Ranking The August 2026 Vinegar Syndrome Releases

Thanks for checking out this video. So, I'm going to go ahead and rank and review all of the Vinegar Syndrome August releases that I ended up picking up. But first, I wanted to go ahead and give a little disclaimer. I am dealing with getting sick, I believe. So, my energy level might be lower or I might be less focused. So, sorry for that. Um also, I started a new medication which can cause drowsiness. So, maybe it's both of those things. Maybe it's one of those things. I don't know, but I'm I'm a little exhausted. But I'm doing this video anyway because I do enjoy these and I want to get it out in a decent time. So, going to go through ranked with the films that I picked up for August. Vinegar Syndrome, uh I did not get all of them that were available for the month. So, it's just five of them. So, let me just get right into it. Number five, uh coming in at their Iconoscope release. And this is the fourth, they've only done four at this point, is Disappearance. This is a pretty unremarkable uh made-for-TV movie, unfortunately. Except for the shooting location. The shooting location looks great. Uh I love that aspect of the film. But what is it about? It's about a family that are on a road trip. And the one son is like, "Hey, I want to stop into this ghost town called Weaver." Well, it's not on the map. They stop in, talk to some locals. Locals are are like, "We don't know anything about this town. We've never heard about this town." Well, come to find out they get there, they start looking into things. It is truly a ghost town. And they find out that, "Hey, there have been people here before." But people seem to be disappearing. So, great concept. I love the concept. I think it's shot well. The acting is totally decent. Like, nothing wrong with the acting. Uh it's just the story doesn't really go much of anywhere. And it's very slowly paced. But visually, it looks really good because A, it's shot well, and B, the shooting locations are so good looking, so interesting. And they played into that with what they did for the the essay in this. There's one essay in here. And when it comes to special features, there's really just like two commentary tracks, which I don't do the commentary tracks, unfortunately, so I'm not reviewing that aspect because I just don't have the time to go through all these films and watch them twice, sometimes three or four times depending on how many commentary tracks there are. So, I would have liked there to have been like some standalone interviews maybe thrown on this. So, it's light on the special features, but the essay, I need to read you the title of the essay and who wrote it because the essay is really good. The essay is hands down the best thing about this release. So, I don't you know, I don't love the movie as I basically said, but this essay is it's the Outback in Australian film culture by Simon Foster and it just basically talks about the use of Outback scene like scenery in film and kind of like how that's impacted things and and the impact of it on the films that it's been in. Um very cool, very interesting, especially being a person who um got a minor in or yeah, got a one of my majors, I double majored in in grad school. One of my majors in geography and then went on and got a master's in geography and environmental planning. Obviously using it right here, right? So, from that standpoint, like actually put pointing to the geography that shows up in a film, the physical geography of it is very interesting to me. I actually did a class all about that and wrote a bunch of essays for that and that was a lot of fun, but um Disappearance, it's not a great release, but that essay really great. So, that's my number five. Coming in at number four is the um Lucio Fulci Presents, which they've been doing this now for four months straight. Uh I believe we're getting a fifth one for September. Or was this the third one and that's the fourth the September one's I think the September one is the fourth one. I think this is the third one. Um but anyway, uh oh yeah, and the dis- disappearance was just a Blu-ray. This one is a 4K. Um and then it's one of those things where if you're a subscriber, they also just sent you the other slipcover, which I think looks good, but again, like I said in my haul video, I don't understand why we're getting two slipcovers because what am I going to do with one of the slipcovers at any given time? Don't love that. I would just look rather there be a hard box on top for just the subscribers. And then people could purchase it in addition if they wanted. That's what I think makes sense, not this. Not this. So anyway, off my soapbox on that one. So Bloody Psycho as a film. It is about a guy who is like a parapsychologist. He ends up going to this kind of nice-looking castle in the the like remote areas in Italy. And he [snorts] is going to do like this kind of energy healing thing on on a woman who lives there. He gets there, he starts having kind of these visions, seeing that like something terrible happened at this place. And then things start to end up happening as he stays there and he's interacting with the women and women are coming on to him, by the way. So there's like some sexual stuff going on there. Italian film, you know. From the From when is this? '89. Um so then people start dying. Now, the kills aren't like great kills. The practical effects are kind of fun at times. The acting is kind of a little bit over the top, especially with the kills. And I So I like the kind of like so bad it's good acting that you end up getting in the film. It's really kind of slow and boring for the overwhelming majority of it, which is kind of the big problem. But, I would say it's like the last 15 to 20 minutes is actually really engaging and quite interesting. So, it kind of ends up being saved. So, I don't like love love love this film. I may not rewatch it, but once I got to that last 15 to 20 minutes, it took it from being a kind of an unenjoyable experience to a kind of enjoyable experience. So, got saved of the Lucio Fulci presents that I've seen so far, which is only what Vinegar Syndrome's put out at this point, this is the best of them, in my opinion. So, I I can see people at legitimately having a good time with Bloody Psycho. So, as far as the special features go, I don't know that there's anything in particular that I really need to shout out as being great. Um a bunch of interviews, and with a lot of those interviews, they end up just talking about the actor or director's careers, because they end up not having a ton to say about that that particular film. So, they kind of just talk about their, you know, them in in the film industry and everything. But, um [snorts] probably the best special feature on here is um it what do they call it? Avo, a love story. It's an appreciation of Avo film, which is the Italian home video distributor of all of the Lucio Fulci presents films. So, that's really interesting because they kind of talk about all of that line of films and the importance of that film distribution company in making sure that these films were actually seen by people, getting them in people's homes, and yeah, stuff like that. So, uh that is good. But, no essays or anything with this. So, it's it's an okay release. Uh this was one that was included with the subscription. Um Disappearance was not included with the subscription since it was on Conoscape, one of their sub labels, but you know, all of these types of things for the most part like almost all the Italian releases are going to be included. At least that's the way it's been. So, that's my number four, Bloody Psycho. Oh, yeah, put that over there. Okay, coming in at number three, it is the Peter Weller film of unknown origin. I haven't really seen a whole lot from Peter Weller. I think it just this and Robocop. Um, which you know, everyone loves a Robocop cuz Paul Verhoeven, but Of Unknown Origin, and this is a as you can see, 4K. It is about a guy who has just gotten done kind of remodeling this home that is kind of like his dream home with his wife and his child. And all of a sudden there's a rat that is causing some problems in the house. At the same time, at his job, he gets this new big project he has to work on. The suspense date on it to get it done is really short, so he's stressed out. But he gets hyper focused on fighting this rat. And it's just not just a normal rat. Like it looks like a normal rat, but it's bigger and it's stronger and it's smarter than your typical rat. So, they go a lot into like the rat uh, like origin. That's why it's called Of Unknown Origin, but um, they kind of talk about that aspect of it, like who what rats are and what they can do and all that stuff. And then it's just him kind of like losing it basically and descending into madness as he's just trying to fight this rat and it's just destroying his house. So, it's it's pretty fun. Uh, it gets a little monotonous from time to time unfortunately with what's going on. I think they could have gone a lot bigger. I actually would have liked to have seen the fake rat a lot more because it looked bigger, it looked more ridiculous and kind of like gnarly and fun as opposed to like the close-ups of the regular rat because you can just tell it's a regular size rat, honestly. And it looks kind of cute. It looks cute. So, I'm one of those people. I think rodents are cute, but um Peter Weller does a great job in this. I love his performance in here. That's great. He also gives a really good interview with the special features. That's my favorite of the special features. He does a great great great interview. Um trying to see if there were jog my memory, were there any other interviews that I had to really shout out? Not really. Uh oh, they talked to the special effects artists. Um that was pretty interesting. Oh, and a video essay by film historian and author Sam Deegan. That one was good. That was called Survival Thriller. Um yeah, that was good. So, that and the interview with Weller are the best special features here, so those are good. And then, yeah, I couldn't remember if there was an essay or not. No essay. Like I said, I'm not all there right now, but I think I'm doing an okay job holding it together. Of Unknown Origin, pretty solid. I think this had come out through Scream Factory a while ago, so this is kind of like a if you're a fan of the film, like it's a good release. If you don't really care about the film, don't get it. So, this was included in the subscription as well. Uh Sorry, got to have some water. Cuz also, the new medication I'm on causes dry mouth. So, there you go. Okay, coming in at number two. This is one I had to purchase in addition, another Iconoscope. This is their third release in Iconoscope line. Death of a Cheerleader. I did not expect to like this as much as I did. This one's from the '90s and actually Disappearance, which I showed before, was from early 2000s. I think it's 2002. This is like 94 or something. Um it's about it's based on a true story actually about a girl who's a really good student. She's not popular at school. She's a good person. She's just trying to make her way through life and she really desperately wants to be friends with the popular girl at school who's mean to a lot of people and is a cheerleader. And she just gets to a point where she snaps because the the girl's so mean to her and she murders her. And then it's kind of about the all the fallout from that and how actually people's lives kind of get better without this bully cheerleader around. So it's really conflicting on your feelings of like she murdered this person and that's really horrible. But then you're seeing like but she was a really good person and it was this just like lapse in a moment that just led to this and you end up feeling for her. You feel for all the people around her, her friends, her family, everything. And it's just so in like I don't want to say intense. It's so rich with things going on in the film. Um this is potentially the best made-for-TV movie I've ever seen. Uh again I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I love this film. I will rewatch this film. It's really really good. Uh and it's very poignant at the very end. They they're making really good points about society. And it they're they apply to today honestly. So the movie is great. Now as as far as like special features go, I know there's some good interviews here. Um do do do do do do uh Margaret Langrick was one of the actresses. She was interviewed. That was a good interview. Um visual essay by author and critic Scott Humphreys called the dark side of of estab- to be the best the dark side of establishment values in Death of a Cheerleader. That was quite good as well. And then there's an essay. And it is An Actress to Die For: A Look at the Telefilm Career of Valerie Harper by Amanda Reyes. And that is a good um That's a good essay if you aren't super familiar with the work of Valerie Harper. So, I did find that pretty enlightening. So, you know, not a lot of special features, but good special features and only one essay, but a pretty good essay and a good film. So, this is quite a good release. I honestly would pretty highly recommend people pick this one up if what I've told you sounds even remotely interesting. This was a big surprise to me and I'm glad that I purchased it in addition of my subscription. So, Death of a Cheerleader is my number two for August. Now, coming into the number one and I know some people are going to be like, "Really?" It's the Ice Cream Man upgrade. Now, the controversy around this is the fact that it's included for subscribers and sometime ago Vinegar Syndrome had said they would not be including in subscriptions upgrades. This goes against that because they had already put this film out as a Blu-ray in the past. Now, that said, I I'm just telling you what people are saying and to a degree, I'm kind of like, I get that and that does make me a little bit like, I don't really think this should have been included in the subscription necessarily. But, I think I was going to end up purchasing it anyway. So, it ends up working out for me. So, I'm okay with it in that sense because it's 4K instead of Blu-ray and there is it's not a gigantic difference, but there is a difference. Like it it does look even better than the Blu-ray. So, there's that. And there are some new special features and there are essays which was not included with the Blu-ray and I really did enjoy two of the three essays for the most part. But um I love this movie. Uh for people who don't know, uh Ice Cream Man is Clint Howard doing an amazing job being a very creepy and messed up mentally like out there um ice cream man who he had witnessed the death of his childhood ice cream man right in front of his eyes. He just gets like gunned down and then he's just it's obviously like in the scene his brain just like breaks. Ends up going to a mental institution where he's not treated very well. It's kind of ends up being this thing of like the kind of like people who also are have having issues and should be admitted there are actually the people kind of running it. So he gets messed up even worse. Then he comes out and he's going around becoming an ice cream man, calls himself the ice cream prince cuz the other guy was the ice cream king. And he's putting like body parts and stuff in there and it's and he's killing people and you know, it it's that sort of thing. But it's like a confused It feels like a confused film which makes sense when you read the essays because they talk about how it was supposed to be a more serious film about an more horror driven film about kids um and their relationships with their parents and like society and stuff like that. It was supposed to be more hard hitting, but then someone looked at the script and was like, "Yeah, we don't want to do that. We want it to be a little more like light." So it's this weird mix of like it was trying to be R-rated or at times it's like, "No, it's trying to be PG-13." And it's like it feels confused for that reason. But it's a great watch. Like it is so much fun. I love it so much. There are really weird choices in the film and interesting characters and ridiculous acting and ridiculous characters and really good looking practical effects. That's one of one of that made sure it ended up getting an R rating, honestly. Um but, it's I I'm glad to have this version, honestly, over that Blu-ray because they have the same special features, plus some, and then the essays are added on there. So, let me talk about what the good new stuff is. And like all the pack- packaging stuff I showed off in my haul video. So, if you want to see that more close up, it's in the haul video I put up for the August releases. Um so, special features. Uh So, just to let people know it has the Monster Vision Summer School Edition with Joe Bob Briggs on here, but that was that's not new to this one. That was on the Blu-ray, so just know that it for people who care about that. Uh do do do do, Karl Machinen, an interview with that actor. Um that was an interesting interview to get his take on how things went with the film. Uh Happy Happy Days, brand new interview with the special effects makeup uh guy, Brian Blair. That was interesting because obviously those looked really good in the film. So, that was it for the new special features. I would have liked, especially since they're including it with the subscription, I would have liked to see them maybe try Well, they probably tried, but do something else. Like do some sort of like video like visual essay or something like that. Like give us a little bit more because you're doing an upgrade for subscriber, but just my thought. And then the essays, uh the first one was Oh, first of all, they put a little comic in the front here, which that's fun. I really like that comic. That was a lot of fun. It's it's derived from the movie. It's a scene in the movie, but it goes a little bit differently than it does in the movie, and I really like seeing that. They should do more of that, and honestly, I wish they would have had one in the back of the booklet, too. That would have been cool. So, I I'd like more of that. Okay, so the first essay is Soft Serve Slaughter, The Scoop on the Strangest Kids Film of the '90s by J. A. Kerswell. That ends up talking a lot about the uh that issue of like why the film film felt so confused as it was, like what it was originally going to be going for, what it ended up going for, and how it felt the way it did, and how it landed or didn't land with audiences. But, I do need to point out, and I think I did in the whole video, that the printing on these is messed up. As you can see, the margins are wrong. So, this it's getting cut off on the page that the title's supposed to be on and bleeding over into where the text is. So, that's a big that's I'm not a big problem, but it's a problem because of it makes it really hard to read that. The title, that is. Okay, so I quite like that essay. The next essay was only happy, happy, happy days by Patrick Doll. I really like that one. It ended up being one of these essays, and they get these from time to time, that mainly is just retelling parts of the movie to you, which if you're reading these, you've probably already seen the movie, so you don't need that. So, it felt It didn't really feel like it had a whole lot to say. It felt kind of like a throwaway essay in my opinion. So, I didn't really like it. Sorry, Patrick Doll, wasn't my thing. I I just don't like those types of essays where it's telling me stuff I already know. Um so, then there was one by B. J. Colangelo, which is We All Scream for the Ice Cream Prince of Cult Horror, about Clint Howard and Clint Howard's career and how people have known him, and yeah, that is a really good um really good essay. And those are the types of essays I really like to see in these booklets because it's giving additional context related to the film. So, as opposed to just being like, "Hey, wasn't that great in this scene when this happened?" Or like when this scene when this happened, and that means that this in this scene, you know, those types of things. I don't like that. But, being like, "Hey, let's talk about the phenomenal performance of Clint Howard in this film." and then also some of his career and how that plays into things. So, B.J. Colangelo, nice job. And who is the other person? Sorry. J.A. Kerswell, nice job. So, yeah. Uh obviously, this is my number one and um for the month and I quite liked it. It's not in my top 10 for the year or anything, but it is a good release, especially if you're a fan of this film or you even have a little bit of interest in this film and you didn't have the Blu-ray version. You know, for some people, like honestly, if you're a person who doesn't care about going from Blu-ray to 4K and doesn't want to read the essays, I honestly don't think you need this if you already have the Blu-ray version and if you enjoy the film. So, I'm just going to say that, but I'm glad I have this version, so that's my number one and there you go. So, this is where I'd love to hear from other people. Um what were your thoughts on on these releases if you got any of them or what did you pick up recently? Whatever you want to talk about, go ahead and put it down in the comments. Uh do me a favor. Uh if you like this video give me a favor. Jesus, that's maybe the meds talking. 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