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JANUARY 5 VHS HISTORY LEASON : UNITED AMERICAN VIDEO/GEMSTONE ENTERTAINMENT
Long-lasting independent distributor (1986 - 1998), who released a bunch of 60's & 70's horror films (I think every company in this Budget section has released a version of Roger Corman's THE TERROR, HORROR EXPRESS and 1971's PSYCHOMANIA) , martial arts flicks, westerns and cartoons, all in the public domain and all in the EP mode. In the 90's, they would release EP versions of 70's and 80's TV movies (THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE; A REAL AMERICAN HERO, etc.) and 70's & 80's horror flicks that fell into the "questionable" public domain category (CREEPOZOIDS; END OF THE WORLD and THE DAY TIME ENDED). Surprisingly, some of their later transfers were very good for EP, but their early releases (MANIA; JAWS OF DEATH) were washed out and barely watchable. Some of their artwork (check out the ones for DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN and CURSE OF THE DEVIL) was so amateurish that it's become collectable to me for reasons I can't rightly understand. { text from critcononline.com }
JANUARY 5 VHS HISTORY LEASON : VIDEO TREASURES
One of the better bugdet labels of the 80's to early 90's. Buying a Video Treasures tape was always a crapshoot, though. You never knew if you were getting an EP, LP or SP-mode tape because they released films in all three formats (I always tried to weigh them in my hands before buying, the heaviest being the LP or SP-recorded tape). Video Treasures always had the better horror films in the racks because most of them were licensed from Media Entertainment's library. Films like DEVIL TIMES FIVE, HELL NIGHT, HAUNTS, DON'T GO IN THE WOODS, INVASION OF THE FLESH HUNTERS and many more were available to buyers for the first time, usually for under $10.00 each. Video Treasures also raided the mysterious Regal Video, Inc. vaults, releasing budget versions of the notorious Christian anti-drug film BLOOD FREAK and William Girdler's THREE ON A MEATHOOK. Later on, Video Treasure would join forces with Anchor Bay Entertainment, releasing remastered (and many times widescreen) versions of the popular horror films SPIDER BABY, ZOMBIE, HORROR HOTEL and many others until Anchor Bay absorbed them in 1996. { text from critcononline.com }
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