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What brand/model did you get? I was looking for a region free player a while ago. But in Germany they are all really expensive and as shady third-party buy with no warranty, etc. I finally figured that buying a cheap player from the US (via Amazon) together with a power converter, will probably be much cheaper and more on the safer side?

I've ordered this via Wicked Vision and today it came with all my other editions. It's really beautiful I totally enjoyed it, and the booklet is so thick! Looking forward to seeing this:

Also today I received my copy of this movie. And now I can assure you, it really is a bilingual text in this mediabook.

@Veum: Okey, thanks for the threads - I just followed them, so I should be notified if you post anything new. Interesting picks, btw. I don't know any of these movies, but looked up their trailers. "Let the Sunshine In" would be a movie that I wouldn't touch, to be quite honest But "White Dog" looks interesting - expected it to be a simple creature feature, but apparently it even has a deeper social subtext, looks really interesting. And "Mickey and Nicky" would have been an instant pick, just because of Peter Falk on the cover. I love that guy - I've seen hardly any movies with him and best know him from Columbo - but the few movies that I HAVE seen: He's ingenious in all of them. Still, up to now my favorite role of his would be Columbo, and straight after that "Murder by Death". Maybe one day I'll get myself a Blu-ray player from the states - then I could dig into those Criterions myself - not sure if I should, though - it seems that Criterion would be a straight way into poverty for me...

Hey guys, today the DHL rang at my door (our local delivery service), and guess what he brought? I am of course at a slight advantage, being from Germany, but I hope your parcels will arrive soon as well. To "sweeten your wait time" as we Germans like to say, here are some teasing pictures from the edition itself and the postcard I got :) Enjoy!

You're welcome. Unfortunately not, no. I just found out about the Criterion film after researching for this post. I would love to get my hands on some Criterion, but unfortunately almost all Criterion editions are Region A locked, so I wouldn't be able to play them. That's why I have hardly any information or knowledge about the Criterion catalogue

While I came home with much more than I wanted, what I actually went out for was this classic movie. As you might already know through my other Mediabook posts, I really enjoy these classics (if they are of the horror genre, at least), but as a child of the 80s I never grew up with them, so most of them are bought without knowing what to expect. It was the same with this title, and even though I saw that this would be interesting for me, I first wanted to wait for a possible pricedrop. However then I saw that some YouTubers got samples to present, and I enjoyed it so much that I didn't want to risk not getting a copy. So full price paid, but it really looks gorgeous, don't you think? Looking forward to seeing how terrifying this "Castle of Terror" (the literal translation of the German title) really is...

Another pick-up, just due to it's affordable price: As it has a UHD in it (which I like having as it is somewhat future proofing the collection, but I don't like paying too much extra [~5€ is okey, I guess] for), it started off with a rather high price. Not that it's not worth it, after hearing so many good things about this documentation it probably is worth it's price, but I just wanted to wait a bit. Now I got it for 14€, which is a great price considering that Amazon has it for 20€ and given that Mediamarkt carries the DVD for 12€, the Blu-ray Amaray for 14€, and the 4K-Version for nearly 30€ in local stores. Really looking forward to this one as it has some great imagery; I am a bit afraid that my rather old LED TV wouldn't do it justice though - maybe it's time to save some money for an better OLED TV. Also I really like the rough finish and the really clean look with these extremely white pages. And you've got to love that continuing disc artwork that Capelight uses these days, absolutely gorgeous and perfectly fitting even if there are two discs that are overlapping.

Sad to hear. Trailer isn't a German one - I usually search for them on YouTube and pick the ones with a) the best resolution and b) English audio/subtitles, as this is an international forum and I'd feel stupid if I would only see others use things I couldn't understand. And I also feel that it's a shame that BDs nowadays come with so limited audio support (I have so many DVDs that have 4 or more audio tracks), but I've heard that this is often a licensing problem, so probably it's the same for subtitles? Idk, but it's a shame non the less - these German labels would probably be selling much more, if they thought more internationally (see all the Asian premium editions). As mentioned, there is a criterion version, that might be interesting to you. I just looked it up: https://www.criterion.com/films/29079-betty-blue

If you are wondering why I am starting a thread for such an old release: Well, because I just got it and wanted to share some pictures with you. Why did I get it? Well, I placed two orders some days ago at Capelight, I actually wanted to get something totally different, but they had so many nice offers (and as I am staying at home, I am more often on shopping side than I should be according to my wallet). This one wouldn't have been one of them, because I knew about this release but everything just repelled me by just looking at the cover I didn't even know anything about this movie, but as Capelight had an additional promotion campaign for all their French movies, it just peaked my interest. You might know this already from other posts, but I am especially interested in non-Hollywood movies, simply because they are often overlooked, and there's an even greater interest for movies in French, Japanese and Spanish, because I have rudimentary knowledge in these languages and would love to get better in them. So, point me to a movie that is French, that comes in a premium package and make it a bargain (I think it was 8€?), and - well - I cannot resist and buy it even though I know nothing about it. Pictures sure look "interesting", something I wouldn't have dreamed about getting, but hey - it has an interesting background and even an Oscar nomination, so maybe there's more to it. De toute façon, voici quelques photos que j'ai prises. Prendre plaisir:

Release : 09.04.2020 Link : Capelight-Shop Price : €18,95 For their current release, Capelight dug really far into the movie archives: The Innocents is a 1961 black-and-white psychological horror movie from Great Britain that was directed and produced by Jack Clayton and was excellently filmed by no other than Freddie Francis, who would later become a stable director for Amicus and Hammer, directing such movies as "Evil of Frankenstein", "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors", "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" or "Tales that Witness Madness". It stars Deborah Kerr (6-times Oscar nominee - world record for nominations without winning), Michael Redgrave (3-times Oscar nominee) and Megs Jenkins, and is well received by the audience, and well discussed amongst film theorists, as well as - according to The Guardian - one of the 25 best horror films ever made. Capelight released this movie in a Mediabook that - for the first time for capelight - uses silver foil lettering, which makes it look really stunning. Front and backside show different movie poster artworks, that works really well with the red-foil lettering, and next to the BD and DVD copy of the movie there is also a lot of extras on the discs: an introduction by movie historian Christopher Frayling, as well as an audio commentary by that guy, a number of featurettes and even a 72 minutes radio play named "Die Unschuldsengel" that is unfortunately in German. The movie however features both German and English audio as well as subtitles. And as always, here's the movie trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOsF0S65RR0

Release : 19.07.2019 Link : Capelight-Shop Price : €14,44 (current price - initial release price was around 25~30€) In 2017 directors and photographers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Varsarhelyi followed Alex Honnold and filmed him during his absolutely crazy attempt to climb a 3,000 foot vertical cliff - alone and without ropes. Their documentary "Free Solo" that captures not only the attempt in stunning imagery, but also shows how family and friends cope with someone that crazy, was released in 2018 under National Geographics and turned a lot of heads winning the best documentary feature nomination at the 91st Academy Awards, besides many other accolades. Capelight was one of the first to adapt UHD for Mediabooks back in 2016, when they released 187, but up to now didn't make this into a standard for their releases (partly, most defenately, because a lot of people didn't like paying more due to an included UHD). This release is one of the few exceptions, and probably one of these few where it really makes sense to watch it in 4K. The movie comes, as usually, with a 24-page booklet, giving some background on free solo climbing as well as on Alex, Jimmy and Elizabeth. Other than that, there are Interviews and a featurette as bonus. The movie itself has English and German audio as well as German subtitles. It has a rough finish with a structure that makes it look and feel like a painting canvas. As usually, enjoy the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urRVZ4SW7WU

Release : 11.03.2016 Link : Capelight-Shop Price : €17,99 (current price - don't know the initial price) In March 2016 Capelight, the pioneering label in Mediabooks, released the 1986 French erotic psychological drama film "37°2 le matin", internationally known as "Betty Blue". The film was directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix and stars the actors Béatrice Dalle and Jean-Hugues Anglade. The movie, though probably unknown to most, received a BAFTA and Oscar nomination for best foreign film in 1986. It has a running time of 120 minutes, but for it's 20th anniversary in 2006 a 185 minutes long directors cut was released in France. Germany only got a release in 2016 with this Capelight release that contains both, the cinematic original cut as well as the directors cut; the States had to wait nearly 4 more years until the directors cut was added to the Criterion Collection for both DVD and Blu-ray. The Capelight Mediabook is exactly what you expect from this label - except maybe for the pages that feel a bit thinner than they do nowadays. Then again, its a 4 years old release. Besides the 24-paged German booklet and two Blu-ray discs containing both cuts, there is also a DVD copy of the directors cut. For additional extras we get another movie, i.e. a short movie called "Le Chien de Monsieur Michel" - the 1977 debut film of the director. And then there are a couple of documentaries, making-ofs and screen-tests. The movie comes with original audio as well as a German dubbing, and - unfortunately - only German subtitles. So not international-friendly, don't buy this if you don't know either German or French. Here's the Trailer, or rather a scene from the movie marketed as trailer(?):

Oh, sorry, I forgot to add the screenshots. Here you go (my two last orders):

Yeah, I feel you. I am always happy when labels, such as MantaLab or Plain Archive do English-friendly editions, because otherwhise I'd had to speak Chinese or Korean, and even my Japanese is so bad I wouldn't get very far in reading a booklet. It's a shame that Germany is so stubburn. But Wicked had produced a few English-friendly editions. There are 2-3 dual language Mediabooks and for their Funnyman-Relese they've included the booklet in English translation as PDF onto the disc. Maybe they'll do this more often in the future? As for your question: If it hasn't been shipped out yet (check the order status on the Wicked Vision website), you can always ask them. Just write them an e-mail, or alternatively if you are on Facebook, ask them there (which is probably the best way to contact them): https://www.facebook.com/wickedvision.media/ But keep in mind that you might have articles that are pre-orders, so maybe they haven't been released yet? And also: He's doing this all alone. My last two orders just got shipped two days ago. During the "processing" status he included a message to the order (see my screenshots). Translated it says: "Hallo, I am trying to send out everything as fast as possible. But currently I am all alone and on my last legs. Please be patient and stay healthy. Best wishes Daniel". So better check your status on their website once more (oh you can do so, by the way, by logging in, then on the top right click your name, go to your account, and there you have an overview of all your orders). And if it's already shipped, then it's the postal services. As I reside in Germany, I have no idea or experience, as of how long it takes to ship to the states. Maybe @Grendel, as your "neighbor" can shed some light? But yeah, there could also be delays due to Corona. I am waiting for a Media Markt package, and also Amazon is delaying all their packages for at least 2 days. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you not having to wait so long and that you receive your package soon and in good condition. Keep us updated!

And here are some pictures I took from my edition that just arrived today (Cover A):

Release : 02.04.2020 Shop : Pretz Media exclusive Price : €29,99 Limited : 222 (Cover A), 333 (Cover B), 333 (Cover C) Long before "Neon Zombie Magazin" announced a mediabook release this year (see my announcement post here), there was the Birnenblatt label who announced it in on Febuary 27th, 2018(!). I don't know when it was supposed to ship originally - I myself ordered it really late, on August 1st, 2019. Unfortunately, last year was a bad one for Birnenblatt, and they regularly postponed all their releases, as they got the mediabooks from the factory and had to reorder a number of times because there where defects or things not meeting specification. Instead of shipping out bad quality, Birnenblatt fought with the factory and this lead to massive delays, I got mine today, 9 months later! But enough of the problems: The box office bomb "Slither" from 2016 was the debut from James Gunn, and is a comedic body horror movie starring Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Brightburn) and Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy 1+2). While a total flop at the cinema it got a lot of positive reviews and is considered a modern cult film. Birnenblatt released this movie as a Pretz Media shop exclusive product in 3 different cover artworks, cover B and C showing the infamous bath tub images used as movie poster for this film, cover A shows a newly commissioned artwork (but I couldn't find out by whom). It also uses a special finish that is somewhat similar to rubber, on Facebook Pretz Media called it "Soft touch finish", that is really sensitive to finger prints, with the info to better use gloves (am I the only one finding it ironic that there is a "soft touch" finish that shouldn't be touched?). But holding it in my hands, it isn't too bad. The Blu-ray comes with a lot of extras, including an audio commentary with James Gunn and Nathan Fillion, a number of behind the scenes and making-of featurettes, and this time (similar to their "Gesetz der Rache" [Law Abiding Citzen] mediabook with Rocket Beans TV's "Kino+") another Blu-ray disc that contains an exclusive special episode of a famous and professional movie talk round on YouTube. This time it's Trashothek's Movie Minutes, and it's 45 minutes long (unfortunately, of course, only in German). I love these extras, as it is something really special, different to just having the movie on DVD. The booklet is - as often the case - not done by Birnenblatt themselves but by the "Neon Zombie Magazin", and carries the cover number "#23" of their "Mini magazine" series.

As this release is also sold out, I pulled out my edition from my shelf and took some pictures. Here you go, hope you'll enjoy them!

Thank you for fixing it @deckard99. Btw. don't be puzzled by the number on the front cover card: It's a typing error. "Rache der Zombies" also had #5 printed on the cover card, but came before this, and their next release "Der Kuss des Vampirs" was #7. That being said, here are the pictures of my edition - you might have suspected it from my introduction text which wasn't too objective on the topic of title translations: I choose Cover C. As all of the covers sold out rather quickly I hope these pictures give you some joy or maybe help you in deciding weather or not you want to get it second hand and what it might be worth to you. Also as a specialty, I got a postcard set because I was one of the first 100 preorders. That being said, here you go:

I love the idea of a separate thread for chatting about those classic horror releases (I then wouldn't limit it to just Wicked Vision releases - there are plenty other good labels, like Anolis, or Indicator, etc. that do great classic horror movie releases). But for the mediabook threads I would think it's better to have separate threads - the idea being that you, me and others can share their pictures or ratings of the movies and the release in that thread, where others could find it if they specifically search for a title, and not having everything going under in a stream of different releases. For instance, if I find the time, tomorrow, I'd like to add some photos here. The mediabooks are unfortunately sold out, but maybe looking at some pictures will give people joy and maybe if they find an offer online they might consider it (or not) because they know what they'll be buying, and if it's worth their money. But as you mention @extantsrevenge already: Could you do me a favour? I made a mistake in the title -.- It's not #23, but rather #6 (copy and paste error, I'm really sorry). Can you correct that?

Very nice order, and congratz on getting the last copy of "The Curse" - all three movies are really special releases and I love every one of them dearly. I am a bit sad for you that "Curse of the Crimson Altar" is sold out as mediabook and only available as amaray version, but even that is still good, and the price - especially the current offer - is a real bargain! I hope you enjoy those editions. I already mad a thread long ago for "Die, Monster, Die!", and just saw that all the pictures of that original post got lost, but I just re-uploaded them, so if you want to take a look inside already, feel free to take a look at the post: https://mediapsychos.com/topic/7238-das-grauen-auf-schloss-witley-ot-die-monster-die-wicked-vision-collectors-edition-19-blu-raydvd-mediabook-germany And I have already seen that you found the other two threads - I just had to open them, once I saw your order - the movies are worth their own thread where they should get a lot of appreciation :D

Release : 14.09.2018 Link (Wicked Shop) : Sold out [there is, however a black amaray release still available] Price : €29,99 Limited : 555 (Cover A) + 222 (Cover B) + 333 (Cover C) The other post that you'll have to thank @Grendel for (see this post) is this movie. As "Collector's Series" #6 this one is on of the earliest releases by Wicked Vision: "The Crimson Cult" from 1968 may seem like a typical Hammer Horror productions - staring Christopher Lee and Boris Karloff makes it seem like it, even more so, but even though it's a British film directed by Vernon Sewell, it was actually produced for AIP (American International Pictures). The story is based - once more - on a short story by H. P. Lovecraft ("The Dreams in the Witch House"), and is a story of witchcraft and occultism. If you read the German title, however, you might start to wonder: "Die Hexe des Grafen Dracula" translates to "The witch of Count Dracula" - Count Dracula? He's actually not in this picture and there is no association to him what so ever? Well, yes, that's true, but German movie labels in the 60s-80s had this horrible idea of "tricking" people into cinemas by adding something to the title that was famous at the time. And as Dracula was one of the most famous titles of that time, a lot of movies got translated wrongly: La maschera del demonio (Black Sunday) --> "Die Stunde, wenn Dracula kommt" (The hour that Dracula arrives), Operazione paura (Kill, Baby, Kill) --> "Die Toten Augen des Dr. Dracula" (The death eyes of doctor Dracula). "Cult of the Crimson Curse" is just another movie that fell victim to this strange German policy. But this is the smallest problem of the movie: due to the English censoring board, this movie got cut, and most of the cinemas and releases used that cut master, which misses 10 seconds of a whipping scene; the original got lost, and so this cut version became the only variant; until a master was found, that is also used for this release, so the release from Wicked is one of the rare uncut versions, world wide. But there's even more - this movie is the last British production with Boris Karloff, who was sick even when he was shooting this movie - a reason why he's in a wheelchair, wearing a concealed oxygen mask. During his 8 days of shooting he got so sick that he was afterwards transported to the emergency room - which is why a lot of people believe that this is the movie that actually got him killed. To counter the strange practice of weird title translations, Wicked released this edition in three cover artworks from which two look nearly identical; however one has an alternative title on the cover "Schwarze Messe auf Blutrotem Altar" (Black mass on a crimson altar), which is much more fitting - both to the movie as well as to the English original title. Cover A show the German original movie poster, cover B shows the rare Spanish movie poster and cover C that is nearly identical to cover A is the french movie poster, and the one with the better German title. This edition is a 3-Disc set, with one blu-ray and two DVDs, filled with a lot of extras: 24-paged, all German booklet. English audio commentary with Barbara Steele and David del Valle (very interesting one!) German audio commentary with Daniel Perée (the guy behind Wicked Vision), Ingo Strecker and Jörg Kopetz Interview with Christopher Lee Audio interview with Christopher Lee "Creating the Curse of the Crimson Altar" documentation German nostalgic cut (only on the DVD) two Super-8 editions of the movie alternative introduction German cinema introduction Trailer, radio advertisment, picture slideshow, etc. And of course, if you'd preordered and where one of the first 100, you got a limited hand-numbered postcard. Yes, this edition is worth every penny, and if you can still find it somewhere, you'd probably should get it right away! Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOSZOVbnwRA

Release : 14.12.2018 Link (Wicked Shop) : Sold out Price : €29,99 Limited : 888 copies Thanks to @Grendel and his announcement in this post I've decided to open up two threads for two Wicked Vision releases we hadn't talked about, yet. The first one is an European premiere, not only on Blu-ray, there also hasn't been a DVD release in Europe since this release: Based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space", debuting director David Keith (Firestarter) was supported by Lucio Fulci (House by the Cemetery, Don't Torture a Duckling, etc) as producer for his 1987 movie "The Curse", staring Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Big Bang Theory). It's a classic gothic story, that has a typical American 80s horror movie vibe, and comes with a lot of nice practical effects. In Germany this movie was only available for a pretty short period of time when it was released on VHS, as soon the German "Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien" (Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons) deemed it so harmful that in 1989 it was "indexed" (i.e. forbidden to be sold) for 25 years. It got removed in 2014 but only in 2018 Wicked Vision got around to finally do an release nearly 30 years after it's initial release in Germany. And interestingly, without knowing it beforhand they realized that the German first released - even though claimed to be uncut - was actually shorter than the masters they had: There's an extra 3 minutes of never before seen scenes in the German release! The release is a typical 2-Disc Mediabook edition, but untypical for Wicked Vision there is only one single cover of their "Collector's Series" #23. The 24 paged booklet is completely in German, and rather heavy on the text side (going deep into the works of Lovecraft and how "The Colour Out of Space" influenced many other movies besides "The Curse"), and also the extras are a bit sparse, especially if you are not German-speaking: There is a really great German audio commentary, but that's it. other than that we get a trailer and a slide show. If you where among the 150 first pre-orders you however also got a limited postcard. All in all still a pretty decent release, great picture quality and worth your time (and money). Here's a trailer:

Here is a re-upload of the pictures I took a while ago, that got lost. I've also like to link to the trailer for anyone not knowing the movie: Last but not least, maybe you, @extantsrevenge or someone else of the admin team could edit my initial post to replace the "fetch?id=22672" with the picture that used to be in that position? It's this image that I used there as an overview for the different covers available: So here are the photos that used to be in the other post:

Release : 21.05.2020 Link: Amazon Exclusive Price : €29,99 Limited : ??? Supposedly, beside the Saturn exclusive mediabook in two covers that @CAYENNE-FAHRER has already informed you about here, there is also a third mediabook cover that is coming from Amazon and is exclusive to their house. And while we are still waiting for cover designs from the ringed planet, the largest river already presents us with one, that - in my opinion unfortunately - is already well known as it is exactly the same we already got from Zavvi in a 2000 copies limited steelbook in 2015, and in a variation in 2019 by FYE in another steelbook release. The mediabook looks like it's a standard sized one, but as it is a major label (Paramout) there could still be surprises here. And in addition to that there is no information about extras, restoration, limitation, etc. But for those who didn't get any of the steelbooks and that love the design this could be an alternative - and for Germany it is the first premium release, so it's awaited by many that don't watch movies with original soundtrack and have been waiting for a dubbed premium release. The movie is one of those that in my humble opinion everybody should have seen. Directed by Tim Burton and featuring an ingenious cast staring young Johnny Depp who in those days (again my opinion) was so much better without the overacting he does nowadays. Besides him we have the lovely Christina Ricci with - if I remember correctly - her breakthrough role. And then of course something for our Harry Potter fans: Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter), Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon) and Toby Maudsley (voice of Grawp). But that's not even half of it. Michael Gough (Alfred Pennyworth in the Burton/Schumacher Batman movies) and Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine) can also be seen, as well as - last but not least - Sir Christopher Lee (Saruman, Count Dooku, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, ....) and Christopher Walken (I don't even know where to start). Do I need to say anything more to sell you this movie? Well, okay then: It's a typical Burton of his strong years, i.e. a well thought through great atmospheric story that convince you with great imagery as well as a great story and superb characters, and once more a Gothic horror tale that has it's clever and subtle but funny subtext, a play with colors, etc. And last but not least it is a thrilling story, and a movie that even with a large number of re-watches you wouldn't get tired of. And now, have fun watching the trailer: PS: The movie has recently also inspired a TV series, that I haven't watched (yet), but trailers already foretold that this wasn't going to go well, and it didn't. With a really hyped number of viewers this one constantly lost them - from over 10 millions in the first to just 1 million in the last episode before cancellation. So if you know the series but haven't seen the movie, please don't expect anything similar, and go watch the movie!