Which company is your Favorite Boutique Blu-ray Distributor?

[Cult_Moody_Movies]

Hello,

I was curious to see what companies do you prefer for your psychical media? Honestly my stance is any companies giving us the option to still own our film and TV libraries in the age of the streaming wars is a win in my book. With that being said I see many strengths and weaknesses in most of the companies listed above. Look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions. 

[Rev. Powell]

Criterion, although for genre films Arrow is nearly as good. For nasty or very rare genre films, Vinegar Syndrome is probably the best.

[bob]

Criterion

[claws]

Vinegar Syndrome
Code Red, but I'm not one of those Code Red fanboys, and I refuse to buy movies from Dark Forces (Company).

[RCMerchant]

I would have to say Severin.

https://severin-films.com/

[Archivist]

Vinegar Syndrome
Code Red, but I'm not one of those Code Red fanboys, and I refuse to buy movies from Dark Forces (Company).

I've only heard of Vinegar Syndrome and Arrow, so I'm in the dark about Code Red fanboys and issues with Dark Forces. Anyone want to fill me in?

[claws]

Code Red fanboys are weird and awful. The owner of Code Red has a history of unstable, strange behavior at message boards. He made customers literally jump through hoops if they wanted to buy his product. He basically treated his customers like trash, and any rational human being with common sense would have given Code Red the middle finger, but not the fanboys. They defended his actions. This was more wtf? than Code Red's unprofessional behavior. He was taking a huge dump on them and they liked it.
Code Red may or may not have retired. Code Red may or may not be in cohorts with Dark Force. Lots of lies and confusion.


DeFalco

Dark Force Entertainment is run by wrestler, producer, singer and director David DeFalco. His business practice is shady. He loves to brag about himself and can be in denial about the quality of certain releases. He lies about movies going OOP and then raising the price, only to release the film again months later. He challenges his customers to fight him if they criticize his products. People have called his antics a sh!t show because he can't (or refuses to?) function professionally like a normal boutique blu-ray distributor. He has hired a polite "spokesperson" for his company who now answers all questions about 'Dork Farce' on social media. Some believe it is DeFalco himself just fooling everybody.

[The Burgomaster]

I've really been loving Severin for the past year or so. I've bought some amazing boxed sets including Al Adamson, Andy Milligan, the Hemisphere collection . . .

[Archivist]

Wow, something to think about re. Code Red and Dark Force.

Now that I look at the list properly, I've heard of Criterion: I have their version of Scanners, and am planning to get their Bruce Lee collection and Equinox. I've also heard of Shout/Scream Factory, but haven't bought any of their releases.

Vinegar Syndrome releases look soooooo cool. Will have to hit the Buy Now button soon.

[claws]

Wow, something to think about re. Code Red and Dark Force.

well, people used to be divided on these two companies. Their biggest mistake was Interacting with people on message boards. They p**sed off customers with unprofessional behavior, poor and rude social media skills, shady business practice and causing tons of online drama.

It seems that things have simmered down the last two or three years, but their former bad reputation still sort of lingers with those who witnessed all the crap.

Code Red titles used to be distributed in stores and at amazon until the owner pulled the plug. He claimed not making enough money because his share of the sales was too small. Soon enough Code Red titles became scarce because they were only available at his online store which in the real world shouldn't be a problem, but Code Red was a one man company. He couldn't handle, pack and sent too many orders at once so he would limit purchases by opening his store at odd hours only for a couple of minutes like, unannounced at 04:37 am for three minutes. If you wanted to buy Code Red blu-rays you had to stay awake for hours refreshing the online page ever so often, making it very difficult for people to buy stuff. Yet he complained that people weren't buying enough stuff not realizing it was his own fault. It was a hot mess because he had no clue how to move his product. He refused to hire help because he couldn't afford it. Code Red fanboys offered to help for free but he refused that offer as well.

Dark Force titles are only available for purchase at the Dark Force online store. From what I read buying movies there didn't always run smoothly but it might be better now. Seems like Code Red licensed titles with other companies, and Dark Force also got a hold of some of Code Red's stock.

If there is such a thing as most f**ked up boutique blu-ray distributer, Code Red takes the crown, followed by Dark Force.

[Cult_Moody_Movies]

Code Red fanboys are pretty much the worst kind of fanboys on the Internet. They applaud whatever Code Red does and lick his boots. The owner of Code Red has a history of unstable, strange behavior at message boards. He made customers literally jump through hoops if they wanted to buy something. He is in poor health and constantly complains how little money he is making. Code Red may or may not have retired. Code Red may or may not be in cohorts with Dark Force. Lots of lies and confusion.


DeFalco

Dark Force Entertainment is run by wrestler, producer, singer and director David DeFalco. His business practice is shady. He loves to brag about himself and can be in denial about the quality of certain releases. He lies about movies going OOP and then raising the price, only to release the film again months later. He challenges his customers to fight him at some gym if they criticize his products. People have called his antics a sh!t show because he can't (or refuses to?) function professionally like a normal boutique blu-ray distributor. He has hired a polite "spokesperson" for his company who now answers all questions about 'Dork Farce' on social media. Some believe it is DeFalco himself just fooling everybody.

I thought Kino handled a lot of Code Red releases. I knew there was drama but not this bad. XD

[claws]

They do now I think. I was right there when the drama began on message boards. It was such a total train wreck.

Midnight Legacy was another boutique blu-ray label but they went down in flames after one release (Alien 2: On Earth). One of the owners turned out to be a well known horror fanboy douchebag who p**sed off the entire horror community in the 2000s. The Internet does not forget and gave Midnight Legacy the middle finger. They closed shop soon after even though they had more releases planned.