DVD Maniacs is a review website that was created by Edwin Samuelson in March 2000. It was born of necessity – the era of its creation was the boom time for cult movie DVD releases, with obscure genre favorites being issued in jam-packed special editions every week. Unfortunately, such left-of-center films rarely got their due from the online DVD review sites at that time. DVD Maniacs was designed to fill that void: a place built by the fans, for the fans.
Starting with writers like Charles Avinger and Vince Bonavoglia, DVD Maniacs established a style of cult DVD criticism that is film-savvy without being elitist. Soon, writers from elsewhere threw their hats in the ring – people like veteran film journalist Chris Poggiali, filmmaker Scooter McCrae, Bava biographer Troy Howarth and online reviewers like Nathaniel Thompson and Don Guarisco. Ian Jane joined up in early 2002 and became the site’s main writer as well as the chief moderator of its heavily-trafficked message board. Edwin Samuelson continues to oversee the the site. His main job is editing and formating reviews, and supervising the over quality of the site. Today, Edwin Samuelson devotes a lot of his free time to his weekly TV series, The Cinefiles (Be sure to check out their My Space page at www.myspace.com/cinefiles).
Today, DVD Maniacs continues to focus on fringe fare but has broadened its horizons to include art films, concert discs and the occasional Hollywood effort. It also covers releases from around the world and has had many “first-look” reviews in recent years. The buzz created by this work has led to our writers penning liner notes for DVD’s like THE HILLS HAVE EYES, CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER/FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY and ROCK & ROLL NIGHTMARE. As a result, the site has been mentioned in publications like Fangoria and Rue Morgue (some attentive readers might have noticed DVD Maniacs reviews making ‘uncredited’ appearances in Dark Side magazine).
As its legend has grown, DVD Maniacs has built relationships with the professional film community. Genre personalities interviewed for the site include William Lustig, Just Jaeckin, Sam Firstenberg and Bill Margold. DVD Maniacs also prides itself on having a strong, direct relationship with its audience via the site’s popular message board. It’s worth noting that fans aren’t the only ones who post there: leading figures in the cult DVD-releasing community like Synapse's Don May, Jr. Grindhouse Releasing's Sage Stallone, BCI's Cliff MacMillian and Subversive's Norm Hill have been known to pop up there and even cult auteurs like Warren Evans have joined on.
As the face of home entertainment changes, so will DVD Maniacs: Upcoming plans for the site include coverage of Hi-Definition releases and the introduction of multimedia features to the site. However, the mandate won’t change – DVD Maniacs takes pride in covering the extremes of the genre DVD world from a non-biased fan perspective and will continue to do so. Come visit us and see what the hubbub’s all about…
