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There was once a time when “straight-to-VHS” was a slur, code for largely terrible bargain bucket movies made for next to nothing yet sporting wildly-overpromising covers. Today, it’s 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. But one filmmaker is bringing “straight-to-VHS” back and hoping to give it a makeover for the dig

Robert dos Santos decided to make his first film after being held at gunpoint once too often. The resulting drama, only available on VHS, is a broadside against AI: ‘Someone once said that if your mum can do it, it doesn’t have value’ The new film This Is How the World Ends is a fine piece of work; the story of two siblings finding each other at a party held at humanity’s end, it is basically On the Beach set at Burning Man. However, what is really remarkable about it is its

Finally there’s something that makes Netflix look weak, studios can’t touch, and leaves algorithms clueless: Independent film is turning distribution into the performance. Streaming spent a decade engineering friction out of viewing; this strategy puts it back. One night only, VHS or nothing, hours in line: Presence is the product. Dead Format, Live Audience Here’s one example: On June 7 (which was, improbably, National VCR Day), South African filmmaker Robert dos Santos rele

“I want people to feel something that’s imperfect.” One of the more interesting-sounding films to come out of this year’s Cannes festival marketplace is This Is How the World Ends, the debut feature by South African director Robert Dos Santos. And we say “interesting-sounding” because we haven’t seen it yet. Why? Well, it’s only available on VHS, reportedly making it the first straight-to-VHS film release in some two decades. The Guardian just published an interview with dos

When was the last time a movie release made you think about where your old VCR ended up? South African filmmaker Robert dos Santos is bringing straight-to-VHS back for the first time in roughly 20 years with This Is How The World Ends, a low-budget sci-fi film that’s framed as a deliberately tangible response to an era of digital releases, AI slop, and digital rights management. With preorders already cracking 1,000 copies and the Survival Edition sold out, this one has gotte

A New Movie Is Going Straight to VHS in 2026, and That Is Exactly the Point Robert dos Santos is making movie fans do something most new releases try to avoid: find the machine first. His debut feature, This Is How The World Ends, is being released on VHS on June 7, before Blu-ray, DVD, cinemas, or streaming get their turn. The Guardian reported that the film is being billed as the first straight-to-VHS movie in 20 years. That could sound like a nostalgia stunt. Dos Santos is

This Is How The World Ends launches a physical-media rebellion in the digital age In an era defined by streaming algorithms, AI-generated content, and an ongoing debate about the future of theatrical cinema, one film company is taking a radically different path. Seemingly going backwards to go forward, director Robert dos Santos announced the upcoming release of This Is How The World Ends , a feature film that will debut on VHS , marking the first worldwide straight-to-V

For years, the trajectory of media felt predictable. Each new format replaced the last with clear improvements better quality, smaller size, greater convenience. VHS gave way to DVD, DVD to Blu-ray, and then, almost seamlessly, physical media itself gave way to streaming. What had once filled shelves was reduced to icons on a screen. The trade-off seemed obvious and widely accepted. In exchange for ownership, audiences gained access instant, expansive, and effortless. Entire

At the turn of the millennium, the future felt electric. The internet was no longer a curiosity it was becoming infrastructure. What had once been slow, fragmented, and uncertain was transforming into something fast, expansive, and full of promise. Information flowed freely. Distance began to collapse. Entire industries reshaped themselves around the idea that everything music, film, books, communication could exist in a digital space, accessible at any moment. It wasn’t just

There was a time not all that long ago when watching a movie at home required patience, planning, and a little bit of mechanical faith. You didn’t click a title and press play. You drove to a store, wandered the aisles, hoped the movie you wanted wasn’t already rented out, and brought home a rectangular plastic cassette that held your evening’s entertainment inside two spinning reels of magnetic tape. This was the era of VHS, a format that didn’t just deliver movies into peop