live in a small area, so mostly Internet, but I worked in a video store for 4 years while I was in college so I got my fix (and quite a few of their catalog....)

[Apostic]

For those living in the San Diego area (and who knows, there may be at least one reading this), I recommend the following:

Kensington Video.  When you ask an experienced video clerk in San Diego where you might be able to find something, they tend to say, "Kensington.  They have everything."  That's not entirely true (about them having everything), but they come close.  Their rental rates are kind of steep, but it costs bucks to keep stock like they have.

Banana Video.  This is a mom & pop store that hung on amid the proliferation of Blockbuster and Hollywood Vid shops.  They liquidated a good chunk of their stock a couple of years ago, but they still have a broad selection of hard to find titles.  Besides, their clerks not only know horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres seriously enough to sort the tapes by category, they also categorize movies by genres like "romance" and "steamy drama."   It represents a kind of care you'll never see at a Blockbuster, where almost any title goes under "Action/Adventure."  BTW, the name of the store indicates their other line of sales: it's also an ice cream shop.  It's not many places where you can linger over a strawberry smoothie while contemplating the variants on the Faces of Death series.

The Movie Trader.  Just as you can find used book stores throughout the countryside, this is a used video store.  Awesomely unpredictable stock.  They used to trade tapes one for two, that is, you give them two and you could walk out with one, but they stopped doing that because of the recent prolifieration of DVD plus all those Pauly Shore movies they were getting stuck with.

For those of you outside of the San Diego area, I also highly recommend eBay and all the mail order places Andrew has in his links section.  And as always, keep an eye out for things like flea markets and yard sales.

regards,

Apostic

(Get my fix?  Cripes, I'm becoming a pusher to support my habbit....)

[mark]

the big satan: blockbuster...

they're all getting rid of tapes. some stores are ridiculously
high priced (up to 14 bucks for video). but some (especially
the older stores) are selling tapes for .99 (2.99 minus 2.00 sale).

just yesterday i got:

blood diner
return of the chinese boxer
airport '77
trilogy of terror
texas chainsaw massacre: next gen
dark carnival
tetsuo iron man
watchers 1&2
habit
feeders
tales from the hood
lost angels (w/adam horovitz)

[Mofo Rising]

I don't have a place to get my fix.  I was going to Video Update for a while, which had a good selection of crap, especially with their Two for Tuesday 99 cents, but they all closed down.

Now if I want to find something obscure I use Netflix, but they take a long, long time.

[Flangepart]

Man, i miss Ozoner Video. They had all Vermin Boy mentioned and then some. I got a copy of J-Men Forever, and i still get it out when thing get me down. Our home town bad movie host, Billy Black, on coax cable, did a "Tiger Lily" of Monster From Green Hell. Funny! BTW, how many films has Whats Up,Tiger Lily Inspired, anyway? Blobbermouth,The Leno version of Hidious sun demon, B. Black's Green hell....Any others?

[Cosmicman]

When I was living in California in the early days of tape (1982 or so?) there were a few great local stores with all the unusual genre titles for rent.  An old friend and I would rent a few movies (3 for $10, pick 'em up Saturday evening and return 'em Sunday afternoon) and have great Saturday video blowouts, usually just the two of us but sometimes another friend or two.  He had a VHS machine and I had a Beta (I know, I know...) so we'd rent either all 3 VHS and watch at his place, or all 3 in Beta (yes, Beta tapes used to be very common) and watch at my place.

I don't think I've rented a movie in almost ten years.  Haven't had the time, between work and family stuff.  I don't even have cable, so I only watch what I buy on DVD (or VHS in very rare cases, if no DVD is available).  And of course I have a couple hundred or so old VHS tapes that are aging rapidly.  So once "The Brain" comes out on DVD, I think I'll just chuck my dying VHS machines. ;)

Kevin

[GeeWhiz]

The short answer: Suncoast Motion Picture Company.

(Hey, my daughter manages the local store and I can get her discount.)

Other than that, through the internet, whenever I can find a good deal.

[bill e]

hey,you ought to try some local pawn shops also..they are a world of crap also!!usually pretty cheap also..but i've noticed that alot of the affiliated pawn shops have similar movies..

[Vermin Boy]

Proctor & Bergman did another movie like that (along with Phil Austin), called "Firesign Theatre's Hot Shorts." It's like J-Men in that it uses many of the same shorts, except this time they're seperated into individual stories. Probably the Firesigns' only consistantly "dirty" piece. Not as good as J-Men, but still worth a look. (I got it at the same place, BTW)

[peter johnson]

2 topics:
Firesign Theatre!! Firesign Theatre!!
I've been semi-pro in showbiz for about 33 years or so, and have had the luck to work with Firesign Theatre on 2 projects -- Phil Proctor on ROBOchic -- see Andrew's single-skull review on this site -- and all of them on the Lodestone/OtherWorld Media production of Wizard of Oz.  I love them/they are my heroes/nobody is as good.  Watch for new CD from Rhino: The Bride of Firesign, in honor of Phil Austin's 60th birthday.
In Colorado there is no better B joint than Video Station.  40,000 titles in stock and on hand.  You have to see it to believe it.  In Boulder on 28th street . . . .

[mr Raffles]

In Boston, the place to go is Video Oasis.  It's like a supermarket.  They have what can truly be called a museum of pornography old and new too.  If I can't get over their I go to nuggets in Kenmore square.  Tower Boston was the greatest though.  When you pay 1.56 for two or three nights you get experimental.