“One of the most liberating developments in the history of free expression was the invention of VHS.” – Joe Bob Briggs.
Word. This has really been on my mind lately. I’m compiling a list of titles that aren’t currently available on physical media or streaming (in The Dark Backwards‘ case, tubi has it, but fuck commercials). None of the movies on this list were problematic enough to be ‘censored’ into streaming/physical media limbo, however, that almost makes it worse!
Tom Stern and Alex Winter’s Freaked is a 90s film I had never even heard of until Beyondfest did a screening at the Egyptian Theatre in January 2020. The night was amazing (read my thoughts here). Several of my compatriots here at The Horror Vision were familiar and ecstatic that this screening might herald a new release, however, three-and-a-half years later, that has not been the case.
I discovered The Dark Backward on Prime back in 2019 and, after watching it several times in a month, contemplated paying upwards of $50 for a DVD copy. I never did that, hoping against hope eventually someone would release this cleaned up on Bluray. Still waiting, but in the interim, like so many other movies that used to be included on Prime without ads, this has been relegated to Freevee or Tubi or Fuckkee and remixed with ads for boner pills and burger king. Fuck this planet!
Fingers. What the hell can we say about Juan Ortiz’s 2019 WTF? masterpiece of feel bad, feel weird, feel me there again and I’ll tell black comedy that really doesn’t quite constitute a Horror film in any way other than it really leaves one feeling… violated?
And finally, after taking Richard Bates Jr.’s Suburban Gothic. I’m really not sure where the hell this one went. My biggest mistake was taking a film I love this much for granted while it lived on Shudder for several years. Now, I can’t find it to watch anywhere, and the only DVD copy I’ve seen on an auction site recently went for $50. Bates is a working auteur, several of his more recent films live on Paramount Plus, and Excision just popped up on Prime again, so where the hell is Suburban Gothic?
A Prayer to the Gods of Physical Media:
Oh great and powerful deity
Please release these films on Blu-ray in the near future
Please