Batman Forever landed on Home Video today in 1995, after a June 16th theatrical drive thru. After the exquisitely bleak ‘92 yuletidey sequel, it was decided that Tim Burton would hand over the bat-reins to seasoned filmmaker Joel Schumacher to lighten things up and bring some of that Happy Meal money back. He moved the … Read more
Too Intense for Kids, Just Right for VHS Glory It took over 2 years, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom finally arrived on home video today in 1986 after a May 23rd, 1984 theatrical release. Obviously it was another lucrative priced-to-own Paramount title at $29.95, and with Raiders being co-promoted at a cool … Read more
The film that took 6 years to come home to VHS E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial finally arrived on VHS this week in 1988, after a June 11th, 1982 theatrical release. At the time of its October ’88 home video bonanza, 24.95 was the lowest initial price for a major blockbuster compared to the average priced-to-own SRP … Read more
The Soundtrack of 1985 for an R-Rated Record Breaker People forget just how huge this was. Adjusted for inflation, it’s still one of the highest-grossing R-Rated films in history – with a total US box office gross of 730,714,743 in 2024. The original home video release also broke some records too, with 1.3 million units … Read more
I’ll admit I’ve never actually gone to Camp, but thanks to a lifetime spent vicariously living through movies and TV shows, I feel like I have. And I’ve come to have a pretty solid understanding of what goes on there. Arts and crafts, skinny dipping, maybe some competitive white-water rafting, spooky stories around the campfire, … Read more
Chimpanzees, Test Pilots, and Maudlin Memories Project X landed on Home Video today in 1987, after an April 17th theatrical release. Jonathan Kaplan’s underrated tale of a chimpanzee test pilot starring Matthew Broderick, William Sadler and Hellen Hunt could have easily been a prequel to a new Planet of the Apes series, well at least … Read more
Empire’s Last Stand in B-Movie History It was the end of an era. David (Puppet Master) Schmoeller’s film was the last officially completed Empire Picture before the company was seized and folded into Epic. It’s this same financial snafu that left other Charles Band productions like Arena and Robot Jox in release purgatory. Cacacombs was … Read more
Bargain Bins, Box Art, and B-Movie Gold “Cellar Dweller (1988) is one of those classic rental titles that seemed to fall through the floorboards for almost 20 years. After the Empire collapse, and later the New World implosion, the only copies you could find were the bargain-bin dwelling low quality EP ‘Starmaker’ re-issues from ‘91. … Read more
Art Deco, Ghosts and Theatrics “From here on, it gets really scary!” That’s the immortal Geoffrey Rush as Stephen Price, channelling Vincent Price (in spirit and surname), in William Malone’s House on Haunted Hill (1999). This film is one of those rare late-90s horror gems that somehow manages to be campy, grotesque, and genuinely creepy … Read more
Horror, Humanity, and Mid-90s Morality I love horror anthologies, it’s easily one of the best go-to genres for a late night Halloween spook-a-thon. And while the 90s experienced a bit of a drought, one the better ones to come out of the decade was Rusty Cundieff’s Tales from the Hood. See, I’m one of those … Read more