If you are fully awake this morning: congratulations! You survived another New Year's Eve.
Are you in full command of your senses? Are you ready to consider adding to your physical home-media collection? Yes, this is an unpaid tout for a physical-media company, but it's Vinegar Syndrome, a company that has done me right over the past few years with their superb and respectful genre-happy releases. Among my personal purchases from the VS label: Dominique and Wonder Women, six others I haven't even dug into yet, plus two more from one of their partner labels, Fun City Editions (Smile and Jeremy).
Now that we're in 2023, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the label, which means they have reason to celebrate.
Here is why they are celebrating and how you, valued readers who have a little extra coin in your pockets and value physical home media, can benefit. From their official verbiage, supplied by a trusted publicist:
"The first seven days of 2023 - starting at 12:01 PM EST on Sunday, January 1st and continuing through Saturday, January 7th at 11:59 PM EST - will be a celebration of all things Vinegar Syndrome, and mark the only time in 2023 that fans can become Vinegar Syndrome subscribers! Vinegar Syndrome subscriptions are massively popular in the genre film community and allow customers to receive all of the coming year's VS branded releases at 50% off SRP, along with exclusive discounts on all Vinegar Syndrome-related sub-labels and partner labels.
"New product will be added to the site every day of Subscriber Week at exactly 12:01 PM EST, with ten select items discounted to $10 every day at the same time. Subscriber Week will represent the most diverse lineup in Vinegar Syndrome history, with films from the US, Asia, Mexico, and Italy - spanning from the 1940s to early 2000s.
"The coming year will feature numerous celebratory releases to commemorate Vinegar Syndrome's 10th anniversary, including a major ten-film box set and the addition of three new distribution sub-labels.
"Vinegar Syndrome releases are focused in part on generating awareness of and interest in the film preservation process, and is one of the only independent film distribution companies which also oversees a large film archive. They are the only independent film distribution company to operate its own film restoration lab, and have rescued, restored, and released numerous film collections that were in danger of destruction.
"While initially focused solely on American films, Vinegar Syndrome's catalog has expanded over the past decade to include films made all over the world and in increasingly diverse areas of genre cinema. They have developed several signature lines, including Forgotten Gialli, to showcase rare and overlooked gialli, Home Grown Horrors, which focuses on American regional and independent horror features. Beginning in 2023, they will be introducing a new line focused on Asian genre films, particularly those from Hong Kong. [Editor's note: emphasis added, because this is exciting!]
"Vinegar Syndrome has been acclaimed not only for the unsurpassed quality of their restorations but for the care and attention placed into their packaging, both as an aesthetic and collectible medium.
"Please join the entire Vinegar Syndrome team in celebrating their incredible tenth anniversary by visiting www.vinegarsyndrome.com."