I ordered my copy through Columbia House DVD club, and was very surprised to see a note on my account on Friday that it had shipped. It actually arrived yesterday, one day before the official release date! And here I was worried that ordering through the club was going to make me get the disc much later than if I had just walked into Best Buy or Target on Tuesday!
So of course I watched it last night. For me , the movie definitely gets better the more I've seen it (this was the third time). Knowing all the stuff to come makes the story more "filled in", and the Vicki/Josette character doesn't seem to have been "abandoned" as much midway through the film--maybe because I'm noticing every little detail a lot more. And the lack of audience laughter makes the vomit scene easier to take. Hey, even the Carolyn stuff at the end seemed to play out more slowly and not be so out-of-left-field.
Now that I'm also mailing my way through the pre-Barnabas eps of the OS, I can see how amazingly clever the script was in using SO many aspects of the series. The family business threatened by someone who's retaliating against the Collins family; slimy Roger Collins; strong Elizabeth Collins; the house being just as much a character as it was in the OS (as grand as it was in the revival series, the house in that one never reached the same stature). And just little details here and there that I can't think of at the moment but that I am actually feeling when watching the movie.
And the Blu-ray is just absolutely gorgeous on my big plasma screen.