Halloween is Just Around the Corner!

    Our local Spirit store opened its doors last Saturday.

    Our local hardware store rolled out their Halloween decorations.

    And our local grocery store is stocked the shelves with Halloween candy. 

    I even bought a couple of Halloween candy tins that I emptied and am now using as refrigerator magnets.

    Yay! x 3!

    

    I really enjoy this time slot on the calendar. Fall, my favorite season, is almost here, and the stores aren't focused on Christmas, yet. I have a brief time to walk around and enjoy a preview of October and not just December. 

    So, let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

    Okay, let me explain. DVDs were pretty expensive in the late 90s and early 2000s. The average price of a new release was around $24.90. That's $53.85 in today's money. Going to Best Buy to look at DVDs back then was luxury shopping for a teacher on one income... I couldn't afford anything there.

But, BUT!, but, I could afford to shop at Kmart or Walmart. AND! They sold cult and horror movies on DVD from a company called GoodTimes Entertainment. 

    I found both Halloween II, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch at the Urbandale Kmart (that has now been demolished). I was so excited. They only cost 6 bucks each... SOLD!

     I grew up seeing this message on VHS rental tapes and movies airing on cable. So, watching a movie I loved in "WIDESCREEN" was incredible.

    None of this information meant anything to me decades ago. I didn't know "non-anamorphic" was a thing. These DVDs looked great on my 27 inch tube TV, and I couldn't have been happier. (BTW, no one called them CRTs, and no one could have predicted they would become collectible.)

    I was disappointed when I played my old GoodTimes DVDs on my new HD TV years later. I was used to the black stripes above and below the film, but the smaller image, imprisoned by black bars, threw me off. I could "zoom" in the image, but that made the film look even more pixelated. 

    I donated my GoodTimes DVDs when I upgraded to DVDs that were "Enhanced for Widescreen TVs" or in "16:9 Widescreen." I was totally pumped. The new movies looked so good!

    But then something weird happened. I  began to miss my old Halloween GoodTimes (don't we all?) when I started the Holiday Horror Shelf displays. That prompted a thrift store search that has proven to be more difficult than I thought. These budget DVDs are now 25 years old, and I guess most have probably been tossed away. 

    

    So, I was surprised to find H-III at a local Goodwill last week. The H-III DVD is in perfect shape, and I upgraded the case with a nicer one from a DVD that I bought from our local library for a buck. 

    Rather than hoping lightning would strike twice, I went ahead and bought H-II from a seller on eBay. That DVD arrived today. Its case didn't need a library upgrade.

    The total price of both DVDs is less than the original $12, I'm totally pumped. They look so good! It was also satisfying to slide them next to their anamorphic Halloween brethren on the media shelf.

    

    I don't care if people think nostalgia for inferior DVDs is strange. I have always told my students, and my daughter, to not be embarrassed by what they like, "What you collect is a reflection of who you are and how you represent yourself. It doesn't matter how many people don't agree with your style. Those people aren't coming over to your place to hang out. But your friends are coming over, and they like you no matter what is on in your room."

    I like how the VHS logo is dunked into healing waters and emerges with a DVD logo... so modern.

    PS. I also enjoy that a '66 Dodge Sportsman Van was used for a crash scene in Halloween II. 

    I drove one of those to college in 1987. I had a lot of fun in that van.

    Didn't crash it, though.