A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated viewings, dialogue-quoting, and audience participation. Inclusive definitions allow for major studio productions, especially box-office bombs, while exclusive definitions focus more on obscure, transgressive films shunned by the mainstream. The difficulty in defining the term and subjectivity of what qualifies as a cult film mirror classificatory disputes about art. The term cult film itself was first used in the 1970s to describe the culture that surrounded underground films and midnight movies, though cult was in common use in film analysis for decades prior to that.
The VHS is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by the Victor Company of Japan (JVC). It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously viewed movies and/or new, unopened movies.
A re-edited film is a motion picture that has been modified from the manner in which it was showcased in its original theatrical release. Reasons for this type of editing may range from the distributor's demands to accommodating different audience groups. Fan-made movie edits are often met with controversy, as they bring up issues of copyright law.
German underground horror is a subgenre of the horror film, which has achieved cult popularity since first appearing in the mid-1980s. Horror films produced by the German underground scene are usually trademarked by their intensity, taking on topics that are culturally taboo such as rape, necrophilia, and extreme violence.
Brad Sykes is an American screenwriter and film director.
Home video is recorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. In a different usage, "home video" refers to amateur video recordings, also known as home movies.
Dekker Dreyer is an American multi-disciplinary artist working in film, visual art, and music also known as Phantom Astronaut. He is a prominent artist in virtual and augmented reality.
Videogram is the alter ego of Swedish composer/producer Magnus Jan Michael Sellergren. The originator of the VHS-inspired horror synth sound, the project debuted with the "Charles Bronson" digital single and S/T album in 2014, coinciding with Doc Terror's Italian Horror Week.
Rewind This! is a 2013 documentary film directed by Josh Johnson about the impact of VHS on the film industry and home video, as well as about collectors of videotapes.
Chester Novell Turner is an American filmmaker known for his blaxploitation horror films Black Devil Doll From Hell and Tales from the QuadeaD Zone. Since their releases in the 1980s, Turner's movies have developed cult followings and are considered to be much sought after collector's items. A copy of Black Devil Doll From Hell is currently archived by the Yale University Library and Turner's other movie was featured as part of a horror film symposium hosted by Yale University in 2016.
The Barn is a 2016 American horror film written and directed by Justin M. Seaman, and starring Mitchell Musolino, Will Stout, Lexi Dripps, Cortland Woodard, Nikki Howell, Nickolaus Joshua, Linnea Quigley, and Ari Lehman. The film is set on Halloween night 1989 and follows two teenage friends that end up accidentally resurrecting a deadly curse. A sequel, The Barn Part II, was released in 2022.
The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award, often called the Rondo Award, is an annual award founded in 2002 that honors journalism, scholarship and film preservation in the horror genre, particularly of classic horror film and their modern-day counterparts.
V/H/S/94 is a 2021 American found footage horror anthology film, and the fourth installment in the V/H/S franchise. The film originates from a screenplay written by David Bruckner, and Brad Miska, with segments directed by franchise returnees Simon Barrett and Timo Tjahjanto, in addition to newcomers Jennifer Reeder, Ryan Prows and Chloe Okuno. The overarching plot follows a police SWAT team who stumbles upon a sinister cult compound and its collection of VHS tapes.
V/H/S is an American horror anthology franchise that includes seven found footage films, two spin-off films, and one miniseries. Created from an original story idea by Brad Miska, the plot centers around a number of disturbing VHS tapes that are discovered by innocent viewers and the possessive influence of the videos over those who see them. Realized by a collaboration of various filmmakers and different casts, the installments are mostly standalone in nature; though recurring elements indicate the same fictional villain as the source for all of its videos.
Analog horror is a subgenre of horror fiction and an offshoot of the found footage film genre, said to have originated online during the late 2000s and early 2010s with web series such as No Through Road, Local 58, Gemini Home Entertainment, and Marble Hornets.
Skinamarink is a 2022 Canadian experimental supernatural horror film written and directed by Kyle Edward Ball in his feature-length directorial debut. The film follows a young brother and sister who wake up during the night to discover that they cannot find their father and that the windows, doors, and other objects in their house are disappearing.
Doorways to Horror is a horror board game played with a VCR designed by Sid Sackson and published in 1986 by Pressman Toy Corporation alongside Doorways to Adventure. Players scan through various doorways on a videotape recording, playing cards to capture creatures and win Gold Certificates in order to be the richest player by the end of the game. The tape includes clips from public domain media, including Cyrano De Bergerac, Africa Screams, Algiers, and The Terror.
A shot-on-video (SOV) film, also known as a shot-on-VHS film or a camcorder film, is a film shot using camcorders and consumer-grade equipment, as opposed to film stock or high-end digital movie cameras.
Cult of VHS is a 2022 documentary film directed by Rob Preciado, that focuses on the age of VHS, eccentric collectors from around the globe, and the video nasties that became the centre of a controversial debate on censorship in the eighties and nineties.
