I can feel your eyes rolling back in your head. A physical media collector is telling you about how awesome the new 4K transfer of Bride of Re-Animator is. But the Dolby Vision and resolution! You know what really gets people these days? Nostalgia. You know what also really gets people these days? Convenience. What’s more convenient than popping in a VHS tape and the movie starting? Well, it’s not actually all that convenient, but there’s something warm and fuzzy about watching an old horror movie on VHS. And the fuzziness isn’t just the picture quality.
VHS tapes haven’t been in the limelight in quite a long time but there’s always been avid collectors who kept the format in their minds. I’ve been one of those collectors in the past. But in the grand scheme of VHS collecting, the horror movie remains king. If you’ve been to a convention lately, there’s almost assuredly someone selling horror movies on VHS. Just don’t look at the prices.
‘Insert The Price Is Right loser noise here’
So what exactly makes the VHS that warm and fuzzy thing that young people and adults crave these days? There are a couple of great reasons.
We No Longer Live In The World That The VHS Was Created In
We don’t live in an analog world anymore. There’s a reason why Camp Snap, CRT TVs, retro video games, and VHS tapes are all the rage. People loved the convenience of streaming things but there are things that draw people away from those digital products. The scan lines on an old-school TV are one thing. Hearing the crackling and the popping of the audio off an old VHS tape is another thing. So when you’re going around trying to watch movies and recapture that nostalgic feeling, the VHS tape is the best option. DVD is still pretty nice-looking when it comes to video quality. There’s no artifacting or popping; it’s just the movie.
The love for VHS goes even beyond the video to the actual physical feeling of holding a tape. The physical feeling of turning a movie over and checking out the back of the box. It’s the same thing with video games from the 80s and 90s. VHS boxes might be the most aesthetic thing to look at when it comes to physical media. They almost always have the theatrical artwork on the front. The shape of a VHS tape is pretty perfect. They always have cool imagery on the back and the sides. It’s just satisfying to hold in your hand.
Outside of VHS tapes, there is LaserDisc, but good luck getting LaserDiscs and a player for a good price these days.
Yeah, But The People Selling Know Their Prices Now
So for those of you out there hoping to snap up some VHS tapes, you might have to be a bit selective. People know that people like VHS for collecting. There are definitely deals to be had and one of the cooler things about the format is that there are still plenty of movies that are locked away on VHS. Companies like Visual Vengeance and Vinegar Syndrome do great work putting these films out, but there are so many that didn’t make the jump to DVD and above. That’s part of the reason why collecting VHS is so cool these days. You can find a movie that no one has watched in decades and maybe its good. It might be bad, but I’ll bet that the box art and description on the back makes it look cool.
In a digital world where people aren’t allowed to own anything anymore, where Sony is taking away physical video games, where streaming services don’t release movies physically. The VHS tape is the way to fight back against that. Yes, it sounds like I’m writing a rah-rah speech from an 80s teen sex comedy, but that’s what it feels like. You can get back all those nostalgic feelings and the whole video store mentality that we want so bad by popping that tape in.
So go rescue that VHS tape, just don’t pay the eBay pricing.
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