Pretty much every movie ever made got a VHS tape. But despite the advent of DVD, a few movies have been left behind in the dust. A few of them quite unfairly. Here's my list of top eleven films that desperately need DVD releases ASAP:

Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Pointlessly changed title aside, this is probably the best adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel The Island of Dr. Moreau. En route to meet his fiancee, Edward Parker finds himself shipwrecked on the island of kooky scientist Dr. Moreau who is turning animals into human beings! To our hero's dismay, Moreau schemes to mate him with the saucy Lota the Panther Woman. In the meantime, Edward's fiancee Ruth Thomas comes looking for him with the aid of adventurous sea dog Captain Donahue. Although a Paramount film, it seems Universal Studios owns the home video rights to it; back when Island of Lost Souls was released on VHS, it was included in their Universal Monsters lineup.

Cast a Deadly Spell (1991)
In this made-for-TV film set during the 1940's, magic is so commonplace as to be mundane, and almost everyone uses it except for private detective H. Phillip Lovecraft. Lovecraft is hired by the wealthy and powerful warlock Amos Hackshaw to recover a stolen book, the Necronomicon, before a certain date. Little does he suspect Hackshaw plans to use the Necronomicon to summon forth the Old Ones and take over the world! Crime noir/hardboiled detective story meets the Cthulu mythos.

The Loch Ness Horror (1981)
If nothing else, this one deserves wider recognition for just how bad it is. Despite being (obviously) set in Scotland it was (even more obviously filmed in California). American scientist Spencer Dean comes to Loch Ness to search for the legendary Nessie alongside Scottish scientist Professor George Sanderson. Nothing exciting happens. Then, evil pistol-wielding scientist Professor Pratt steals Nessie's egg. Turning into a low-rent Gorgo ripoff, the movie then has Nessie (represented by a puppet head on a stick) go about murdering people by, erm, nuzzling them gently to death.

ZaAt (1975)
Perhaps best known as Blood Waters of Dr. Z, this film concerns deranged fish-loving ex-Nazi Dr. Kurt Leopold. Leopold, bent on seeing aquatic life overcome humans, turns himself into a seahorse-like monster (supposed to be a catfish), and begins using a spray bottle containing his formula (the titular "ZaAt") to try and mutate local water life, while also taking vengeance upon the scientists who mocked him. This attracts the attention of the do-gooder organization "INPIT," whose members Walker Stevens and Martha Walsh are called in.

Chiefs (1983)
Based on Stuart Woods' novel of the same name, this TV miniseries (three parts long) concerns the murders and disappearances of several teenage boys in the fictional Georgia town of Delano. It takes place over the course of several decades, beginning in or the 1920's and ending in the 1960's where the killer is finally caught. Along the way the story also concerns racial tensions as Delano struggles to keep up with the rapidly changing world of the 20th century. The title refers to the different men who hold the title of police chief and try to solve the murders over the years.

Honeymoon Academy (1990)
Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Boy and girl go on a romantic honeymoon to Spain. Chris, the girl, turns out to be a government agent who has gone into hiding, and gets dragged back into her former life of espionage to stop the villainous Marls from obtaining a key which will allow him to get his hands on counterfeit printing plates. Her poor husband Sean gets dragged along for the ride, complaining the entire way. A motorcycle chase and a climactic action sequence involving a hijacked busload of tourists make this a goofy and fun romantic comedy meets spy flick.

If Looks Could Kill (1991)
Released as Teen Agent in the UK, this staple of mid-90's daytime TV is about Michael Corben, an American teenager who, while on a class trip to France, is mistaken for a CIA agent who happens to be using the same name as him. Michael gets more or less shanghaied into helping British Intelligence stop evil, scorpion-loving villain Augustus Steranko who wants to (what else?) take over the world. Or at least Europe. Michael at first wants nothing to do with any of this, until Steranko kidnaps his friends and teacher and holds them prisoner in his mountaintop fortress. That, and the gadget-laden Lotus Esprit he gets to drive.

Katy, Kiki y Koko (1988)
Released as Katy and the Katerpillar Kids in some places, and as Katy Meets the Aliens everywhere else, this Spanish-made children's film is a sequel to 1984's Katy, and concerns Kiki and Koko, the offspring of Katy the butterfly, two snuggably cute little caterpillars who want to learn how to fly. Their botched efforts wind up getting them lost, and, as the adults try to find them, they collide with a bizarre subplot involving shape-shifting aliens who have arrived on Earth and are capturing the forest creatures for food, and (of course) only the spunky kids can stop them.

Killdozer (1974)
A made-for-TV movie based off of Theodore Sturgeon's short story. Some typical blue-collar construction workers, led by manly man's man Lloyd Kelly, are working on an island off the coast of Africa, when a meteorite containing some kind of blue luminescent life force crashes. Said alien intelligence proceeds to take over one of their bulldozers (a mammoth Caterpillar D9), which thereafter thinks it's Jason Voorhees and begins chasing the poor workers around the island killing them off one at a time as they try to find a means of killing it.

Gojira (1984)
Released as Godzilla 1985 in the States (and with significant alterations, as with the 1954 original), the first of the Toho Heisei series of Godzilla films was the first Godzilla movie since 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla is generally derided for a number of silly reasons by fans of the kaiju genre. However, it's always been one of my favorite Godzilla films. The special effects are fantastic for the 80's, Godzilla is big and scary (not to mention particularly cranky and mean-spirited), and the film is very heavy on suspense and atmosphere. Despite what the Angry Video Game Nerd said about all of the Godzilla movies being available on DVD, this blanket statement is incorrect. The rights to this film's US home video release currently belong to Anchor Bay - and they have no plans to release it anytime soon.

Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel (1983)
Released in the States as The Dragon That Wasn't, this is a Dutch children's film set in a world of anthro animals wherein a wealthy bear named Ollie finds and adopts a baby dragon, who he names Dexter. However he is in denial that Dexter is actually a dragon, considering them to be mere fantasy (I guess he thinks Dexter is just a big lizard). But as Dexter grows up, Ollie starts finding him more and more difficult to control, and things are only complicated further when some money-grubbing criminals have their sights set on selling Dexter to a circus sideshow.

All of these are films that I either grew up with or recently discovered or saw a few times and want to see again, and they all, I feel, are certainly worth showing to wider audiences. So I'm constantly on the lookout for this fi--er, seven titles in lists of upcoming DVD releases...and constantly being disappointed. The very real threat of Blu-Ray edging out DVD means that all of the films already out on DVD will need to come to Blu-Ray first, meaning films that never made it to DVD in the first place will be left behind in the dust. Again.

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