VHS Massacre: Cult Films and the Decline of Physical Media

Jun 20, 2016

1h 12m

★ 5.3

Overview

This lively documentary explores the rise and fall of physical media from the origin of film all the way through the video store era into digital media, focusing on B-movie and cult films. With icons like Joe Bob Briggs (MonsterVision), Lloyd Kaufman (Toxic Avenger), Greg Sestero (The Room), Debbie Rochon (Return to Nuke 'Em High), Deborah Reed (Troll 2), Mark Frazer (Samurai Cop), James Nguyen (Birdemic) and many others.

Genres

Documentary

Comedy

History

Horror

Science Fiction

Production Companies

New York Cine Productions

VHS Massacre Films

VHS Massacre: Cult Films and the Decline of Physical Media Trailers

Cast

Self

Lloyd Kaufman

Self (archive footage)

Ellen Muth

Self

Juliette Danielle

Self

Greg Sestero

Self

Debbie Rochon

Self

Deborah Reed

Self (scenes deleted)

Phil Hall

Self

Mark Frazer

Self [Joe Bob Briggs from Drive-in Theater]

John Bloom

Self

James Nguyen

Self

Mike Aransky

Self

Alan Bagh

Yusef, a first-generation Pakistani engineering student, moves off-campus with a group of Muslim punks in Buffalo, New York. His new "un-orthodox" housemates soon introduce him to Taqwacore: a hardcore, Muslim punk-rock scene that only exists out west. As the seasons change, Taqwacore influences the house more and more. The living room becomes a mosque during the day, while it continues to host punk parties at night. Ultimately, Yusef is influenced by Taqwacore too, as he begins to challenge his own faith and ideologies. 'The Taqwacores' deals with the complexities of being young and Muslim in modern-day America.

6.1

City Unplugged

Jun 6, 1993

In August, 1991, Estonia reclaims its independence from the USSR and brings to its national bank nearly $1 billion in gold bullion hidden in Paris for 50 years. Russian mobsters have a bold plan to hijack the gold after shutting down the capital's power at midnight

No Image Available

3.3

Getting High in the Barrio

Jun 8, 2010

Vato and Felipe are two free loaders whose only skills are to relax and have a good time. After Felipe impregnates a neighborhood girl, he decides to get a job taking Vato along for the ride. Tired of bouncing from job to job, they do what they know best and take the easy way out. Easier said than done, they won't kick old habits no matter how much trouble they get themselves into!

5.1

Candy

Dec 17, 1968

A high school girl encounters a variety of kookie characters and humorous sexual situations while searching for the meaning of life.

6.5

Dark Arc

Aug 27, 2004

A mysterious comedy about love, lust, art and the power of the "charged image", Dark Arc follows the eccentric love triangle between an artist, a graphic designer and their inspiring muse

5.1

The Dungeon Masters

Sep 8, 2008

The Dungeon Masters explores the subculture of role-playing games, specifically Dungeons & Dragons, which for over 30 years has offered gamers the chance to escape their mundane lives and participate in a world they might otherwise never experience. Popularity and power are based on creativity and imagination rather than social status or wealth, and success is based not on who you know but on what you do.

5.9

Chuck & Buck

Jul 14, 2000

Chuck and Buck are childhood best friends whose lives have taken very different paths. While Chuck moved away and now has a real life, Buck stayed behind and developed a dangerous fixation—on Chuck's life.

5.2

Arena

Mar 29, 1989

On a distant space station far in the future, the best fighters from every planet vie for the championship in an intergalactic fighting competition. After over fifty years of no human contenders, Steve Armstrong emerges having trained all his life for a shot at the title, only to come up against a ruthless extra-terrestrial crime lord who wants him dead.

4.5

Curse of the Blue Lights

Jan 1, 1988

A group of teenagers battle a horde of zombies and evil creatures that live underneath a graveyard.

6.6

Rana's Wedding

Aug 22, 2003

A Palestinian girl of 17 who wants to get married to the man of her own choosing. Rana wakes up one morning to an ultimatum delivered by her father: she must either choose a husband from a preselected list of men, or she must leave Palestine for Egypt with her father by 4:00 that afternoon.

4.4

The Living Wake

Jun 6, 2007

A dark comedy set in a timeless storybook universe. Self-proclaimed artist and genius, K. Roth Binew, has one day to live. He has enlisted his best and only friend, Mills Joquin, to take him around on a bicycle powered rickshaw. In a final attempt to probe life’s deepest mysteries, Binew endures one ridiculous trial after the next. He concludes his day with a final performance, his living wake. On a makeshift stage in an open field, Binew’s friends and enemies gather to witness his madness one final time.

5.3

13 Moons

Aug 30, 2002

Things aren't looking so good for television clown Banana's career, and the fact that his estranged wife, Suzi, has just been arrested for assaulting his girlfriend, Lily, just serves to compound Banana's despair.

6.5

Die, Mommie, Die!

Oct 31, 2003

Angela Arden is a washed up, has-been singing star who is trapped in a hateful marriage to film producer Sol Sussman. In an attempt to escape her marriage so that she can be with a hunky layabout, she poisons her husband. However, Angela's manipulative daughter, gay son and alcoholic maid are not going to make it easy for her.

3.0

Fabled

Aug 17, 2002

Joseph just broke up with his girlfriend and is not taking it very well. He thinks she is plotting against him with their mutual psychiatrist. His dog is missing and he suspects the people at work might be behind it. Then there is the unshakable guilt over his past. It just might all be bearable, somehow possible to live through, if it weren't for those damned 'monsters' that keep trying to kill him. Through an allegorical 'fable' that is told in parallel with Joseph's struggle, we are left to decide for ourselves in the end, who is the crow and who is the wolf., was someone out to get Joseph, was it a stroke of bad luck, or was it all in his head?

5.1

Creature from Black Lake

Mar 1, 1976

Some fishermen are attacked in the Louisiana swamps. When the word gets out of a mysterious Bigfoot-type creature, two researchers come to a small town to study and hopefully discover what the beast is. Their research from some farmers help the two men to learn that the creature may be a very angry and murderous missing link.

4.1

Just a Kiss

Jun 15, 2002

A group of thirtysomethings having problems with fidelity gets an opportunity to turn back the clock.

4.7

Breaking All the Rules

Apr 1, 1985

Three robbers hide a stolen jewel inside a stuffed animal at one of the midway games in an amusement park. When Jack—a teen with a part-time summer job in the park—his best friend David and two girls hang out at the park, they get mixed up in the robbers' scheme to take back their jewel.

6.1

The Lost Skeleton Returns Again

May 21, 2010

THE LOST SKELETON RETURNS AGAIN takes on a whole new series of clichés, primarily drawn from those low budget adventure epics -- rich in potted ferns and stock footage -- that thrived on cheap back lots from the early 30s to the late 50s. It also wanders beyond the narrow confines of jungle pictures, parodying everything from gangster movies to those Mondo films of the 1960s, with their salacious native dances.