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The triumph of VHS in the early 1980s - with the emergence of the
mom-and-pop videostore - meant the democratization of the filmmaking
process, especially as soon as video cameras became available to the
general public. Now filmmaking and distribution wasn't solely dependent
from movie companies big and small, everybody could make films on a rather
low budget and with a little bit of luck get them into videostores ... and
even get them seen, as videostores back in the day demanded a heavy supply
of material from all sorts to cover consumer demand at least
quanitatively. This only changed when companies like Blockbuster and
Hollywood Video took over, and them being studio-supported, they got
recent blockbusters in such great quantities at a bargain price from the
majors that smaller stores just couldn't compete and went out of business,
and with them indie filmmakers - also those who catered to niche markets,
like doing questionable instructional or educational videos - lost their
outlet. And then came Netflix, and eventually crushed physical media (by
now DVD) with its digital services, and also took down the big video
chains. While initially being indie friendly though, Netflix's library has
become more and more streamlined though, and actually, it carries less and
less films. But the internet as such offers another way of
democratization, even if there might not be the same amoung of money in it
any longer, films without studio backing of all sorts do find new outlets
... Now admittedly, above synopsis might sound a little bit of
the dry side, but the movie's actually rather amusing, and not only to
collectors of VHS-oddities, and is kept alive by some pretty cool
interviews with Troma's
Lloyd Kaufman, scream queen supreme Debbie Rochon, indie filmmakers Ron
Bonk and Jonathan Gorman, and prominent figures inside the industry like
Carmine Capobianco and Joe Bob Briggs, to shed proper light on the naked
facts, plus it takes us to many a videostore, before and after closing,
and finally invites us to an actual VHS Massacre - which actually has to
be seen to be believed.
In all, much fun, really! ... and if this has gotten you at all
interested, you can get the movie here of course: https://troma.vhx.tv/vhs-massacre
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