Physical Media vs. Streaming

It’s no secret, we like our physical media. Blu-ray and DVD sales have taken a hit as more people sign on for various streaming services. There is nothing wrong with streaming services like Netflix. We love Netflix. You can’t argue, even after the recent price increase, Netflix’s isn’t an incredible value.

Streaming is great, but it has its limitations. The biggest limitation is if the movie you want to watch isn’t available on any streaming service. Fine, you say, I’ll watch something else. Of course, this is an option. But if you’re in the mood to watch a particular movie than that’s the movie you should be watching. You could be watching that particular movie right now if you had it on Blu-ray or DVD.

Let’s say the movie you want to watch is streaming on a service. Hey, that’s great. Press play, sit back, and watch. Odds are if it’s a recent movie the stream quality will be good. Older movies don’t always fare as well as newer releases. Often there’s no time or care given to the movie before is uploaded for streaming. It’s no better than watching it on video tape. Case in point: Saturday the 14th.

Saturday the 14th

For a long time if you could find a copy of Saturday the 14th it was on video tape. It was possible to find it on DVD, but the video quality wasn’t much better than a video tape. Scream Factory, Shout Factory’s horror division, has seen fit to remedy this problem with its recent Blu-ray release. It’s about time too.

The Movie:

For the uninitiated, Saturday the 14th is a low-budget, comedy, horror movie about a family who inherits a cursed house from a dead uncle. Richard Benjamin (Westworld) plays the clueless father. Paula Prentiss, who has recently been in the Netflix Original I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, is the mother who is being turned into a vampire.

Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent, Arrested Development), in an early role, is Waldemar. Waldemar, a hundreds of year old vampire, and his wife Yolanda are trying to find the Book of Evil before Van Helsing (Severn Darden). Hilarity ensues after Billy, the son, opens the Book of Evil. Alright, hilarity may be a strong word.

Don’t get too excited. These monsters won’t send chills down anyone’s spine. These beasts and monsters are the rubber and foam kind low budget movies like the Cormans make are famous for. Except the foam and rubber monsters work wonderfully in this campy movie.

To be sure, Saturday the 14th is a campy movie. The special effects are typical 80’s special effects. Some of the situations are cheesy and more than one line in the movie is more than corny. It’s a fun movie because of the camp and cheese not in spite of it. Saturday the 14th can even be called a family movie.

The Packaging:

The packaging is nothing special. It’s your basic blue case with insert art, but the inside with the various monsters from the movie is a pretty nice touch.

Special Features:

The special features on the disc are bare bones. It’s to be expected. The market for an 80’s comedy, horror movie is small. Any new special features would cost money which in turn would drive up the price of the disc. There would be no guarantee there would be a return on the investment.

The interview with producer Julie Corman is the only new special feature. It’s a short interview about the making of the movie. The most interesting thing we learn is Paula Prentiss refused to wear fangs. A lack of fangs actually fits quite well into the low budget, corny movie’s over all feel.

Final Verdict:

Saturday the 14th is worth the price of purchase. It may not have the special features we would expect from a boutique company like Shout Factory, but having a quality print of the movie makes up for everything this Blu-ray lacks. Scream Factory did a good job restoring the movie to an HD quality viewing experience. Some scenes degrade back to a grainy, VHS quality, but overall the picture is crystal clear.