{"id":1396,"date":"2026-06-05T13:38:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:38:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:38:55","slug":"behind-the-movie-claiming-to-be-the-first-straight-to-vhs-release-in-20-years-and-why-its-a-middle-finger-to-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1396","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Movie Claiming to Be the First Straight-to-VHS Release in 20 Years \u2014\u00a0And Why It\u2019s a \u2018Middle Finger\u2019 to AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThere was once a time when \u201cstraight-to-VHS\u201d was a slur, code for largely terrible bargain bucket movies made for next to nothing yet sporting wildly-overpromising covers. Today, it\u2019s not even a thing. VHS tapes were replaced by DVDs and eventually streaming. The last VCR player was made in 2016. Most machines lie broken, covered in dust or already long-since sent to scrap heaps. <\/p>\n

Read more Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage Reunite for the First Time Since \u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 Ended to Discuss Nude Scenes, Sobriety and Life After Westeros: \u2018Let\u2019s Embarrass the F\u2014 Out of Each Other\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tBut one filmmaker is bringing \u201cstraight-to-VHS\u201d back and hoping to give it a makeover for the digital era. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is How the World Ends\u201d \u2014\u00a0a low-budget sci-fi adventure about a brother who sets out to find his sister at a hedonistic party deep in the desert dubbed the \u201clast party on earth\u201d \u2014\u00a0is, according to South African director Robert dos Santos, the first straight-to-VHS release in 20 years. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe concept for us was: what does VHS in 2026 look like and how can this be a new reimagining of what \u2018straight-to-VHS\u2019 means,\u201d dos Santos tells Variety<\/em>. \u201cIt used to be proper slander, if someone said \u2018straight-to-VHS,\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat VCR-owning audience is, of course, limited. But not quite as limited as first thought by dos Santos, a former lawyer who switched to film after being held at gunpoint multiple times in South Africa and realizing \u201cI\u2019m going to die, so I can die chained to a desk, unhappy, or just accept who I am and seize the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLaunching in time for National VCR Day (June 7, for those who weren\u2019t aware), physical copies of \u201cThis is How the World Ends\u201d \u2014\u00a0which was mostly shot in AfrikaBurn, South Africa\u2019s equivalent of Burning Man \u2014\u00a0are soon be shipped out by dos Santos\u2019 production company And Films. And pre-orders from around the world have already surpassed 1,000 copies.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat far exceeds what we thought,\u201d says dos Santos, who claims there was never the intention \u201cto be making bank\u201d on the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut he now has boutique physical media specialists VHS Haven in the U.S. on board to distribute the film in the U.S. and, following promising meetings in Cannes (most notably with Neon and AMC), there\u2019s also hopes to eventually get \u201cThis is How the World Ends\u201d into cinemas. A theatrical release \u2014\u00a0following its launch on VHS \u2014\u00a0would of course be a complete reversal of a traditional model that\u2019s already now wildly outdated, but it\u2019s something dos Santas asserts hasn\u2019t put off too many of the industry execs he\u2019s met. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSure, you\u2019re if going to a sales agent and you\u2019re like: \u2018Hey, here\u2019s our film. Sorry, but we\u2019ve actually already released it on VHS and DVD,\u2019 they might not get it, so in a way it\u2019s like shooting ourselves in the foot,\u201d he says. \u201cBut actually some think it\u2019s cool, because we\u2019re building an audience \u2014\u00a0we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Chinese Hit \u2018Dear You\u2019 Sets Global Theatrical Run Via Damai Entertainment<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is How the World Ends\u201d arrives amid the dual box office phenomenons of \u201cObsession\u201d and \u201cBackrooms,\u201d both from YouTube creators who arrived in cinemas already with sizeable followings.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey built an audience,\u201d says dos Santos. \u201cObviously, that\u2019s in a totally different theater, but I think what you\u2019re seeing is filmmakers saying that the traditional route isn\u2019t necessarily working for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, the \u201cfirst straight-to-VHS in 20 years\u201d tag also adds a certain novelty to \u201cThis is How the World Ends\u201d that helps grab some much-needed attention. But dos Santos asserts that that chief reasoning for such an unorthodox approach \u2014\u00a0which came to him last year while in the edit \u2014\u00a0is actually a \u201cdeliberate middle finger\u201d to the growing encroach of AI. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a film that is made by humans, for humans\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 this is cinema you can hold, touch, and most importantly own,\u201d he says, adding that he was \u201cupset with every headline being \u2018Hollywood is cooked,\u2019 \u2018Hollywood is over,\u2019 \u2018Filmmaking is dead,\u2019 and wanted to say, \u2018It\u2019s not, there are people like myself who really care about cinema, who really care about filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is How the World Ends\u201d itself has AI at its centre, set towards the end of a war between humans and the AI Machine States that humans don\u2019t look like winning. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat I realized while making this is that there\u2019s a very organic part to being a human and to being a creative and to being someone who wants to tell stories and someone who wants to hopefully impart lessons through stories,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s an organic process to that, and AI is taking away that organic process. The existential threat in this film is AI. AI is in the background slowly taking over the world. And that\u2019s how I feel as a creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd as someone who made a dramatic career swift to dive into filmmaking and creativity, dos Santos says he\u2019s been dismayed to suddenly be told that, thanks to AI, he \u201ccan just push a button\u201d to have it all done for him.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo 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,\u201d he says. \u201cI want other filmmakers or other people who believe in film and believe in stories to be able to say, \u2018I own this film\u2019 and for people to come over and say, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s that?\u2019. And you can\u2019t do that with a Netflix subscription.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Brad Pitt on Set of Plan B-Produced \u2018Isle of Man\u2019 Movie as Filming Kicks Off During Motorcycle Race<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘This is How the World Ends’ claims to be the first straight to VHS release in 20 years, but it’s also a deliberate middle finger to AI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[157],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-netflix-2"],"yoast_head":"\nBehind the Movie Claiming to Be the First Straight-to-VHS Release in 20 Years \u2014\u00a0And Why It\u2019s a \u2018Middle Finger\u2019 to AI - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1396\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the Movie Claiming to Be the First Straight-to-VHS Release in 20 Years \u2014\u00a0And Why It\u2019s a \u2018Middle Finger\u2019 to AI - 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