Nerdy Post Alert! My Personal Midnight Treasures

I don't really feel like writing much today, but I wanted to post something anyway. Thus, I thought I'd use today to show off some cool stuff, particularly some of my favorite items from my DVD collection and from among the few VHS items I still own. You can click on any item to see a larger version and the dust on my coffee table.First, my ridiculously silly collection of the Halloween series that I love far too dearly (backlit by some gamma radiation via The Incredible Hulk). On the left is the Widescreen VHS from which I first saw what is now my favorite horror film (in fact, I've never seen the film cut for P&S). Then, you'll notice that I have not only a silly FOUR copies of the original film including DVD and Blu-Ray, including the transfer raped 25th Anniversary Edition and the "Extended Edition" which includes 15 minutes filmed by Carpenter during the making of Halloween II (This was also the point when Carpenter retconned the "sister" subplot back into the first film, though it was never intended for it originally).

After that, you'll notice that I also have two copies of each Halloween II-Halloween 4, each because the initial DVDs featured less than stellar transfers. I could have updated to a better version of Halloween 5, too, but thankfully Tina Williams saved me some money there. Oh, and there's a gap after Rob Zombie's awful Halloween where Rob Zombie's Halloween II was supposed to go....alas, I'm not crazy enough to buy that turd. Yet.Then we've got some VHS goodies, starting with C.H.U.D (which is on a fine DVD, so isn't the biggest deal) and C.H.U.D II (which has never seen the light of day on DVD). The latter is certainly one of the worst horror sequels out there, while the original is a shockingly serious horror flick that I'm sure I'll write on soon. With them is my prized copy of the Hulk Hogan pro-wrestling flick No Holds Barred, a movie which has a huge place in my childhood but also has never hit DVD.Rolling with the VHS love, here's my copy of Happy Birthday to Me as originally released in 1981 which I found in my former next door Hastings store on my first visit there. Happy Birthday to Me is not only a slasher I find fabulously entertaining, but was listed as one of the popular movies in theater on the day I was born by one of those "Day You Were Born" things that my parents hung by my room all my life. Was it fate?

The copy of Creature from the Black Lagoon shown is the one I refer to in my bio above, that was one of the first VHS horrors my parents ever got me while I was in second grade (my copy of The Blob from the same time period is still around somewhere, too). With it is another vid that's been in the family a long, long time - Godzilla vs. Megalon, featuring my family's favorite size-changing robot controlled by a boy who's too old to be wearing that diaper, JET JAGUAR!Next we have what is surely the prize VHS to me, an original copy of Clownhouse. If you don't know the story of Clownhouse, 29-year-old director Victor Salva was convicted of molesting the film's 12-year-old star, Nathan Forrest Winters, and the film has not been distributed since this VHS was released in 1990. (On the flipside, Salva was convicted to three years in prison, only served 15 months, and was directing films for Disney by 1995. Up yours, American justice system!)

Legal and sexual hijinks aside, my sister and I watched this movie darn near weekly growing up, renting this copy from the late Freedom Video in Marshalltown, IA so many times that my mother begged and pleaded that the store just sell us the video. It wasn't until that store closed in the year 2000 (IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDD!) when my fabulous mother rushed into the store and snatched up the copy as soon as the closeout sale began, that this one FINALLY hit my collection.

(MGM produced a DVD of the film in 2002, but it was never released. My sister and I may each have copies of it that we acquired via eBay....)Lastly, here's the DVD set to rule them all. A Christmas gift that my parents acquired while Universal's Monster films were out of print (you'll notice that the titles on the coffin lid/cover are in Portuguese) this 8 film set of the iconic classics is the set most responsible for the horror-lovin' The Mike that you read today. Revisiting these films on DVD after not seeing them since I was a very young tyke has been a revolution for me as a filmgoer. Even now, while new DVDs of these films are all over the place, this coffin shaped box never leaves my apartment without me, and is truly the crown jewel of my collection.That's all I've got for today, but please feel free to list some of your favorite genre finds in the comments. I loves my horror goodies almost as much as I love the people who gave them to me.