VHS Massacre (2016) is a hard-hitting independent documentary film that explores the rise and fall of the VHS era, the collapse of video rental stores, and the impact of digital distribution on independent filmmaking and cinema culture.
This eye-opening documentary dives deep into the struggles of low-budget filmmakers, the decline of physical media, and how Hollywood’s evolving business models have reshaped the film industry forever. Featuring interviews, archival footage, and industry insights, VHS Massacre delivers a nostalgic yet critical look at the hidden side of modern cinema.
The film highlights how independent creators fought to survive in a changing entertainment landscape, while also examining censorship, distribution barriers, and the corporate control of media.
Movie Information
🎬 Title: VHS Massacre (2016)
🎭 Featured: Independent filmmakers, cult cinema personalities, industry interviews
🎥 Director: Thomas Seymour
🎞 Genre: Documentary, Film History, Indie Film, Media Analysis
🌍 Country: United States
📅 Release Year: 2016
Why Watch VHS Massacre?
✔ Deep dive into VHS and video store culture
✔ Explores rise of digital streaming vs physical media
✔ Focus on independent filmmaking struggles
✔ Rare insight into film industry economics
✔ Must-watch for cinephiles and media historians
✔ Cult documentary on entertainment evolution
If you are interested in documentary films, film industry history, VHS culture, indie cinema, movie business evolution, and behind-the-scenes Hollywood insights, VHS Massacre (2016) is a must-watch.
#VHSMassacre #DocumentaryFilm #FilmHistory #IndieCinema #VHSCulture #MovieIndustry #IndependentFilm #CultDocumentary #CinemaHistory #FullMovie #FilmDocumentary #MediaHistory #StreamingVsVHS #IndieFilmmaking #MovieBusiness
This eye-opening documentary dives deep into the struggles of low-budget filmmakers, the decline of physical media, and how Hollywood’s evolving business models have reshaped the film industry forever. Featuring interviews, archival footage, and industry insights, VHS Massacre delivers a nostalgic yet critical look at the hidden side of modern cinema.
The film highlights how independent creators fought to survive in a changing entertainment landscape, while also examining censorship, distribution barriers, and the corporate control of media.
Movie Information
🎬 Title: VHS Massacre (2016)
🎭 Featured: Independent filmmakers, cult cinema personalities, industry interviews
🎥 Director: Thomas Seymour
🎞 Genre: Documentary, Film History, Indie Film, Media Analysis
🌍 Country: United States
📅 Release Year: 2016
Why Watch VHS Massacre?
✔ Deep dive into VHS and video store culture
✔ Explores rise of digital streaming vs physical media
✔ Focus on independent filmmaking struggles
✔ Rare insight into film industry economics
✔ Must-watch for cinephiles and media historians
✔ Cult documentary on entertainment evolution
If you are interested in documentary films, film industry history, VHS culture, indie cinema, movie business evolution, and behind-the-scenes Hollywood insights, VHS Massacre (2016) is a must-watch.
#VHSMassacre #DocumentaryFilm #FilmHistory #IndieCinema #VHSCulture #MovieIndustry #IndependentFilm #CultDocumentary #CinemaHistory #FullMovie #FilmDocumentary #MediaHistory #StreamingVsVHS #IndieFilmmaking #MovieBusiness
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:10Do you think there will always be some form of physical media or do you think at some point they'll
00:00:16be 100% phased out?
00:00:20That's a good question.
00:00:24Blockbuster was a giant nasty company putting small companies out of business. That was their purpose.
00:00:31I have a whole younger generation who's grown up with the whole concept of free music, free movies and once
00:00:39that's kind of ingrained it becomes really hard to change that.
00:00:44So we've been working on this documentary. It's basically about cult films, the decline of physical media and the mom
00:00:51and pop video store era.
00:00:53Hey, welcome to Mama's Play Studios. This is New York City Radio and I'm your host Dave Lute.
00:00:57Push the fucking button!
00:01:18You know, there's when I got to go on NPR. New York Times listing of a film I did. One
00:01:25of my best friends Phil Gourette and then Mike Karansky.
00:01:28I try to keep reminders around, you know. Sometimes you read some bad reviews online and it takes the wind
00:01:34out of you and it's good to have stuff around and say,
00:01:36Yeah, no, man. I did a good fucking job. You know, we actually did something, you know, so I like
00:01:41to have that stuff.
00:01:42So it was like the end of sixth grade and my friend Craig Riola, I went over to his house
00:01:46and we watched Toxic Avenger and so we decided to borrow my neighbor Billy Grant's Super 8 camera.
00:01:54I bought a camcorder from one of the kids I went to school with. Me and Phil Gourette paid like
00:01:58a couple hundred dollars for it and we started shooting movies.
00:02:01I finished my first feature film when I was 20 years old. It wasn't good. It was terrible. So that
00:02:10was called Thrill Pill Jack and Hail Manor.
00:02:16You hail. Oh yeah. And Mark of the Beast is the latest and hopefully what we're going to do is
00:02:26roam around New York and try to find DVD copies and try to find press.
00:02:37Close to Ramadi. It's across the river in a place called Camp Corregidor. And this place was a shithole. It
00:02:46was bad. It was basically an alleyway for IEDs.
00:02:53It was stressful. It was stressful living there. We were always getting shot with mortars. And out of nowhere you
00:03:02hear the mortar siren.
00:03:04You could hear it and it was like, oh shit. I mean it has to be really damn close for
00:03:08us to be able to hear the whistle.
00:03:11And so we were running and Lance, probably no longer 15 feet away from behind us.
00:03:20I was talking to this guy who stopped me and asked me for directions. I drove off a mortar and
00:03:25landed in the spot where I was just at.
00:03:27And I actually injured a few of the guys that worked at this laundry facility. But while I was over
00:03:33there though, I wrote my first full-fledged script.
00:03:38But it was probably the first time I felt a little bit of home at that moment.
00:03:47I've been a New Yorker my entire life.
00:03:52You going? That's not even bright, huh?
00:03:55My love for music kind of blossomed into like trying to record stuff and I was always into computers and
00:04:02stuff like that.
00:04:03So I ended up buying some microphones and a mixing board.
00:04:10Tom came over and had this idea.
00:04:12Yeah, yeah.
00:04:13And I was like, well, I got all those stuff.
00:04:15And you're like, yeah, that's a good idea. We should do that.
00:04:19So it all just kind of worked out nicely.
00:04:27So we've been hosting the New York City radio show for a while now.
00:04:30And for those first time listeners, we focus on cult films, B movies, bad movies.
00:04:35But recently we started working on this documentary and it's about the decline of physical media.
00:04:40You know, people are buying less DVDs and certainly less VHS.
00:04:44It's really just about how everything's going to streaming.
00:04:46It actually gave us this idea to put on this live video podcast that we're actually going to call the
00:04:51VHS Massacre.
00:04:52Yeah, we're going to go from store to store looking for videos.
00:04:55And while we're at where I was going to be examining the video store industry right now.
00:04:59Along the way, we're going to interview some B movie celebrities, get their takes on some of their just, you
00:05:03know, greatest video memories.
00:05:04So we're going to have the VHS Massacre right here at Mama's Place Studio.
00:05:08I'm going to be a judge and then we're going to have two other filmmaker friends.
00:05:12They're also going to judge.
00:05:13You're going to find five VHS videotapes.
00:05:16You're not allowed to watch them.
00:05:18You're going to have to judge them based on cover alone.
00:05:21We're going to sit down.
00:05:22We're going to watch five minutes of each video.
00:05:24Fast forward, rewind, whatever you want to do.
00:05:26The best of the worst wins.
00:05:28When you were a kid, you know, 80s, 90s, you'd go to the video store and basically you're going on
00:05:32video art alone.
00:05:33And that's it.
00:05:39NSB?
00:05:39Can it still be open?
00:05:42Yeah.
00:05:42Can it be?
00:05:43Can it still be open?
00:05:57Yeah.
00:05:57Can it be?
00:05:59Can it be?
00:06:00Pathetic.
00:06:04Look at the side over there.
00:06:06The shutters are still down though.
00:06:08And then a couple of them are like half open.
00:06:10Best is the best on DVD.
00:06:12So if you were coming here tonight to get your best of the best fix, you'd be shit out of
00:06:17luck, right?
00:06:18Yeah, I would be.
00:06:19But at one time they had it.
00:06:21They had all of this area where you see the 99 cent sales, which I'm sure is making them so
00:06:26much fucking money.
00:06:27They used to have the core.
00:06:31You know, a library of sorts.
00:06:33The history of film was the core, the middle of the store.
00:06:35Now it's just garbage.
00:06:38What are the odds that you would come to a blockbuster and rent movies on a weekly basis?
00:06:45Zero.
00:06:45I got like Netflix now.
00:06:47This is more depressing than anything.
00:06:50I've never been in a blockbuster with so much wide open space.
00:06:54You know, in the heyday, like in the 80s and 90s, the stand-ups were almost just as fun as
00:06:59like picking out the movie.
00:07:00You would see the movie Ghoulies.
00:07:02I've seen a cardboard stand-up for one in a video rental store where my dad said,
00:07:07the stand-up scared me for so long.
00:07:09I shouldn't have been so afraid, but that stand-up though was like seared into my mind.
00:07:15They filmed me for 10 minutes and they haven't told us to leave.
00:07:18Yeah, or offered any help or anything, suggestions, nothing.
00:07:24So this was a, it used to be more of a social experience, right?
00:07:27Exactly, yeah, yeah.
00:07:29But here, they're not trying.
00:07:41So this was totally a blockbuster video, but what's even funnier is when they pulled off the blockbuster video sign,
00:07:49there was a CVS pharmacy underneath it.
00:07:57We managed to get an interview with Joe Bob Riggs.
00:08:00Got our webcam, audio podcast.
00:08:03Well, we got the Black Magic camera set up for the interview.
00:08:06I'm a little stressed because we're setting up.
00:08:08And he's the biggest guest we've ever had at Mama's Play Studios.
00:08:13So Dave is very gracious for letting us fuck up his living room.
00:08:17This is pretty amazing because I've talked about him on the show, I think, a few times.
00:08:21And it's such a part of my, like, teenage years.
00:08:25On a Friday night, they roll into Monster Vision.
00:08:28And that's how it's been, like, until like 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning,
00:08:32is just watching him talk about movies in the funniest way, I think, at the time I had ever seen
00:08:37anybody really talk about them, on TV at least.
00:08:39Five dead bodies.
00:08:41Two breasts, which we won't be showing.
00:08:44Mutant farm animals.
00:08:45Strangling.
00:08:46Stabbing.
00:08:47Shooting.
00:08:48Hanging.
00:08:49Impaling.
00:08:50Drooling.
00:08:51Axe to the head.
00:08:53Crowbar to the head.
00:09:00I was the first to write about the movies on a regular basis in a mainstream publication.
00:09:07I was, it was precarious.
00:09:10I was on the verge of getting fired all the time because it wasn't something you're supposed to write about
00:09:15in a mainstream publication.
00:09:16But I was doing the drive-in.
00:09:19Bill Landis was doing the grindhouses.
00:09:22John Waters was the first pro-exploitation actual filmmaker.
00:09:28And, um, and everybody else still turned up their nose at the whole world of even the word exploitation.
00:09:36You know, I mean, I remember the first time I ever met Roger Corman, I said,
00:09:40King of the Bees, because there had been a book come out called King of the Bees.
00:09:45And I said, King of the Bees.
00:09:46And he said, no, don't call me that.
00:09:47And I said, well, what about King of the Exploitation film?
00:09:51And he says, that I love.
00:09:54Did you have any strong feelings about, about that in general?
00:09:59The decline of Mom and Pop Video Store or Blockbuster, any of that stuff?
00:10:03Well, the, the, when, when Blockbuster started dominating the video store market,
00:10:09that was the beginning of the end for the guys who could make direct-to-video product
00:10:15because Blockbuster didn't have to take anything that they didn't want to take.
00:10:18I happen to know some of these filmmakers who were working in the direct-to-video world in the 1980s.
00:10:24The going price for a film, and they were still shooting on film in many cases, was $60,000.
00:10:32They were making films for about $60,000.
00:10:35Well, that was ten times cheaper than what had existed prior to the video age.
00:10:41A lot of people are nostalgic about the 80s.
00:10:44I mean, even though, I mean, 95% of those films were horrible.
00:10:48But people are nostalgic about them anyway, and they like the shot-on-video look and the cheapness of it.
00:10:58He has witnessed the Industrial Revolution.
00:11:05Will Dr. Banshee be able to accomplish the task that he has been given as mysterious rogue forces continue to
00:11:13intervene?
00:11:15Well, that was, that was possible because there were so many video stores.
00:11:21And so, and as you say, mom-and-pop video stores, anybody could open a video store.
00:11:27Just like in the 50s, anybody could open a drive-in.
00:11:30They weren't run, they weren't controlled by the big studios.
00:11:34The, you know, the local dentists could open a video store.
00:11:37So, that was good for low-budget filmmakers.
00:11:41It was bad for Hollywood.
00:11:45Hollywood is always slow to catch up to any technological change.
00:11:56So, Fun Stuff originated in a 500 square foot store in Southington.
00:12:06The original Fun Stuff video is a dance studio.
00:12:11It was founded by Scott Blair and Carmen Capobianco.
00:12:15At that time, Mitch Rochefort and I worked for Carmen and Scott.
00:12:21We ventured off on our own opening a store in Wolcott, Connecticut.
00:12:28It's a Fun Stuff video in Southington. It's a coffee shop.
00:12:33Is it the empty storefront?
00:12:41I'm heading to Carmen Capobianco's house.
00:12:44Hopefully, it should be some good fun.
00:12:47I haven't seen Carmen in a few years, and hopefully, we'll get some good footage.
00:12:55Tom and I were here, and he was looking out the window, and a freaking fox was coming down.
00:13:00Foxes will kill chickens and ducks.
00:13:02So, what you saw was an act of protection.
00:13:05You've done a bunch of features recently there, or a few features.
00:13:08Now, have you, do you feel like they sought you out because of the work you had done earlier?
00:13:16All right. I'm going to tell you this story.
00:13:19You will appreciate it because we both worked with Debbie Richon.
00:13:23Debbie Richon, if for some reason you've been living in a cave the past 20 years, is the queen of
00:13:29the bees.
00:13:29She has 211 movies as of two weeks ago under her belt that she had been in.
00:13:34She has been asked over the years many, many times to direct a movie.
00:13:40So, she asked me to be in it.
00:13:42It was all because of Galactic Gigolo.
00:13:47There have been strange sightings in the town of Prospect, Connecticut.
00:13:51Local residents report that they have seen an alien life form in the surrounding woods.
00:13:56Shit! Let's get up!
00:13:58Oh my God! Eon!
00:14:00If you're Lisa, and you're Lucy, and you're Lori, then I must be extraterrestrial.
00:14:05You have an extra testicle?
00:14:08I met somebody who was in the Toxic Avenger, and he told me about trauma.
00:14:16So I went immediately to the video store, and I rented it, and I was like, yeah, this is a
00:14:22company that I really want to work with.
00:14:26This is insane. I could do that. Amazing. I could definitely do that.
00:14:32So, you know, I mailed in all my stuff to them repeatedly, you know.
00:14:36And then finally, after like maybe a year or so, they called me in the office, and I started doing
00:14:41stuff with them,
00:14:42and ultimately did Tromeo and shot at 95.
00:14:47But, yeah, I would say the exploitation and the B-movies made it very possible,
00:14:54because I was really going out for, you know, big movies, and I was not necessarily a type that they
00:15:02were casting.
00:15:03But I knew that I had something to offer and to give.
00:15:14Yeah, commercials and infomercials.
00:15:16Oh, yeah. I mean, we have, oh, there's all sorts of things in there.
00:15:20Straight from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
00:15:23This is the original tape that Trey Parker and Matt Stone sent of Cannibal the Musical to Tromeo for acquisition.
00:15:31In the tradition of Friday the 13th Part 2 and Oklahoma comes the first intelligent film about cannibalism.
00:15:43Gross, Packer.
00:15:45But it was a good 30 years, I think, before South Park had come out, and no one got Cannibal
00:15:53the Musical.
00:15:54And Trey and Matt took it to every studio, and they refused it before.
00:15:58You know, they were just Tromeo fans, so they decided as, you know, send it to Tromeo.
00:16:05I'm about to take an interview of Lloyd Kaufman.
00:16:16So, what do you guys want to do?
00:16:29So, what do you guys want to do?
00:16:34I want to do it from a new studio.
00:16:52You can't go see in any studio or anything that's it, you don't want to do it, you don't want
00:16:57to do it, you don't want to do it, you don't want to do it.
00:17:00But, you don't want to do it, you don't want to.
00:17:02team I had ever seen in my life. Charles Band you know I mean so many of the
00:17:06Full Moon movies you know were among the first movies that I rented you know
00:17:11when we'd go to you know when we had a video store finally in the area and you
00:17:15know he he just always had this great they always had this great artwork you
00:17:20know on their covers and and and some of those movies if you got beyond the fact
00:17:24that the artwork was usually made the movie seem much bigger and more than it
00:17:29was these movies are so much fun especially when you realize they
00:17:33weren't taking themselves that serious and you could really just sit back and
00:17:36laugh. We did Cycles in Love for him. He bought Cycles in Love and he says I'm
00:17:41gonna give you guys a four picture deal. I need you guys to come up with ten story
00:17:45ideas and I'm gonna pick four and then I want four scripts. Before we even put pen
00:17:50to paper to start the scripts we look in Variety magazine and there are full
00:17:58page color ads for the movies that we haven't even written yet and he's
00:18:03marketing them overseas. They just needed more stuff and he was making the stuff
00:18:08that people wanted to see. And we we're a content company we make movies and
00:18:13whenever we have any extra money instead of buying drugs or hookers or big
00:18:20mansions in California we buy libraries of movies so we own about 800 films you
00:18:25know we own the rights to about 800 and the negatives to about 800 movies so when
00:18:30VHS came in which was a long time ago we had a big library comparatively big
00:18:34library so we were doing very well however what's interesting is that was the
00:18:39first time it became obvious to me that the the conglomerates the media
00:18:43conglomerates and the MPAA whenever there is a technological breakthrough they
00:18:48slow to adapt and and they throw a monkey wrench into the works to try to
00:18:54retard everything so that they can then take it over and with VHS they made the
00:19:00same argument that they are making now against net neutrality on the internet.
00:19:09The MPAA said that VHS would destroy the copyright law that everybody would be
00:19:15duplicating movies and that as a result copyrights would be worthless and that
00:19:21we'd be inundated with porno.
00:19:31I think it's weird to not have a tangible product in your hand that you can own and have and
00:19:37rewatch.
00:19:38I love just having a physical copy of the VHS.
00:19:40And it's you know it's very culturally acceptable now to be a vinyl collector and enjoy the hisses and the
00:19:49pops and the richer sound that you get from vinyl and appreciate its imperfections, collect it for the artwork on
00:19:56the cover.
00:19:57Collecting vinyl is sexy. VHS does not have the same cachet right now although I think it should.
00:20:03I can understand why you want vinyl records because there is a quality it but it could be beautiful to
00:20:09hear it on vinyl but there's nothing beautiful about VHS.
00:20:13I like to watch movies that look a lot shittier on TVs as opposed to having something that's bright and
00:20:19shiny in my face.
00:20:20All horror films are better if they're grainy and choppy because you might start thinking you know what this could
00:20:25have actually been made by a maniac.
00:20:28My main reason for collecting any of the VHS's that I do is because they're just you know a hard
00:20:32movie to find maybe they've never been released on DVD.
00:20:36A lot of these VHS tapes they sell for ridiculous amounts of money you know all the way up to
00:20:41a thousand dollars for some tapes you know.
00:20:44You don't see anything on DVD selling for that amount of money.
00:20:49I want to be able to say I own a copy of it and tell other people who are you
00:20:53know VHS collectors that I have it.
00:20:55And that's what we would do. You'd trade like an eighth generation dub of this weird piece of footage you
00:20:59found with somebody.
00:21:00And you'd get in a room and watch it with all your friends and that was the way you distributed
00:21:04it.
00:21:04So when YouTube came out we were a little concerned like how is this going to affect what we do
00:21:09and bringing these shows to movie theaters and rock clubs and things like that.
00:21:14Will people still want to go see it? But luckily yes they do.
00:21:17Alright this is the last one we're going to say. I love this one. Practical self defense.
00:21:23And uh...
00:21:23You hold and endure you to be in your heart. This could be the start of something big. This could
00:21:39be the start of something big.
00:21:49In terms of seeking out old VHS, rare VHS, um, you gotta get your hands dirty. You gotta go, you
00:21:57gotta, you know, look behind the first layer in the dusty shelf in the thrift store.
00:22:02In general, the more economically depressed the area, the better VHS tapes you're going to find.
00:22:07Value by the pound. Are you excited to, uh, go get some, uh...
00:22:11VHS by the pound?
00:22:12Yeah, I've never heard of VHS by the pound.
00:22:18So, the basics of rock drumming? Laying it down.
00:22:21$99.95.
00:22:22Wow.
00:22:23Ooh.
00:22:24VHS in Thailand with Keanu Reeves.
00:22:26No, I've never seen that. I've never heard of that dude.
00:22:29Drew Barrymore, Pat Morita, that.
00:22:32Miyagi?
00:22:33Much like Blade Runner, it's, uh, also based upon a book.
00:22:37Fixercise.
00:22:38What is it?
00:22:39Make sure what that's...
00:22:40Making magic as our specialty.
00:22:42Most of, half of this has been the videos and it could just be lost to time, like, uh, they
00:22:48may never make the leap online.
00:22:51This is like a graveyard for some of these.
00:22:53This is made in New York. Boo Boo Productions.
00:22:57Temptus Bledsoe of the Cosby Show.
00:23:01This guy looks like he's throwing up a gang sign right here.
00:23:04Yeah, that's strange.
00:23:05Yeah.
00:23:06This one, I think, is the real winner of the bunch.
00:23:08Um, We Sing presents Grandpa's Magical Toys.
00:23:13I mean, it's got clowns, it's got puppets, and old people, and weird looking kids.
00:23:20And, I think it's the perfect recipe for being, you know, really...
00:23:24I mean, that's basic recipe.
00:23:26You know that, mate.
00:23:26Yeah.
00:23:28Forbidden.
00:23:28We're in the forbidden zone.
00:23:3916mm at home, like, do you feel like that was common enough to call it sort of the first home
00:23:45movie type scenario?
00:23:47Oh, absolutely.
00:23:48Oh, yeah.
00:23:48I'm not saying it was a real popular thing like, you know, photography is today.
00:23:53But, I remember buying a whole lot of 16mm films.
00:23:56You know, there was the Twilight Zone.
00:23:58There was the Jetsons.
00:23:59And I live in the 21st century.
00:24:01That's Elroy.
00:24:02You have to watch him or he'll track up the ceiling.
00:24:04In the 20s and the 30s and the 40s, they were shooting on larger format film.
00:24:08The home format at that time was 16mm.
00:24:11So, 8mm was basically 16mm.
00:24:14It was a double sprocketed 16mm film.
00:24:17You would put it inside your 8mm.
00:24:19You would shoot 25 feet.
00:24:21And then you would flip it over and you'd shoot the other 25 feet.
00:24:24Then when you sent it out to processing, they would develop it, cut it in half and splice it together.
00:24:29And so you'd have a 50 foot reel of your home movies.
00:24:32So, that was regular 8?
00:24:33That was regular 8.
00:24:34So, they came out with Super 8, which gave you a larger picture, but it was smaller sprocket holes.
00:24:38And they also had space on the Super 8 to put a very thin magnetic strip.
00:24:44So, at a time when you went to get a Super 8 film, you weren't actually getting the full film,
00:24:50right?
00:24:50No, you were getting what they called digest.
00:24:53Normally, I mean, the average length of a digest was about 200 feet.
00:24:57So, you would get about 8 minutes of it.
00:24:59And it would be highlights.
00:24:59Sometimes it would be like one long scene.
00:25:01But most of the time, they would show you scenes so you can kind of follow the story.
00:25:06The only things that were full length, which I also have a bunch of, were the cartoons.
00:25:10Because at 8 minutes, that's about the length of a cartoon or 8 minutes or less.
00:25:13And Mighty Mouse proves again that he's the champion of sheep and men.
00:25:20Black Hawk Films, that company was really the king.
00:25:23They were big with releasing the Chaplains and the Little Rascals and all these.
00:25:28Another cool thing was the library used to lend out Super 8 films.
00:25:37I found it and I can't read it.
00:25:40They're unmarked tapes.
00:25:42I know there's stuff on them because the recording tabs are popped out.
00:25:45So, this is Night of the Kick Fighters.
00:25:47This may be more promising actually than Snow Kill.
00:25:51It's a good studio that I don't know.
00:25:53It's a guy that I don't know who's been in, apparently, Ninja 2 and 3 and Night Kill.
00:25:58Movies I never heard of.
00:26:00He looks cheesy.
00:26:02He's supposed to be, I guess, a ninja and he barely can kick up to his waist.
00:26:07Yeah, kick fighting like you've never seen it before.
00:26:10I'm not sure exactly what that means.
00:26:12Kick fighting?
00:26:12I don't know what NATO targets is, but because it's blank on the top.
00:26:17I'm not sure if they even are supposed to have this.
00:26:20The best of just kidding.
00:26:22Look at this guy.
00:26:23Nailed it.
00:26:24He's like, yeah, hilarious.
00:26:26I feel pretty good about the purchases.
00:26:29You know, I got the Dark Heaven.
00:26:30I don't know if I talked about that one.
00:26:32I'm not sure about it.
00:26:33It looks crazy in the back.
00:26:56We're about to interview Deborah Reid, who played Credence Lenore Gilgood in Troll 2.
00:27:01Super exciting because we're huge fans of Troll 2.
00:27:04One of the best occult films ever.
00:27:07Troll 2.
00:27:07Huge phenomenon.
00:27:09Beloved all over the world.
00:27:11How many years after you did the film did you start to realize how much this film is beloved?
00:27:18Well, it was many years.
00:27:19I just started having things trickle in where I realized that it was being talked about.
00:27:25But I found out that people were naming their dorms Nilbog.
00:27:30Was the director kind of allowed you the space to just do this really great stuff?
00:27:35Or how did that come to be?
00:27:36They were all just walking around speaking in Italian.
00:27:39They barely spoke any English.
00:27:42The very first scene that I ever did was the trailer scene.
00:27:47You're kidding me.
00:27:48That was the first scene.
00:27:49Did you not?
00:27:50I was making up a language or a dialect.
00:27:56Delicious and purified.
00:28:00Yeah, yeah.
00:28:01That I had not even, I just, off the cuff, there was Credence.
00:28:05Really?
00:28:06Wow.
00:28:07And she came to me in that moment.
00:28:12Which VCR is right for you?
00:28:15VHS or Beta?
00:28:16VHS videocassettes play longer, which can save you money.
00:28:19Big deal.
00:28:22Beta produces the best possible picture.
00:28:24Big deal.
00:28:26What may be no big deal to some people may be a big deal to you.
00:28:29That's why NEC makes both VHS and Beta.
00:28:33And I talked to a video mogul who, right now, I mean, he made a huge amount of money in
00:28:39the video business.
00:28:40And I said, you know, what should I do?
00:28:42And he said, just do VHS because Beta is going to die.
00:28:46And I said, well, wait a minute.
00:28:47Why would, why would Beta die?
00:28:49Is it not the superior format?
00:28:51And he's like, well, yeah, it is.
00:28:53It's a better picture, better sound, and blah, blah, blah, and smaller and compact.
00:28:58Okay, then why not go Beta?
00:29:00Wouldn't, wouldn't VHS die?
00:29:02I think what had happened is VHS came out with a tape that could hold more.
00:29:07And the consumers were going to the longer running time.
00:29:11So that killed Beta.
00:29:26Yeah, I saw your movie on the interweb, and you were getting teabagged by Channing Table.
00:29:31I saw a picture of Channing Tatum's Magic Mike, and his crotch was standing right over your movie.
00:29:36And we know that Magic Mike is about male strippers.
00:29:39In one sense, it's like, hey, you know, my movie's being, um, reviewed alongside other big Hollywood films, you know?
00:29:46Every time I go to a website.
00:29:48It's teabagging my movie.
00:29:49But at least you got double the, uh, wording.
00:29:54Uh, double-edged sword, I guess.
00:29:57Double-edged penis.
00:29:58You know.
00:30:06I think that the horse is out of the barn, so to speak.
00:30:10Um, you have college students now.
00:30:12I have a whole younger generation who've grown up with the whole concept of free music, free movies.
00:30:18And once that's kind of ingrained, it becomes really hard to change that.
00:30:28It's been 48 hours since my movie came out.
00:30:30It came out two days ago, and there's already nine places that are pirating the full DVD rip.
00:30:36And that's just based upon a Google search that I just did.
00:30:39In some sense, the word's getting out.
00:30:41That's good.
00:30:42Um, in other sense, uh, you wonder if any independent filmmaker can actually make money these days.
00:30:48There's so many people taking so much.
00:30:56One thing I do care about is piracy, and, and downloads make piracy easy.
00:31:02Um, the more piracy we have, the fewer films we're gonna have.
00:31:06And so piracy is a bad thing.
00:31:08There's this six strike law that they're trying to put into place now.
00:31:11Uh, and they haven't really defined exactly what's gonna happen after you've received six strikes.
00:31:16It's traceable.
00:31:17So slowly, you know, this is happening, and it is being policed.
00:31:22I mean, not nearly to the degree that it needs to be.
00:31:27Uh, if somebody loves a movie, they're gonna go out and buy it.
00:31:30But, you know, back when I was, uh, I went through the entire mom and pop video store and got
00:31:36every VHS,
00:31:38does that mean that I would have gone out and bought every one based on the box cover?
00:31:43No.
00:31:44But there's a lot lost, because there is no artwork.
00:31:47I mean, there's, there's nothing but, you know, oh, it's free.
00:31:51Unless they start fining people, throwing people in jail,
00:31:54unless there's severe, severe penalties for pirating copyrighted material,
00:32:00it isn't gonna stop.
00:32:01And even if they do come up with, like, I know that there's certain guys who are just like,
00:32:05well, we'll just do IP cloaking or something like that.
00:32:13Oh, pirating online, I mean, bottom line, people have been doing that ever since, you know, you had file formats.
00:32:19I remember back in the day when, you know, even before we had, like, browsers,
00:32:23we had the old news groups.
00:32:25People used to share programs.
00:32:27Most of the people now are using a technology called bit torrenting.
00:32:31Torrenting is the most popular, because it's the one that you hear about in the news now,
00:32:34when you have all of the RIAA, the MPA cracking down.
00:32:38They're just kind of getting, um, upset about it now,
00:32:41because the whole process of torrenting has made it much easier for people who are not technically sophisticated
00:32:48to actually go and find files.
00:32:50If you look at them, that's one of the reasons that they shut down, like,
00:32:53a site like Napster and LimeWire and all those other ones.
00:32:56Most of the companies that, uh, have profited from this are the large record companies and movie studios.
00:33:03And to a large extent, they don't produce anything.
00:33:05You know, they act as just the middlemen.
00:33:07They're not the guys who are actually building or designing anything.
00:33:11They're the middlemen.
00:33:12So, they're getting pissed off because there's no longer a need for the middlemen to be there.
00:33:17The elite does not want competition, because then you have these mediocre suits
00:33:22that have to get out of bed in the morning and think.
00:33:24They hate thinking.
00:33:25They don't want to think.
00:33:26It's much easier if you have, uh, 20 big films, and that's all the public can buy.
00:33:32And filmmakers will send out movies for distribution, and suddenly it's on 150 torrents.
00:33:39Now, I don't know how that happens, how somebody could have the, you know,
00:33:45morals or lack thereof to actually put it up on torrent sites, but they do.
00:33:51You know, and that also has to do with review copies.
00:33:55You know, you send out the review copies before something's released, and boom, you know, it's on torrent.
00:34:01And in these cases where they're really, really coming out on DVD, I think that's horrible.
00:34:18There's movies that are not released, and they haven't been since they were made.
00:34:23Like, they played in a theater in New York, maybe in LA.
00:34:28That's about it.
00:34:29And they didn't exist otherwise.
00:34:31So, do these movies deserve to be seen, even by torrent, illegally?
00:34:38Well, maybe they do, if we really can't go out and buy them.
00:34:43So, the second that that documentary or movie came out, you would find the hardcore fan, they would buy it.
00:34:49You know, because their copy, the torrent copy they made was crap.
00:34:53But it was better than nothing. It was better than never seeing it.
00:34:56I don't use the word pirating.
00:34:59The idea of file sharing and sharing our films is a great thing.
00:35:03The most valuable thing, in my opinion, that the consumer gives you is not money.
00:35:08What she gives you is her time.
00:35:10They're going to go out there and tell their friends.
00:35:12And that is what keeps Troma alive, is word of mouth. And nothing else.
00:35:30At any point, you know, these decks would die.
00:35:32Or you'd be running this movie and you'd run it, you know, the 12th time.
00:35:37And for some reason it loses tracking.
00:35:39I mean, that was really annoying.
00:35:40So, I loved going to DVD, which is so much simpler.
00:35:43Movie on a disc the size of a CD.
00:35:46The picture is twice as sharp as VHS.
00:35:49The sound is infinitely clearer.
00:35:52It looks and sounds like you're at the movies.
00:35:54But you can experience it at home.
00:35:57Not to mention, you can watch it in widescreen.
00:36:01Listen to audio commentary.
00:36:03Choose from features like director's notes, behind the scenes footage, trailers, and more.
00:36:16So, my movie came out.
00:36:18Mark of the Beast.
00:36:19I'm going to go in the Barnes and Noble.
00:36:40You might as well try this.
00:36:41That's fine.
00:36:43Oh, yeah.
00:36:47Badman over here.
00:36:49Over here.
00:36:51Magic Mike again.
00:36:52But no Mark of the Beast right under it.
00:36:55Well, we got Magic Mike teabagging Avengers here.
00:36:58Oh, nice.
00:36:59Nice little...
00:37:07Oh, nice.
00:37:26Sandwiched right between.
00:37:28Oh, nice.
00:37:29Nice little...
00:37:31I think I'm going to buy this in a real video stand right here.
00:37:36Does it feel better having it here than at a Best Buy?
00:37:40It feels a million times better.
00:37:42Where are you at?
00:37:43Let's do that again.
00:37:44Are you sure you don't want that?
00:37:46As much as I want it, I have to go come work at The Beast.
00:37:49And then we'll go Father's Day.
00:37:51Father's Day.
00:37:52So.
00:37:53And it's limited at two.
00:37:55Oh nice.
00:37:57Cool.
00:37:58Alright.
00:37:58I was showing him.
00:37:59He's the director of this film.
00:38:14Your gods and my gods.
00:38:16Do you or I know which are the stronger?
00:38:23But if I draw that demon by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come unto you!
00:38:36It's harder to get your movie to make any money with your movie.
00:38:41It's very tough to get an independent film on screens these days.
00:38:45I think probably what worked in the 80's where there were lots of 2 million to 10 million dollar movies
00:38:52because you had this big home video market worldwide that still was fairly hungry and not under the thumb of
00:39:00a small number of companies and governments.
00:39:02You could turn a profit, but I don't think you can today.
00:39:06There's just no way to make it back unless you ally with a vassal of the majors.
00:39:12And most likely they won't.
00:39:13There are little movies, nice little movies that do get released, but in order to get it seen it has
00:39:20to be something crazy, something gimmicky.
00:39:23I mean just this morning on Netflix one of the suggestions for me came up was a movie called A
00:39:29Talking Cat with two exclamation points, a question mark.
00:39:33And I admit it caught my eye, caught my eye.
00:39:36A tiny percentage of movies will get distribution and I don't think those movies are getting their budget back.
00:39:44Troma is the only movie studio that's been around for 40 years. Where are the other ones?
00:39:48And it's not because the independents are making bad movies.
00:39:52They attacked her man, they violated her, they destroyed her family, and now they shall feel the wrath of her
00:39:59vengeance.
00:40:01Sadie is woman scorned, now hear her roar. Jenny Russo is Sadie in. She kills.
00:40:10I mean I launched my VHS distribution company at a time when VHS was dying and somehow survived.
00:40:15You know, and even thrived at points and managed to exist at least till this day.
00:40:20But as we lost those mom-pop video stores, we lost our outlets because the bigger stores, they were already
00:40:26swamped with product from the Hollywood studios.
00:40:28The movie industry is a cartel. It's a game owned by a few people.
00:40:33And no matter how good your movie is, Troma could make Gone with the Wind and we couldn't get it
00:40:37to the public.
00:40:38How about Citizen Toxie? The fourth Toxic Adventure movie and the best one.
00:40:42Never been on any, not even shitty Skinamax.
00:40:45The first three were heavily distributed and were on all media.
00:40:51But as the vice closed, as the rules that prevent the monopoly were done away with, has been on no
00:40:59small screen in America.
00:41:02And I think there's enough, a small enough pocket of horror fans that are hungry for the new DVD from
00:41:10somebody.
00:41:10You know what I mean? Like they don't have to stream it or steal it. They want to buy this
00:41:14physical thing.
00:41:15I do. I mean I certainly, I'm always trying to buy all kinds of stuff.
00:41:18And like when I've gone to horror conventions, I'm always looking to find some movie I've never heard of.
00:41:28Netflix is terrible with us. No, they're awful. That woman hates us. Whoever it is, she hates us.
00:41:33No, the only reason is we have movies on Netflix is that some company bought a shitload of our movies
00:41:39for TV.
00:41:40And they have a deal with Netflix. So we gave them the Netflix rights. No, Netflix treats us like shit.
00:41:46They pay us very little, but they say, oh, you come in with us at the beginning and we'll take
00:41:50care of you.
00:41:51That's absolutely the way it works every time there's a new technology.
00:41:56And when Netflix came in, same thing. Oh, we love Troma. You know, we always love you.
00:42:00You know, you come with us and as we grow, you know, we'll grow together.
00:42:04And what are we going to do? We, you know, the only way we can make movies that are totally
00:42:10unfettered by any kind of compromise is to have some revenue.
00:42:14And so we went in with them.
00:42:16We had the same thing happen. We had maybe three of our titles.
00:42:19They took them at first. Maybe they bought 50 copies and shipped them all over.
00:42:23The more I look at it, it does seem like they, as they grew, they just threw the indies under
00:42:28the bus.
00:42:28If things had to go 100% online, would that bum you out?
00:42:34If there was no longer a need for a physical format like DVD or, you know, Blu-Ray?
00:42:40If DVD and Blu-Ray went away?
00:42:43Went away altogether and you guys were making money based upon, you know, the download and the streaming.
00:42:51I don't think there is any money in the downloading and streaming, no matter what the puffed up people may
00:42:58say.
00:42:58There is no significant money in any independent downloading or streaming.
00:43:04A low budget company needs a physical thing to sell to get their money back because streaming doesn't make any
00:43:08money for us.
00:43:10For us as a company. And I'm sure other companies are in a similar boat in that way.
00:43:14When you're looking online at something and the cover art, it's small.
00:43:18You don't really get the same feeling you do when you pick up a physical thing and go, look at
00:43:21this cover art.
00:43:22These guys who are collecting it are just really proud to show that stuff off and sort of brag to
00:43:28their friends.
00:43:28You know, like, hey, here's my collection.
00:43:30Is that David Carradine?
00:43:32It sure is. And it's the future, of course.
00:43:35Because you can tell by the outfits, Tom, and how there's like this silver thing on the front of the
00:43:40bike.
00:43:41Oh, yeah. It's clearly the future.
00:43:43And look at some of the rare titles that I have that you may have some of them, but you
00:43:47don't have all of them.
00:43:48Psycho's Love, of course, which we got from Carmen.
00:43:52Because, I mean, so often, like in the 80s and 90s, VHS covers would have almost nothing to do with
00:43:58the actual movie.
00:43:59Like it was some painting or picture that I was like, this looks amazing.
00:44:03And you get it and that's not even in there. You know, like that never happens.
00:44:06These elaborate movie titles with this crazy, colorful, beautiful artwork.
00:44:12I mean, it's almost like going to a museum.
00:44:14They would hire these great artists to make this art for these rentals.
00:44:20And they would just conjure up these images of what the movies were about.
00:44:25Covers are just indelible. Like, they stick with you.
00:44:28Some of those ones that you'd see on the shelves.
00:44:31I think the horror section was always the best at coming up with eye-catching covers.
00:44:35April Fool's Day, who could forget the noose with the woman with the long hair.
00:44:40Other ones like Stuck On You, the sex comedy.
00:44:43So, yeah, I just don't feel like searching for things online or on your phone or whatever has the same
00:44:49charm and the same social aspect to it as actually physically browsing through things.
00:44:56The video store was the ultimate title discovery mechanism.
00:45:00And it was a gift for all these small studios.
00:45:05Because people would come in, they would browse, they'd pick up a box, they'd look at it, read the back.
00:45:11Oh, cover art's good. And they'd walk out with something that they never even knew existed before.
00:45:16And so that title discovery mechanism is something that is absent with digital right now.
00:45:22And that's one of the reasons why indies are struggling is because title discovery is very, very challenging in the
00:45:29digital marketplace.
00:45:30People are no longer collecting, which is kind of crazy to me.
00:45:35It's like this massive cultural shift that people, they talk about, but no one really thinks about the repercussions, like
00:45:43all the strings attached to renting films online.
00:45:47There's a huge consumer revolt, so they're going to have to change, all of these people are going to have
00:45:52to change their ways.
00:45:55The media cannot, the public's not standing for it, they're not going to.
00:46:00All these things that hinder actually your ownership, you know.
00:46:05So if you own a VHS or DVD or Blu-Ray, you own that thing and I can lend it
00:46:10to my friends, even if you hit the buy button.
00:46:13You know, I own it.
00:46:18Being able to watch a film independent of the internet, I think is actually a huge deal.
00:46:29The democratization of filmmaking, I think, is a good thing.
00:46:33I think it gets the control in the hands of people who otherwise wouldn't have access to that through a
00:46:38studio system.
00:46:39It also gets access to control of people who have no business behind a camera.
00:46:43And I like that too, actually.
00:46:53There is no baby.
00:46:54I told him that to make it interesting.
00:46:56But you're such a manipulative witch!
00:46:58You're hurting yourself, you're hurting our friendship.
00:47:00I treat you like a princess.
00:47:02And you stab me with back.
00:47:04You are tearing me apart, Lisa!
00:47:06Well, what's it like to be a sort of B-movie icon, you know what I mean?
00:47:11Now I have to say I like it.
00:47:15Back when, you know, it first happened and I was getting all of this attention, most of it being negative,
00:47:21really, it was difficult.
00:47:23And, you know, I was in my early 20s and I had a really hard time dealing with it.
00:47:27But now it's kind of fun.
00:47:29If I'm bored, I can just put something on Facebook and my fans will crack me up.
00:47:37So we're here at Greg Cicero's book signing for his new book called The Disaster Artist.
00:47:42I didn't even know there was really an audience for bad movies.
00:47:45Yeah, I never really had a thing for necessarily for B-movies.
00:47:48I could appreciate a bad movie, but I didn't seek them out.
00:47:50Have you enjoyed the journey?
00:47:52I mean, has it been sort of worth it?
00:47:54It's been a little bit all over the place.
00:47:56But at the end of the day, I would definitely say it's worth it.
00:47:58It's not every day this happens.
00:48:02I'm able to kind of laugh it off and continue to pursue creative endeavors.
00:48:05That's what I started out trying to do.
00:48:08And I just take it with a grain of salt and just with a good sense of humor.
00:48:11The fans are the best part because I'm a big movie fan.
00:48:14I've always loved movies.
00:48:15So it's kind of fun for someone else to enjoy this movie.
00:48:19I mean, yeah, this movie isn't really my movie.
00:48:20I didn't really put my heart into it.
00:48:23I didn't even, I mailed in my performance, as I always say.
00:48:25But it's just cool that people enjoy it and know that you're part of something that makes people laugh.
00:48:33We came across, if we look over here, Rasputin music and DVDs.
00:48:47There are so many copies of Titanic.
00:48:50One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
00:48:59So wait, tell me about this one.
00:49:02This is the Little Mermaid VHS clamshell, which was produced in 1989.
00:49:07It was recalled off the shelves after Disney found out that animators, being angry because they were being mistreated and
00:49:14underpaid, hid some Easter eggs, I guess you could say, within the cover.
00:49:19And over here in the center, there's a clear scrotum, I suppose you could say.
00:49:26That's a whole dong.
00:49:27That's a whole dong.
00:49:28That's a wiener and balls in a sack.
00:49:32Yeah, it is.
00:49:39That's lovely.
00:49:39Thank you for showing me that.
00:49:41You're welcome.
00:49:41And this is what they replaced it with after the reboot.
00:49:50Samurai Cop with Robert Zadar.
00:49:53Hilarious.
00:49:54That's also another really good, bad movie.
00:49:57Just because you're watching it and the dialogue is just horrible.
00:50:00Next time, guys, catch him in one piece.
00:50:03Thanks, nurse.
00:50:04Do you like what you see?
00:50:07I love what I see.
00:50:09Would you like to touch what you see?
00:50:13Yes.
00:50:13Yes, I would.
00:50:15Would you like to go out with me?
00:50:18Uh, yes, I would.
00:50:20Would you like to fuck me?
00:50:28Bingo.
00:50:29Someone posted me a clip of that.
00:50:32The, um, I call it the horny nurse scene.
00:50:35Right.
00:50:36Yeah.
00:50:36When you were shooting that scene, how many takes did you guys do?
00:50:40And did you, were you cracking up during the middle of it?
00:50:43Or how did it, how did that go down?
00:50:45Uh, you know, we didn't really, uh, do so many takes of anything.
00:50:49The budget was pretty low.
00:50:51We just, we winged it.
00:50:52Uh, it just, you know, everything just flowed.
00:50:55Uh, I don't know if you, you probably can see that.
00:50:57I didn't really shit that up, that myself and Matt had.
00:51:00Captain Roma's gonna burn my ass.
00:51:02Yeah, he's gonna burn it.
00:51:03Charcoal black.
00:51:05It is black.
00:51:06Right on.
00:51:07Uh, really developed as we worked together.
00:51:11First of all, it took a year to shoot because Amir, he ran out of money.
00:51:15Uh, you know, Matt had a wig on at the time because he ran out of money.
00:51:19Then we went back to our normal lives.
00:51:21Matt had cut his hair.
00:51:22Oh, wow.
00:51:23Uh, so, you know, we got a call from Amir and tell us, would we please come back?
00:51:28And it was so unorthodox.
00:51:29It was incredible.
00:51:30In the eighties, there was no title that didn't eventually get released on home video.
00:51:35I mean, there were, there were a few that were tied up in litigation.
00:51:39For example, for years, you couldn't see the boogans.
00:51:42Uh, but, uh, I don't know if that was a good or a bad thing.
00:51:45I liked the boogans.
00:51:46The boogans.
00:51:47People would write me letters for years saying, I'm trying to find the boogans on VHS.
00:51:53I'm trying to find the boogans.
00:51:54The boogans.
00:51:56The boogans.
00:51:57You can always tell which ones were in litigation because the completists out there, the guys
00:52:02who never leave their apartment, the guys who want to collect every horror film ever made.
00:52:07I just remember Mama was another good one.
00:52:09It's a horror movie that when I was younger, we heard it referenced a lot, and I'd never seen it
00:52:13anywhere
00:52:13because it wasn't, to my knowledge, it was not available on DVD ever.
00:52:17So VHS was the only way you could get it.
00:52:19They will eventually write me a letter.
00:52:22They're saying, why is this film not available?
00:52:27I can't seem to find this.
00:52:29I heard there's a Japanese bootleg somewhere, you know.
00:52:43Blockbuster was a giant nasty company putting small companies out of business.
00:52:47That was their purpose.
00:52:48And in my opinion, this is true.
00:52:50I think they took money under the table to take crappy movies that were independent.
00:52:55I think there were some blowjobs that may have gone down.
00:52:57I was perfectly willing.
00:52:59Yeah, I definitely saw the effect of Blockbuster on the smaller stores.
00:53:02My friend, his mom owned a video store and he worked there.
00:53:07I remember when they opened like a second one and another nearby town and a third one.
00:53:12And it got pretty big.
00:53:13And then Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, I just remember him telling me that it was sort of siphoning off their
00:53:19business.
00:53:20And they eventually had to close one of the stores and not much long after had to close up shop
00:53:33for good.
00:53:33Blockbuster worked directly with the studios and also movie gallery at the time worked directly with the studios.
00:53:40And they would rev share on the titles.
00:53:42So the studio would get, you know, X percent of the sale and Blockbuster would get X percent of the
00:53:47sale.
00:53:49And what it allowed Blockbuster to do was bring in large quantities of titles.
00:53:54You'd have a shelf with 40 copies of a particular movie.
00:53:58And it was something that we really couldn't compete on with a per title basis because we were paying $60
00:54:07or $70 for a single one.
00:54:10They were paying nothing.
00:54:11The solution for that was a company called RentTrack, which acted as a conduit for the studios to rev share
00:54:17with small independent stores.
00:54:20But the issue with RentTrack was when you introduce that third party, that third party has to make money.
00:54:29And the pie wasn't large enough.
00:54:32Some independents used RentTrack to their demise and just ordering large volumes of everything.
00:54:43By the time DVDs came out, we were able to buy more copies of VHS movies because the movies dropped
00:54:50to sell through.
00:54:51So instead of spending $350 on five copies of a movie, now five copies of a movie would cost you,
00:55:00you know, less than a hundred bucks.
00:55:03Because the sell through dropped the value of the VHS, when it was old, you couldn't sell it for $10
00:55:12like it used to.
00:55:13Now you can sell it for $2.99 or $3.99 because people can buy it brand new at Walmart
00:55:21for $5.00.
00:55:22So how can you get $5.00 for a used copy?
00:55:25So Walmart killed the video business.
00:55:27Netflix killed the video business.
00:55:30Computers killed the video business.
00:55:32The stores that didn't migrate to DVD immediately saw their largest customers, their biggest video fans, going to the stores
00:55:42that had DVDs.
00:55:43The worth of their library pretty much disappeared, right?
00:55:46Yeah, overnight.
00:55:47Overnight.
00:55:49We knew that VHS would be door stops very soon.
00:55:57And so what we did is we actively switched out our catalog.
00:56:05It only takes one look, one listen, to realize how far you can go beyond DVD.
00:56:13Introducing Blu-ray Disc.
00:56:16Maximum picture resolution.
00:56:19Theater quality sound.
00:56:22More high def content and products from brands you trust.
00:56:27Blu-ray Disc.
00:56:45How have your lives been different between the filming of these, you get recognized now, and how are you handling
00:56:51it?
00:56:53Well I'll tell you, I can hardly go into Starbucks.
00:56:57I can recognize, actually, at Comic-Con sometimes.
00:57:01Woo!
00:57:02How do kids do something like that?
00:57:04Why would they just attack?
00:57:08I don't know.
00:57:10I do get organized every once in a while.
00:57:13Last time I was at a gym, so that was pretty funny.
00:57:17But no, my life is pretty much the same.
00:57:19It hasn't gotten hectic yet, like the big stars yet.
00:57:22So I'm kind of happy about that, because I enjoy my private life.
00:57:25I don't know.
00:57:26We're all here because we're fans, so maybe we think your lives may get transformed more than they have possibly.
00:57:33That's the same.
00:57:35I remember you now.
00:57:37You were my English class.
00:57:38I was.
00:57:38Yeah.
00:57:40Be sincere.
00:57:41Tell a story that matters to you.
00:57:44Okay?
00:57:45Try to get a budget.
00:57:48Do it the Hollywood way.
00:57:49Do it the right way, I should say.
00:57:51A budget with an investor.
00:57:52And if you fail, you fail all that.
00:57:54You do everything, crowdfunding, Kickstarter, Indigo, all that.
00:57:58If you fail everything, you know, work what you have.
00:58:02Fund it yourself.
00:58:19This video is going on in business.
00:58:24I guess I'm just glad I got to be part of that GIFS video legacy.
00:58:30So, it's really depressing.
00:58:58Hey guys, we're Vulture Video.
00:59:00I'm David Royal.
00:59:01Jason Wask.
00:59:03And what we do is we put out movies on VHS.
00:59:05So, this is Bikini Bloodbath, released by Vulture Video.
00:59:12By the way, we just put out a VHS.
00:59:14We put out the Toxic Avenger VHS about six months ago.
00:59:18And we are working on the class of Newcomb High VHS.
00:59:22I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 2012 was the year of the VHS comeback.
00:59:27There's a whole bunch of companies that started in 2012 doing only VHS tapes.
00:59:32Been doing pretty well, actually.
00:59:33Surprisingly well.
00:59:35We're already sold out of our first three titles.
00:59:37We're on our fifth title right now, working on our sixth.
00:59:41You know, I mean, people like Massacre Video and like,
00:59:45Briarwood Horror Boobs on Yeezy.
00:59:47They're all in there doing the same thing we're doing.
00:59:49And there's a huge following.
00:59:51There's a small group of fans who wanted it.
00:59:54And we are very interactive with our fans.
00:59:56At Troma, for 40 years, we've been listening to our fans.
00:59:59And if enough of them want something, we'll do it.
01:00:03And usually, whatever they suggest, it makes us lose money.
01:00:06But we're still here.
01:00:08We're the herpes of the movie industry.
01:00:10We won't go away.
01:00:11My name is Josh Schaefer.
01:00:13And I am the co-creator, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Lunchroom Magazine.
01:00:18Magazine, an online site that is dedicated to VHS.
01:00:23Celebration, preservation.
01:00:24I started the magazine with my buddy Ted Gilbert about five years ago.
01:00:29And we found that there were a lot of films that weren't available in any other format.
01:00:33We had no idea if anybody would dig it or anything like that.
01:00:36Or do we get any kind of reaction at all, really.
01:00:39We just wanted to do it because it sounded fun.
01:00:41We love these movies and we wanted to share them with people.
01:00:43When it was coming back, I wasn't a fan of VHS.
01:00:46Because it had been such a headache for me in terms of running copies and packaging.
01:00:51I was glad to see VHS go.
01:00:53So when it was coming back, I was very resistant.
01:00:55But then I finally tried it.
01:00:56I mean, it's probably the most fun I've had in distribution in years.
01:00:59And just the response that we're getting from the fans has just been great.
01:01:03I mean, I think it's a good thing.
01:01:09Streaming is a good thing.
01:01:11Once streaming came along and sort of replaced downloads, that made piracy a lot less likely.
01:01:19And it meant a lot more filmmakers would be paid for the real value of what they've created.
01:01:27We actually made a viral video that reached up to a million views.
01:01:33That video alone made a thousand.
01:01:36That one thousand bucks jumped up to about eight thousand bucks.
01:01:40All in one weekend.
01:01:42Wow.
01:01:43Yeah.
01:01:44So one weekend you made eight grand?
01:01:46Yeah.
01:01:47Off of YouTube?
01:01:48Off of YouTube, in the check.
01:01:50How many films do you have for...
01:01:53Like, I know you put a lot of stuff on YouTube, right?
01:01:55Like, how many titles do you have for free that anyone can watch?
01:01:59I think we have...
01:02:00Right now I believe Troma has about 250 movies on the Troma YouTube channel.
01:02:06I'm in favor of the technology that preserves the ability of the low budget filmmaker to get a couple of
01:02:14bucks.
01:02:14It's sort of leveling out into a world where low budget filmmakers can actually be paid something.
01:02:21You know?
01:02:22So I think that's a good thing.
01:02:23It's not going to go the way of the music industry where it became all free.
01:02:27Ryan Higa, Smosh, Freddie W.
01:02:30Every single time they put out a video, every week or every two weeks, it hits over a million views.
01:02:36So in other words, every week they get like eight thousand, ten thousand dollars for each of those videos.
01:02:42So that's how they actually make their money.
01:02:45That's how they actually do YouTube for a living.
01:02:48Maybe it's not quite so scary now that DVD and Blu-ray, they might not exist in a couple of
01:02:53years.
01:02:53Because you can make money through YouTube at the very least.
01:02:58And then maybe avenues like Amazon and Netflix.
01:03:01Let's talk about the VHS Massacre, huh?
01:03:04Yeah, what's that?
01:03:05Okay, VHS Massacre is a thing we're doing February 8th, which is Saturday.
01:03:10It's all of the VHS that Ken and I have scoured around New York City.
01:03:35I have Night of the Kick Fighters.
01:03:38This one is a Video Express, which is now actually closed.
01:03:44Oh, and this one will be found out late for you.
01:03:47No No, those will work!
01:03:49Hey guys,decdle!
01:03:52I battle you!
01:03:55Bye!
01:03:56Bye!
01:03:57Bye!
01:03:58Bye!
01:03:59Bye bye!
01:03:59Bye bye bye.
01:04:08Bye bye bye!
01:04:11Uh, so my first choice is Healthy Ways, Healthy Days, an easy walking program for people with type 2 diabetes.
01:04:20This sounds just as good.
01:04:22So, uh, let's, let's have a look.
01:04:25And stretches for your calf.
01:04:27Yeah! Oh, yeah!
01:04:30Simple rules, you'll be walking in no time.
01:04:33They're trying to push this wrong.
01:04:37I'm gonna knock this mall down, actually.
01:04:40All of them. That's a unitarm.
01:04:45Don't Shoot the Dog, 1992, seminar highlights.
01:04:50We're trying to do it as, you know, to catch it, yes, all the way through.
01:04:54Doesn't that make a lot of sense? Cut that out of the videotape.
01:04:56But you see what I mean.
01:04:59And one.
01:05:08Summer Bridge Conflict Resolution Lesson Clips.
01:05:14Oh, my God.
01:05:16I'm sick of you always slamming my friends.
01:05:20You better stop.
01:05:23When you put my friends down, I feel like you're dissing me.
01:05:28You were supposed to be home an hour ago.
01:05:30Uh, American Cop.
01:05:32I found this in a, uh, Spanish video store in, uh, Jackson Heights.
01:05:39Oh, I like that.
01:05:40Cut to...
01:05:40Oh, hello!
01:05:41That was like a male camel.
01:05:43Mammal.
01:05:48This is a good guy.
01:05:50We are a good, good, good guy.
01:05:58Safety for kids.
01:06:00Don't hang up until you're done.
01:06:02Dial 911.
01:06:07Ask for the police.
01:06:10This is Grandpa's Magical Toys.
01:06:13Climb up my apple tree.
01:06:15Cry down my rainbow.
01:06:18Slide down my cellar door.
01:06:20And we'll be jolly friends forevermore.
01:06:25Oh, he's there!
01:06:26Oh, he's there!
01:06:27Oh, he's there!
01:06:32Good morning, good morning, and how do you do?
01:06:41Hi, Peter!
01:06:44Help me, cut me out!
01:06:46Sarah?
01:06:47I'm in prison here!
01:06:49How would you know my name?
01:06:50Oh, I've been watching you for years.
01:06:52I even winked at you once.
01:06:54See?
01:06:55I told you it happened.
01:06:56It really did.
01:06:57Right!
01:06:58I thought you were ready to visit us.
01:07:03All right, any final thoughts before we cut out on the VHS Massacre?
01:07:07Well, I think it was a great time.
01:07:09Actually, I would love to do this again.
01:07:11And maybe watch more of the tapes.
01:07:15Grandpa's toys?
01:07:15I wanted to turn it off immediately.
01:07:19I couldn't stand it.
01:07:20It just gave me a fucking response.
01:07:22What are your thoughts, though?
01:07:23Because this is not only the end of the VHS Massacre, but this is also basically the end of the
01:07:29documentary.
01:07:30And so, this is like a year and a half of hard work.
01:07:35Yeah.
01:07:35And so it's coming to an end.
01:07:37So do you have any thoughts?
01:07:39I'm pretty happy with it regardless, and I actually think we had a pretty good time.
01:07:42When we started out, I didn't think that we would get, like, Joe Bob Briggs and, you know,
01:07:46Debbie Rashawn Lloyd and all these people.
01:07:48Coming away from the experience today, there's just one thing I cannot get out of my mind.
01:07:53Grandpa's toys are remarkably disturbing.
01:07:57Ken Powell is the victor for tonight.
01:08:23Do you think there will always be some form of physical media?
01:08:27Or do you think at some point they'll be 100% phased out?
01:08:33That's a good question.
01:08:35I mean, the technology of film has constantly changed from the day of the first film in 1895 or whenever
01:08:45that was.
01:08:46The ways of watching a film have changed every five years or ten years in major ways,
01:08:54in completely, ridiculously different ways.
01:08:58So that when we talk about what a film is, what are you talking about?
01:09:02Are you talking about what they made to show in Nickelodeons in 1898?
01:09:06Are you talking about the silent films that were shown in crappy theaters in ethnic neighborhoods in 1912?
01:09:13Are you talking about the good silent films that were shown with full symphony orchestras in 1923?
01:09:20Are you talking about the first sound movies, which were crap?
01:09:23Are you talking about the movies between 1930 and 1934 that had a lot of sex in them and that
01:09:28were really interesting?
01:09:29Are there movies from 1935 to 1938 that had no sex in them and were completely boring and ridiculous before?
01:09:37Or, you know, are you talking about the musicals of the night?
01:09:40You know, what are you talking about?
01:09:42A film, what we think of as film, as a technological fact, is just completely different every five years, ten
01:09:51years.
01:09:51So don't fight it when it changes.
01:09:53There's nostalgia for the DVD, you know, because fewer and fewer sold each year.
01:09:59There's going to be nostalgia for the download.
01:10:01There's going to be nostalgia for streaming.
01:10:04Long after Netflix is forgotten, whatever is the next thing, it will turn a film into something that we can't
01:10:15even imagine today.
01:11:02We'll see you next time.
01:11:04The decline.
01:11:05The decline.
01:11:10The decline
01:11:11The decline
01:11:12The decline
01:11:13The decline
01:11:14The rising star captain
01:11:16The same, same, same
01:11:18I'm gonna do you, yeah
01:11:25I'm gonna do
01:11:31The decline
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