The Art of the Box | Why Movie Packaging Still Matters to Collectors

[00:00:00] You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com.

[00:00:30] The pumpkin, the pumpkin that I'll never see. The pumpkin that broke my heart.

[00:00:52] Welcome everybody to a new episode of The Physical Cut, where films live beyond the stream. Today we're going to be talking about the art of the box. My name is Carlos and I'm joined here today with John, Mr. Spooky Season 95. How are you doing, John?

[00:01:08] Doing pretty good. Glad to be here, man, to talk about this with you. I'm excited to talk about this topic in particular just because I feel like, you know, over the last two years that I've really been like collecting, I've really, it's really evolved into, you know, the box art of a release has a very heavy impact on whether I purchase it or not. So I'm definitely interested to talk about this with you.

[00:01:34] Earlier we had a long conversation. We're going to try to bring it back later on and towards the end of the episode about some recent art that came out. And we're going to be expanding on that topic a little bit later. To be honest, like when it comes to the packaging as collectors, that's always a major reason. I would say collecting habits have changed drastically, at least for me.

[00:01:58] When it comes to new releases, I'm not a big first day purchase buyer just because a lot of it, a lot of the art, not just on the cover, but also like, you know, poster wise and all that kind of stuff. The, the effort is not really reflected there. And I've noticed that throughout the collecting, a lot of the stuff that I've been finding myself buying are more classic films, more cult films that they put back out there.

[00:02:26] You know, they put a little bit more effort, not just to resell them to those, that I present it to a new generation. But when you're making a purchase, you purchase it just because you want to discover the film. You purchase it because you like the art. Because there's always a thing about not judging a book by a cover. But when it comes to a movie, that is more of a visual medium. And I feel like that's something we always have like in the back of our minds, which is like, oh, this movie has to be fire because the cover art looks great.

[00:02:55] The movie might not be so great, but the cover art is a killer. So do you collect on that? Um, I feel like, unfortunately, I'm a victim to blind buying an awful lot. I do think that the cover art has a lot to do with that. If something comes out now, I love the horror genre so much that I want to see the movie. The movie itself is the driving factor of me being like, oh, I've never seen that before. I want to discover that film. I want to watch that film.

[00:03:24] But I definitely think when that film gets released or re-released with better cover art, it is a driving factor of me being like, okay, I've never seen it before. I may hate it, but I'm just going to buy it anyway because I'm going to watch it. And I'd rather watch it with my own physical copy versus going and watching it somewhere for streaming if I can even find it at that point.

[00:03:50] Yeah, streaming good luck. But I feel like you say horror and I feel like that is probably the best example of where a lot of the detailing, a lot of the effort is really placed on is in horror. And I don't know why. I would say horror is probably horror collectors are probably the most that invest in films when they say like, oh, these are the numbers for physical media.

[00:04:17] In my head, I would say 90% of that is just horror fans buying the same film over and over. And like you said, you love the horror genre. I collect horror. I do also go by the cover art. There's a lot of horror. I don't know. ADA films, I think they do probably some of the best covers I've seen in a while and affordable.

[00:04:43] But they probably do one of the best covers and they invest a lot of time. I'm going to die in that soapbox saying that if you're going to give me a special edition, give me a booklet, give me something, give me something in there. And I feel like horror does do that. They do spend a lot in investment in these films, especially killer clowns from outer space. I love that cover, the steel book. I complain a lot about steel books that came with just the disc, but I'm like, the art is so freaking good.

[00:05:10] I do like the regular 4K slipcover edition. I liked it. I still haven't bought that one. I don't want to overpay for it. But I also have an edition. It's in Spanish with killer clowns and it's the original cover. I didn't need it. I had to buy it just because I love killer clowns. It's one of my favorite campy movies and any edition that comes out, I will buy. And it's because the art for that film never gets boring.

[00:05:40] I think it's Arrow Video who put it out that has that horrible cover. That's a horrible cover for me. I would not buy that one. The Arrow Video of killer clowns is what you're trying to do? Yes. Yeah. Yes. That's a horrible cover art. I would not buy that one. But I think horror does spend a lot of, at least like the horror community, they're pretty lucky. We do get some great cover art for that.

[00:06:04] I feel like collecting films at this point, for me, when it comes to the cover art, it's the same way for books. I mentioned before and people who know me know that I love Stephen King. And I have different covers of it. And I try to collect as many covers of it that I can. The movie, I have a few versions of it.

[00:06:25] And before we started recording, we were talking about Scream and my Scream section alone is just basically more than half of that shelf. The Steelbook, regular Blu-ray, regular 4K, 4K special edition. When it comes to horror, we have the pick of the litter, I believe is what they say. We have so many editions to pick from. Usually a regular release doesn't even get a 4K anymore. So it's like, you know, but not just horror.

[00:06:55] We do have some great John Wicks out there that are pretty bomb. I have one that is completely sealed. I think it's the one that comes to the map. It's like a thick 4K special edition. I also have the Amadeus special edition box set that is staying nice and sealed in my shelf.

[00:07:14] But is there any film that you have purchased just by looking at the cover and are like, yeah, I need to buy this film. And then you buy it and it's the shittiest film you've ever seen. I'm trying to think of a movie that I bought, watched and was like, oh man, this is absolutely atrocious. I'll be honest.

[00:07:38] It's hard because even some of the cheesiest, dumbest horror movies, like I still like them. Which is why it's difficult for me to like feel like I'm confidently recommending a movie to somebody just because I know for a fact that like I could watch a movie. It could be the worst movie in the entire universe. But I might still if it's horror, I might still like it. If it's cheesy, if it's stupid, I might still find it interesting.

[00:08:09] Like one of the movies I watched, not super recently, I watched Motel Hell for the first time last year. And that movie was kind of crazy about like the whole plot of the movie was kind of nuts. But I still I liked it, even though it was kind of crazy. So but like you were saying, I mean, I'm sure I'm sure I've bought something, watched it. I can't think off the top of my head, but I'm sure I've watched something. And then I thought, why did I why did I buy this?

[00:08:37] I mentioned to you that Demon Wind was one that had me all over the place when it came to the sound. It was campy. It made no sense to me. I still don't know what the hell the movie is about. But I bought it mostly because it had great reviews, great word of mouth. I did not like the film, but I do like the cover. I just bought the I bought the standard Blu-ray. The 4K is out of print.

[00:09:03] And I'm glad I didn't spend the money for the 4K. But I feel like another movie that I've been wanting to get my hands on for a while now. It's Let's Scare Jessica to Death from Vinegar Syndrome. The main reason to buy the film was because of the art cover. The box is just a beauty.

[00:09:27] And again, it's the attention to the details that a lot of these boutique labels put into these horror releases. And not just horror releases. We have, I believe it's Cinematograph. I want to pretend I'm French here for a second.

[00:09:46] Putting out these boxes, like these amazing box sets for these films that, you know, a lot of people either have no knowledge of or just completely forgot. I was a little pissed off this week because Barnes & Noble had the sale for Vinegar Syndrome.

[00:10:05] And I ordered at close range and I was suspecting the beautiful box set that they have for the same price in Vinegar Syndrome that I didn't buy when Vinegar Syndrome had the sale. And I just got the plain 4K. And I was like, no, this is going back. This is going back. This is not what I paid for. This is not what I want. I'm not trying to be bougie or anything like that.

[00:10:30] It's just that I have some of that line of Vinegar Syndrome. But I want to continue with that line. And I have the Congo. I have the Joy of Sex. I have a few titles from that line. And I want to continue with that beautiful box set, like the detailing, the content. And some of them are just plain Blu-rays. I did not. One of them, I think Joy of Sex is a plain Blu-ray. I thought it was a 4K.

[00:11:00] But, you know, the detail was so good and the movie looked so good that I didn't even, you know, think about it twice. But I don't know about you. I feel like sometimes the cover, do you consider that part of the experience of the movie? I mean, I feel like I could deal. If I like the movie enough, I can deal with anything. I mean, when I first started collecting, my goal wasn't like boutique label, like releases and special editions.

[00:11:27] I really just went to my local flea market. They have a movie store in there. So I went there, just bought up a bunch of Blu-rays, just regular standard, you know, cases. So if I like the movie, as long as I own the movie, that's like the most important part. As my collecting, I guess, journey continues, the box art just elevates the experience, I would say.

[00:11:52] I don't think it necessarily, like if I didn't have the nice fancy box, I would still be doing it. But I think having the nice fancy collector's edition definitely just makes it feel more premium and makes it feel like I have something that appreciates almost the love I have for the film. Right now, right now, I'm excited and scared. One of my top four is... You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog.

[00:12:22] If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. You're listening to a podcast right now.

[00:12:50] Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign.

[00:13:19] Start free at RSS.com. It's ice wide shut and I know you collect more horror, but I don't know if you're aware there's a new version, UK edition coming out, Steelbook. I know that we got the same cover for Barry Lyndon. We saw that before they even put it out. We know it was going to be the same cover that came out for Criterion. I think the changes are very minimal. It's a still book. It's a pretty nice still book. It doesn't have anything. I haven't opened it.

[00:13:48] Not going to open it. For ice wide shut because it is one of my favorite films. I'm kind of scared that it's going to be the same cover Criterion put out for their 4K release, which by the way, that is another thing that pissed me off. Criterion, you have Kubrick and you have two movies already that have this beautiful digipack in your collection.

[00:14:11] And then you go and you put out ice wide shut, which has been waited for so long to be put out on 4K. And then you give us the middle finger by putting it in a plastic box that the movie barely fits, by the way. The movie barely fits. We have a Nora that came out last year. Two months later, you have it in a digipack or digibook. Why would you do this?

[00:14:37] If you already have a director in your catalog, I know that they do this to Wes Anderson too. I don't collect Wes Anderson, but I'm pretty sure that people who do collect Wes Anderson are probably pissed about it. It doesn't look the same level. It does not look. It doesn't. You want your releases to look uniform. That's why two of my favorite boutique labels right now, Second Sight and Arrow Video.

[00:15:06] Most of their stuff, super streamlined. Everything matches. You put it on the shelf. It all goes together perfectly. Yeah. Absolutely. I think I have a few releases from Second Sight. I think I have one box set, but that's because I like the movie, so I bought that box set specifically. I got two when I first discovered Second Sight. I just bought two regular 4Ks just because I didn't want to invest in it. I think their quality is pretty good. Arrow, I have a bigger shelf.

[00:15:35] I do have a few Blu-rays from Arrow. I have a few regular 4Ks from Arrow, but when it comes to the box sets, I'm a little in between when it comes to the slipcover before the box because I feel like they're getting a little thinner. I don't know if it's just me or if it's a fact, but I feel like those little slipcovers are getting thinner and thinner by the day. But I do like that they're very uniform. You can put them next to each other. They all look great.

[00:16:04] Even when you have a release like Psycho, you know, I have the box set, the 4Ks, and even then that looks uniform when you put it next to each other to Deep Blue Sea and all the other titles. It just looks cohesive. Like they're all aligned perfectly. Yeah. I wish I would have bought Ugo when Criterion put out The Last Emperor. I think it was. I didn't buy the Criterion. That's why I'm kind of blanking out on that.

[00:16:32] But I believe it's The Last Emperor. I went to the shelf. I'm like, I've seen this title before. No, wasn't this the Academy Award winner film that I still haven't seen? And I go to the Arrow section. I was like, yeah, I know I have a big box set that I got for like $25. And it's the 4K. It has the poster, has the book. It's a thick box set, like the nice type that Arrow does. I collect Criterion. So I question myself.

[00:17:00] I'm like, do I want to buy another edition of this film? Because it's Criterion. But I have a beautiful box set from Arrow. Why would I want to double dip? But I feel like if you're an Arrow collector and you're a Criterion collector, if you're more of one than the other, I feel like that's probably where the decision will be easier. I'm like, no, I'm definitely just going to go with Criterion. But if you're in between that you admire these companies equally, it was an easy decision.

[00:17:29] I'm like, I don't need this edition. I'm good with the Arrow one. The Arrow one compared to the Criterion kicks ass. Like, there's no reason for me to have to buy this stupid plastic that Criterion put out of this, you know, Academy Award winning film. That's sometimes the arguments that I have with Criterion. They really drop the ball with that Ice White Shot release. It doesn't really affect my viewing experience when it comes to like the cover. It does enhance the experience.

[00:17:58] For me, once I watched the movie and I loved it, I was like, damn, like, I wish I would've gotten a better box. Like, I wish I would've gotten more content in here. Right. Something to match the appreciation and like love you have for the movie. That's the thing. And it shows you too, like when a studio comes out with a nice premium, you know, collector's edition or whatever it may be, it also just shows you the love and care that they put into

[00:18:27] it as well. Cause like, I mean, you come out with like a standard plastic case for a film. Um, you know, that's cool. And I think another thing that's, I would say maybe even more important than the box is the extras. Like if you cram a bunch of good extras into the release, then, then maybe you could make an argument that like, oh, well, we didn't give you the crazy packaging, but we gave you all the extras. But the packaging, it just does something.

[00:18:55] It makes you feel like you're buying it from someone that appreciates the film. You have something that showcases your appreciation for the film. I just think it's definitely, it's super important. There's a few, uh, a few covers that I have. I gotta say, I gotta give a shout out to the Screen Factory Halloween. So I'm kind of mad though, that the last two I don't have in that beautiful hardcover box.

[00:19:22] I have the slip cover on those and I'm bitter about that. Yeah. The four and the five, I don't like too much, but it's still, it would have been nice to have all five in that beautiful box set. You know, every time, every Halloween, I put the third one out. I know the third one is probably the worst, but let's be honest. The third one has the best cover art. Yes. The third one, the art on the third, our movie rocks. And then on top of that, when I was younger, I used to hate the third movie because Michael

[00:19:52] Myers is easily my favorite horror villain slasher. The fact that when I was younger, I felt almost baited. I watched Halloween three and there was no Michael Myers. And I almost like flipped out. Like what in the hell is going on? But as I got older, I watched the movie and completely separated. Michael Myers just said, you know what? The act like this isn't even anything in the Halloween universe. And the movie itself is good. Like the movie itself is good. It's not a bad movie.

[00:20:20] It's just, it just suffers from the fact that people assumed Michael Myers was going to be a part of it, which he was not at all. True. It's funny because Halloween three, like you said, it's not the best. Well, you like the movie. I don't think it's the best movie. I think the, I think the scariest part of that movie is the creepy relationship between the main characters. I'm like, ew. But aside from that, the movie is this, I like camping movies. I love John Waters.

[00:20:51] And, but you give me a camping movie that I don't think the movie was intentionally meant to be camp while it was being made. But I feel that that's why it works now because it is so campy. I played the first Halloween religiously every Halloween or Christmas. I really don't care. But it's because I like the atmosphere. As soon as I go outside and a leaf is falling, I play Halloween.

[00:21:18] Like it could be somewhere outside, but if a leaf hits the floor, Halloween is played. Immediately. You got to watch Halloween. Immediately. You just watch Halloween. But another third part that I think has a pretty good cover. And I think it's also, I want to say a screen factory is the Exorcist three.

[00:21:42] I hunted that cover for a while until I finally found it for a good price because online it has sold out on Amazon. I believe I bought it through eBay. Brand new. Third party. And that cover is so good. And it captures the movie so well. I don't mind. I have both covers, but the alternative cover is so beautiful. It doesn't even look like an Exorcist movie.

[00:22:11] I want to put it next to maybe End of Days or Constantine. The cover looks very sci-fi to me. And that movie has a great atmosphere. I would say I like the Exorcist. But I got to say that movie is so much better. I don't know if people are going to bite my head off for that, but I feel like the Exorcist three is probably better than the first one. It's so well made, which we don't really get a lot when it comes to sequels.

[00:22:39] Comparing it to the Halloween sequel three is definitely totally different leagues. But I got to say that is probably one of the, which I didn't pull out today, but in the back of my head, I was like, should I, should I talk about that cover? It's a shout out to that cover. And honestly, Screen Factory does a lot of great covers. Sometimes they miss, but a lot of the times it's a hit. Right. I agree.

[00:23:04] I don't know how I feel about the 4K Halloweens, the Screen Factory covers for the regular one. Like the third one, I think they did a pretty good job. The other ones, I don't know how I feel about it. Not that they're bad. I don't think they're bad. But it's kind of the same way I feel about, I don't know if you're familiar with the covers that are on the Chucky movies or the Child's Play movies. Oh, yeah. Those are horrible. Arrow video collection. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I have the Arrow video collection. I like the collection.

[00:23:34] But like the artwork on the covers, I'm just like, it kind of gives me like an uncanny. Is that Chucky? Like, I'm kind of off a little bit. Yeah. He looks beautified. Is it maximizing? What is he that the... Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm too old for these words. But I believe the kids today are maximizing. And I feel like that's what they did to Chucky. They maximized Chucky. It's like they took, you know, whoever the artist was. Shout out to whoever that was. But they did their own style.

[00:24:04] They did their unique take on the covers. And it was basically like the different Chucky's for each movie. And I don't want to bash it like it's horrible. I don't think it's horrendous. But it's just not my style. I like the collection itself. Overall, I think it's pretty good. But that art style, I think, just doesn't complement the franchise very well. No, I agree. I think it also suffers because the Chucky you start with, I mean, they all do it.

[00:24:34] Chucky has been in this business for, I don't want to say how many years, because that will probably put me in that same category. But everybody does their own glow ups. You know, he got a few things done. He doesn't look the same in the fifth movie than he did in the first. Hell, he doesn't even look the same in the series. Like, in the series, he's completely different than he does in the fifth movie. I feel like because of that, the art also suffers. Which I'm like, you know what?

[00:25:00] As a Chucky collection, if the doll is beautified in one or two CDI in one, just use the, we all know it's Chucky. Just put the same Chucky in different parts. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more.

[00:25:28] Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts,

[00:25:57] Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. Post it throughout all the films. I don't mind it. I'm fine with that. The other one that I didn't pull out, but I do got a shout out and is also Arrow.

[00:26:25] I feel like they really kill it with these covers. It's the Hellraiser box set. I put down my pre-order for Shatterer because I know he doesn't have a big role in the movie, but it's one of my favorite Cenobites. When they put him in the box, I'm like, yep, nope, I'm done. Charge me whatever the hell you want to charge me. That is my boy. I don't like the other Cenobites too much.

[00:26:53] I'm jealous because when I was getting the Hellraiser collection, I did not initially know that there was two versions of the packaging. I didn't know there was Pinhead and then there was the Chatterer. So I got the standard Pinhead version, and then I found out later that you could get, I'm assuming, I think it's, is it the UK? Yeah. Limited? So yeah, you can get the one with the Chatterer, and I'm not going to lie. That box is sweet. I wish, looking back, I wish I would have went with that one or found that one.

[00:27:22] I'm still happy with the Pinhead one because it's awesome, but the Chatterer box is easily the better one. Easily. But I think I had to go through Arrow UK to get it, because I know I was having trouble logging in. And then when I did my order, it wasn't showing on my email. It was a little hectic trying to track my order, but that's probably one of the biggest satisfactions that I have when I put money down.

[00:27:52] I usually don't pre-order stuff. I really don't, just because sometimes I really just don't care. Again, if it's stuff that I like, the Scream 4, I ordered that because I know Scream. I'm going to buy it regardless, and I know it's been selling out. I got the second wave. Actually, no, I got it on the first wave. I think I sold that right after I bought it. And yeah, I put my money on that because I know Scream 4.

[00:28:15] If I'm not a big fan of a film, I'm not going to really invest the money up front. I know. I agree with you on that. I think I'm the same way too. Like most movies, especially if I don't know them, or especially if they're like not something I like a lot. I might like them, but not a lot. Like I won't really do any pre-orders with stuff like that. It's really just big franchises that I know I like, like the Nightmare on Elm Street steelbook set.

[00:28:44] I knew I had to pre-order that. And like items like that, I'll pre-order. But when it comes to smaller releases, releases that I don't, I'm not really sure of. I'm definitely not going to give some of my money months ahead of time. Last week, I was, I was thankful that the, the pre-order that I did, which is the Welcome to Dairy, that was a good investment. I would say it was a good release. And I'm like, when it comes to pre-ordering things and I get a surprise like that,

[00:29:12] you know, when I get a package like that and it makes it even more exciting opening it because you know that the quality that you're getting is good, which I feel like that's probably something that I, I get with Arrow and that I get with Vinegar Syndrome. There's a few films that I've ordered from Vinegar Syndrome. I ordered like, I think it was like $240 in Vinegar Syndrome. I didn't like half of them, but I gotta say they're not going anywhere because I do love

[00:29:41] the cover. Sometimes even if I don't like a film, I do try to find something that it's either creative. Like if I'm seeing a B-horror film, I'm not going to put them in the same category as a Hollywood backed horror film. As a matter of fact, sometimes these Hollywood backed horror films suck compared to some B-movies that cost $10,000 to make. You know,

[00:30:06] Cripposoid. I bought that at Haitian Reel where they had the, um, the 88 film sale and I didn't know shit about Cripposoid. I think Aaron Horror, he does the horror videos. He did a Cripposoid segment and I told him, I'm like, Oh, I bought the movie. I bought it because I didn't know anything about the movie. It had a great cover. And so I bought it blind buy. I didn't hate the movie. It was campy and I take it at face value. So when I discover stuff like that, at least when it

[00:30:34] comes to horror, I noticed that I buy stuff that I can stare at. I'm like, they're going to be on my shelf. I want to be able to stare at them. I don't know the film. I don't know much of horror. Uh, I do know Academy Awards. I know musicals, but when it comes to horror, I like to explore it by visual, just picking up the box, looking at it. And then I'm like, okay, let's, let's explore this

[00:31:01] film. And then the film turns out to be kooky and stupid and poorly made. And it gives it character. It gives it some quality that really, you know, it brings me a little bit of joy, at least to like, okay, well this movie was bad, but the cover is good. The movie is campy. I forgot what was the title of the other film that I, I hated so bad that I loved it. And a friend of mine was like, again, you just got to rewatch it again. I was like, no, it's fine. Let's just stick to the one memory

[00:31:31] that I have of watching it. But it also had a pretty good cover and I'm like, let me just take it and I'll discover if it's good or bad later on. Well, I'll tell you what, going off of that and it just hit me. I know you asked me earlier if there was something that I bought that I watched and I was like, what the hell is this? Going off of what you're saying about how you like got it because of the box art. And then you watched it and it was real

[00:31:54] campy and real. I just remembered the movie. Rumpelstiltskin. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven't bought that one. Terror Vision came out with an awesome, you know, version of Rumpelstiltskin. I'm in love with the box art they have for that movie. So I thought I had seen the movie a long, long time ago, but not like, it's one of those things where like, I couldn't remember it. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to buy, I love the box art. I'm just going to buy it.

[00:32:21] I'm going to watch it when I get it. And I did. As soon as I got it, I went to go watch the movie like the weekend after I got the box and it was the campiest shit I have watched in a long time. It was absolute, it was wild. And like I said, I like weird stuff like that. So I still like the movie in a way. Is it something I'm going to watch all the time? Probably not. But it's one of those things where I bought it. I'm like, oh, let me check this out. And I started watching it and I'm

[00:32:47] like, what the hell did I buy? What movies do you have in your collection that stand out? Well, at least visually stand out. And is that part of the reason to buy them? Or did you also get enjoyment from watching the film? Or is she just like, oh yeah, no, I just left the cover on this. I bought it. It's sitting on my shelf. I would say absolutely. I got a couple things sitting next to me here. The first one,

[00:33:12] which is probably one of the favorites that I have in my collection is the second site Blair Witch Blu-ray. I'm literally in love with this version. I know a lot of people are really critical with Blair Witch and I get it. Those people suck. So yeah. I mean, my thing is, you know, when I was younger, I felt like I was scared of it because there was a part of me that almost thought it was

[00:33:38] real. Cause I know like, not that I was really, I guess, old enough to watch it when it first came out. But even when I was a little bit older, a couple of years after the movie had already released, I remember still seeing things about it being real and I kind of questioned it. So that's what kind of scared me as a kid when I watched it. But now that I'm older, when I got this, it had been a while since I watched it, but after I got this set, I was like, you know what? I'm

[00:34:05] going to go back. I'm going to watch Blair Witch. They had the festival cut in this, which is awesome. So I went back, I watched the festival cut. And now that I'm older, the thing that actually gets me about the movie that I still really like it for is the feeling of dread and isolation that are trapped in the woods. The fact that they like, it's like the feeling of hopelessness because after a certain amount of time, they start realizing that they're, they're screwed. You ain't getting out of

[00:34:33] the woods. So that, that feeling of being trapped in the woods like that and like slowly losing their minds because they're trapped in there. I feel like that's, that's really why I like the Blair Witch, like now that I'm older. I remember, cause I grew up with the whole promo of this film. Like I remember me in school going to

[00:35:01] the website and back then internet wasn't, it was slowly coming, but internet wasn't the big thing. Back in the day. I remember sitting down watching with my cousin, watching the, uh, the website and I was like, holy shit, these people really died. And we were like, there was no promo. There was all over the news. It's like, Oh, like these people in the woods and this and that. And do keep in mind, I think when the

[00:35:26] movie came out, I think I was back in Puerto Rico and even there, it was such a lore. It was such an event behind this movie that I can only imagine how big that was. And I wasn't in the city back then in New York city. And I also didn't have friends back in New York city. I have friends in Long Island, but I don't know how big the movie was here in New York city. Hell, I don't even know how big the movie

[00:35:51] was in LA where you have the movie capital. I saw it in theaters. I shit myself. And then I went to blockbuster and how my renting the VHS was just, and I feel like the ring was also another one that it was like that actually went into the ring without knowing what it was. I just remember seeing the art and I was like, it's so vague. It doesn't say anything.

[00:36:17] But then after it came out, renting it. And it's this VHS that is cursed that if you watch it, but you die in seven days, it was so epic. Put in this movie for friends of mine. I did have a voice changer because, and I love scream. So after my friends watched the movie a few hours later and stuff like that, we were prank call them and do the seven day thing.

[00:36:45] And they would be freaking out. Like they would be freaking out. The next day in school, you see them bags under their eyes. They can't sleep. But I'm like, yo, really? You just saw the movie? You know, it's fake. It was so real. There was not so much internet access. I feel like that's, you know, a movie quality. We kind of lost. A movie experience that we lost. Because of the way it was back then, we were just so much more gullible. You just were so much more inclined to believe that like, wait a minute,

[00:37:13] could this really happen? Like, I mean, with like the ring, it's like, you know, I'm pretty sure within, you know, the first movie, I like the fact that there is a certain part of the movie where all of a sudden it shows you the tape. Like you actually get to see the segments of the tape. And it's almost like while you're watching, you're like, hold on. Did I now see the tape? Yeah. And they're like, what's going on here? That movie experience, it has been lots. Obviously, I'm not going to blame

[00:37:40] internet for that. I admire people that go into movies. There's a few people that do reviews that they're like, well, I went into the movie without watching any trailers. And lately, I've been avoiding trailers because of that. Because I'm sick and tired of trailers selling me something that is just the one scene. I'm like, come on, really? There's an experience that we're not going to get because we're oversaturated with. You're listening to a podcast right now,

[00:38:05] driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With rss.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at rss.com.

[00:38:33] Promos, because now it's all about the numbers. The studios are not going to back you up if you don't make a certain amount of money and studios want to market the shit out of something. And it's like, come on. I tell you what, man, there's a trailer that recently came out that I thought was perfect. And I'm mad because they released another one and it kind of ruined it. But the evil dead

[00:38:57] burn trailer, the first one. I haven't seen it. Oh, you haven't seen it. Okay. Nope. And I'm not going to see it. I'm not going to see it. I'll see the movie. I'm not watching the trailer. Yeah. The first trailer gives nothing away. The first trailer is like a 30 second segment of like just crazy shit going down and that's it. And it's like, it gives nothing away of the story, what's going on, what's happening. And then it was one of the best trailers I've watched in a while

[00:39:26] because it had me right away. I was like, oh shit, I got to see this movie. But I knew absolutely nothing about the movie. And then of course, like you were saying how they always have to ruin it. Like a week and a half later, they released a longer trailer with a whole story arc and all that. And I'm like, yeah, I don't think you needed to do that. You know? Yeah. I watched the first one on a plane. So I'll probably wait to watch the second one on the plane just to like keep the tradition.

[00:39:54] There's certain films that I'm like, okay, I watched the first one here. I want to make sure I watched the second one there just to see if I can have the same experience I had the first time. I didn't love the first part of Evil Dead, The Rise. Rise? Okay. I didn't necessarily love it. There was a few scenes that kind of killed the movie for me. But I ended up enjoying it a little bit because it was a very in-flight entertainment experience that I liked. Sometimes when you're watching a movie in a different setting, it brings a

[00:40:24] different kind of experience. But the second one, I have not watched the trailer. I am not watching the trailers because if I go see it in theaters, I want to expect nothing and come out a little bit surprised of what I got. When you said that Evil Dead was killed for you, I feel like that happened with The Odyssey. Before watching Project Hail Mary, they were

[00:40:49] playing, I think it was like a 10-minute scene of The Odyssey. And I was like, why does it look like this? But I think it's because the movie hadn't started, so they still had like the backlight in the 70 millimeter theater because it's one of the biggest in New York. So they have the lighting from the back. And I did the one in BFI in London has the same thing. But once the movie starts, it looks beautifully. But because the lighting in the movie theater was still on, the lighting in the film

[00:41:18] was kind of affected. So the darks looked gray. The fire looked washed. The quality looks so bad. But given that this movie is the biggest event of the year and you're playing it before a film that is one of the biggest events of the beginning of the year, you might want to play it in the highest quality possible. And I feel like that killed the movie for me. I'm going to go see it.

[00:41:48] I feel like every time I talk shit about it, my friend, it's like, just wait till it comes out. I was like, dude, but it's not about when it comes out. It's like what you're giving me now. I don't think it was Christopher Nolan's fault that the movie theater didn't put the proper lighting for the movie. Or maybe it was meant to be like that. So when you see it, you're like, oh my God, the darks are darks. The brights are brights. The colors are colors. You know, people like to say, but if you're selling it to me, this is not what I want to buy.

[00:42:15] And then you give me some art and some still photos that don't really align with my idea of the Odyssey. And maybe for some film bros, sure. I know Baba the Odyssey is not your lane of movies, but there are people that die in the Christopher Nolan Hill. I like them. I like them, but I like David Fincher too, but I'm not one to sit here and defend them to death. I'm like, they don't pay my bills.

[00:42:42] Also, there is a level of when you're handling something like the Odyssey, I feel like there's a level of like, as a director, he wants to put his own like flair on it. You want to do your own thing a little bit. But when you're handling something like the Odyssey, I almost feel like there's a certain level of accuracy to that original story that you want to stay with. Because if someone's going in, if someone loves the story of the Odyssey, and then they go in to watch

[00:43:11] this movie and you've taken too many creative decisions or creative changes, like you're going to kind of ruin it for your hardcore base of people who love the Odyssey. If you just love Christopher Nolan, then maybe you go in and you don't give a shit. You're like, Hey, let him do whatever he wants to do. And I'll, I'm going to love it anyway. But if you're a lover of the Odyssey, like the actual story, you might be disappointed because he's taken creative avenues that, that

[00:43:40] don't align with the original take. I know you showed me the, the Blair Witch, that edition. I'm going to say I'm a little bitter that I didn't get it. Um, did the 4k come out of the same edition or was just that me, I don't think there is a 4k because they basically, the way it was filmed. Um, I think they were saying basically 4k wouldn't even, wouldn't even look right. Did you pre-order

[00:44:04] 28 days later? The 4k that's coming up? I'm scared for that because remember that was, that was recorded on iPhone. No? Yeah. Well, yeah. So yeah. And I'm like, how are you going to upgrade? I don't work in restorations, but being digital, you would think it'd be easier. I don't think it is, but it's probably

[00:44:28] going to be, look distorted. I'm a little scared for that release. I do hope that it is a nice cover because we've been waiting for that release for almost what year is it? I don't even know how long, I don't know if you have a preference when it comes to slip cover or not. I mean, I'll be honest with you. I'm not a huge slip cover fan. I mean, I, I, I would say I prefer

[00:44:54] it over nothing. Like if there's a standard case, like I'll take a slip cover over a standard case, but like, I just feel like the slip cover. I mean, like I'm always worried about like hitting them on stuff or like that, like deteriorating over time and not looking good. Like, I just feel like the slip cover is just not. And like you said too, over time, it's like they're making them thinner and thinner and cheaper and cheaper. And it's kind of annoying.

[00:45:22] Like in a way I don't like them, but if that's all they're going to give me besides a standard case, I'll take it. Yeah. For example, I bring it on. It's Chout Factory. I really don't expect much from them, to be honest, but the fact that I got a slip cover for that, that is one of my favorite comedies. And I'm like, yes, that was a win. What I do is that I put them in one of those plastic protectors. I put them there and also movies that I have multiple copies of or movies that like The Wedding

[00:45:48] Singer that I love, but a lot of the other films, either they're sealed or I keep them in a nice slip cover protector. But yeah, the one that I really love that I picked out a few that are, I would say not, I wouldn't say mainstream because some of these aren't mainstream, but I picked them out because they're what I expect that if you have such an epic event, like Godzilla

[00:46:15] minus one, you create something epic. You're giving me two booklets that I can't read. I don't read Japanese, but hell, I put the Blu-ray on and I ended up somewhere that it was not the movie, but this is, I mean, this is a release. Like this is a freaking release. You're giving me four discs. One of them is minus zero minus color. So it's like black and white. I sat down and I watched

[00:46:41] it. I, it looked epic. Yeah. Like the book itself, like the art and all that. I'm like, this is an investment. Sadly, I can't protect it. And I didn't, I don't have another edition. I've been wanting to buy the regular 4k so I can somehow seal this one up and not have to watch the movie. Yes. Cause it's such a beautiful box and I love Godzilla. I love King Kong. I know some of the

[00:47:07] movies that are out there are not the best, but he is one of, one of my favorite non-horror monsters. Then when I mentioned vinegar syndrome, I actually had forgotten about Congo. Like I remember loving Congo when I was a kid. It scared the shit out of me, to be honest. When I was a kid, I watched this movie a lot more times than I can count and having this beautiful edition of

[00:47:35] vinegar syndrome. It's probably not your type of horror. I think this is horror. I. Yeah. A hundred percent. You know, funny. I was actually thinking about getting that exact version. So then it comes with the slip cover inside. So you already got the hard cover box in the outside. It comes with this beautiful slip cover inside and obviously their vinegar syndrome thick booklet. Like I love the smell. Like I'm a person that I go to a bookstore and I start smelling

[00:47:59] the books. The booklets are so well done. The quality is so well done. And usually when I complain about a release is because we're so jaded at this point too, we get these amazing releases and it's like you put all this effort. Companies that probably don't even have the money as some other

[00:48:23] companies and studios don't even take the time to at least elaborate a little bit, give us a little extra when it comes to not just content within the discs, but also in the packaging. Yes. A hundred percent agree with that. And going back, that's one of the beauties of the Blair Witch collection as well is because it comes with the art cards. It's got a replica of the all weather

[00:48:52] back country notebook. It's got, uh, I think it's like 186 page. Yeah. Lots of novel. All like director's notes and behind the scenes information. Like it's loaded. You can tell that they cared when they did this. It wasn't just thrown together and thrown out. You know what I mean? Just to make a quick buck. But again, that's, that's boutique collecting. Sometimes when a movie is coming out, I secretly hope that a boutique label takes it.

[00:49:22] I believe K-pop demon hunters. I was hoping that Criterion would get it just because I knew Criterion was going to do something good with it and they got the rights for the film. I'm just hoping they do a nice digi pack for the movie because the movie was pretty good. I'm not a big anime person. I just watch, I love Castlevania. That's as much as anime as I get, but at least like

[00:49:49] K-pop demon hunters, I'm like, this needs to be a very nice digi pack, digi book, anything that is hard box. You'd have to give me for this. It won an Oscar. It won every award possible throughout the season. Give this a royal treatment. They put out that Wes Anderson box that looks hideous. It's hideous. Whoever bought it, I'm so sorry. It's hideous. It's just, it's a box. It's just a

[00:50:16] plain box. I'm like, I could take an Amazon box and put all my... You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With rss.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this.

[00:50:43] If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free Wes Anderson movies in there. They probably look way better displayed than in that hideous box they put out. I think Coruscant puts out better box sets than Criterion has been doing. I feel like at the

[00:51:04] beginning, they did put out some great cover art and packaging for Fellini. I have the Inker Bergman box set. There's a huge box set. They have Ines Varda. They're so nicely made. The Before trilogy looks beautiful. But then now you get into Wes Anderson, who's a very well-known director and you do this

[00:51:29] shitty box set. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I don't like their color trilogy box set either from Criterion. I got the one from Coruscant. It's freaking gorgeous. The restoration is probably the same because another thing about Criterion, they love to grab other people's restorations. Usually Studio Canal, BFI, and Coruscant. They just use the same restoration. Maybe Criterion is the one doing it and they sell it to them. Maybe

[00:51:54] it's backwards. I just decided to save my money. When I travel, if I find it, I'll buy it. If not, I'll just order it on Amazon UK. What else have you got over there? I mean, I guess the next one I'll show off is probably this It two film collection that I got. So it's a steelbook two film collection of It.

[00:52:19] Because my thing is, is like, I'm a sucker for steelbooks. I love steelbooks, even though I watched your video on when you were talking about steelbooks of how they don't really give you anything. And I agree. I think it's kind of ridiculous that they're at a, such a premium price point and you get the steelbook and the disc and that's all you get. But I'm definitely a sucker

[00:52:44] for it. So when I found out that there was like a nice two film, like steelbook set, I definitely had to get this. This is the second part. And this is the first part. And then the back of each one. And I like simplicity too. So just having like him holding the one balloon for the first part. Yeah. And then holding two balloons for the second part. Yeah. In the back cover that, yeah, that's pretty nice. I saw that on your Instagram, I think.

[00:53:10] And I was like, damn, I missed on this. And I remember seeing it online. I didn't know what it was. I thought it was a box set of both films and I passed on it. I didn't know it was a steelbook until I saw somebody post it. And then I think I saw your post on it. And I was like, damn, I really missed on that. And I collect every version of it that I find, including the films. And that steelbook is that's what I said. Like those are quality steelbooks. Like the art on it

[00:53:39] looks amazing. I love the house in the first part. That's a nice touch. The house is a big part of the movie. So it has to be at least in one of the covers. Yes. And, and, and like the outer casing too is like made out of like, it's like hard to kind of show, but like, it's like made out of like a, like almost metal outer casing. That looks titanium. Honestly. Yeah. You can really see the

[00:54:04] quality on that. You can hit somebody with that and knock them out. A hundred percent. It is pretty heavy. Yeah, no, that's a nice quality box set. That's what I would say. Like, that's a good investment. As collecting that, that's definitely a good investment. The one that I haven't posted on Instagram and I have had for like probably a month now sitting on my desk to talk about it. It's the 20th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice. I have not opened this. I got this on Amazon. I,

[00:54:33] this beautiful book. It's just a long box that like, I haven't even opened it because it's so freaking beautiful and it's not even to open it and enjoy. If I could find like maybe a nice way to wrap it up later on after, cause I have the regular 4k with slip cover. So I'm going to be using that to watch and this to just stare at. It's a hobby. I would say there's a line between the hobby and the

[00:54:59] hoarding, but I feel like when it's something like this, that I can actually get enjoyment from, or it's just something that I want in my collection. Cause this, I wouldn't say one of my favorite films, but definitely one of my favorite adaptations. The Blu-ray for this already looked so good that I can only imagine how beautiful the 4k is going to look, but I still had to have it. I didn't need it, but I wanted it. It was only about $50, but

[00:55:28] $50 goes a long way sometimes. It's a daily life. $50, man. That's a long way, especially with the way prices are right now. Yeah. And it's something that a lot of people don't have either. Cause a lot of the movie collectors, movie influencers probably didn't get this sent out to them. But the other one that I,

[00:55:50] I have completely sealed is the version for A Clockwork Orange. I told you that I, I saw this, I didn't even look at the price. Basically it's just plastic all over. It's like, it's plastic inside plastic. I don't know if you've seen those that they do at Walmart. They have one for it. So it looks like a VHS. It's not a VHS and it's just like a lighting or something. I don't know what the hell it is. So that's what I thought it was when I saw it.

[00:56:18] I was like, Oh, it's another one of those shitty things that they're doing now that looks like a VHS, but it's not. And then when I picked it up, it was like, Oh, limited edition 4k. I didn't even notice this was a 4k. Like I said, I dropped it in my cart. I ran the hell out of there. I think it was like a few months ago and I bought this maybe like, I would say like a year or two, a few months ago, I was looking to watch A Clockwork Orange. And I read that it said 4k

[00:56:45] ultra HD. I was like, wait, what the fuck? This is a 4k. I thought this was like a Blu-ray or a DVD for the price. It was a steal. I think it was like 20 pounds or 25 pounds. Easily translate to like a hundred US dollars because our dollar sucks internationally. This edition, I don't even know what's in it, to be honest. It doesn't have any pictures in the back of what the content inside is. I could only assume. Because you're not going to open it. You have no idea. It's a complete mystery.

[00:57:14] Oh, so I'm reading the bottom. This has been on that Kubrick show for so long that I just go in it. I pull it out every now and I was like, hey babe. And I put it back in. But it's a Titans cult. Titans of cults. So I guess that's the label who put it out. Celebrating an iconic cinema through unique home video releases featuring new created artwork paired with thoughtfully curated collectibles. It does have a little key chain of a triangle. It's the milk bar. So it has like one

[00:57:43] of the statues of the milk bar, but in a little triangle. Oh, it's a pin. I'm trying to turn the movie to the side to see if I can see beyond. So it's a pin. It's not a key chain. So it says like this two disc set includes a clockwork orange on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray. Collectible steelbook case, so it is a steelbook. That's why it's heavy. And two unique pins. I only see one. So I'm assuming.

[00:58:12] Oh, okay. There is another pin up there right behind the label. It's just covered by the title and the box, but I guess it just, I think it's orange. Yo, I don't want to open this. If I see another edition, I'm probably going to buy it just so I can open it. But yeah, it has two pins. It has the 4K steelbook. It is pretty heavy. I'm discovering this as we go. I'm loving this box set even more. And I definitely get it's one of those things where it's like, it's so nice. You just don't even want

[00:58:39] to open it. And like literally just this week I bought this, I believe it's a German release, the Blair Witch collection. So it's got, you know, original Blair Witch project. It's got Book of Shadows and it's got the 2016 Blair Witch. So it's got all three of them in here, but it's one of those things that I literally bought it just because I like the cover. I already have all the movies individually. So I'm never, this is going to stay sealed. This is just going to sit

[00:59:08] on the shelf and be another. And the cover, the cover itself looks pretty nice. Cause I was just trying to figure it out. Cause like the lighting is, doesn't let me see what, what was in front of her. So I guess it's like the little stick figurines, which that's pretty nice. Yeah. And is that a steelbook or is that a. So this is actually, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to open it. So I'm not a hundred percent sure. It looks like it opens up almost like a,

[00:59:35] like, it's got like a cover. Like I take this off and it's like sitting inside of here. Oh, okay. So I'm not sure exactly. I got, I'm going to have to look up a video of somebody else opening this up. Cause I literally have no idea what is inside of here. Same, same way that you are with the clockwork release. I have no idea what's going on in there. I feel like that's what I'll probably do for this episode. I'll probably just tag YouTube videos of other people ruining their collection. So we don't have to ruin ours.

[01:00:03] How about you open it? I'll talk about it. Like I thought you could break is one of my favorites and I have a like four or five different editions of 2001 space odyssey. And this one I have open because this was the first 4k that I bought. The only one that I'm missing is the one that is

[01:00:26] this same red edition. Cause this is the HDR edition that has the red cover in the front. So it comes with like the cards, the little postcards inside. So it's like a little envelope with the cards, which checked them out. It was pretty nice. Nothing to brag about really, but the box it itself. This is what I like having when I collect different directors.

[01:00:54] I wish that somebody did something like this for John Waters. Cause I mentioned to you that Pedro Nolovar is one of the people that I collect. And before we were having a conversation, I told you that I bought a bunch of his films when I was traveling, I seen the box set for, for Pedro, which has most of his films, not all of his films. And there's a white box out there

[01:01:24] that is so fricking beautiful. It has, I think majority of his films, obviously not the new ones. And it's such a beautiful box. It's a Spanish box, but I'm like, that's the kind of respect that sometimes I'm like, if, if we did that in the U S I don't think it would be as well done as

[01:01:46] some of these other countries tend to do. And you posting the one for the German release for Blair Witch. And in Germany, I feel like it's, I've been seeing not just you now, but other collectors posting things from Germany, their releases are so well done. I mean, Australia, Australia is lucky.

[01:02:10] Australia has what umbrella? Second side is Australia, no? Via, uh, second, second side, Australia. Second side might be Australia. I know via vision. Via vision is Australia. Yeah. Yeah. Via vision is Australian. I know they have a few boutiques over there that, I mean, those I have the one for John Waters that I got recently through movie room. Does it still be?

[01:02:39] You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With rss.com starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at rss.com.

[01:03:08] The mented release that umbrella did. I wish a lot of John Waters films would get that treatment here because I love collecting John Waters. I need Pecker on, even if it's on Blu-ray, I need Pecker in a nice box like this. It's just a slipcover. It's not, it's nothing fancy. It's a slipcover

[01:03:32] Blu-ray edition, but it's so nicely done. Like, you know, the quality of the cover art is nicely done. And for me who collects John Waters, that is something I need to have in my collection. But the movie's so well done and then putting it in that box, in that cover art, it was just cherry on top, to be honest. I had over here to show off was basically the Friday the 13th. I'm going to switch it up

[01:04:01] because I feel like, because my, of course, my favorite franchise is Halloween. And I feel like my absolute grail of physical media is it's not even necessarily a official release. It's a custom box set that, uh, I can't remember the guy's actual name, but Blockbuster Box Sets made a custom Halloween box set that I purchased a couple years ago at this point.

[01:04:27] I've started even getting it signed, but it's literally, it's incredible. So you got the front of the box and I got Tom Morga from Halloween 4 on the front there. I got Tyler Maine on the side. And then this side, you got the 2018 trilogy. Then you got the top, which I can do this without everything falling out.

[01:04:56] You got the scene from Halloween 2 and I got Dick Warlock to sign the top there. But this release is insane. Just the care that went into this is better than almost anything I've ever seen from an actual boutique label. You got the outer box and then each movie has a hard cover that holds the actual release of the film.

[01:05:22] So you got regular artwork on the front or the, uh, the standard box art and then custom art on the back of each hard case for each film. But I wanted to share that because I just think honestly, even though it's not an official release from like a label, that is probably easily one of the best pieces of physical media I own. And it's not the movies themselves.

[01:05:45] Cause it was just the box I got from blockbuster box sets, but that easily elevates the whole franchise for me. Cause now I got basically made that my 4k collection. I got the, the standard Blu-ray collection, uh, from screen factory back in the day. I got that, you know, on my shelf back there, but this is easily my favorite piece that I own. That looks gorgeous.

[01:06:09] Honestly, there's a lot of these people that are doing these custom box sets to, to drop a name. Um, last movie standing, Brian, he did a custom box set for ready or not. I don't know if he started the Etsy store yet. Um, I think he's in the process of doing so. I got to ask him though. I want to order that cause I had the standard Blu-ray for, uh, for the movie.

[01:06:37] I mean, a lot of these people, they're just doing such great jobs. And when I told you the reason I wanted to do this, you know, venture in this crazy world of podcasting was to highlight and spotlight people like that. And that kind of work. Cause we can't always be spending money on boutique labels. The one that I'm going to show you next, this is the, the box set for the DVD of Nightmare

[01:07:07] on Elm Street. I spent $25 on this. I opened them all. I wiped them. There's a little bit of lint there, but I think it's just, it's fine. I opened up all the DVDs. It happens. Yeah. I opened up all the DVDs. There's one that's like a tiny bit of damage, but I think it's also because when I was cleaning them, I was a little bit careless. I think one of them fell and I think it was, uh, the encyclopedia disc.

[01:07:33] They all have this beautiful, small, minimal, but beautiful cover. And they had the movie covers and stuff like that. And then it has this little booklet, which is Freddie there. It actually has the glasses for the 3d version, um, of the movie. And the glasses were inside a little package, so they weren't used to anything. They were pretty brand new. Yeah. The box has a little bit, you know, tear, uh, on the sides and stuff like that.

[01:08:03] But the person had them all opened up so you can see the quality of the disc. When I got the DVDs, I went through them. I was like, not a scratch in the world. I was surprised because I don't know how old this is. I looked up how much it was going to be. If it was new, I think it was like above 150. And I was like, no, no, um, now for resale brand new resale right now. Yeah. Right now.

[01:08:31] I, I think it was on Amazon that it was like above 150. And I was like, no, no. The reason I wanted this was because it also has Freddie in the back with, you know, the claws and the, the, the knife fingers or the glove is so well done. Yes. I'll be honest with you. Like that, that set.

[01:08:55] I also, I got the, that same set I got for about 30 bucks, like maybe a year and a half ago or so. And I'll be honest, even after getting the new set, which I still have that new set, the 4k set still sealed. Cause I just, it's so nice. I just don't even want to mess with it. But to be completely honest, that DVD set still, in my opinion, outdoes the new 4k set. I don't care what anybody says.

[01:09:24] The new 4k set is nice. It's premium, but it does not have the character that, that DVD set has the deep, like you said, the fact that the spines of each film come together to make Freddie, the, the, the like slight embossing and like, and like a bronze tone that's throughout the entire like outer box. I would have preferred them to do a version of that box.

[01:09:53] Maybe if you still want to do steelbooks, maybe you do steelbooks, but a version of that box with the spines still like making the picture of Freddie, I would have probably preferred that over. Cause even though I like the 4k set, I still kind of feel like they, they did like bare minimum. You know what I mean? The box is Freddie sweater, which is cool, but I don't think we're anything crazy. I mean, it's, it's literally just his sweater with some tears and stuff like that. It's nothing.

[01:10:23] It's nice, but it's not like above and beyond. You know what I mean? I had so much to say about that box set when it came out. I know I threw a lot of hate out there for, I wouldn't say people who bought it. Cause I'm not going to say people who bought it. I want to say for people who pushed it, they're a pusher, you know, there's a lot of pushers out there, but there was, there was a lot of people pushing that box set.

[01:10:51] Like they were pushing pills and I'm like, dude, it's a sweater. It's a, it's a fucking sweater. I'm like, you have Freddie. Well, you're really antagonizing me. I love Wes Craven. Wes Craven was rolling over in his grave when that release came out because.

[01:11:17] So you know how Wes Craven has like the cameo and he's wearing like, um, the Freddie outfit in scream. So he's wearing that Freddie outfit. I'm like, it would have been so dope. If it would have been, you know, a tribute to him, but it wasn't, it was just, you know, Freddie sweater. But because it's just Freddie sweater and it's an ultimate collection.

[01:11:46] Freddie. Cause again, they put it as the ultimate collection. I expected more because I'm, you haven't opened it, but I'm pretty sure that if you open it in the inside, there's nothing, there's nothing in the inside, but the disc. And it's literally, literally steel books. And again, the front cover of each steel book is the original like poster art, which I, you know, I do like that in a way, but at the same time, like you said, steel books, there's

[01:12:15] nothing really extra in there. It's just the steel book, the discs, and you get a pair of glasses. And that's, that's like it. Yeah. I think somebody got theirs damaged. I saw a YouTube video and their box. Look, I'm not, again, I'm not insulting anybody. I'm not, you get what you pay for, but given that you spend, I don't know how much you spend, but I know that person spent almost $300.

[01:12:44] And it's the aluminum, the steel book was dented. I didn't get joy out of that. Sometimes I do get joy out of other people's misery, but that person is a, he's a really nice person. That's why I felt bad because he bought that. He bought that release. And I order movies from the movie room and from orbit.

[01:13:11] And they wrap it up, like, you know, you're protecting it from the next pandemic. They're so nicely boxed and it doesn't touch the box at no side. You're telling me that I spent $300 on a sweater. If that would have come with the steel book, if you have a nice, cute, you know, crocheted sweater. Yeah. Attached to the steel book. One, it wouldn't have been damaged. And two, it would have been worth something. It would have been worth the $300.

[01:13:40] Cause right now I have the first part. So is that a middle finger up for me? Are you telling me now that the other four are not going to come out in that steel book edition that I have because you put out the ultimate steel book edition and now I'm stuck with just the first part. And to be honest with you, I think what they're actually going to do, according to what I've seen online, apparently they're going to do another run of the steel book collections later this year.

[01:14:09] But also I still feel like they're going to try to squeeze as much out of people as possible. I still feel like down the line, all of a sudden you're going to see Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Nightmare on Elm Street 4 start popping up as single releases. Cause once the well dries up, I feel like the same thing they do with all horror franchise, like big horror franchises, especially Halloween.

[01:14:37] If they can get away with putting another version out or another something out that they can get, like, so I definitely think that a, a solo version of Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 is going to happen down the line. I think it just depends on like timing and, and, you know, after the well dries up with the collection, cause they are, there's no way they're passing up. There's no way they're not going to, you know, cash in on the fact that so many people missed out on that collection last year and they know it.

[01:15:07] They know that there's people itching to buy it. So they're definitely, I feel like they're for sure eventually going to come out with more. Well, and yours is sealed. You're not opening yours anytime soon. I'm not buying, unless that goes down to $80, I'm not buying it. Cause again, I already have the first part. They can still take money from people like me that I have the first part. I don't want to buy the steelbook box set. Cause one, it doesn't attract me.

[01:15:36] Um, two, I already had the first part. Why would I buy the steelbook box set? I could, I just want the other ones separately. You showed a beautiful box set done by an independent artist. I would rather invest money in that. And there's people who are doing it by the way, too. There's people who I think what they did was that they took out the movies from the sweater

[01:16:00] box and they put them in a custom made box that they did. And it looks way better. The same person, like Blockbuster box sets and the artist who did the artwork on this set, which is Mariano Matos. I hope I'm saying his name right. But they partnered up again and were going to make a box set for Nightmare on Elm Street.

[01:16:30] They were going to do the same thing they did with the Halloween collection, but they were going to do it for Nightmare on Elm Street. And the artwork looked amazing. Like the artist was posting on Instagram, like, you know, updates as he was doing each individual Nightmare on Elm Street. And then I'm not sure what happened. I'm not going to get into the weeds about what occurred. But because of the Nightmare on Elm Street collection that they were doing,

[01:16:56] apparently the studio must have stepped in and told them, cut it out. Yeah, you're not doing that. Of course. So, so I ordered it. I literally ordered the Nightmare on Elm Street collection from them. But then like a month and a half or two months later, it got canceled and I got refunded because they weren't able to do it. But it was going to look, when I tell you, it was going to look 10,000 times better than that box that looks like a sweater. It was going to look so good.

[01:17:25] Yeah, that's my argument against studios. I say support boutique labels more than studios. But again, we're still going to go buy it. They're going to, you know, we suck at the tit of these major studios. People are like, oh, you vote with your dollar. We don't want to buy Disney stuff until Disney gives us all the other releases that they're hiding and they're keeping from us. And yeah, you still do. Do you get it from them? You get it from your major studio.

[01:17:54] I don't know if you saw my comment on Instagram where a few weeks ago, people are like, oh, physical media is dying. And all of a sudden, the movie that came out this week, they're excited about. And all of a sudden, physical media is alive. There we go. It's alive again. Every week, it's alive again. Yeah. Every time they get something that they like, physical media is alive.

[01:18:26] I wanted to do a release spotlight segment within the episode because I wanted to incorporate it into this because, again, it has to do more with the cover art than anything. But the release for this week, that was Fight Club. A lot of people were gagging over it. This little soapbox that they did.

[01:18:51] Last week, when I said I was going to go on a rant, if this release, which is one of my favorite David Fincher films. This and Seven. I think that what they did with Seven, a lot of people hated it. These collectors, they don't know what they want anymore. I love that Seven Digipack. Oh, but it doesn't align with my other 4Ks. Like, it just bumps out. I don't care.

[01:19:16] They were complaining about Trainspotting in the Criterion Collection because it kind of, it pops out from the rest of the collection. You know, like, it's too thin. It's too long. The measurements. And I'm like, you complain if you get the same thing over and over. And then you complain if you get something different. Different. I loved the 7 4K edition. The little booklet that they put out. I loved it. It doesn't go with my horror section.

[01:19:45] I put it in the horror section because San Nicklaus is a thriller, but I don't have a thriller section. I don't care. It doesn't align with my other movies. But I feel like comparing these two editions, you have the Blu-ray that I bought in the good old days of Best Buy. This was like $10 Best Buy. It has the same soap in the back. You know, smaller, but it's in the back. This is still sealed, by the way.

[01:20:13] Like, this, this, I see Blu-ray is still sealed. It's not going to be open. I'm going to open this because guess what? I like this one less. Right. It comes with the same commentaries. The only difference is I think this one has HDR, but it doesn't have any Dolby Vision, which to be honest, and I know this might be a total different argument when it comes to the quality between Dolby Vision and HDR.

[01:20:41] I think this movie itself will look good because it has a lot of neon lighting. And I don't like Blade Runner. But what I do like is that one is a 4K well done. You have those colors, especially like the reds and the neon colors just popping out of the screen. And this one has gotten great review for that. Sadly, it doesn't have Dolby Atmos, which I think it would have been great because at this point, everybody should have seen the movie.

[01:21:10] But when they're fighting, I feel like those punches would have sounded great in Dolby Atmos. Right. And this is just, again, the same commentaries by David. They have the same stuff as the Blu-ray, you know, writer's commentary, technical commentaries. The making of the sound is basically all the same. The only difference is the picture quality that they upgraded, which, okay, look, I'm fine.

[01:21:39] And right now between these two, if I'm putting out a 4K, this is what I want. This is, I want the two main characters with this neon, you know, I don't know why it's pink. I guess pink because of the soap. The soap. It's a little lazy. I feel like when they do stuff like that, it's just a little bit lazy. I like simplistic art. I don't like things if it's too overcomplicated or oversaturated with, you know, different things going on.

[01:22:06] But I truthfully, when I see that cover, I just think that someone was lazy and just said, take the bar of soap, blow it up. Put it on the cover. No, for sure. The reason I knew I was going to flip on this is because I thought that the lettering on the soap, I know it's a lot to ask, but I don't know what you call it. I think it's, you know, the goosebump books, when you pass your hand, the little bumps. I thought that's what it was going to be.

[01:22:33] I think it's called, um, not unboxing. What do you mean? Like, like embossing. Embossing, not unboxing. Jesus Christ. My brain is fried, dude. Of course. The one for that, I wouldn't have got it. You said unboxing. I was like, man, I know it. I'm like, I'm trying to, I'm like, I'm trying to, cause I love goosebump books. And I don't know if you, if you collect goosebump or if you read goosebump when you were young, but the lettering is one of the best things of those books.

[01:22:59] But then they did the re-release of the books and they did a beautiful tin box of goosebump. And is that the one that like Barnes and Noble had? Yeah. Cause I used to work at Barnes and Noble. Yeah. So, um, they had those and I bought them. I was so fucking excited. And I got, they're like, Oh, it has Welcome to the Dead House, which is the OG first book. One of my favorite. I get home, I open it.

[01:23:29] I do the goosebump test, which is like, Oh, let's see if it's real goosebumps. Nope. No bumps. So I'm like the box, the tin box has the embossing. The books do not. So then what I did is that I went on eBay. I think I spent like 20 something dollars plus shipping buying one of the original prints of Welcome to the Dead House. A little pissed because it's a little damaged, but it's one of the first, uh, prints.

[01:23:57] And I remember buying the first print in Scholastic. I think you're too young to remember when Scholastic used to do the school fairs. Like, yo. I'm not too young. I went to the Scholastic school fair. My allowance. Parents for money, begging them so I could get something. No, it's funny because I would tell my mom, like, I need money for the school book fair. Oh, but I could be doing drugs.

[01:24:25] You should be thankful that I'm buying books and I'm not buying drugs. Right. And she's like, oh, but you shouldn't be doing that. I'm like, I know I shouldn't be doing drugs, but if you don't give me money for books, you could give me money for drugs. You don't give me money for these books. I'm smoking crap. Okay. There was this little, um, secondhand shop and that would sell all the goosebumps for like a quarter. And that's where I got another edition. I think it was a haunted mask.

[01:24:52] If I'm not mistaken, that was an original, uh, print for 25 cents. And then trying to find those now for $20, $30, I was like, get the fuck out of here. I'm like, I'm good. Uh, they'll live in my memory. It blows up. It becomes popular. You know, there's nostalgia with it now. So now people take something that shouldn't be, that shouldn't be that much money. And they bump up the price because they know if you can't really find it anywhere else, you're going to pay them. Yeah.

[01:25:21] You're going to give them the money because it's something that like, especially if you grew up with goosebumps and all, it's something that's, that's, you know, kind of like a childhood, like nostalgia thing. So like, of course you're going to dish out the money for it. Yeah. Yeah. So like, I know we were talking about previously before we started recording. And I told you, I wanted to save that conversation for now for release spotlight, because the other one that we got some sort of news is the Halloween box set.

[01:25:50] And I know, I know from your experience, I want you to tell your little side of the story when it comes to, I'm not interested in it. To be honest, I'm not going to go running by the Halloween box set. But I know it's your favorite movie. And that's why I said, let's go to the conversation, save it for later. Because I want to know your experience with the, with the pumpkin. The pumpkin, the pumpkin that I'll never see. The pumpkin that broke my heart.

[01:26:18] So look, Halloween's my favorite franchise. And I double dip on Halloween 10,000 times over, but I will never buy the ViaVision imprint steel box one through five set when they first announced it with the pumpkin. To be completely honest, I own these movies so many times over. I don't need these movies.

[01:26:43] And doing one through five doesn't make a lot of sense to me because you're literally stopping in the middle of the Thorn trilogy. So it's like, you're not even completing, like you're not even completing a timeline really in the Halloween franchise. So, you know, they came out with it. I thought, you know what? The pumpkin is worth it. Like as a collector, as, as someone who loves Halloween, that the stupid pumpkin looked awesome.

[01:27:12] It was going to hold the steel books. I was all in. I was like, you know what? Screw it. Take my money. I want the pumpkin. Take it. Then, you know, it was supposed to be like a Halloween release. So in October, it was supposed to release. October comes along. Of course. Well, let me actually hold on. Let me back up for a second. When it was announced, it was limited to 1,000 copies.

[01:27:38] And as a collector, I was like limited to 1,000 and it's a Halloween one pumpkin replica. Absolutely. Let's just do it. Then after like two or three weeks, they saw the popularity, I guess, start growing. So they decided, you know what? We're going to take advantage of this. You know how we said it was strictly limited to 1,000 copies? Nah, it's actually going to be 2,000 copies now.

[01:28:06] So already, you know, I'm not one, like I'm not going to be like a gatekeeper. Like, hey, more power to people now that it's, you know, more widely available so more people can get it. But as a collector, when a company comes out and says, this is going to be strictly limited to this number, part of me buying it was under the assumption of, you know what? As a collector, you know what? I think I'm going to do it. Limited to 1,000.

[01:28:34] Halloween's my favorite franchise. It's got the pumpkin. Everything's kind of coming together. Making it worth, pushing it over that line of, is it worth for me to buy even though I know it's overpriced? So then October comes along. You know, it's supposed to release. Right before it's supposed to release in October, they come out with a notice saying, hey, we're running into problems with shipping or we're running into problems with the, you know, production.

[01:29:04] So this is actually going to be delayed until December, which I'm already kind of, look, I'm not going to get crazy upset about it. It's like things happen. And even though I would like my Halloween set to come on Halloween, because that's pretty cool. You know, if I have to wait till Christmas to get my Halloween set, I'll be okay with that. So I was like, you know, no big deal. Not a, not a, not a big deal. I'll just wait until December. I'll get my pumpkin.

[01:29:33] So December comes along, which never getting that pumpkin. December comes along. They send me an email. I sent, I sent them an email in like the beginning of December because they had given no update and I was starting to get a little like worried about it. I was like, what's going on with my pumpkin? So I sent them an email asking, is it still, you know, supposed to ship this month?

[01:29:58] They sent me an email back with a confirmation that my package was going to ship soon. So I'm thinking, oh, we're all good to go. We're, we're, we're straight. Okay. Then a week later, they do the big update where they announced that the pumpkin didn't pass their final inspection and it was going to break in shipping.

[01:30:23] So they're going to cancel the pumpkin altogether and they're going to put it in a steel box. Kind of how the Nightmare on Umstreet set is. One through five, they're going to put it in a steel box and it's going to be delayed another five months. And if you already had an order, you could either cancel or you could get a slight discount. And when I say slight, I mean slight. They weren't giving you much of your money back.

[01:30:52] They were giving you a little bit. And then they were like, we'll give you a slight discount. And then, you know, you can keep your order. Well, I mean, at that point I was done. You had lied to me. You had sent me an email saying it was shipping. You had delayed it once already. You had already basically took the strictly limited to 1000 and made it 2000, which, okay. All that together just turned me off to the set completely. As much as I love Halloween,

[01:31:21] I don't, I don't ever see myself buying that set purely based on the fact that all I'm going to do if I look at that set is think about the pumpkin that I'm never going to have. So, so yeah, I mean, it is, it is what it is. I know stuff happens, but I think that Biovision and imprint dropped the ball on this one entirely. You get a franchise like Halloween, you want to make it special. You want to make it right. I mean, left and right, they were just

[01:31:49] failing with this set. Yeah. No, going into the Halloween, hearing from your experience is why I always say like this, and this is a boutique label. This is not a major studio or anything like that, but sometimes biting more than you can chew is, it's also a bad way to go about things. And I feel like the experience that a lot of people are probably going through right now with that release, and I'm not going to lie, it did look nice. I wasn't going to get it whether it was a

[01:32:19] pumpkin or not, but because I already had the Halloween screen factory, but it did look good for some people who have a massive display of 4Ks, you know, and you see these videos with people's massive rooms and collections that I'm like, one day, but I really can't maintain that. It would have looked great. And the pumpkin did look great. And, you know, I do, I feel sorry for that

[01:32:48] experience. That would have been, I would say a killer collection and then dropping it in that steel book. It was an insult. Yeah, big time. And I mean, like, I mean, when I, again, I had plans, like, you know, as, after I bought it, you know, I was thinking to myself, I'm like, you know, this is probably going to be like the centerpiece of my collection. Like I'm going to have a Halloween one pumpkin with steel books, you know, in the back, like this is going to be like a centerpiece of my

[01:33:13] collection. And, you know, some people I've watched videos on this and some of the like people on YouTube and Instagram, like the, the content creators in the space. I understand that they give via vision and imprint. They're giving them some grace because they're saying like, well, at least they recognize the issue before they sent out a pumpkin that got broke for everybody, which I agree.

[01:33:41] I think that's way better than the alternative of everybody getting their pumpkin broke. But if you're a, if you're a major, if you're like, like with imprint being such a boutique label, if you had the idea of the pumpkin with the steel books, before you even announced that you were going to do a pumpkin with steel books, you should have had a prototype made and then shipped it to the United States and

[01:34:10] back. And if it passed, you're good to go. If it did it, you know that you can't do that. Why overpromise something when you weren't even sure of it in the first place. It's like, did you not make a prototype? Did you not even know how it was gonna, how it was gonna work? You just like, kind of like you'd like winged it. And then when it didn't work, you were like, sorry guys. They said that they

[01:34:34] made the pumpkins and they didn't pass the test, but I'm wondering, there's no way they had all those sets made and they just trashed all the pumpkins. They had to have like ran into this with the test that they made after they announced it. That's what I would assume. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I just feel like it's just like as a studio like that, uh, you know, a boutique label that does some very nice releases. Like I have, I have an imprint release right here.

[01:35:05] That is insanely premium. Oh yeah. The keep. Yeah. The keep. So like they do, they do nice stuff, but like you can't drop the ball like that. Like if you're going to promise something like that, you should have, they should have known already how structurally sound the pumpkin was going to be. If it could make it in shipping, that shouldn't be something you find out five months or four months

[01:35:30] after you order the product. I'll give you the last word on that topic. Because again, you've had more experience with that than, than I have. I really admire people like you that take not just good care of their collection, but it's also very meticulous with their collection, with what they buy. And yeah, the keep box that I see in it is a pretty nice box that I have a few, the portageist one

[01:35:56] and the shining one, which is forgot their names, the company that puts them out. But I have those. Yeah. I have those. I'm not opening those either. So they're going to stay field. Film ball. Huh? Film ball. Oh, the film ball. I think that's the film ball. Yes. The film ball. All right, John, before we go, please tell people where they can find you. Also the creator for the box set that you mentioned. We're going to try to see if we can put his website here at the bottom

[01:36:22] in the show notes. And I would also put your information in the show notes, but let people know where they can find you, where they can follow you. Yeah, absolutely. If people want to follow me, they can follow me on Instagram at it's spooky season 95, but it's spelled S P K Y underscore S Z N 95. And of course I just, you know, post updates and pictures of my collection to share with people,

[01:36:48] but also the creator of the box sets. I want to be honest. I'm not sure. I haven't updated myself on what he's been doing recently. So the creator himself, blockbuster box sets. I'm not sure if he's still doing it because I don't know what kind of legality situation or what kind of situation he got into to like, kind of stop making the box sets for a while.

[01:37:14] But I will say we definitely should tag, um, the guy who does the artwork on it, Mariano Matos. I mean, he is insanely talented. Um, and the, the, the art on these Halloween boxes are some of my favorite just artwork in general, uh, that I own in my collection. So I definitely, I definitely think we should, we should shout him out because he's, he's real good. Awesome. Yeah, we'll definitely do

[01:37:39] that. I'm also going to be tagging out some, um, going to see if I can get some of the other people that I know, know do custom box sets. Um, try to ask their permission to tag them in the, uh, show notes as well. But thank you so much, John, for joining me today on this episode of the physical cut.

[01:37:59] You can follow me at the physical cut pod on Instagram or at Carlos Ruben 2.0. That's K R L O Z R U B E N 2.0. And we'll see you guys next time.