October 30, 2025

2025’s Halloween Movie Watch List, Physical Media, and Shout! Factory Love: The Talking Place (Podcast Episode 40)

Reading Time: 7 minutes

This is Halloween! 

Happy Halloween! Even though I had all month to keep updated and do the thing, here I am, scrambling away and trying to get something out at the last minute. I swear, it’s like I sabotage myself on purpose because it’s how I work best. ANYWAY! Here we are! What are we talking about?

Halloween movies! Well, I guess we’ll use that term loosely, haha.

Don’t get me wrong, these are good watches for the season, but of course, there could be better ones. These are what I’m working with though. It’s the ones we have here on hand and I try to not depend on streaming services unless I really have to. So which ones am I talking about? Well, for you, I’ll go ahead and list out everything I mentioned and talked about. What can I say? I’m a swell guy.

  • The Goonies
  • Back to the Future
  • Addams Family
  • Wednesday
  • Ghostbusters
  • Beetlejuice
  • Alvin and the Chimpmunks Meet Frankenstein/Meet the Wolf Man
  • Hocus Pocus
  • E.T.
  • Monster House
  • Blade
  • Scream 2
  • The Batman
  • Sleepy Hollow
  • House on Haunted Hill
  • Thirteen Ghosts
  • Misery
  • The Wizard
  • The Lawnmower Man

As you can see, there’s a few “that’s not Halloween!” on there. I know! But for THAT explanation, you’re going to have to listen to find out. Just know, we didn’t even watch all of these! Time is a horrible, terrible thing that is relentless on its quest to push life along. 

OH! Here’s something I completely forgot – We watched The Haunted Mansion! If you remember last year (link below), we had it but never got to it. I made it a point to make sure it was the first movie we watched this year though, and that we did! Way back in September! Haha, which is why I forgot it.

And it sucks that I did because it deserves proper praise! It was really good. Not only did I enjoy it, but the teenager enjoyed it too?! To the point where he said that’s the first Disney movie in a long time that he enjoyed. I almost fell to the floor, I couldn’t believe my ears! But yes, it was really good! It got pretty dark and spooky at times, it’s like they weren’t holding back.

And it looked amazing in 4K! The dark scenes really stood out and there were a lot of them. We had to track down the 4K as it was exclusive only to Disney Movie Rewards and a ridiculously priced steelbook from Best Buy (man it was sweet though). Guess this is a good time to mention my Mercari referral link in case you want to scope out hard to find movies yourself. 

I will say though that I briefly went over some general physical media talk. I keep teasing the full show/talk about physical media but I’ve yet to find the courage to actually do it.

I also get into Shout! Factory news and pickups. Listen to the show to hear what exactly is Shout! Factory, but just know they distribute movies and have recently been bought out so there’s fear of them not moving forward in their current form. So, I’m taking advantage of their fire sales and grabbing some cheap movies that I have been wanting from them. They’re on that list above, but which ones are they, hmmmm?!?

Blog Exclusive Content! 

 

Back to the Future 40th Anniversary!

Great Scott!! 40 freaking years! And you know what, I STILL watch it like it’s new. There are a lot of movies from my childhood that I consider classics. Where they stand the test of time and can endure decades upon decades of life. This is one of those movies. Or, trilogies. 

Seems like they’re honoring it proper too, with a whole bunch of merch available all over the place. So check out all the info here on the official Back to the Future site to see how you can commemorate this occasion. 

This here is my copy of the trilogy! We actually picked it up earlier this year. Someone was selling them for waaaaaaaaay below what they typically go for and we couldn’t resist. I mean, look at how cool they all go together! If you want an added level of immersion to reading this, I’m watching part 1 as I type! 

The new 40th anniversary copies are nothing to sneeze at though, because they are pretty sweet too. I absolutely love the inside art for them. If you want to check them out – the 3 individual steelbooks, the 4K box set, and the ridiculous gift set (all linked below) – here’s an unboxing featuring all the options! My god that box set is insaaaaaane! But the steelbooks alone are worth it, if you ask me. 

Also, I mentioned the new steelbook for the first movie has all the 40th anniversary bonus features that are new for the release. Well here’s a sneak peek at one of those features, thanks to comicbook.com! Tony Hawk Talks Marty McFly’s Skateboard

Thoughts on Shout! Factory’s Situation

There are some links below pertaining to Shout! and the drama surrounding. But I just wanted to give a personal take on the situation. Something that I didn’t want to get into on the show because I wanted to stay on topic. Look at me! Being responsible. Anyway, this is my blog and I could do this so here we go! 

Personally, I feel like this is one of those teetering situations where it can go either way. Yes, we could very well be ok with Shout! Factory and they won’t go anywhere. It’s what everyone keeps saying. That the new owners are merely clearing out physical inventory they don’t really want or have a surplus of. Maybe they’re focusing on other things? Maybe they want to branch out and need room? Who knows. But there’s a very good chance all this doom and gloom surrounding this news is all rumors and speculation and fear mongering. Lord knows the world loves that these days.

BUT. At the same time, it could also very very easily sway in the opposite direction and tomorrow we could get a press release saying Shout! Factory is shut down effective immediately, despite anything that any higher ups say or confirm. Heck, the first order of business was closing up the Physical Forever Club on their site which was a reward system that granted you points for every movie you bought directly from them. Personally, I don’t trust mergers or buyouts. If there is a vision of a company and they’re going one with with that vision, 9.5 times out of 10, if they’re bought out, that vision is now in the trash and the new vision is going the complete opposite direction. And with everyone in charge frothing at the mouth at an all-streaming future where no one owns anything and we’re all paying for a sub for whatever we want and consume, I could totally see it being the case. Only time will tell.

That’s my soap box! As you can see, physical movies, just like the gaming industry, has its own fair share of drama. 

OK, that’s that. Yeah, this could have been more halloween, I’m sorry. But hey! You got something, and that’s something! 

Hope you enjoy and stay safe. 

Until next time!

 

Links & Info Discussed

 

If you want to purchase any of the movies I discussed here, please be sure to use the links below! They are affiliate links and I’ll get a small kick back if you check them out so I deeply appreciate it! I will only link 4K but if you want to check out the blu ray versions you can easily find them within the same listings. 

 

General Information

 

If you’re looking for the show notes for this episode, or for
previous episodes of The Talking Place,
be sure to check out my archive right here! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you’re wondering where you can subscribe and download The Talking Place,
head over here to the information page for the show!
You can also search up “The Talking Place” wherever you find your podcasts.
If it’s not there, let me know! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can keep up with my reading progress over on The StoryGraph! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is everywhere to find me, gaming wise! 
Steam – The1llusiveMan | PlayStation – xThe1llusiveMan  
Nintendo – The1llusiveMan | Xbox – xThe1llusiveMan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I opened up an Etsy Shop! Check it out and help support everything I do!
https://designingbyknight.etsy.com
You can find all my links pertaining to my shop right here:
https://linktr.ee/designingbyknight
Or if you just want to support me without getting stickers,
you can go ahead and buy me a coffee! I would appreciate it beyond belief! 

 

Contact The Talking Place

If you’d like to contact the show, say hi, all that jazz, you can do so below! 

 

If you’re looking to join me for an episode,
don’t be shy and get at me at the above email and we’ll chat! 

Author:
Filed Under: General Geekery, Movies & Shows, Talking Place Episodes, The Man, The Talking Place
Tags: , , , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *