Films That Look Better On Tape

[oy vey]

Maybe independent production versus big studio splits VHS and digital IMHO. The Fog on VHS adds to it but The Thing on bluray shows it has nothing to hide. VHS has mystique, like found footage before found footage was a thing.

[peanutbutter]

80s and very early 90s indies where their production values are somewhat but not totally lacking in 2019 are likely to benefit from the wear of a VHS or film reel.

Something like After Dark My Sweet is what I'm thinking here. Most Sundance festival minor hits up until about 1993.

[NoSleep]

On the old Tartan DVD of Ring, the image quality was so degraded it might as well have been a VHS. God only knows where they sourced it from.

I wonder if they degraded it to look like VHS in line with how important VHS is to the plot?

[Mister Six]

What is weird (And I did this as an experiment once) is dubbing new films (2008 onwards) from DVD/Bluray back onto tape. the more CGI heavy the movie the more of an abomination it appears...watching "Avengers Assembled" or the new "Halloween" on VHS just feels really REALLY wrong. uncomfortably so. like some kind of unnatural evil masquerading as a classic.

Coo, I'd like to watch one of those, although god knows where I'd find the machines to do so! Were they in widescreen or did you do a manual pan & scan for optimal "taped it off BBC 1 on a bank holiday" effect?

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

On the old Tartan DVD of Ring, the image quality was so degraded it might as well have been a VHS. God only knows where they sourced it from.

Yeah I've got that one. It's not just the video, the audio is a hissy mess too. It's like they set the volume levels way too low or something.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Coo, I'd like to watch one of those, although god knows where I'd find the machines to do so! Were they in widescreen or did you do a manual pan & scan for optimal "taped it off BBC 1 on a bank holiday" effect?

Ebay or a British heart foundation electrical shop.

[Phil_A]

I wonder if they degraded it to look like VHS in line with how important VHS is to the plot?

I don't think it was deliberate, Tartan were apparently notoriously sloppy with that side of things.

For some reason the colour palette was also tinted an incredibly dark shade of blue, which I will say worked for the atmosphere of the film - but it's definitely not how it's supposed to look.

Here's a handy comparison of the different releases(although pre-HD as this from 2004)

https://web.archive.org/web/20120527222744/https://www.mandiapple.com/snowblood/ringdvdcompare.htm

[Sebastian Cobb]

I find it unlikely anyone would cut a dvd of consumer vhs unless they had no other options. Lazily bunging a commercial tape that was intended for television is incredibly likely though.

[Piggyoioi]

Videodrome

[holyzombiejesus]

Slacker. Can't imagine many things more pointless than a Slacker Blu-ray.

[Absorb the anus burn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu1WX2nsZfo

The complete truth about De-Evolution.

[phantom_power]

Different strokes for different folks really :) I'm not someone who will only watch on tape. but these days I've found myself owning the films I really enjoy on both Blu and VHS so I have the choice to appreciate the direction/cine/set designs/sound design as was intended.

They weren't intended to be watched on VHS though generally. They were made to be seen in the cinema with a decent print, even low budget stuff