Rare or unusual things in collection...

[Mike70]

I collect horror and sci-fi tv shows, mostly from the 60's,70's/early 80s. I have a few things that have taken me a good bit of effort to obtain. I might be one of the few people in north America with a complete copy of the British anthology (I love anthology shows) series "Supernatural", the 8 episodes of which were shown in 1977 and almost never again. I also have a complete copy of "Fantastic Journey" and all of the M. R. James BBC adaptations, which are frakking awesome. and of course being a "Logan's Run" geek, I also have a complete copy of the TV series that was on in 1977.

so, my question is: what do you think is the rarest or most unusual thing in your collection?


as a courtesy to Neil I would like to remind everyone not to discuss torrent downloading or any sites where such things can be obtained. how you obtained it is irrelevant. unless you like flew to japan and scoured flea markets for it. that would be an interesting story.

my rarity is "Supernatural" from 1977. I have some other things that are obscure as hell but that was the one I wanted the most and took the longest to find a complete copy of.

[krakenslayer]

I am a massive sucker for anything unusual, obscure, lost or forgotten.

The rarest title I've managed to - ahem! - procure, is a movie called Vermillion Eyes, which I reviewed ages ago (http://obscurityandbeyond.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/movie-review-vermillion-eyes-1991.html). A weird little cross between an art-house mind-bender and incredibly extreme horror flick, it was shot in 1990 on 8mm (hence it looks more like 1970) by Nathan Schiff, a young native of Long Island who turned out several home-made horror movies over the course of the 80s, this being the last. His movies were never intended for a wide distribution, he would rig up a projector in his back yard or his basement and charge the locals pocket money for the novelty of watching their friends, neighbours and neighbourhoods starring in something approximating a real movie. Schiff made back-up copies of four of the films - Weasels Rip My Flesh, The Long Island Cannibal Massacre, They Don't Cut the Grass Anymore and Vermillion Eyes - on VHS, which were then lent to a friend, resulting in N-th Generation copies appearing on bootleg stalls at horror conventions and being sold by mail-order pirate tape merchants. The films were distinctive enough that, despite their dodgy and completely unintended distribution, they began to build up a minor reputation at the deepest levels of the horror underground. Eventually, many years later, someone at Image Entertainment saw them, tracked down Schiff, and decided to give the films a proper, cleaned-up release on DVD... with the exception of Vermillion Eyes, which was deemed so disturbing by the company's lawyers that they feared prosecution. So yeah, it's a rarity indeed! The movie is, certainly, incredibly intense, gory and violent; using the most basic of special effects, Schiff manages to portray some really extreme stuff - not least, a woman being reduced to quivering lumps of gristle in protracted unflinching detail - in a surprisingly effective fashion, but in all honesty there's nothing here to rival A Serbian Film or The Angels Melancholy or Cannibal Holocaust or whatever. It's also very rough, technically. I mean, there are a good number of absolutely stunning shots in it, but it's painfully obvious that it was shot on no money with non-pro actors. Still, it's very much an experience, and I'm glad I tracked it down.

On the TV front: for a while now I've been hunting for a British (Channel 4) TV movie called The Gourmet, starring Charles Gray and written by Kazuo Ishiguro, about a rich, old, jaded gastronaut searching for a new culinary experience, and decides to track down an exceedingly rare and difficult-to-obtain "ingredient" that is quite literally out of this world. I have the vaguest memory of seeing it on late-night TV as a kid, and it made a huge impression on me. It definitely exists, has its own IMDB page and the script even appeared in an installment of Granta, but it hasn't been shown in years, isn't online in any form, hasn't been released on any home media format anywhere ever, and Channel 4 and the BFI seem determined to ignore any inquiry as to whether they even still retain a copy. At this point it may well be a lost film. :(

[EvilNed]

Mike, this is for you then;

MfZerhRy8lc

To answer the question,

I don't have a lot of super rare stuff. But if I were to guess, I'd say that the DVD release of the Giallo The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (which cost me 40 bucks and is out-of-print) is one of the rarest pieces in my collection. If anyone asks what I'd collected, I'd answer rare european horror films from the 60's - 80's, but I don't have as many as I'm guessing a lot of others do.

[MikePizzoff]

I dunno if it's the rarest in my collection, but I found the Clownhouse DVD for $1.99 when it was still obtaining over $100 on eBay.

Have gotten a bunch others for anywhere from $2 to $6 only to realize (or already know) they're worth way more than that.

Bless MovieStop.