VHS Massacre (2016) Reviews

• Fun and breezy look at VHS culture in relation to US independent horror movies

  Leofwine_draca2017-03-10

  VHS MASSACRE is a fun, appropriately low-fi documentary that explores the glory days of video collecting and renting in the 1980s and 1990s. It has a rather narrow remit, focusing on low budget horror and cult film production mainly during the 1990s and exclusively in America. While the documentary has virtually no material from back in the day, it does fill the running time with plenty of incident and discussion, including many interviews with leading figures in the field. The main emphasis of this documentary is to be fun and it's certainly that. It's designed for like-minded people, not to convert the non-fans. The interview footage is very interesting and explores how the market has changed in the face of streaming movies and illegal downloading. Cult figures like Lloyd Kaufman, Debbie Rochon, and Joe Bob Briggs are all featured here and they all have plenty to say. There are few clips from a handful of films, but mainly this is about showing video box covers and the collecting culture. It's light, breezy, and amusing.

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• Good Documentary

  Michael_Elliott2016-10-17

  VHS Massacre: Cult Films and the Decline of Physical Media (2015) *** (out of 4) This here is a good documentary that tries to do a bit too much but if you remember renting videos back in the 80's and 90's then you'll still want to check it out. The main goal of this documentary is to show what the lack of "mom and pop" video stores means for low- budget horror and cult movies. If you grew up "back in the day" then you remember how great it was going into video stores where there were a great number of titles on the shelf and more arriving weekly. This documentary does a good job at looking back at this era and then talking about how Blockbuster eventually killed them off. Blockbuster would then be killed off by Netflix and streaming, which takes us to the final aspect of this documentary. With streaming killing off so many small companies, is there a way for low-budget films to survive? At just 73-minutes there are a few too many topics that tried to be covered here but for the most part this is still an entertaining look at how the home video wars have changed over the decades. The impact on small movies like PSYCHOS IN LOVE is discussed as well as how illegal downloads are making it nearly impossible for filmmakers to make money anymore. Joe Bob Briggs, Lloyd Kaufman, Juliette Danielle, Deborah Reed, James Nguyen and Carmine Capobianco are just a few of the cult names that are interviewed.

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• The demise of physical media still has many fans and filmmakers hanging their heads in sorrow!

  moonspinner552017-12-06

  What did the death of VHS movies and video game rentals mean to the low-budget, independent filmmaker? A lot, surprisingly. "Mom and pop" video stores around the country, neighborhood institutions for decades, began shutting their doors in the 2000s, taking a hit from Blockbuster, which took a hit from competitor Hollywood Video, which took their hits from the internet, Netflix and "free" downloading and streaming (i.e., piracy). What goes around comes around: VHS killed Beta because it was less expensive, consumers preferred quantity over quality, and adult movies were exclusive to the VHS format. But, as Carmine Capobianco, co-owner of Funstuff Video, says, "The sell-through (the ratio of the quantity of goods sold by a retail outlet to the quantity distributed to it wholesale) dropped the value of the VHS. Walmart killed the video business. Netflix killed the video business. Computers killed the video business." But how many of us are mourning the loss of our VCRs? I can name several favorite titles of mine that never made that journey from VHS to DVD (which, along with Blu-ray, is also slowing in sales). I can also name many instances where the VHS cover-art was superior to that of comparable DVDs. Are VHS tapes collectible like vinyl records? I never thought so. I don't like the picture quality of VHS, I always hated the occasional tracking issues, and they take up too much valuable space. But the fans, movie makers, actors, distributors and radio personalities brought together in this entertaining documentary obviously feel different, as they reflect on the home-viewing market of the '80s with pride, discussing how independent filmmakers flourished during that time having various outlets for their products. For filmmakers today, starting out small and hoping to build a following, there is no money to be made from streaming. Depressing, yes, but...the VHS may make a comeback yet! And if the industry rallies, watch out "Toxic Avenger"! I'll be the first to buy a brand-new VCR, one with a remote to adjust the tracking from my living room sofa. **1/2 from ****

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• Decent documentary but too preachy in regards to piracy...

  chanvat2019-02-23

  I ended up watching this documentary on Amazon Prime video (ironic given the title, more on that later) because I wanted to see another documentary on the VHS format. Maybe half the documentary actually plays service to that, the rest is video hunting of VHS tapes in stores that would go out of business before the movie would be released, and complaining about piracy ruining film as an artistic medium, specifically the making of indie films. The thing is, most films these days (speaking in 2019) outside of major studio releases will never make it to physical media, they will go straight to Netflix, or ironically in this case, to Amazon Prime Video. The straight to VOD (video on demand) contract is similar to the straight to video in the 1980s, the only difference is lack of a physical release. Of course, when you go straight to VOD it makes it even EASIER to pirate the film and distribute on file sharing sites from simple capping of it from a digital source. Thus we have a documentary where I appreciate the argument and the love put into it, but it just falls flat on its face as it has become already a piece of history, even though it was shot in 2014 and released in 2016.

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