HORROR CLASSICS 50 MOVIE MEGAPACK

I love these collections. It has some good classics. For the price, it's great. Be forewarned - some, if not most of these look like VHS transfers, partly because that's about all that's available of them because they're so obscure. These are pennies on the dollar and you might find something on here that will get you to buy a nice Blu Ray copy. -=[ UPDATE ]=- I've noticed some reviews stating they're missing Disc 3. I've got two disc 3s and I'll trade one out for a Disc 4!

I’ll start off by saying THIS SET IS WORTH IT FOR THE COPY OF CARNIVAL OF SOULS ALONE! This is an affordable way to have the complete cut of the movie in decent quality, which seems much rarer to find. I basically picked it up for that, with 49 other movies as “bonus features.” There’s definitely multiple other gems in this collection that make it worthwhile too. It’s a combination of genuine classics and extremely obscure varying-quality B-movies, that can make for a fun movie night by just picking out a title and seeing what it is. That said, there are downsides to this edition. This might be the WORST packaging for any DVD set I’ve seen. They’re in these thin half-open paper sleeves that have resulted in the discs being VERY scratched right in the box! They look like discs you’d question “will this play?” at a thrift store, straight out of the shrink wrapped brand new box. It’s 12 discs (and I DID receive all the proper discs, thankfully, unlike other recent reviews) with basically no protection against each other. All of them so far have played, but I have experienced some audio glitches and skipping that I suspect is a result of these scratches. If you want to keep any of these movies, you’ll have to order a CD/DVD case to store them more safely. The other downside is the lack of subtitles. These are barebones, just the movies on the discs. No special features or options, even the bare minimum option of subtitles. And some of these movies are so old/obscure that I couldn’t even find subtitles online for them. With the scratchy quality of some antique audio in these, you’ll find yourself turning up the volume to figure out what’s being said. Film quality, both objectively and subjectively, also varies by film. Here’s a few select takes on ones I’ve watched so far: Carnival of Souls: Excellent picture quality, just passable sound quality. You’ll need to turn up your volume to make out all the dialogue in the absence of subtitles. Still, it’s totally worth it because this is the COMPLETE cut of the movie, at 1hr 23 mins. Even the Criterion Blu Ray DOESN’T have the complete cut! (That version is cut down to 1hr 17 mins). I actually prefer the picture quality here to the overly-scrubbed blu ray picture too. This has quickly become one of my favorite movies since discovering it, but it’s best to watch without spoilers. Suffice it to say this is a great physical copy of it to have! (Provided you don’t absolutely require subtitles, of course.) Atom Age Vampire: Okay picture and sound quality throughout. Felt about VHS level, and therefore not spectacular but 100% watchable. No audio or video skipping. Movie has a mad science premise with a lot of potential that it doesn’t quite live up to, but is worth a watch. White Zombie: Excellent picture and sound quality (especially for DVD, and for an obscure film this old), BUT there were several places where audio skipped that I think are from scratches on the disc caused by their awful packaging. Content-wise, well, it’s the 1930s so there’s some unpleasant racial stereotypes. The plot is still suspenseful and engaging though, and influential to horror cinema and rock music (one of the first zombie movies, and the band White Zombie is named after this). Horror fans will also have fun recognizing the various reused sets and props from other famous movies that showed up here to save budget. Metropolis: BAD COPY. Poor, blurry picture quality, and an incomplete cut. You can find much higher quality, 30 minutes longer complete cuts online since the movie is public domain, so I’m not sure why this set even bothers with this (even disregarding the whole “not a horror” thing). Didn’t bother watching more than a few minutes to confirm what a poor copy this is. Nosferatu: Surprisingly good picture quality for a random not-officially-restored copy of a film this old, although the top and right edges of the picture seem to be oddly cut off (based on how the written intertitles are off centered). It’s not as badly cropped as other public domain copies of the movie I’ve seen, though. This is the version of the film that’s entirely black and white (no tints) and the character names have been reverted to the book Dracula counterparts. It’s not the ideal, officially-restored version/translation of the film, but it’s not terrible. I wouldn’t get this set FOR this copy, but it’s an okay “bonus feature.” Creature from the Haunted Sea: Audio is very muffled. Couldn’t find subtitles to add to it either, so I just had to struggle. Picture quality is sometimes too dark too, but maybe that’s just how the film is (a lot of old B movies weren’t filmed the best to begin with, after all). HOWEVER, this is the extended cut of the film, so that counts for something. This is a parody of spy movies and political thrillers, NOT a horror. The creature from the title is part of the spy/political plot. People familiar with early 60s spy/political thriller movies might enjoy this as a sendup of those tropes, or as a period piece of the 60s. Bluebeard: Slightly dark VHS quality visuals (some artifacting at the end makes me think this might literally be a VHS rip), but clear enough sound that I never needed to turn up the volume. Something of a crime thriller/horror/period piece combination, emphasis on the crime thriller aspect; it’s almost like a period-piece CSI or Law and Order episode. Not a brilliant movie but decently entertaining. House on Haunted Hill: Great (for DVD) picture quality and clear sound quality. It’s not the restored version for bluray but not bad at all! An EXCELLENT movie and not a bad copy of it to have. Black Dragons: Poor quality, “jumpy” picture that seems slightly cropped at the edges, and muffled sound quality. This is a WWII wartime thriller, not a horror movie. It’s not very good either, at least in my opinion, being boring, slow, and poorly written. The Vampire Bat: Clear sound (for an old movie), but the picture has a lot of film grain, blank spots, blotches, scratches, etc. I think this is NOT due to scratches on the disc for once, but instead because the master film used for this edition is un-restored and in pretty bad shape. I was able to find clearer prints online/public domain pretty easily, so this isn’t a good copy unless you’re dedicated to an intentionally “gritty” look. Decently entertaining film (a combination of a murder mystery and a vampire film!), and horror fans will once again have fun spotting recycled sets from other productions. The Screaming Skull: Video quality level is best described as “very early YouTube” despite the fact that it’s a 50s film. Poor quality in a digital crunch way rather than a VHS way. Furthermore, it’s widescreen aspect ratio letterboxed inside a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than just playing widescreen, making the quality even worse. The plot is a Rebecca-esque premise where a new wife has to deal with marrying a widow and moving into his spooky house. It’s not the most original, but it was suspenseful enough to keep me watching through the end despite the awful print quality. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Pretty good picture quality! It’s VHS level, which is something given that this movie is extremely old and this isn’t a fancy restored edition. Silent film, so sound quality doesn’t matter. It does have accompanying organ music that I’m not sure is meant to go with this film. Some intertitles seem off-centered/oddly cropped but the acted parts of the film seem fine/not cropped or off-centered. Film was kind of uninterestingly predictable for me (because duh everyone knows the story of Jekyll and Hyde now) but film students and historians will probably like seeing one of the oldest surviving iterations of this on film. Nightmare Castle: I think this might’ve been literally recorded from a VHS, given some of the distinct “VHS glitches” present in the picture quality. A suspenseful movie with cool spooky mansion sets—seriously the mansion is beautiful. It feels “ahead of its time” in terms of some of the violence and sexual themes (central conflict involves both torture and multiple affairs), and there’s even some lines that seem to anticipate the themes of the much-later Hellraiser! It’s clearly dubbed from a foreign language, though. Invisible Ghost: Okay video quality (good VHS/early DVD level), slightly muffled audio, skipped a couple times (I think due to those scratches again). An interesting enough murder mystery featuring Bela Lugosi. One Body Too Many: Another movie with VHS artifacts! It looks fuzzy like a VHS too, with muffled audio. A “play” button even seems to flash across the screen in several places! At times the quality was so poor (especially too dark and fuzzy) to clearly see what was happening. Almost as bad as Metropolis’s transfer. The sound skipped a few times too, not sure if that was from the poor initial print or from the disc scratches. It’s too bad this is such a bad transfer, because otherwise this is a very fun comedy/horror/mystery set in a spooky house whose owner has an unusual last will. As you can see, it’s a mix of great movies, bad movies, great image/sound quality, and awful image/sound quality. You can’t really beat the price for the variety though, and you can always attempt to track down a better quality copy if you do find a gem you really like. I’d highly recommend this, provided you’re ok with getting your own higher-quality case.

If you're at all familiar with Treeline Studios' "50 movies" anthology collections, then you've probably come to associate them with cheap cardboard boxes filled with B movies for a reasonable price. The Horror Classics movie pack seems to be cut from a very different mold, though. For starters, the clam-shell case that it comes in is very attractive. This may seem like a silly thing to care about, but it actually looks nice on my movie shelf, whereas my cardboard SciFi Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection looks cheap and annoys me every time I see it. The discs contained within still come in those cheap cardboard sleeves, but they are at least locked securely into a plastic compartment within the clam-shell. They're also nicer looking than the old generic red envelopes. Please note that older versions of this set still come in a cardboard box, so be careful when buying from third party vendors. You want the new edition with the Phantom of the Opera on the cover. More important than appearance, though, is the content in this collection. Whereas most or all of these collections are filled to the brim with cheap B movies that you'd never consider buying on their own, this anthology contains many of the greatest classic horror films ever made (Phantom of the Opera, Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde, White Zombie, Carnival of Souls, Nosferatu, Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc), as well as a number of other entertaining and well-respected horror films, many of which star legends such as Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Vincent Price. Of course, there are a few of the better B horror films as well, including my personal favorite, Maniac. Most of these films aren't scary by modern standards, but they still manage to set a tone of suspense and excitement, all richly encapsulated in a sense of the grotesque. There's something in these films that you can't find in modern day horror; call it style, artistic merit, pacing, restraint, or anything else that suits you. Whatever that missing ingredient is, it's here. Regarding quality, you obviously can't expect anything worthy of an HD TV for this price. Most of these films are adequate captures from the same public domain footage that you might see put out by Alpha Video or shown by a local television network after midnight. Fair quality, for the most part. There seems to be more blurriness on the later films (Night of the Living Dead, Little Shop of Horrors, etc), while the older silent films contain cropped aspect ratios (you can still read most title cards) and bad scores (turn off your volume!). However, there is at least one film in this collection where the quality is inexcusably bad. Metropolis, as an extreme example, looks like someone held a camcorder to a television screen, resulting in a crooked picture, terrible cropping (you can't read anything) and blurriness so bad that you'll swear you're losing consciousness. This is inexcusable considering how many excellent public domain copies there are of this film. And seriously, what is Metropolis doing in a horror anthology anyway? Honestly, I haven't seen any other movie in this collection that I would consider unwatchable (though I've only seen about a third of them), but quality does waver. Here's the full list of what I have watched so far and how the quality fared: *Atom Age Vampire (****): Very watchable, with only the faintest contrast and sound quality problems. *Black Dragons (****): Aside from some minor graininess, the picture is crisp and the sound is clear. *Carnival of Souls (****): Looks great. Sound is a little muffled. Nearly as good as a pricier copy. *Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde (***): Slightly blurry at times. The score is terrible. Pretty watchable with the volume turned off. *House on Haunted Hill (*****): First rate. Best quality movie in this collection. *Hunchback of Notre Dame (****): Lots of scratches and film damage, but overall good looking for an old silent film. Bad score. Keep the volume off. *Invisible Ghost (****): Overall excellent with a slight compromise in sound quality. *Last Man on Earth (**): Very grainy picture. Inexcusable when much better copies are available in public domain. *Little Shop of Horrors (***): Blurry. Sound is a bit muffled. Not bad, but it could be a lot better. *Maniac (****): Mostly excellent. A few scratches/artifacts here and there. *Metropolis (0 stars): See my comments above. *Night of the Living Dead (**): A little too blurry and muffled. Honestly, it's not terrible, but there are MUCH better copies available in public domain. *Nosferatu (***): The cropping/wrong aspect ratio seems to hurt this film more than most, but the quality is decent, and the score is the least terrible of all the silent films in this collection. Very watchable. *Phantom of the Opera (****): A few too many scratches/artifacts, and there's some blurriness here and there, but it looks pretty good overall. Awful score. Turn the volume off. *Revolt of the Zombies (***): Very watchable. The sound quality is poor to begin with on this film, so turn up your speakers. A few minor transfer errors towards the start (the worst one causes the contrast to go crazy for about a second), but solid otherwise. *The Terror (***): I've only watched the beginning so far, but it looks solid. There is a thin white line running down the right edge of the screen at times, but the colors and sound seem to be fine otherwise. *White Zombie (****): Considering how much I had to pay to get a reasonable quality copy of this (my favorite horror film), I'm surprised how good this one is. The contrast is too bright and there are small jumps in the film from time to time, but the sound was so bad on this film to begin with that it's difficult to find a copy where you can make out all of the dialogue. I can make out all of the dialogue on this one. All in all, if you're looking to obtain the best of the best classic horror films at an affordable price and are willing to sacrifice some quality, you can't go wrong with this collection. If nothing more, it would serve as an excellent introduction to the genre, containing virtually every great classic horror film ever made (with the exception of the Universal monster films which are still under copyright).

This is a really fun mix of popular early horrors—classics and fun B-movies alike. For me, the collection was worth it alone for the greatest silent horror movies together in one collection: Jekyll & Hyde, the Hunchback, and Nosferatu. But the real treasure (for me) was this edition of The Phantom of the Opera. He’s one of my favorite monsters, and this collection presents the original, longer version of the film from 1925 with the fabulous color scene at the opera house’s masquerade ball. True horror collectors will appreciate this along with the other hard to find drive-in horror shows. Don’t hesitate to pick up this set and start enjoying it!

I've watched several of these 50 movie collections from Millcreek and so far this one has been the most enjoyable. Now before I go on, I want to give a little warning to the uninitiated..These are VERY old movies and the picture quality is NOT very good. These types of movies are usually enjoyed by a small niche crowd. With that being said, if you do enjoy some of the better known movies in this collection(such as the silent classic Metropolis), there might be several cleaned up DVD(or even Blu-ray) releases with special features. Many of the movies in this 12-disc collection(dual-sided DVD's) are not strictly 'Horror'. Some could be categorized as 'crime-drama' or 'suspense' or even 'sci-fi'. Needless to say, this collection contains some of the better well-known cult classics such as 'Night of the Living Dead', 'The Phantom of the Opera', 'Nosferatu', and 'Dr Jehkyll & Mr Hyde'. As I mentioned before, the visual quality of these copies are not very good, but still watchable(in my opinion). Other movies in this collection I really enjoyed include: 'The Brain that Wouldn't Die', 'Bloodlust'(with Brady dad Robert Reed), 'The Terror'(with a young Jack Nicholson), and 'The Corpse Vanishes'. Also be on the lookout for Little Rascal's 'Darla Hood' all grown up in 'The Bat' featuring Vincent Price. Most of these movies are from the 20's-40's(in B&W) and a few are silent movies. Only 'The Terror'(1963) and 'Monster from a Pre-Historic Planet'(1967) are in color.

This box set popped up on my recommendations, and when I saw the 45% off, marking it down to $10.89, I didn’t even think twice about ordering it. But when I got this collection, I was a bit disappointed. I’ll do a pros and cons list, starting with the pros: Pros: • You get 50 movies for a cheap price • Many of these titles are obscure, meaning the single disc copies can get pricy, or they have never been released on a single disc copy • the silent films have a musical score, which is always an added bonus Cons: • Every disc comes scuffed. I do not think this hurts the use, especially if you have a player that can play through deeper scuffs and scratches. There are also these weird, almost blob like stain or something on each disc. I circled it in the photo. It doesn’t appear to hurt anything, but it does worry me that this could form into disc rot. • The picture quality is not the best, with some movies being very distorted and shaky. This could just be from the original film quality, so I can’t entirely fault the product for that. • The discs are stored in these paper sleeves, which also leads to some more scuffs and scratches Extra Notes • The silent films do not have any color filters. They are just pure black and white. • The Phantom of the Opera is the 1929 version and not the 1925 one. It also has its full color scene, which is really cool. Overall, if you do not own any of these films, or see this on sale like I did for 10 dollars, it’s well worth the pickup. But for 20, I’d spend my money on something much better quality.

Although I had a good portion of these movies from collections I bought from DVD bargain bins, the price was very reasonable to justify getting about 35 new horror classics added to my collection. With the DVD market collapsing, I doubt that we will see such a collection of forgotten classics ever again. I finished watching the first disc, and I would say that 2 of the 4 films on it are considered great ("Carnival of Souls" and "Nightmare Castle"). Even the other 2 ("Creature from the Haunted Sea" and "Atom Age Vampire") have more than enough entertainment value to keep you watching until the end. Sure, the picture quality and the synchronization of audio is not 100%, but considering the target market and the budget, this is a reasonable tradeoff. The great thing about these forgotten classics is that I am discovering films that I have never heard of, and I would argue that they are better than the more modern horror movies. EDIT: Since I wrote my review, I've noticed other 50 movie packs being released which kind of contradicts my statement "we'll never see another collection like this again". Although I don't expect them to be as good as this one, I will definitely buy one or more of them. EDIT #2: I have ordered 2 more 50 movie packs: "Nightmare Worlds" and "Tales of Terror". It will probably be a while before I get to watch these as I am only about 60% of the way through the current collection (Horror Classics). Keep in mind, there are quite a few stinkers, some of these are not even horror stories (more like detective mystery stories). But there are real gems--if it weren't for this collection, I would have never seen classics like "Metropolis" (not really horror, more like sci-fi), "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".

truly great set with many films from my childhood love this set and the price is unbeatable... films included are : Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde starring John Barrymore - Blue Beard starring John Carradine - The Corpse Vanishes starring Bela Lugosi - Night of the Living Dead starring Judith O'Dea - Doomed to Die starring Boris Karloff - The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney, Sr. - The Indestructible Man starring Lon Chaney, Jr. - The Hunchback of Notre Dame Lon Chaney, Sr. - Nosferatu starring Max Schreck - Swamp Women starring Mike Connors - World Gone Mad starring Pat O'Brien - Little Shop of Horrors starring Jack Nicholson - Tormented starring Richard Carlson - The Monster Walks starring Rex Lease Monster from a Prehistoric Planet starring Tamio Kawaji - The Gorilla starring The Ritz Brothers - A Shriek in the Night starring Ginger Rogers - Bloodlust starring Robert Reed - The Amazing Mr. X starring Turhan Bay - Last Woman on Earth starring Robert Towne - The Bat starring Vincent Price - House on Haunted Hill starring Vincent Price - Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price - Dementia 13 starring William Campbell - Phantom from 10,000 Leagues starring Kent Taylor - Carnival of Souls starring Candace Hilligoss - Atom Age Vampire starring Alberto Lupo -Creature from the Haunted Sea starring Robert Towne Nightmare Castle starring Barbara Steele - Black Dragons starring Bela Lugosi - Invisible Ghost starring Bela Lugosi - One Body Too Many starring Bela Lugosi White Zombie starring Bela Lugosi - Attack of the Giant Leeches starring Ken Clark - The Screaming Skull starring John Hudson -Beast of Yucca Flats starring Tor Johnson - The Terror starring Boris Karloff - Revolt of the Zombies starring Dean Jagger - The Giant Gilla Monster starring Don Sullivan - The Fatal Hour starring Boris Karloff - Dead Men Walk starring George Zucco - The Mad Monster starring George Zucco - Maniac starring Bill Woods - Metropolis starring Gustav Frolich - The Vampi