We can all sit around and celebrate the wealth of choices available on DVD that were heretofore unavailable. Indeed, Netflix offers us tens of thousands of titles that were all but lost. But before we get too overjoyed, let's remember there's a lot of movies that actually were released on VHS that still have yet to make it to DVD.
Truth be told, the DVD revolution wasn't exactly a tidal wave of titles from yesteryear; more like a ripple. Many ended up stalled in the courtroom or were released, but with horrible picture quality. And now, many insiders in the business say that the variety of titles are actually going to start diminishing. In other words, the selection of movies is going to actually get narrower rather than wider!
The good news is, once we've all moved passed the DVD/Blu-Ray, and start watching everything via the Internet, the selection will rise exponentially. There's no overhead in manufacturing the discs and shipping them. Companies can offer obscure niche titles and only have the cost of buying the rights..... which shouldn't be too much of an expense for B-movie titles. The big complaint from distributors is that, as soon as they buy the rights and invest in marketing, producing, and shipping, the damn thing has already been ripped and widely available in a torrent somewhere.
Looking through old VHS box art, it became quickly apparent that there are A LOT of titles still awaiting my prophesied streaming revolution. I've compiled a random selection of them to give you an idea of the breadth of titles long gone, bot, hopefully, not forever lost. I've looked each one of these up on Amazon to double check that they are indeed still unavailable, but there may be a few that are for sale by small independent sellers. Also, there may be a few that were available for a time, but have since been cut loose.
I'll also add that many of these probably aren't worth watching, let alone purchasing. But still, it's the principle of the thing. We like to think that, in this Information Age, everything has been digitized. But this couldn't be farther from the truth. Here's some movies released on VHS that you can't find on Amazon.(images of the first 12 are at the top of this post)
The Video Dead (1987)
Savage Attraction (1983) AKA Hostage: The Christine Maresch Story
Witches' Brew (1980)
Get Crazy (1983)
Death Spa (1988)
Tammy and the T Rex (1994)
Buford's Beach Bunnies (1993)
Killer Party (1986)
Gimme an F (1985)
What Waits Below (1984)
Sno-Line (1986)
10 Speed (1986)
Wimps (1986)
Princess Academy (1987)
The Underachievers (1987)
Survival Run (1981)
Blood Beach (1980)
Sweet Revenge (1987)
If You Don't Stop It... You'll Go Blind (1975)
World Gone Wild (1988)
Purple People Eater (1988)
The Check is in the Mail (1986)
The Great Skycopter Rescue (1978)
Safari 3000 (1982)
Happy Birthday Gemini (1980)
Satan's Blade (1984)
Mistress of the Apes (1979)
Firecracker (1981)
Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980)
Monster and the Stripper (1968) AKA The Exotic Ones
Dead Mate (1988)
BTW: If you notice a perponderance of 80s films and are wondering where all the 60s and 70s films, not to worry. In the next installment I will be using drive-in theater ads featuring movies not out onf DVD. Stay tuned.
