This Week's Haul: Creature Features, Halloween Specials, and Some Wrestling Documentaries

This Week's Haul features three creature features, a Halloween double feature, and another double feature of WWF documentaries.

Last year, I changed my schedule at work. For decades, I worked the night shift. I had always liked the night shift as it allowed me to sleep later and my body and mind were used to it. I changed my schedule because of some things in my personal life and now I work mid-shifts. Doing this has allowed me to be a lot happier and healthier. This change also allowed me to do things I wasn't able to do so while working the night shift and one of those things was watching Svengooglie.

I grew up on Rich Koz. My first exposure was when he hosted THE KOZ ZONE where he would show cartoons and talk about them during the breaks. It was like Svengooglie but without the costume while aiming it towards children. I loved THE KOZ ZONE and was very sad when it was canceled. 

I have been watching Svengoolie for the longest time. The man has introduced me to a ton of horror and sci-fi films I either hadn't heard of or wanted to see but never got around to it. Since going to the mid-shift, I have been able to get home just in time for Svengoolie and I have been loving it. He has been showing a number of "when animals attack" films like TARANTULA and KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS and I have been having a lot of fun with them. 

I was at a local resale shop and saw these two releases and I had to buy them. I have never seen any of these but I do plan on watching them. As of this writing, this is the only way to get JAWS OF SATAN on blu-ray. 

ANTS! comes to us from Kino Lorber. It contains a brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative along with some cool special features. The slipcover features brand new(?) artwork and the blu-ray case features reversible artwork with the slipcover artwork on one side and the film's original theatrical poster on the other.

The EMPIRE OF THE ANTS / JAWS OF SATAN blu-ray features both films' original theatrical posters on the front cover. There is some inner artwork that features shots and poster art from each film. Both films are on the same disc and they both feature some special features.

One of my favorite home video labels is Terror Vision. They have been doing a lot of great work and they are able to keep their prices pretty low. Go to their website and you can find bundles for some of their releases that feature a lot of swag, including CDS, buttons, and other things, for great prices. Other labels would charge an arm and a leg for these bundles. They are also not smug about what they do. You never see them threatening retailers for offering their customers choices that these labels don't like.

The packaging is nice and something other labels wouldn't have done. There is a slipcover that makes the packaging look like it is an ad for these "TV specials" in TV Guide. Inside, we find twwo discs, which are the same discs from each films solo release. Tons of special features for each film.

One thing they do more than any of the other boutique labels is releasing some of their stuff at Wal-Mart. They have, so far, released FROGMAN, RUMPELSTILTSKIN, and now this Halloween themed double feature of the very entertaining and well made WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL and the, as of this writing unseen, OUT THERE HALLOWEEN MEGA TAPE. This release is, of course, perffectly timed for a Halloween release and it is doing really well, with many locations selling out. The fact that a smaller label is releasing their stuff physically puts a smile on my face. Even if I weren't to watch the films in this release, which I am going to watch, I would buy just to support Terror Vision. I hope the success of this release means they release more.

I am a child of the 80s and 90s, and as a male child, I grew up on wrestling. Any time the WWF (they hadn't gotten the "F" out yet) had a show on TV, you can bet I was in front of that TV with my eyes glued to it. I ate all that stuff up and was a fan of all the wrestlers for various reasons. I had all of the big rubber figures the WWF released in the 80s along with the wrestling ring that they wrestled in. When my parents got a black box (a cable box that was programmed to allow the pay channels to be turned on, watch THE CABLE GUY to see what I mean), we could watch all of the Pay-per-View (PPV) channels which meant I was able to watch all of the WWF PPVs along with movies and UFC. It was a great time to be alive.

In the mid-2000s, the WWE (they had to change their name after they violated an agreement with the World Wildlife Foundation) began creating documentaries about their wrestlers, both former and current. We got so many great docs about Hulk Hogan, Randy "The Macho Man" Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and so on. Each of these were released directly to DVD and the sets were jam-packed with various matches the subject of the documentary wrestled in. This was a great way to learn about your favorite wrestler while getting to see a bunch of matches you haven't seen in ages.

I have been on the lookout for these sets for a while now. I have most of the ones I want but there was one (or two as it turns out) that I wanted but could never find: The one about Bret Hart.

I have been a Bret Hart fan since he came on to the scene in the 80s. I always liked his style and he was able to turn a mediocre wrestler into a star with just one match. This doc was something I really wanted to see but the DVD never came into any of the shops I frequent. Then, someone sold all of their wrestling DVDs to the store I freqeunt the most and one of them was the Bret Hart doc.

This set looked different than the other sets I have seen. The spine was wider than the others which made it stand out on the shelf. I wondered what could be in this set. Could it be a smaller version of his book? Could it be some type of swag like a pair of sunglasses? I picked up the box to find out. It turned out to be a separate documentary on the Hart family. I thought "Hell yeah" and then I saw the price: "$4.99" I knew this set was to be mine and I ran to buy and take it home. 

Both documentaries are well produced and filled with tons of information about the Hart Family. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. I learned quite a bit from both but most of this new knowledge came from the Hart Family doc. Then there's the wrestling matches. Each set features a bunch of matches from the different eras of the WWF all the way until the early 2000s. Watching these matches brought me back to the days when I would sit on the floor in front of the TV, watching these same matches. I am still looking for a few of the other documentaries and this pickup definitely filled a whole in my collection.

Packaging for both is very nice. Each gets its own digipak which holds all three discs in their own plastic cradle. Inside you find a small booklet that breaks down what is on each disc along with chapter selections for the documentaries. The outer box that  holds the two digipaks is an exact copy of the Bret Hart packaging. I found this kind of weird as it doesn't mention the Hart family doc at all.

I want to thank you reading these whenever I post them. It really means a lot to me and keeps me wanting to write more of them.