Today’s Haul: Universal Monsters, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Night Gallery DVDs plus the Terrifier 3 VHS

Today’s merch haul features a few new horror additions including Universal Monsters and Kolchak: The Night Stalker DVDs with glow-in-the-dark covers, Night Gallery and the Terrifier 3 VHS.

Every day, it seems there's a new video or article lamenting the end of physical media at Walmart, following in the footsteps of Best Buy and Target. But good ol’ Walmart keeps rolling along, and this time, it's bringing back glow-in-the-dark box art covers for a selection of DVDs. Among the unique choices this time around are a new Universal Monsters set and, for the first time, Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

For the Universal Monsters collection, all the classics are here: Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and The Wolf Man. The only one missing? Creature from the Black Lagoon. There's nothing particularly new about this release, but who can resist fresh monster merch at Walmart? (See last week’s Monster Socks discovery.)

The oddity this time was the release of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I’ve caught a few episodes on MeTV late at night on Saturdays, and honestly, I didn’t think they were that great. Typical ’70s fare—but I can appreciate what they must've meant back in 1974: a primetime TV show featuring zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and aliens.

The cover copy claims the series paved the way for The X-Files, and in fact, star Darren McGavin appeared in a couple of episodes alongside Mulder and Scully. Too bad the two series weren’t set in the same universe—it might’ve given Kolchak a pop culture boost in the ’90s. Regardless, the glow-in-the-dark cover was just the extra push I needed to pick up the DVD and give it a shot.

The last DVD I grabbed was Night Gallery: The Complete Series. I know almost nothing about it other than that it starred Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame and ran for three seasons from 1970 to 1973. My research suggests the series was similar to Twilight Zone but leaned more toward horror than sci-fi. Okay, sign me up!

My other purchase this week? Terrifier 3 on VHS. The movie is spread across two tapes and is part of the Bloody Disgusting pop-up at Walmart. I’ve never seen the Terrifier movies—not really my style of horror—but the novelty of a VHS release in 2025 was too intriguing to pass up. Plus, I’d never seen any of these VHS releases in person at a local store, making it an even more interesting find. Will I watch it? Probably not. But it’s a cool addition to my VHS display, which already includes Universal Monsters and Ghostbusters II.