No need to adjust your tracking, you read that correctly.
In the year of our Lord, 2026, someone released a film direct-to-VHS.
Not only was South African director Robert Dos Santos's This is How the World Ends released directly to VHS, but it is only available on VHS. Yes, this is a Cannes Film Festival film.
Gizmodo reports:
Dos Santos says he wants people to want to see his film; requiring them to put in some effort means that only people who genuinely want to see the film will go to the trouble of getting hold of a tape.
More interestingly, he says that the format itself reflects both the film's themes and his own personal feelings on the way we consume art. ‘[My film] is a film made by humans for humans,' he said to The Guardian. ‘I want people to feel something that's imperfect, because VHS is not a perfect medium.'
He returns repeatedly to the theme of being human in the interview: discussing how some of the film's details will be lost on VHS, he says, ‘I'm in love with the images we shot, so it's a compromise, but… compromise is a part of experiencing life… [It's] the price you pay for being a human and for bumping up against the four corners of the world, and in this case, the four corners of the screen.'
In other words,
I mean, there are a ton of audiophiles out there who prefer the imperfections of vinyl to digital music, so...
It was only a matter of time before the imperfections of analog video made an artistic comeback too, and the medium is especially inviting as a proof that your work is really human in a world of increasingly AI-generated slop.
Ironically, the movie's premise is that AI is about to obliterate humanity, so a bunch of people head out to the desert for a party to end all parties ...
...which is probably a way-more-realistic outcome than other AI dystopian films have predicted.
Is it worth dusting off your parents' old VHS player?
Order a copy here if you want to find out.
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