Although I tend to watch what appeals to me, or what lands on my lap; recently I decided to broaden my horizons slightly. Although I wanted to stay in horror and cult movies I wanted to entertain some new styles of movie, and make myself a little more diverse in my movie choices. The change occurred when I reached a landmark moment of collecting every movie that had been banned during the 1983/1984 video purge. With this 20 year goal done and dusted I needed a new challenge.
DVD Delirium Vol 1 Redux, focuses on weird and wonderful movies on DVD. Volume 1 was originally released in 2002. However with the changes in DVD formats and re-issues last year a re-edited version was released with more up to date information, in order to keep the book current.
The book is edited by Nathaniel Thompson and features contributions from Tim Greaves, Stephen Thrower, Adrian Luther-Smith, David Flint, Marc Morris, Brad Stevens and Marc Walkow. The idea of the book is to gather together a series of influential movies on DVD, and talk about the different releases around the world. This focuses on the idea of recommending the best countries release of a movie.
An idea of what the book illustrates is obviously the title, the year the movie was made, cast and certain crew (including director), then it goes on to illustrate the different releases on DVD around the world and the picture and sound formats. From there you get a brief synopsis of the movie, followed by the particular reviewer’s thoughts on the movie. Finally the reviewer goes through the different formats available around the world and even tells you where the hidden features are, in case you can’t find them. At the end the reviewer give an overall opinion of the movie. The reviewer will give you clear guidelines on whether you should make a purchase or not without over impressing their view which is a great attribute.
The book does not just cover the obscure while it does focus on movies like The Adult Version Of Jekyll & Hyde, The Rise And Fall Of Idi Amin, Amphibian Man, Don’t Touch The White Woman, The Wizard Of Gore, and Zombie Flesh Eaters. It also focuses on mainstream movies like the Alien films, James Bond Movies and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The mix is quite interesting and never monotonous.
The detail of the book is fantastic, it never lectures you like similar publications and talks in layman’s terms. It’s a great book for research, or for broadening your horizons. Its detailed rundown of special features etc. is fantastic and will prevent buyers from making bad purchasing decision. For example the listing for Cannibal Holocaust lists a variety of releases which can make the difference between 18 minutes of the actual movie either being present or cut from the film. Even movies like Edward Scissorhands you can be robbed when it comes to the running time of the movie; this guide shows you the best version to purchase.
The book has 768 pages all of which are black and white, but on nice glossy paper. The book comes in paperback format, which is a good thing as it already comes at quite a weight and hardback would make it a different choice of reference.
The book has an RRP of £14.99 however I purchased mine for £9.99 from play.com. This great worthwhile investment has given me a book that will entertain me for years. And even if I don’t want to purchase certain movies I’m an awful lot more knowledgeable about them than I was.
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