Reaper Awards Celebrate 2011's Best Horror

October: the weather is cooling, and the leaves are changing colour and dropping off the trees, leaving behind bare, skeletal branches that sway hauntingly in the breeze. As Halloween approaches, interest grows in ghosts and goblins and all manner of things that go bump in the night. Such grim and macabre topics are the focus of the Reaper Awards, an annual event recognizing the best horror films on DVD and Blu-ray.

The “Grimmys” were established in 2009 by Home Media Magazine (a weekly publication focusing on home entertainment) and Dread Central (a website dedicated to the horror genre). Nominees are selected by a panel of judges made up of a variety of horror film experts, and winners are selected by fans in online polls.¹ The award, fittingly enough, is a Grim Reaper statuette. Past honourees have included such notable horror titles and series as Hellraiser, Friday the 13th, True Blood, Dexter, and Ghostbusters.²



This year’s Reaper Award nominees were announced on September 19; the Grimmy statuettes were handed out on October 24. They went to:³

Alien Anthology (Best in Show, Best Extras, Best Packaging)
Machete (Best Kill, Best Line)
Insidious (Choice Theatrical Cut)
Frozen (Best Direct-to-Video)
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Best Catalog Title)
Thriller: The Complete Series (Best TV on DVD)
I Saw the Devil (Best Indie/Foreign Film)
Dexter: The Fourth Season (Best Big Bad)
Forget Me Not (Best Box Art)
Cabin in the Woods (Most Anticipated)

We know there are some horror film aficionados out there—what do you think of this year’s Reaper Awards? Are there any titles you feel they overlooked? What films have been popular in your library around Halloween? Let us know in the comments section below.

¹ http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/32459/dread-central-home-media-magazine-launch-the-reaper-awards
² http://www.homemediamagazine.com/awards/reaper-award-winners-through-years
³ http://www.homemediamagazine.com/reaper/alien-fox-dominate-2011-reaper-awards-25437

Make Your DVD Collection Timeless

Library Journal recently assembled a list of classic films essential for every library collection. These selected titles—pointedly named the Timeless Reels Collection—have withstood the test of time, making them true cinema classics. CVS Midwest Tape is excited to now offer these titles together in one online collection.

Click the image below to shop the collection at cvsmidwesttapes.ca.

What do you think of Library Journal's list? Are there any films you would add?

Netflix’s Top Ten DVDs

In late September, Netflix released its list of top ten movies of all time. Some were surprises, i.e. Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and others made complete sense, like The Blind Side. Plenty of online sources quickly shared the list and commented on the films. And while many—including me—questioned Crash, this list definitely articulates the staying power of the Oscars.

As The Daily Beast sums it up, “of the top six films, three won the Oscar for Best Picture, and a fourth was nominated. Two are action flicks, yes, but they're two of the best-reviewed action flicks in years. Another movie features a performer who reminds us that he has acting chops beyond his usual blockbuster bait; in yet another, an 80-year-old favorite reassures us that he's still got it. Of the 10, only two can be said to be, well, kind of inane. But hey—sometimes we all need a little mindless fun amid the classics.”

Here’s the list:

10. No Country for Old Men
9. Iron Man
8. Inception
7. Sherlock Holmes
6. The Departed
5. The Hurt Locker
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3. The Bucket List
2. Crash
1. The Blind Side

Does your collection feature these immensely popular flicks? How does this list compare to the most circulated DVDs at your library? Which of these films would you definitely recommend and which would be summarily left off your list?

2011 Emergent Technologies Report Now Available

Every year the CVS Midwest Tape team, headed up by National Sales Manager Doug Atkinson, puts together the exclusive CVS Midwest Tape Emergent Technologies Report. The reports aims to provide libraries with an in-depth overview of the currently predominant media technologies, emerging technologies, and trending technologies that will likely become commercially available in the near future. The report features third party opinions and predictions of industry experts, and—for the most part—we refrain from making predictions of our own.

The 2011 report is now available. In it, we discuss such topics as box office trends, physical AV media and digital delivery, eBooks, Netflix, 3D technologies, piracy, and cloud computing. Click here to download a PDF of the report now.

What do you think of this year’s report? What topic did you find most interesting? What trends do you think will emerge or change in 2012?