You dumb bastard. It’s not a schooner, it’s a sailboat.
It was recently announced that horror DVD staple Anchor Bay would be undergoing a makeover to better align itself with parent company Starz. Obviously one of the most pressing concerns for horror fans was whether this new incarnation would continue its mandate of presenting cult classics in packages that were, at times, even more impressive then the film itself. But there was another, more superficial question tossed around after the announcement was made; what would happen to the sailboat?
The Anchor Bay logo, and its embrace by the horror community, is precisely the kind of “happy mistake” that I love to see in fandom. You couldn’t choose a more inappropriate symbol for a horror icon. I’ll admit that my first thought wasn’t whether Starz would be ditching the horror titles that made Anchor Bay’s name, but that I would miss watching that incongruous sailboat making its way across the screen directly before the carnage of Evil Dead, Halloween or C.H.U.D. begins. How much misplaced pleasure have I taken from simply glancing at my shelves and seeing a world of terror weighed down by that innocuous logo?
Happily, Starz has issued an assurance that the Anchor Bay name and logo will stay in place, at least for their horror output. Hey, when you’re this successful with a sailboat as your logo, don’t fix what ain’t broke.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
DUDE!
It’s just this sort of “silly little thing” that I look for to be noticed ( & subsequently commented on ) here & over at Curt’s place. Things that are so small, innocuous & overlooked, yet VERY important at the same time to our appreciation & the pleasure that we get from the genre & genre products.
To the vast majority out there, I doubt that it would have made any difference whatsoever had the STARZ! parent company elected to do away with the Anchor Bay logo & simply put all their product out under the identical stylized star logo of their conglomorate branding. As long as they continued to release the same sorts of films in the same quality, it just wouldn’t make a difference.
But, to those of us who are a bit more obsessive compulsive ( or is it more deeply deranged? ) than others, losing that beloved Anchor Bay logo on the spine of our DVDs & before the opening sequence of each film WOULD have been a big deal. And it’s cool that you knew that & took the time to look into it & reassure those of us who were worried about the potential loss of “an old friend” like that logo.
Thanks & keep up the great work.
Peace.