Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[Cash Flagg]

A concept previously explored in The Sorcerers and Seconds as well.

[agnamaracs]

• And two secret surprise titles which should put a smile on the face of every sleaze hound.

As per the newsletter:

One is a shockingly mean spirited and highly demanded gem that will be sure to drop the jaws of even the most jaded exploitation aficionados, and will be making its worldwide disc debut, with all of its unflinching brutality presented in crisp high definition.

The other is a never officially on disc, SoCal lensed early 70s proto-slasher, which has been the victim of decades of poor quality (and often censored) ’PD‘ releases. Our new restoration of the camera negative seeks to right that wrong.

Any guesses?

Also, my memory is slightly hazy. Do the April titles have good discounts during the May sale? I'm thinking about that Forgotten Gialli box, and I still have that $5 coupon I never used... should I wait?

[Adam X]

Well, that coupon expires in 2 days... (plus it doesn’t work during sales).

You mean the titles being released in April? I feel like they maybe have a couple of dollars off just released titles during their bi-annual sale, though pre-orders are definitely not discounted.

[Boosmahn]

VS's Halfway to Black Friday sale is live, and with it, they've introduced their latest innovation... miniature slipcovers? Which have already sold ~250 copies each? :-k

I'm interested in The Severed Arm and AGFA's Drug Stories, but I'll wait until the standard editions come out. For now, I've just ordered Star Time.

FYI: Liquid Sky is down to 26 copies. I've read positive things about it on this forum, so if there's anyone out there at all looking into it, hurry!

[domino harvey]

VS's Halfway to Black Friday sale is live, and with it, they've introduced their latest innovation... miniature slipcovers? Which have already sold ~250 copies each? :-k

A fool and his money, &c

[dwk]

Each mini slip contains a special collectable item.

What's in the box?!?!?

A miniature Gwyneth Paltrow head?

[domino harvey]

A faulty blood transfusion turns Dracula’s wife black.

Is... is this a real movie

[soundchaser]

I really hope the Wikipedia summary was written to sound as ridiculous as possible:

Count Dracula is an old vampire who, because of his advanced age, is forced to host tours of his castle to get new victims. In an attempt to revive his long-lost love, Vampira, Dracula sets out to collect blood from the bevy of Playboy Playmates living at his castle. However, one of the Playmates whose blood is drained is black, turning the revived Vampira into a black woman.

Dracula enthralls the hapless Marc to collect blood from three white women in hopes of restoring Vampira's original skin color. Dracula transfuses the blood into her but she is unchanged; however, her bite turns Dracula black. Marc and his love Angela race to destroy Dracula but are taken aback upon seeing Dracula's new skin tone. Their surprise gives the vampires time to slip away to catch a flight to Rio for Carnival.

Apparently it was titled Old Dracula in the US to capitalize on the success of Young Frankenstein. Obviously.

[domino harvey]

It's the crossed eyes that really sells how funny this must be

[Orlac]

That skeleton with the shades sells this!

[tenia]

VS's Halfway to Black Friday sale is live, and with it, they've introduced their latest innovation... miniature slipcovers? Which have already sold ~250 copies each? :-k

VS have progressively been doing more and more gimmicky stuff like this, but wow do their customers really seem to be bottomless cash cows.

[Cash Flagg]

Apparently so - all of the mini-slips, pre-orders and limited editions are already listed as sold out!

[tenia]

Apparently so - all of the mini-slips, pre-orders and limited editions are already listed as sold out!

It's a website bug. They've taken the whole site down because they "seem to be having inventory issues. New products are NOT sold out."

[Adam X]

Yeah, there's no way any of the newly listed titles would be sold out by now. Unfortunately I suspect that's not so true for a couple of older ones I procrastinated on.

They've just updated the page to say the site'll reopen at 12pm EST

[beamish14]

Has anyone checked out Patty Hearst yet? It's great to have it on Blu-Ray, but those are some seriously skimpy extras.
I would've loved a commentary from Scharder and/or screenwriter Nick Kazan.

[L.A.]

Is this the first time their discs are region-locked?

[PfR73]

No, their releases of the Greydon Clark films Wacko and Uninvited were region-locked. Their recent release of Pale Blood states "Region A" on the website & cover, but it is actually region-free, which is almost certainly a mistake and was supposed to be Region A-locked, but who knows if any of the upcoming releases will have that same mistake.

[domino harvey]

A faulty blood transfusion turns Dracula’s wife black.

Is... is this a real movie

Update: I watched this. It couldn't even be bothered to be offensive, it's just a lame 70s "comedy" with bad sitcom lines when it tries to be funny, which doesn't even seem all that often. Not horrible, but, like a lot of Vinegar Syndrome releases, it belongs buried in one of those Mill Creek 50 film collections at best

[Adam X]

Apparently, you were so unimpressed with the film, you couldn’t even be bothered to finish your insult.

Personally, I’ve found some really good films in their catalogue, but also sadly enough Mill Creek-worthy films that I’m never quite sure what I’m going to get, regardless of how much enthusiasm various trailers, reviews & ad copy might garner.

[swo17]

I did recently check out The Corruption of Chris Miller given its pedigree (directed by Javier Bardem's uncle and starring Jean Seberg) and thought it was a pretty solid giallo

[L.A.]

Patty Hearst seems like a title that belongs to the collection. The extras are quite slim but maybe I’ll get it. Have to give it some thought.

[J Wilson]

Monetizing slipcovers is a genius move on their part, given how often the topic of slipcovers within any given title with one comes up on places like bluray.com.

[smokes]

Update: I watched this. It couldn't even be bothered to be offensive, it's just a lame 70s "comedy" with bad sitcom lines when it tries to be funny, which doesn't even seem all that often. Not horrible, but, like a lot of Vinegar Syndrome releases, it belongs buried in one of those Mill Creek 50 film collections at best

i've found with VS it's a hit or miss unless i know what i'm getting. star time as a film i found offensively bad. on the same token, wacko is a film i thought was brilliant and surprised i had not heard of it prior. or malabimba which is something i never thought i'd see a full restoration of.

with that said, i personally think vinegar syndrome is one of the most important labels around and cannot wait for their copy of intrépidos punks as that's another film that's been "lost" for decades. it's a small price to pay for some of their other less entertaining films which hopefully find value with other people's tastes

[paulm]

Each mini slip contains a special collectable item.

What's in the box?!?!?

A miniature Gwyneth Paltrow head?

Spoiler

Turns out to be an enamel pin.

[dwk]

In case anyone was wondering how VS's Rad UHD sold, they have

less than 1,000 copies of our limited edition, 4K UHD/BD release of RAD left in stock, from our 12,000 unit run. This is both our biggest and fastest selling edition in our history...

There July releases are:
Larry Cohen’s Perfect Strangers
The Eleventh Commandment
The Naughty Victorians