I've identified the worst of the worst when it comes to DVD release companies and would advise anyone to avoid renting movies from them at all.

After a year or so of renting a shit load of movies with no plot, budget or forethought, I have come to a conclusion that anything released by two certain companies is a total waste of time and money. I used to rent randomly without regard of what company puts it out, mainly because I have MVP at Hollywood Video (kind of like Netflix, pay $15 per month to rent 3 movies at a time, unlimited rentals). Now I know what to always stay away from.
Don't get me wrong, there are B-movie cult classics put out by the likes of Troma that are great in that cheesy, funny B-movie kind of way, and that's not what I'm talking about here.

First off, Creep FX:

http://www.maverickentertainment.cc/fil ... tegoryID=5

Housed under the umbrella of Maverick Entertainment, who also puts out a lot of no-budget Urban, Christian and Latino schlock.

The other is The Asylum:

http://www.theasylum.cc/

I have rarely been capable of forcing myself to watch more than about 15 minutes of any movie under either label as it's all brainless budgetless crap that assaults the viewer's intelligence.
I'm talking about movies that seem to have been filmed with someone's digital hand cam in their backyard by people who have no experience in film making and no real interest in the horror genre at all. It's a con, and they are just out to make a buck off of a mark.

Both companies come up with some pretty crafty box art for their DVDs, but don't be deceived. As we all know you can't judge a book by it's cover... but you can always turn the DVD case around, look at the bottom for the release company label, and judge by that what you are renting.

Now, to me, it's one thing to see these DVDs on the new release wall at video stores, and I don't really have a problem with that. You know what you are getting if you know what to look for.
It's when they end up in the horror section of older movies that they really wear out their welcome. They are clogging up the shelves, often leaving little room for better quality films and true horror classics to choose from.

Now fortunately the websites for Hollywood Video and Blockbuster allow customers to rate the movies they have on their websites. I have noticed that Hollywood has recently started stocking some older cult horror classics in the horror section of their stores that have gotten higher ratings.
I would personally like to see Hollywood Video rotate Creep FX and The Asylum release movies from their shelves to their for-sell bin, and stocking their horror section with better quality productions and older classics.

Another note: don't judge a movie by it's box art. The worst movies at the video store often have the best cases. Case in point: Doll Graveyard. A low buget, grainy, rip-off piece of shit that I was tricked into watching because the box art looked creepy.



If an indie horror film has a flashy box, it's probably because the company spent more money on advertising than the movie itself.

Thanks for posting that... it sucks expecting a movie to be good, your hopes being smashed, and having $1-2 less in your pocket... always useful to know what to avoid... It's true about the box thing... the movies that appear to be really shitty are usually better than the movies with a more alluring box... sometimes it's worthless to even fuckin read the back, i've seen a few that've described something entirely different than what was actually on tape..... the titles have escaped me, but I do remember it happening a few times, haha.....

i dont know about recently, but in the past lionsgate has put out some good stuff.

something weird all day

\m/ \m/

gothic_spleen wrote:i dont know about recently, but in the past lionsgate has put out some good stuff.

Most of Lion's Gate's theatrical releases are really great.
They're definitely my favorite distribution company.
Their newer straight-to-video stuff is hit or miss, but better than anything ever put out by Creep FX or Asylum.

Russo wrote:Another note: don't judge a movie by it's box art. The worst movies at the video store often have the best cases. Case in point: Doll Graveyard. A low buget, grainy, rip-off piece of shit that I was tricked into watching because the box art looked creepy.



If an indie horror film has a flashy box, it's probably because the company spent more money on advertising than the movie itself.

I decided to do some research on Doll graveyard. It led me to the Full Moon pictures website, on which i found a link for MonsterBra, but that's not really the worst part. The worst part is when you look at the header for the page. The face featured third from the right on the header is none other than Gary Busey starring in The Gingerdead Man.

Full moon pictures is evil and is not to be trusted.

and in case any of you thought i was joking:

B_Ko wrote:and in case any of you thought i was joking:

I rented that one too

gary busey...

I cant be to hard on Full-moon ent. Growing up alot of my favorite low budget films came from Full Moon.

The puppet master movies
Shadowzone
The Subspecies movies
Trancers
Demonic Toys



I loved these growing up...

B_Ko wrote:and in case any of you thought i was joking:

LMAO... I actually wanna see this... how sad is that...

*hangs head in shame*

I agree for the most part, but I've actually seen a couple of movies released from The Asylum, and they were decent. I'm still trying to find a copy of Tromeo and Julie on dvd, my fave B-movie scream queen, Tiffany Shepis, is in it. She was also in The Hazing(released by RedRum pictures, and the bloody hilarious B-flick, Delta Delta Die with Julie Strain.....but yeah. The box art can be deceiving many times over. The Wickeds had a kewl box, but it was a shitty Ron Jeremy crap ass LOW budget horror movie. But then my favorite movie, Ginger Snaps, had a shitty boxcover for the American release. So it took me awhile to finally give it a chance...and I LOVED it! You really can't judge the film by the boxart, just read the back, see which company released it, and maybe even check the names in the credits for familiar actors, directors, producers, writers, etc. I do that, and if I have bad vibes about renting a movie, I'll just find something else.