As a film medium, VHS is effectively dead; no playback decks have been manufactured since 2016. And yet, this June, for the first time in 20 years, a film was released "straight to VHS"—that is, directly onto cassette, bypassing the cinema or TV in an old-fashioned way. Today’s film releases without major distribution naturally end up on the internet, "straight-to-VoD," so to speak. But to see "This Is How the World Ends," you have to have the film sent to you on VHS and find a way to play it.
The film is not even supposed to be trashy, but rather a beautifully filmed indie narrative about the end of the world. It was explicitly made by people for people—specifically for an audience that doesn't just want to let films flit across their screens via fleeting streams and downloads, but wants to hold them in their own hands. It’s in the spirit of the film fans of the eighties and nineties, before the advent of the DVD put an end to rewinding, among other things. Filmmaker Robert dos Santos is happy to accept the imperfection of the VHS image for this, as well as the more than cumbersome self-distribution. (Incidentally, the film is also scheduled to be released on DVD later and may even be shown on the big screen, in a reverse distribution chain, so to speak.) At least a trailer is available online:
There is certainly a marketing calculation behind the VHS decision, as indie films are released in droves and struggle to reach an audience; with such a curious distribution gimmick, this film automatically stands out. And yet, it also reflects the zeitgeist, as the anti-digital scarcity is explicitly intended to take a stand against arbitrary AI-generated content and in favor of what is human-made.
However, one can strongly doubt that this will actually herald a change in the cinematic landscape and revive the physical medium ("This Is How The World Ends is the first of what is going to be a change in the landscape of cinema"); VHS will almost certainly remain a nostalgic niche. Even if it would be kind of nice to go to a video store for a movie night again, instead of scrolling through random catalogs online.
