A Few Bits Of This-And-That, And Why Arrow Has Signed Its Own Death Knell, Once-And-For-All! (It's another screw-up!)

First, a link to an article that you should all check-out, regarding the recent BBFC report on sexual violence (the one undertaken with just 35 participants, I might add)! Go have a look, and I hope you all enjoy it. It's the kind of quality article I wished I had written. Kudos to the Strange Things Are Happening gang! A most impressive read!

Strange Things Are Happening

Secondly, there is now hope on the horizon for the beleagured UK retailed HMV!

A restructuring specialist, called Hilco, has been put in charge of HMV's finances. Now whilst Hilco don't technically own HMV yet, they do have the ability to start making changes and to hopefully putting the company on a much safer, and surer ground. At the current time, HMV owe £176 million! Hilco have already bought HMV Canada, so there is real hope that they can save HMV UK and turn it around. The fact that film and entertainment organisations like Twentieth Century Fox are also planning on trying to make things work for HMV, by offering lower retail prices to the chain, can only be a good thing. If it costs HMV less to stock something, then it will cost you the customer less to buy it!

More on this story, as and when it breaks. And now, for some very late news... Arrow are up to their old tricks again! (Good God, not again?!) As some of you may know from a previous thread on the issue - see   this link here.  I have given Arrow Video a very hard and unforgiving time. When they originally announced that they were going to release ZOMBIE FLESH-EATERS onto UK Blu-Ray, I originally posted a 1-Star Review on Amazon, basically saying that I was sure they would screw it up in some way.

When the release came out, I was lambasted for daring to criticise Arrow. Many people said the image was better than the film had ever looked before. Which, to be fair, was true. The film has never looked better than on this specific home viewing release.

Well, in spite of the great picture, it looks like I was actually right. (Yes! Ha ha ha!)

Once again, Arrow have managed to screw-up yet another release in their cult, horror, and exploitation range. (For more on this subject, go read my article  here  where I talk about all of their previous screw-up's in detail!) Quelle surprise, as they say on the continent.

It may not be much to some of you, but because Arrow chose to use three different sets of opening credits on their release of this seminal zombie classic, namely the Italian "Zombi 2" credits, the British "Zombie Flesh-Eaters" and the "Zombie" US titles, they have inadvertently chopped-off six seconds of the opening sequence, where the boat arrives in the harbour of New York! (The issue was first officially mentioned in their forums - see  this link  here.) Instead of the boat slowly and lovingly arriving in N.Y., what you get is a huge jump in the image, as it "pops" into view, and a noticeable "jump" in the audio as well. Totally and utterly unforgiveable! Are Arrow really this stupid, to once again, screw-up another film? Well, it seems, the answer is a resounding "YES"!

And here's what the opening scene SHOULD look like:

On 4th January 2013, Arrow made this announcement:

I am afraid we will not be running a replacement programme, we are very frustrated that this error was introduced by the seamless branching but there isn’t anything we can do about it at this stage. I can only apologise profusely. I hope you are enjoying the disc nonetheless. Best regards. Francesco

Four days later, on their Facebook page, they said this: (taken from their website - all errors have been left in also):

After three independent QCs and literally hundreds of reviews, no one noticed the missing footage, this was brought to our attention by an eagle eyed customer and since then we have been looking into how to fix this. The missing six seconds are caused by the seamless branching 'in point' being incorrectly positioned 6 seconds late and causes a shot of the New York harbour and the movement of the boat into screen to be missing following the credits. We did not initially consider a replacement programme as the replacement programme for The Beyond has not been in a success in that sadly it has been abused as we have now issued many more discs than we actually manufactured. We have therefore decided that we will have a replacement programme for Zombie Flesh Eaters but at a small cost in order to deter those who have claimed discs by forging proof of purchase. Simply the disc may be purchased from our website so there is no need to send us your disc, or proof of purchase making the process very simple and as pain free as possible. Discs are now being manufactured and we will endeavour to make these available as soon as possible, this will likely be a week or so. The replacement disc can be purchased here: Arrow ZOMBIE Replacement Programme

In light of this situation we have amended our processes for authoring and disc QC and we will endeavour for this not to happen again. We can only apologise and hope you are enjoying your Zombie Flesh Eaters packages otherwise. We have a bumper year ahead with some pretty fantastic titles that we intend on doing justice to, more restorations are planned and we hope there will be a few tricks up our sleeve you will enjoy.

It gets better! Arrow KNEW about this problem, BEFORE the discs went to press. See  this link  here. So not only were they told about it, they then failed to fix it, before thousands of faulty copies were authored and manufactured.

Want more?

They claim "Hundreds of reviews" and "Three independent Quality Control tests were undertaken. They claim the error was caused by a "seamless branching" issue? Oh, really! And it gets even juicier still. If you click on the link, you get taken to a page where they wanted you to pay them money to fix their mistake, but thankfully reneged on that shitty idea!

Well, you know what Arrow - FUCK THE LOT OF YOU! You're a bunch of cheap-arsed, lazy, useless, incompetent bunch of ingrates, who wouldn't know their backsides from their brachial artery's. You have the temerity to not only not apologise properly to every one of us who paid you our hard-earned money, but on top of that, because of your errors, we, the customer have to now not only send you our faulty discs back, at our expense, but we then have to pay you £5 to get a replacement, AND we have to do this, because YOU can't get your act together when trying to fix your disc replacement programme for THE BEYOND. Are you fucking kidding?!

Clearly, you are not! And that's what hurts most! You seem to think that this kind of action is not only acceptable, but that it is ok for you to charge us to fix your mistakes. Not only are you incompetent, but you are now LEGALISED THIEVES as well! You're asking us to pay you for your screw-up in spite of the fact that under English Law, it is for you to fix a fault, at your expense and not the customers!

You're scum-sucking parasites!

Since then, there's been no further word from Arrow, about what customers should do with their faulty Blu-Ray discs, that no longer contain the "definitive" release of one of the greatest zombie films ever made. Why does that not surprise me in the least?!

Everyone, please, if you were a purchaser of Arrow's films, take this as your final warning! This company is useless! This company will screw you over, and will make you pay for its mistakes! For your own sanity, DO NOT BUY ANY MORE ARROW DVD'S AND/OR BLU-RAYS UNTIL THEY LEARN THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS! BLACKLIST THEM. IGNORE THEM. But whatever you do, DO NOT buy their products!

They've had ten previous releases, riddled with errors, mistakes, problems, issues, or whatever other name they wish to label the screw-up as, and each time, they've fumbled the ball! Let's all take a stand against this kind of corporate arrogance! Stop letting companies (of any size) walk all over you!

DO NOT BUY ARROW/CULT-LABS PRODUCTS! (Specifically, and so as to cover my own arse, only, the titles in the white cases, that appear on  this list  ! No other Arrow films, releases, or titles apply to this thread!)

Maybe then, and only then, will they learn that they need to stop messing with film fans, and people who pay good money, only to end-up getting second-rate goods!

And if Arrow want to try suing me for libel, then let them have a go at me! Let's see them take me to the courts, and then tell me that everything I've written here is 100% false, and that I should be paying them for "lost revenues" or a "damaged reputation"! They haven't got a (maggot-infested) leg to stand on!

Hopefully this will be the last time I ever have to mention Arrow again! Good Night, God Bless, and don't let Arrow be the thorn in your side any more!

ADDENDUM #1: Here's what "Stephen" thinks of the whole debacle - Best. Spiteful. Comment. Ever!  (Sincere apologies to genre author Stephen Thrower, who I previously attributed this comment too.)

And this is what another few members of the Cult Labs Forums thinks:
 - I told you I was right!
 - Soothsayer?

ADDENDUM #2: I note that some indivudals from the Cult Labs Forums who enjoy trashing me over on their little fanboy section of the Internet, are having a go at me again.  That's fine. If that's what they want to do, then so be it. However, comments such as "This is a man who drinks alone." and "pooches just comes across as childish vindictive nonsense peppered with a degree of narcissism." really make these guys come across as deeply immature people. Considering I had another 117 page-views overnight, and other sites and blogs link to my articles, I'm definitely doing something right.