Back when we used to feed large screens big black boxes for entertainment, the term “straight-to-VHS” was an insult. It meant your movie was cheap and didn’t deserve a major theatrical release. While plenty of cinephiles know better, this was the style at the time.
Between the stigma and the last VCR being made in 2016, this format seemed relegated to the collectors’ market. South African director Robert dos Santos intends to change that with his VHS-exclusive release, This is How the World Ends.
It’s a sci-fi film about a brother who is trying to find his sister at “the last party on earth.” He must venture deep into the desert and this hedonistic celebration to reconnect with her. Footage for the film was mostly shot at AfrikaBurn, South Africa’s equivalent of Burning Man.
Why VHS?
“The concept for us was: what does VHS in 2026 look like and how can this be a new reimagining of what ‘straight-to-VHS’ means,” dos Santos tells Variety. “It used to be proper slander, if someone said ‘straight-to-VHS,’ it meant terrible. But the whole point of this is to reclaim that and say, look, straight-to-VHS is actually saying that this is a well-made film, made with intention for an audience.”
With the resurgence of love for physical media, this might seem like a big gamble for a smaller director. But the VCR owning community is nowhere near as small as people think. And even more people have perfectly fine players just sitting in storage, just waiting for a new tape. So while still a niche market, it isn’t as small as it appears at first blush. The fact that he has already had over 1,000 pre-orders supports the fact that there is a demand for this.
“That far exceeds what we thought,” says dos Santos, who asserts they never planned “to be making bank” on this movie.
However, with VHS Haven on board to distribute the film in the U.S., that ship may have sailed. It also seems that Neon, AMC, and several other companies had meetings with the crew during Cannes. So there is a chance that This is How the World Ends may get a theatrical release. Creating a lovely inversion of the decades-old release model.
“Sure, you’re if going to a sales agent and you’re like: ‘Hey, here’s our film. Sorry, but we’ve actually already released it on VHS and DVD,’ they might not get it, so in a way it’s like shooting ourselves in the foot,” he explains. “But actually some think it’s cool, because we’re building an audience — we’re building a group of people who say: we like what these filmmakers are doing, they like organic filmmaking, they like the process of filmmaking as much as the final product.”
AI
The filmmaker also believes this release strategy is a “deliberate middle finger” to the rise of AI. A growing movement among young artists, after they have been repeatedly painted as the target market for the technology.
“This is a film that is made by humans, for humans — this is cinema you can hold, touch, and most importantly own,” says dos Santos. He is “upset with every headline being ‘Hollywood is cooked,’ ‘Hollywood is over,’ ‘Filmmaking is dead,’ and wanted to say, ‘It’s not, there are people like myself who really care about cinema, who really care about filmmaking.”
“So I wanted to make a statement and release this in a way that says, this is organic, this is real, you can touch it, you can feel it,” he explains. “I want other filmmakers or other people who believe in film and believe in stories to be able to say, ‘I own this film’ and for people to come over and say, ‘Hey, what’s that?’. And you can’t do that with a Netflix subscription.”
This is How the World Ends will hit VHS on June 7th, aka National VCR Day.
