Vinegar Syndrome: The Haul

I remember first going to the Vinegar Syndrome website and being only vaguely familair with a couple titles. It was at first a mystery and then an exhilaration. The well of horror and exploitation is bottomless. There are always titles waiting to be discovered.

The first blu ray boutique label that caught my attention was the Criterion Collection. It introduced me to a bevvy of beautiful movies that I otherwise would have been ignorant of. It had the hooks in me from the start with catalog titles like Videodrome, Dazed and Confused, The Silence of the Lambs, Do the Right Thing. What excited me about these releases was not just the presentation (the cover art on some of these blu rays can be hung on walls!) but the wealth of extras on every disc. The care put into every one of their releases remained unmatched. My obsession deepened outside of American film and into Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Russia. Criterion was not just restoring film history. They way I looked at it was they were throwing up signal flares illuminating the connections between American and International Cinema.

And still, I wanted more...

As with most obsessions, the hunt widens. The appetite becomes insatiable. The cinephile side of me was more than pleased. But the genre fan in me- the one who collected EC Comics and worshipped at the altar of Carpenter- wanted more. Blue Underground, Synapse Grindhouse Releasing, Severin, Scream Factory and Arrow would help me on that front. All the horror I wanted a special edition for, those companies eventually released. New York Ripper Deluxe Edition with soundtrack? You got it!

And still, I wanted more...

The hunt for a good horror film never really ends. It may look depressing looking forward at the state of genre cinema. What boutique blu ray labels have promised us fiends is that the wait needn't be in vain.

Then Vinegar Syndrome happen. It didn't just have things I had no idea existed, it wet my exploitation appetite. Sex films, hardcore, adult movies, the stuff you'd only find in the backroom of a video store. Like Criterion, the presentation and care they put into these blu rays is astounding. Unlike Criterion, they are shameless when it comes to releasing the hard stuff. Sure, Criterion is giving us Russ Meyer and John Waters. But it hasn't quite dug into Gerard Damiano. And why should they? That's the beauty of these labels. People can enjoy Let My Puppets Come and Jeanne Dielmann under the same roof.

These releases present a whole new world of cinema for viewers. In the case of VS, I would have never known about a film like Sudden Fury. Their Halfway to Black Friday and Black Friday sales have continually shown they are the best in the business.

And still, I wanted more...