Cult of VHS
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Rob Preciado
Gerardo Preciado
Kevin Proctor
Aaron Truss
Infra Violet
| Cult of VHS | |
|---|---|
 Official Poster | |
| Directed by | Rob Preciado |
| Produced by | Aaron Truss Rob Preciado Gerardo Preciado Kevin Proctor |
| Edited by | Rob Preciado Aaron Truss |
| Music by | Ancient Order of The Droids Infra Violet |
Production companies | Strangelove Films Q Cumber Films Studio POW |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Countries | Mexico, United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
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.
- Graham Humphreys
- David Gregory
- Aaron Truss
- Kevin Martin
- Josh Stifter
- Aiden Truss
- Michael Keene
- Lindsay Washburn
- Jordi Camacho
- Mike Redman
- Stuart Morriss
- Kristian A Söderström
- Jacob Trussell
- Allison Watters
- Reverendo Wilson
- Benjamin Combes
- Ricardo Farias
- Tanya Heinbaugh
Production
Director Rob Preciado was inspired to develop Cult of VHS after suffering episodes of depression during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Preciado wanted to create a ‘feel-good’ film that presented global views on the VHS format and the stories of people’s experiences of home videos from different countries. It was at that stage in production that Preciado met producer Aaron Truss, a filmmaker who was just as passionate about the project and VHS.[1] Preciado’s brother Gerardo Preciado also joined the project as producer during the early stages of production, having both worked on several short films together. Gerardo also provided the soundtrack to the film. The documentary was also crowdfunded via Kickstarter, with the production taking around two years to complete.[2]
During the production of the film, producer Kevin Proctor had scheduled an interview with Martin Myres, son of distributor Michael Myres (whose name was taken by John Carpenter for the name of The Shape in Halloween). However, the interview was canceled due to a member of the crew testing positive for COVID-19.[1] Most of the interviews filmed for the documentary were conducted on location by the interview subjects due to the first wave of the pandemic, this included people from Italy, France, Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, and Mexico.[3] Due to both Rob and Gerardo being based in Mexico during the production, Aaron Truss created a UK team consisting of Toby Campen, Dan Yates, Britt Lupton, and Alice Amata to accommodate post-production schedules.[4]
Before the film’s release at London’s FrightFest in 2022, Preciado had VHS copies of the documentary made for publicity purposes. Meanwhile, Truss attended the FrightFest screening with fellow filmmaker Jake West, who gave the film his approval. Graham Humphreys stated that he was glad to appear in Cult of VHS and to talk about his artwork almost forty years later.[5]
Release
Cult of VHS received its world premiere at FrightFest on August 28, 2022.[6][1] and it received its Latin American premiere at Morbido.[7] The film would go on to screen at Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival in Brugge,[8] as well as Horrorthon at the Irish Film Institute on October 29, 2022.[9] The following month, the documentary had its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver Horror Show Festival 2022.[10] The film had its final public screening in 2023 at the B Movie Underground & Trash Film Festival on September 3rd in the Netherlands.[11]