Original View

By Body Boy

It has been a long journey since the birth of record players, television sets, and film-projecting theatres. Within the past handful of years, everything seems to have gone completely digital! Music, movies, and even phones share the fast and efficient life of digital transfer. Now, with the internet, you can explore the entire world in a field of new technology.

One popular accessory is video uploading, where home movies can instantly be broadcasted across the net with the click of a button. Sites such as Youtube and Veoh are just some of the more famed types of video uploading sites receiving recognition. However, home videos aren’t just the only clips entering the streaming planet of the web. Yes, horror films from all sorts of genres are letting themselves be known at an incredible pace. The most popular is without a doubt, our beloved retro slashers from the seventies and eighties. But is this necessarily a good thing?

It was 2006 when the slasher films really started to flood into the bay of Youtube, flaunting their sheer awesomeness. Body Count, Killer Party, Happy Birthday To Me, Slaughter High, Superstition, Ghostkeeper, Don’t Go In The Woods, Curtains, Madman, Humongous, Tenebre, and more! Glorious titles were being introduced to unsuspecting genre newcomers and long-time horror buffs. You didn’t have to go out and search for bloody mayhem, as it was staring right at you from your computer monitor. As a plus, you could watch a movie, and if you didn’t like it, you didn’t have it on your shelf from a blind bought purchase. While the quality was not picture perfect, and the movie was cut into ten minute chunks, the presentation was still amazing. After all, these movies were being given to you for free.

Yet, that’s where the biggest problem of them all seems to be. They were free. They did not give profit to the director of the film, or the releasing company. More often than not, a slasher that was being broadcasted already had an official DVD release, and was available to find if a simple hunt was performed. The most irritating of the slasher uploads had to be with one of the big named franchises. Friday the 13th, Halloween, and A Nightmare On Elm Street films were not too shy away from the video exploitative sites, a decision that was most definitely wrong. You go to any CD store, or an electronics department of any mart, and you’ll probably find a batch of the above titles somewhere close by.

With, many times, a remastered print, and an obvious effort for quality, distributors in general were being robbed every time somebody watched one of their releases for nothing in return. It doesn’t matter if some may make mountains of cash, it’s still stealing. Anchor Bay, Code Red, Synapse, MGM, Shriek Show, and multiple other releasing companies, big or small, didn’t need their perfectly preserved and ready to ship slashers taken advantage of. With less dough pouring in, the dreaded thought of slashers not being popular enough could cross minds, leaving many unattended body count wonders to stay buried.

In September of 2007 a gory slasher gem was finally released to DVD by MGM with a beautiful transfer and a fair play of fun extras. The movie was called The Burning. The Burning was already a major slasher hit with internet fans since the fall of 2006, and it seemed as if it would do great glory in sales when released. It was popular; that could be smelled a mile away! But even after a year on the web, and the DVD at the peak of its release, uploaders did not hold back. The Burning stayed online, even with the pleasantly uncut version available in common shops. The Burning finally knew how it felt like to be one of the many others before it: loved, but not cherished. Or did it? Did it still, after all of that, sell?

There are many slasher movies yet to be released on DVD (if ever). These are hard to find, and only on video or laserdisc. Rarely are they ever in their originally intended uncut state, or smooth picture quality. Then there are the ones that have been released on DVD, but are far from in print. Tough to find, just like the VHS tapes, these seem like fairly obvious picks for slasher films that are ‘okay’ to upload for viewing. But to be fair, re-releases are often eventual, and there’s always eBay. Me? Yeah, I have been guilty of watching some DVD-ized slashers online, but on the bright side, I do still track them down for ownage, even if they suck! They’re collectibles! So, down to the bottom of things to know: DVDs are your friends; don’t steal from distributors; support, support, support! Slashers need all the help we can give them!

Counter-Point

By Drew

Put down those pitchforks and don’t light those torches just yet, folks!

Horror fans are the most disrespected type of movie fans in the world. Not only that, but as slasher fans, we are a subgenre of a subgenre. In the 80s, Siskel and Ebert stared into the camera and asked, “Who would like this type of movie?” Paramount took piles and piles of slasher fan cash from the Friday the 13th series, while attempting to distance themselves publicly from their redheaded stepchild in a hockey mask. The eager director / producer / distributor / actor / etc. outside of the Hollywood studio system was able to make a fairly sizeable return on a small initial investment, because of the ravenous and loyal horror fan.

It’s not until now, with the late 70s and 80s at a peak of nostalgia, do these movies receive ample praise and with the growth of the Internet, fans can discuss these movies, find information about them, and (more controversially) share them as viral video files. Many slasher fans, myself included, see this as a great way for art to be shared. Filmmaking, even slasher filmmaking, is an art, and is meant for public consumption.

These films flourished on late night cable and in local video stores until Blockbuster dominated the video rental market and cable pursued additional ad revenues (in the form of all-night infomercials). These circumstances led them to become neglected by the masses, only remembered by their most hardcore fans. Those who were lucky enough to of procured their limited printings or found them amongst stock liquidation only were amongst the only fans to view these forgotten films. They have now been given new life, to be viewed on the Internet.

Instead of sitting in private collections to be hoarded until they were lucky enough to receive a DVD release, if such a release ever occurs, these films are given a pulse on the Internet. Shared from one fan to many, their viewing leads to posted reviews, discussion on message boards, and increased public awareness. An argument can be made that this increased audience and public attention is what is bringing these obscure movies to an eventual DVD release, for which most (not all, mind you, but most) fans are more than happy to hand their money over.

This might be considered “speculation”, but I argue that it is no more far-fetched than the argument that viral slashers are preventing or hurting DVD releases. While there are a selected few that will just be happy with a burned DVDr, there is no reason to punish the collected fan base for the actions of a few.

Further more, I argue that “bootleg” sites (for lack of a better term) are far more detrimental to parting the original director with his royalties, than viral slashers are. These sites use elements of the original artwork, dupe from sometimes-inferior source material, and then burn it to a disc for which a loyal fan pays a fee (none of which goes to the filmmaker). These companies can be found on the Internet or at horror conventions and some fans that would condemn viral slashers see no problem in using these services. They, like myself, just want a chance to see the movie. But who is less likely to buy a commercial DVD release of Final Exam, someone who watched a viral slasher for free and liked it, or someone who parted with $15-20+ dollars for a “bootleg”?

The most puzzling thing about the anti-viral slasher argument is the actions that some (not all) take. Some self-important individuals exploit the notion of complaining to site administrators, an idea that is supposed to prevent harassment. Instead of using this tool to keep sites clear of abuse, individuals feel free to use it to pass judgment on others who are simply sharing rare movies, most of which are not available to the entire population.

This action is puzzling because everyone makes judgments like this everyday, concerning their own chosen forms of entertainment. If a current theatrical release or a television program is unappealing, you can stay home and not attend it or not tune in on your television. Don’t like the song on the radio? Change it. We are given the freedom of choice, to pursue or ignore the multiple forms of media. For some reason, the anti-viral slasher crowd isn’t happy to just not participate in sharing the movies. They feel they need to have user accounts shut down and videos removed from the reach of fans that seek them.

So which side is right, anti-virals or pro-virals? There is no need to debate such things. Slasher fans, please just tolerate each other, because very few tolerate us. And if you see viral slasher sharing that you object to and consider getting a user banned from a site, let me suggest an exercise to do first.

Contact your parents (or whomever raised you) and offer to retroactively pay them for all the food, clothes, schooling, and shelter that they provided you with. Then contact every musical artist or television entity that you might of ripped off by taping them, sharing their iTunes, or buying their CD/VHS/DVD from a “used’ bin (they make no $$$ there), and offer compensation. Follow that frame of thinking as far as it can go, until you are satisfied. Or you could just leave viral sharers alone, in peace.