Saturday, March 10

Heads Up: Out-of-Print Naschy at Best Buy (YMMV)

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notice the new price stickers over the old style
So a week ago I'm at a distant Best Buy and run across Deimos Entertainment's long OOP double set of The Loreley's Grasp (Las garras de Lorelei) (1974) and Horror Rises from the Tomb (El espanto surge de la tumba) (1973). The set was definitely factory sealed, but the plastic wrapping was scuffed and tattered, so I figured they must have found one squirreled away behind some shelving they recently moved. Thinking it was just dumb luck, I brushed it off as a cool find until this morning, when another Best Buy had another copy, again beat up but new, in addition to the Human Beasts (El carnaval de las bestias) (1985) and Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (Los ojos azules de la muñeca rota) (1973) set. Score!

The funny thing is, along with a third pairing of Night of the Sorcerers (La noche de los brujos) (1974) and Exorcism (Exorcismo) (1975), these double features were once Best Buy exclusives--several years ago--apparently only to return now after Deimos and distributor Brentwood Home Video have long since folded(!?!). These sets are so old they come in those now extinct thick double tray Amaray DVD cases instead of today's norm of studios having a fetish seeing how many discs can be crammed into a single DVD or Blu-ray case. It seemed like awhile ago I was shoveling up their individual titles from a guy at a local swap meet who buys bulk liquidated stock of discontinued DVDs and sells them for pennies. I didn't get these sets though the first go-around so I'm not going to miss this chance. Of course, your mileage may vary, but something is afoot. This might be the most latent case of DVD exclusivity ever...
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6 comments:

DrunkethWizerd said...

They're still pretty expensive. Worth every penny no doubt... but still.

Jayson Kennedy said...

Really not bad at all, the cheapest current "New" copies on Amazon of Grasp and Tomb equal $74. O_o

Glenn Baskin said...

I remember actually being able to walk into a Best Buy and wondering what you would find-it usually left me dumbfounded-now on the rare occasion when I go there I'm just dumbfounded at what they don't have.

Anthony1138 said...

Nice finds. I picked up the Curse of the Devil/Werewolf Shadow combo pack at an out of state Best Buy a few years back when they were going OOP. I really loved the Deimos series. Too bad they weren't able to put out more Naschy titles before they went under.

Jayson Kennedy said...

Yeah, it was definitely strange walking into BB now and seeing their tiny Horror DVD section with hardly anything with such an old release sitting there.

Balun's Ghost said...

One of my local Best Buy stores had Curse of the Devil/Werewolf Shadow for $10.99 so I picked it up. Those old long stickers may be from Media Play, which Best Buy purchased right before the chain went under. Who knows how much old Media Play stock they are still sitting on.

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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