New VHS Scores: Halloween and Escape From New York Slipcases

Apologies for the absence. It seems that while I had anticipated most of my time being spent on this particular blog sharing my collection of VHS, toys, and whatnot, I just can't stay away from movies, my #1 passion. And so while I did my best to take a break from reviews on my other blog robotGEEK'S Cult Cinema, I just couldn't stop cold turkey. So, a lot of my time recently has been dedicated to reviews. But! I'm here now, so here we go.

First up is John Carpenter's Halloween. As you all know, it's been released countless upon countless times on VHS, then on Laserdisc, DVD and now Blu ray. So it's not a hard film to get your hands on for your collection. It just depends on which one you want. I'd imagine though trying to collect every single version out there would be extremely time consuming and expensive. But hey, everyone needs a hobby right?!

Die-hard collectors know that probably the rarest VHS version out there is the mythical MEDA VHS version. It was spelled MEDA before it was changed to MEDIA on a yellowed cardstock slipcase. I honestly don't know why or the story behind that and haven't done the research yet, but needless to say, the MEDA yellow slipcase VHS is insanely rare and goes for thousands on the internet.....if you're ever lucky to find one. Personally, I've always loved this particular cover. I love the black with the
MEDIA big on white at the bottom. I also found it strange and interesting that there's also a bottom flap. So everytime you intend to take the tape out, you essentially slowly begin to damage and put extensive wear to that bottom flap. So I'm not surprised that they quickly did away with that.

When I was going through my VHS collection recently, I was kind of shocked to discover that I've never owned a version of Halloween on VHS. Gasp! I was lucky to find this one fairly cheap for $10 on eBay with the bottom flap in tact and in excellent condition. Happiness.

Here's another recent eBay score. While I prefer Embassy's insanely badass, yet very hard to find black VHS clamshell release from 1982, this is a close second. I love that the poster encompasses the entire cover. And I love the white spine with the extra large font. It's just beautiful.

Much like Halloween, this film has gotten countless VHS releases, as well as many others on every format. It's just one of those films. However, there is another early US slipcase release that I've only recently become aware of. Of all the years I've been collecting VHS tapes, I never came across one and didn't know it existed. It's a rather interesting design. Released by Embassy, the top half is white, and the bottom half is black, with the poster image floating freely in the center. The film title is large, also floating freely at the top above the cover image. A strange design for sure, but one I feel I must own at some point as I collect random Escape From New York VHS tapes from around the world. I'm also finding a new found love for VHS slips. I've always been more drawn to clamshell cases, but I'm finding an appreciation for slipcases in my old age.