Deathcember's VHS Review

(This review will only focus on the VHS release, presentation, cover art, and extras. The review of the movie itself can be found at this link: https://deathcemberthoughts.blogspot.com/2020/12/deathcember-review.html.)

Back around early December, Shout Factory (US Distributor of Deathcember) and the producers of Deathcember have teamed up with Broke Horror Fan and Witter Entertainment to produce 50 VHS copies of Deathcember. Broke Horror Fan offers merchandise based on horror films including soundtracks, Blu Rays, vinyl figures, posters, comics, and shirts. Their link is: https://brokehorrorfan.com/. Witter Entertainment has been producing VHS's of recent underground films for a few years now and some of their releases have included Mandy, Director's Cut, Victor Crowley, Nightmare Cinema, and Color out of Space. All 50 copies of Deathcember have sold out but you can still order VHS tapes of their other films at this link: https://witterentertainment.com/

The box for the VHS release is very sturdy in a clamshell design and the cover art on the front by Adrian Keindorf is well designed with horror characters and elements sitting near a fireplace. The Krampus like character is impressively well drawn and I also loved the drawing of the guy holding a knife and a couple of references to the Christmas Miracle and the Santa Is Coming short films. This front cover truly captures the tone from the movie which is delightfully weird and creepy. On the back of the box, it gives out a short description of the anthology film, mentions the special features (2 letters included) and 4 images from the following short films: Christmas Miracle, All Sales Fatale, Villancicos, and They Used to Laugh and Call Him Names. The credits are also included on the back.

Inside the VHS are 2 letters from Producers Ivo Scheloske and Dominic Saxl. Out of respect for Witter Entertainment and everyone involved, I won't copy the entire text of the 2 letters but what they talked about is mostly their experiences with VHS during the video nasty era in Germany with Ivo mentioning how the VHS for Deathcember came into fruition. Both letters mention their hopes for a good christmas 2020 despite the obvious challenges.

The VHS tape of Deathcember (with a label that lists how long the tape runs for plus copyright notices and logos), starts with the FBI warning, then a notification that this movie was modified to fit the screen, then the logos from Broke Horror Fan and Witter Entertainment, and then the movie itself. There's no additional extras before or after the movie.

 Deathcember looks great on VHS and the presentation from the tapes really capture the feeling with a full 4:3 frame plus the analogue quality of the tapes back then. Unfortunately, the US cut for Deathcember is included since this is licensed from Shout Factory. This means the Crappy Christmas Short isn't included (although the director, Jurgen Kling is still credited on the back of the VHS).

Overall though, I am glad they were able to put out a VHS of Deathcember, even if it was limited to just 50 copies and I really like the presentation that Witter Entertainment does to its films. Even though all of the copies of Deathcember are sold out, there are other cult horror films and specials like the Holliston Christmas Special that you can still order today. Happy New Year's everyone!!