All language subtitles for VHS.Massacre.Too.2020.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

(dramatic synth music)

Downloaded from
YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

(intense synth music)

- [Tom] I made a documentary
a few years back,

and it was about the end
of the video store era

and the decline of physical media.

It opened up a can of worms,

that I think resonates
throughout the history of film.

Filmmaking is a freedom of speech issue,

- And you have very few people
who will buck that system.

- [Tom] And films have been censored

throughout history in various ways.

- That film, which was his first
film, destroyed his career.

- And controversy is really
what makes a movie survive.

- There was no streaming service
that would even stream us.

- You should be able to, you
should be able to turn profit.

- You, you did.
- Someone stole it. (laughs)

- [Tom] Somewhere along

the 120 year plus history of film,

people realized that
movies had the ability

to sculpt society in a way

that was even more potent
than the written word,

and people have been trying
to control it ever since.

(dramatic synth music)

What I realized is that
films have been exploitative

and for profit since the beginning.

Think of Thomas Edison
showing us short films

of strong men or dancing girls,

and of course, they've been
censored since the beginning.

For instance, early boxing
films were outright banned,

but censorship wasn't formalized 'til 1930

when the Hayes Code went into effect.

This heavily censored any
sexuality and violence.

Then over time in 1968,

we had the Motion Picture Association

of America rating system,

and the films that
stretched the boundaries

of that rating system
were often referred to

as exploitation films,

and in the same breath, independent films,

and that's what this film is about.

Maybe Joe Bob Briggs can enlighten us

as to the origin of the
term exploitation film.

- The true exploitation film,

a film that is on the border
of being a carnival act

was probably in the '30s and '40s

when you had films like
"Mom and Dad," you know,

it was a sex education film in a drama,

or "Reefer Madness" or films like that.

- Let's go, Jack, I'm red hot.

- You better be careful how you drive

or the first thing you
know you'll be ice cold.

(car engine revving)

(tires screech)

- That was the pure
exploitation circuit where the,

where the Kroger Babbs and other
great producers of that era

were actually sort of,

they were misleading
the public into thinking

they were seeing something
that they were not seeing.

It was a very fine art
that they practiced,

you know, the '50s and later

where exploitation films are just things

that the major studios will not make.

For example, in the
'50s, you had these films

called Juvenile Delinquent
Films, JD Films.

- Why don't you go out
and hunt real criminals?

- We got a tip on this drag race,

but when we found the
marijuana, well, sir,

that's a very serious charge.

- I don't believe the kids
have touched the stuff.

- The major studios wouldn't make films

about high school hoodlums.

You know, so you had films
like "High School Confidential"

that were released by the
Sam Arkovs of the world

that were too racy for
the mainstream theaters,

and they would premiere at the drive-ins.

I would say the golden
age of exploitation films

from around 1966 to 1976.

In those years you had,

they were sex themed films, you know,

that went farther with nudity
than you could previously go.

You had violence breaking out

in a way you'd never seen before,

and you had all kinds
of horror films, like,

maybe "Night of The Living
Dead" is the best known, 1968.

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre", that's 1974.

But you had hundreds of those.

You even had exploitation genres

that didn't survive the
sixties and early seventies,

like the LSD film, you know,
trip films or biker films.

Biker films only lasted
four or five years,

but in that four or five years

there're probably a hundred biker films.

You had black exploitation.

Black exploitation
probably lasted five years,

but there're probably 300,

maybe 400 black exploitation films.

You just don't have that kind
of volume today, you know?

- Yeah.
- So that was, that was,

I would say that was the golden era

of all exploitation genres.

(light music)

- My name is James Richardson.

I'm an Associate Professor
of New Media Technology

at LaGuardia Community College.

Exploitation films have
pretty much, you know,

I've been a big fan of
those for, like, years.

I remember growing up in the seventies,

we had movies like "Shaft."

We had "Three The Hard
Way," "Truck Turner,"

all the Coffy Brown and
Cleopatra Jones movies,

Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Jim Kelly.

That was pretty much the closest thing

that brothers like me had
to black superhero films.

- Gonna set me up?

(funky music)

(men groaning)

- Over the top.

But, you know, without those characters,

without that type of
extreme pro-blackness,

you wouldn't have had

some of the representation
that you have today.

(funky music)

(kick thuds)
(man groans)

It's almost impossible to
mention black exploitation films

from the seventies without
Pam Grier's name popping up.

You know, most of her
movies were really sexist.

- Why don't you turn out the lights?

- As a 53 year old man now looking back,

a man who has, you know,
a daughter himself,

it makes you a little uncomfortable.

But without Pam Grier,

you wouldn't have had
almost any of the movies

that you have now in terms of
with black female empowerment.

- This is the end of your rotten life

you motherfuckin' dope pusher!

(shotgun blasts)

- You have to go through a "Foxy Brown"

to get to, like, a "Hidden Figures."

(light music)

- [Tom] So when we realize

that exploitation films can
be important works of art,

and they can inspire artists
to improve on the past,

it puts us in a strange position.

You might not condone those films,

but you understand their need to exist,

because that is where the
real experimentation is

at the edges of acceptability.

Filmmakers like John Waters, Roger Corman,

and Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment

have been making very inclusive films,

although in the same breath,
they're considered offensive.

Some emphasize violence, sexuality, race,

others are monster movies,
biker movies, gross out movies.

- [Announcer] Now comes an action film

of relentless excitement.

- Taste some of mama's
home cooking, playa!

(man groaning)

- [Announcer] See the film

that is creating a tidal wave
of action all over the world.

See, "Surf Nazis Must Die."

- But their thing with
exploitation films is too,

so many movies wouldn't
exist without them.

Some of the first slasher
films were exploitation films,

and so it's like,

if these things didn't exist
so much of what was, you know,

seen now, you know,
wouldn't exist whatsoever.

You know, years back,

horror was kind of considered almost like

the evil stepchild of the world.

People didn't like talking about it.

Horror was very considered very, you know,

underground really wasn't that big.

If you liked horror films,

you were kind of
considered odd and strange.

Nowadays though, horror films
are the films that make money.

Horror films are the movies
that people are talking about.

You know, Blumhouse now is like
a mainstream horror company.

20 years ago,

they would be considered like
a Roger Corman underground.

They would not be like they are now.

(liquid spluttering)
(ominous music)

- You know, like you couldn't find

Troma films in Blockbuster.

I hate Blockbuster, I hate
Blockbuster with a passion.

- [Tom] Wait a minute.

Why is James so pissed off
about Blockbuster video?

Well, the mom and pop video stores

often filled their shelves with low budget

and exploitation films because
they were much cheaper.

If a studio release of
"Pulp Fiction" was $70,

you could buy three
films from Troma Studios

for the same amount of money.

- You couldn't find anything other

than the major releases at Blockbuster.

"Maniac Cop" one and
two, "Faces of Death,"

you know, porn, there's
another thing. (laughs)

They drove so many small mom
and pop shops out of business.

I used to live directly above

a Blockbuster here in Manhattan.

- [Tom] Blockbuster video

was established in 1985 by David Cook.

He had humble beginnings
but it grew quickly,

acquiring other franchises by the hundreds

and in just a few years,

they started to be tied into
the film industry itself.

It was not long before

they worked directly
with the film studios.

By the early 2000s,

it was clear that mom and pop video stores

could not compete with Blockbuster Video.

For the most part,

Blockbuster Video paid
nothing for the new releases

and split revenue directly
with the film studios.

They did not offer low-budget,

independent, or exploitation titles.

- I felt really kind of vindicated

when they were driven out of business

because they didn't adapt.

They basically thought

they were the biggest dogs on the block,

and as a result they got eaten.

- [Interviewer] Did you hear

there's one existing
Blockbuster Video left?

- I heard that somewhere

and I wish them nothing but heartbreak.

- And yes,

it still looks like the old
original Blockbuster Video,

even with the torn ticket stub light

on the side of the building
and the sign out on the street,

the last Blockbuster Video
in the United States.

I got this while I was there.

Part of the nostalgia.

I believe that those people
there are enjoying what they do.

They seem to be holding on

to this last vestige of our old culture,

and I'm glad that they're
just down the road from me.

This stuff I understand was actually given

to the Anchorage, the Alaska store,

but they ended up closing anyway,
and so they ended up here.

So, and you have a
French officer's uniform

from "Les Miserables."

- When "The John Oliver
Show" found out that,

they didn't know about our
store, so they were like,

we need to try to save the Alaska stores.

Russell Crowe was doing a personal auction

of some of his movie props.

So they went to the auction,
bought a handful of 'em,

and then donated them to the
Alaska Blockbuster store.

Ultimately, unfortunately,
it didn't help save them,

and so they had to go somewhere.

(light elevator music)

- [Tom] It brings back
memories, doesn't it?

- When Blockbusters started dominating

the video store market,

that was the beginning of the end

for the guys who could make
direct to video product.

That was possible because there
were so many video stores,

and so, and as you say,
mom and pop video stores.

(light music)

- Now people, they say they
like exploitation movies,

but it's almost like a
dirty secret that, you know,

maybe in their little clique
they could talk about it.

I find it fascinating also,

that they're more willing to judge

and give a hard time to filmmakers
that are alive right now.

It's almost like they want to see

the destruction of these
people, like that's part of it.

(crowd chattering)

Whether it's Lloyd or you know,

some of the other independent
filmmakers that do edgy stuff,

it's, you have to fully understand

that there's going to be
massive dips and peaks

within the acceptability
of what you're doing.

It's gonna be completely out of chic

and you're just gonna get hammered.

But then the time will
come when it'll come back,

and I've always seen Troma like that.

People are either taking Troma
off their resume, you know,

which is what they'll,
if you go to Hollywood,

that's the first thing,

like Trent Haaga told me, the
first thing they told him,

get all that Troma stuff
off your resume, you know,

purge your resume, get rid
of all that indie stuff.

We would rather see you as a fresh person

than someone who's done,
you know, exploitation.

- It's, it's so ironic to me

that today when an
exploitation filmmaker dies,

they do an obit in the
New York Times. (laughs)

After ignoring his whole body
of work for his entire career,

refusing to review his movies,

they will actually write

an admiring biographical
obituary about the guy,

it's like, it's like the
essence of hypocrisy.

The New York Times did
a front page obituary

on Al Goldstein of all people, you know?

They weren't talking about Al Goldstein

when he was publishing Screw Magazine.

So I don't know what
this is that now main,

now it's sort of okay with
mainstream media to talk about

the Roger Cormans of the world

and the Lloyd Kaufmans of the world.

They certainly weren't talking about 'em

when they were putting
out their best movies

and they were sometimes
actively denigrating them.

There was a critic at the New
York Times named Janet Maslin,

who actually suggested

that movies like "The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre"

caused crime, were pornography.

(light music)

- [Tom] For the last few years

I've hosted a film podcast in New York

with James Richardson and Ken Powell.

Over time, it became a way to chronicle

the changing landscape of independent

and exploitation films in the modern era.

Here Ken talks about visiting the set

on Lloyd Kaufman's latest film.

- So I went out to a Troma set,

which they were working here in Astoria,

which is, you know, really cool.

Hey guys, I'm out here just waiting

to head up to the Troma
shoot for "Shitstorm."

In a kind of a crummier section,

broken down houses and warehouses

and a lot of construction going on,

kind of fitting for Troma.

Like, you know, it's definitely
part of Troma's image,

like the house that they were using,

probably like one good
rainstorm from being condemned,

(laughs) but that's the Troma way.

I'm sure they got it
for the cheap, you know,

they were very open to, you know,

having me behind the scenes and filming,

filming these guys as they were setting up

for the shots for the day.

But yeah, I was able to, you
know, get Lloyd in action.

- I told him to stop
editing until we finish

and to make an assembly,
until we can pick takes.

- [Ken] He loves having people there

to cover his movie shoots
and 'cause he knows

it's gonna be kind of like free press.

- The empty wall, not the
couch wall but the empty wall.

- [Ken] You know, that helps attract eyes.

- I think it was far more acceptable

to make exploitation 30, 40 years ago.

And even if you're making
an exploitation movie,

the only way that you'll
fully get away with it

is if you're kind of doing an homage.

- Yeah.
- This is like that.

- Yeah.
- So it's okay.

- [Tom] Like a "Sharknado"
or something that's not,

essentially it's satire and it's not,

it's not particularly edgy or, you know?

- No, it's not trying to say anything

other than this is fun.

You know, there's no, like,
social commentary about it,

like "Easy Rider" or something like that,

that's, you know, a lot of the movies had,

even if you didn't even, you know,

know that you were seeing it at the time.

It's, they were being
made to say something.

After I made "Model Hunger,"

which was shot in in 2012,
but came out in 2016.

So I had a lot of bills to
pay like anybody else does.

Like, I didn't finance the movie,

the writer did, James Morgart,

but I had a lot of expenses

and traveling around with it under my arm,

getting people to play it anywhere that,

you know, had a door and a
screen and more than one person.

So, I mean it's,

I went into quite a bit of debt

just to get people to see it and,

you know, not expecting
even to make money.

- Oh, and even if you get paid

for the feature film eventually,

it's like you have to put
in all these hours first.

Like, it's the only
reason you're gonna do it

is because you enjoy doing it.

You're not gonna do it to make a living

because the amount of
hours you can put into

making a feature film is
the same amount of hours,

like if you were to put
take those same hours

and put it into a regular
job, minimum wage,

you would've made a ton more at that point

because, you know, otherwise you're doing,

you're doing all this for free

in a hope that for all
the time you put into it,

that eventually you'll get paid back

for that time in the long run,

but you're just holding your breath

for years until that would ever come.

So you could totally go
in debt for making a film,

even if it's the film is fundraised

because that has nothing to do with it.

The fundraiser, all the
money goes into the film.

So anything that you're
actually gonna personally make

out of it would only happen
after the film was finished.

- What happened was,
I had to get a day job

to help with the bills during this process

and I was there for a little while

and this group of concerned
parents came after me

and they started a flyer campaign

and I was actually flyered out of my job

because they would take
captions from Twitter

and pictures of me from silly,
goofy movies where, you know,

like "Teen Ape Vs. The
Monster Nazi Apocalypse,"

and I've got like, you know,
a swastika on or something,

but I die in the movie, there's justice,

- [Tom] You're a villain.

- I'm a villain, you know,
like a cartoon villain.

Doctor, prepare the
throne for his arrival!

- Oh, we have a chair.

- But they would take these outta context

and they had all these
crazy characters I've done,

not of course the serious
ones, the most outlandish,

and if there's any nudity,
they had it all like a package.

So I was just brought into the office

of the place that I was worked,

was working at and they
said, "No, no, no, no."

And so that was the end of that.

- You're literally seeing people

get shouted down for individual views

and some of the stuff
absolutely should be challenged.

But the problem that I
have with some of the stuff

that you see on social media

is that because of the way Facebook

and other content providers
kind of filter their content,

you generally only see content

from people that you agree with.

So we start to, after awhile,

start to exist in these little bubbles

where we kind of think
that this is the idea,

the ideas that I have are uniform

and most people think like
me or should think like me

and you're not really confronted

with opposing points of view.

That's troubling and it doesn't do,

you know, our culture any
service in the long run.

Art absolutely has to
offend people at times.

It has to challenge their sensibilities,

make them think and see
things in different ways.

Without that type of challenge,

art's worthless, absolutely worthless.

- [Producer] By financially starving out

independent content now culturally,

you're losing out, like,
art suffers in general.

- Absolutely.

Because of the fact that you have content

that seems like almost all the same.

The Hollywood films, the
major streaming sites,

they're churning out
a lot of stuff that's,

I don't wanna say cookie cutter,

but it's not really pushing the envelope,

so over time you do lose out.

(light music)

- [Tom] Truth is,

I have dozens of stories
from friends of mine

who have gotten ripped
off by the studio system,

but there are very few people
who actually go on the record

and talk about this stuff.

Mostly because they want

to keep participating in filmmaking.

So I was able to convince
one of my oldest friends,

Jason Carvey, to come to
New York and talk with me.

But you did direct this
smoothie called "New Wave."

- Yep, it's called "New Wave."

It was independently financed,
raised all the money,

shot it in Connecticut in New York in 2007

and then got a sales agent
that liked it enough,

thought he could sell it,

did sell it to a company called ThinkFilm,

which you've probably heard of,

and I was really psyched
'cause ThinkFilm at the time

was really cool, independent.

It was one of the really cool
independent distributors.

There was movies I'd heard of.

They did "Half Nelson,"

they did "Taxi to the Dark
Side," they did "Murder Ball."

- [Tom] You had essentially,
when you started,

had no connections to the industry.

- None.

- [Tom] You managed to raise
a good amount of money.

- We had around 250 grand.

- [Tom] You cast John Krasinski

in one of his first features.

- Yeah, that was he,

he had done "The Office."

He'd done the pilot for "The Office."

It hadn't been picked up,

which was good for us and
I didn't know any of this.

He just came in and auditioned

and the guy was fucking great.

- Is this, uh, silk?

- It's wool.

- I will wipe my ass with this suit.

- Okay, have you boys
ever used a gun before?

- Yeah, I've used a gun.

Coney Island, they're tied
down, but they're real guns.

They are.

- We had made the deal with him

and then maybe like a week later,

"The Office" got picked up for,
I think first six episodes.

It wasn't a great, it
wasn't a tremendous deal.

It wasn't like a bunch of money up front,

it was a little bit of money up front

basically to finish the film.

The backend deal was very, very good.

So I was like, okay, I
can really, I can pay.

I think we have a really good shot

at paying my investors back.

To me, that was like the big thing

because if I can pay them back,

they'll give that money again.

They'll like, you know, let it ride.

And then, you know, the movie came out.

We had, I had some inside,

one of my producers had some connections

with the DVD business, you know,

normally a filmmaker,
you have no idea how,

what sold, what didn't sell.

But he was able to call in,
get some favors and be like,

okay, Hollywood Video
bought this many copies,

Blockbuster Video bought this many copies.

So we kind of put together
a number in our head

of how many DVDs are out there.

You know, we knew how much
the wholesale value was.

So I'm starting to do the
math in my head and we should,

we should be past the
breakeven point here.

We should be able to
really make some money.

So I'm waiting for our first statement.

Okay, I'm getting the runaround.

Bruce is calling people
getting the runaround.

I think it was up to
year finally after like,

I think Bruce had to go into
the offices in New York,

barged into his office and was
like, "What the fuck, man?"

They gave us a statement

and it said we had
$100,000 in marketing costs

that were deducted off the
top, which is standard,

and we knew that, I knew that going in.

It wasn't a surprise, it
was part of the contract.

You're still in the red $30,000.

And I'm like that, the
numbers of DVDs don't,

that doesn't add up at all
with the inside numbers

that I already know about.

So, but I don't,

I think that might have been
the only statement we ever got.

- [Producer] Wow.

- Because we didn't get another statement.

So six months goes by, you
know, I'm sitting there, I have,

you know, now my investors are like,

"Hey, how did the movie do?"

(energetic music)

I had to borrow $10,000 from my dad

to hire a lawyer to try
to get our money back.

So I was suing just to
get the upfront money

and we're not even talking about the money

that I think they owe me on the backend,

which I estimated to be around $500,000,

which would've paid everyone back

and then given everybody a little extra.

We did a summary judgment

and ThinkFilm were required to pay us,

and they actually did.

They, they started, they gave us,

they cut us a check for five grand.

So I gave five grand back to my dad.

- [Producer] Yeah.

- And then they cut us
another check for five grand.

I gave that back to my dad.

So now we're we're even, and
then we never got another dime.

And then they went into bankruptcy, so.

- [Producer] And how
common do you think this,

that what they did is?

- I think that is absolutely how it works.

And unfortunately I think that there are,

I'm not saying every company's like that,

but I think they're, listen,

the music industry's very similar.

Like, there are no shortage of stories

of people getting ripped off.

There are no shortage of stories of people

just getting taken advantage
of, you know, and the truth is,

I think this is much bigger
than the film industry.

Our whole legal system operates on

whoever has more money
is likely gonna win.

Whether it's a murder case

or whether it's, you know, a lawsuit.

It's just how much money
it takes to sue someone.

So contracts be damned.

I had, I didn't have enough
money to challenge them.

- [Producer] Well, I seem to
remember even Peter Jackson

had to sue over "The Lord of the Rings."

- Yeah, yeah, he had sue New Line.

Yeah, well even if I
had millions of dollars

to throw into a lawsuit,

what would it take for me to sue ThinkFilm

and it'd probably take $300,000, $500,000

to sue to possibly get my money back.

- [Producer] Yeah, yeah.

- And now, (laughs) so it's
not even worth it, right?

So that does create this,
it creates this environment

where it's just very, very easy

to take advantage of people's dreams.

The sad thing is,

it wasn't necessarily
the folks at ThinkFilm

who started the company
because ThinkFilm got bought

by a bigger conglomerate

and that's when I think things turned

and it was right around the
time I sold my film to them.

But I figured if you're
anywhere in that like, you know,

under half a million dollars,
you should be able to,

you should be able to
turn profit, you know?

- [Producer] Yeah, and
you would've, you did.

I mean, you did turn profit.
- (laughs) Yeah.

- It's just...
- Someone stole it.

(both laughing)

- What I think is fascinating

is one of the last things he said was

ThinkFilm was independent and
then sold to a conglomerate.

It becomes the studio system
and at that point is when

they essentially stiffed the filmmakers.

- [James] Is it just the majors though?

'Cause I've heard stories

of smaller companies doing
the same thing though.

- [Tom] I don't think any
independent distribution company

is really making a lot of money.

So if you put out an indie film,

I think you have to be prepared to not,

to expect to not make a ton of money.

The honest, independent film
companies will say, look,

we're not gonna make a lot
of money, just so you know,

if you sign with us, this
is usually what we sell.

If you make above this, we'll pay you.

- What's really preventing

the independent film companies
from turning a profit?

Because the channels are there.

You would think that
the distribution, the,

with the advent of social media
that it's easier to market,

it's easier to get the product out.

So what the hell is the issue?

Is it the middle man?

- [Tom] So James brings
up a good point here.

What is exactly keeping

independent filmmakers from making money?

I decided I need to talk with someone

who actually runs a distribution company.

So I reached out to J.R. Bookwalter,

whose first film was
actually funded by Sam Raimi

and who's run Tempe Video
for nearly two decades.

(dramatic music)

- I think the Tempe Video
end of things I've laid,

sort of laid to rest
over the last few months.

- [Producer] Initially, I
mean, it's a known label.

I mean, so it was, it
worked for a long time.

- It worked for, well,
it worked for awhile.

It hasn't, it hadn't, hadn't really,

it's been on life support honestly,

since probably about 2008.

Which is about the time that
we, Netflix sort of dumped us.

They were very supportive

and we did a lot of business with Netflix

and they on the DVD side, they
took all the movies on the,

when they started their streaming service,

they took all the movies and it was never,

I won't say it was a huge business,

but it was enough business

to sort of justify continuing to do it

and find little movies
that I could put out

and, you know, continue doing it.

But when that kind of went away, I don't,

I won't say it broke my spirit,
but it sort of was like,

now I'm kind of like left
without a safety net.

- [Producer] So do you think it,

would you say in general that Netflix

was built on the backs of
independent content like you?

- Oh, no doubt.

Because back in the DVD days,

they would take everything
and when they launched,

first launched their streaming
service, Netflix basically,

I won't say they were
begging us, but they were.

I mean, they were like,
we want your content.

And they were willing at the time

when they started the deal,
they would pay you by stream.

It was like 50 cents per hour
or something they were paying,

which sounds like absolutely luxurious

compared to what anybody
gets now. (laughs)

Hollywood wanted nothing to do with them.

They didn't want to give 'em the movie.

They didn't believe in
this whole streaming thing,

you know, nobody wanted
to give them content.

So it was guys like me
that gave them content.

And that went on for almost a year

before Netflix kind of
circled back and said,

"Well, this is costing

"a little more money than
we anticipated." (laughs)

I think they were losing money, you know?

They then partnered with Starz

who did have Hollywood content

and against the really, probably,

they kind of got in the back door

because the studios were
licensing it to Starz for cable.

But part of that deal was
that they also had streaming

and that was sort of the
beginning of the end.

The business is very cyclical.

It's, you know, every so many years,

there's a gold, a new gold rush.

You know what I mean?

Where you could, if you
get in at the right time,

you're gonna make money.

People like Charles Band, you know,

had been in that gold rush

back in the days of the Vestron Videos.

You know, he was getting, I
remember him telling me a story

about Vestron giving
him his first million.

He got a check for like a
million dollars as in advance

on a couple of movies or
something that he was doing.

And this was at the height
of that whole marketplace

when everything was just
theatrical, you know,

that home video was just this
new thing that nobody knew

and everybody was throwing
money around and then,

but like anything, you know,

that time goes by and
everything constricts again.

And then if you're, if you
get in at the wrong time,

you know, too bad, you missed the boat.

I actually don't think
that these companies

are looking to starve independents.

I don't think it's that at all.

I think they're so oblivious
that we're not even,

we're like a non-issue for them really.

I mean it's,

it was interesting because Amazon started

this video direct service with
the big pitch that, you know,

any creative filmmaker

or short films or
whatever, you can post it.

It was, they were scared by YouTube.

They got spooked because
YouTube made it, you know,

was sort of like the great
equalizer when it came out

that anybody can post stuff
on online and have an audience

and people were building
multimillion dollar careers

off of that kind of thing.

So Amazon in particular had
created the service with

the intention of trying to
capture some of that audience.

But I think then what they
found out is there was,

part of it was there was a
lot of junk on their service

intermingled with all
the stuff that, you know,

the studios were pushing in.

They're trying to,

still trying to push the old studio model.

You know, they're sort of
undermining us to some degree,

making it harder for
people to find our movies.

You know, if you search,

go on and search on one of these services,

they're gonna favor, you know,

the studios' films because the studios,

they have that buddy system relationship

that they've had forever.

- [Tom] So would you like to guess

how much money I made off of both films

collectively for a
quarter of a year maybe?

- 50, 60 bucks?
- (laughs) $15.

- [James] Damn!

- It's almost like they go out
of their way every six months

to just trip you, like to put your,

their foot out and just, like, trip you

because they're always changing the rules.

In 2018, they decided to change

how they monetize the content.

They changed it in such a way
that only the people who had

hundreds of thousands
of minutes of content

viewed every month were
gonna make anything.

And even then it was a reduced amount

because I've never really made

any significant money from rent or buy,

you know, the rent or buy box on there.

It's mostly from Prime, that was,

they just decided to start
pulling content for, you know,

and in using some sort of vague,

like, quality control explanation.

And the worst part is they were,

they would just shut those titles off

and tell you that there's
no way to appeal it.

No way you're gonna get it back online.

It's just done, that's it.

- [Tom] On that subject,

I had actually purchased one
of my own films on Amazon,

the film "London Betty."

In reality, you're purchasing
more like a license

to have permanent access to that film.

Well, when Amazon Prime deleted

those thousands of independent films,

they deleted that film as well,

so they deleted it from
my permanent library.

- Which is scary 'cause that,

then it becomes from a
filmmaker's perspective,

like, wait a minute.

You're sort of like,

it's censorship but not
censorship for any valid reason.

It's not like you don't like
this nude scene here or this,

you know, there's some sort of

gore torture scene or something.

I mean, it's not that at all.

They just decided this title doesn't fit

with what we want on here.

Out of my 40 titles that
I have in my library,

they had pulled seven titles down

and it was a very strange mix.

Like one of them was my shot on video film

I had done in the late
'90s called "The Sandman."

It's very generic, not,

I had made it trying
to get into Blockbuster

back in the day, so there's no gore in it.

There's no, really anything
that that they could have said,

"Oh, this is offensive," or whatever.

They just decided it
wasn't the user reviews

because there was good reviews

and there was a few bad reviews.

There was one called "Poison Sweethearts"

that I had made years
ago that I had produced.

- I'm gonna kill them.
(ominous music)

(woman screams)

- [Announcer] Poison Sweethearts,

Poison Sweethearts, Poison Sweethearts.

A mysterious film, a mysterious film.

A sexual film, a sexual film.

A violent film, a violent film.

- Damn tramps!

- [Narrator] In this city,

they're treated as sweet
candy to the eyes of sour men.

Fear leads to anger.

Poison Sweethearts.

- I distributed it and
it's shot on HD, lit well.

You know, it's the technical quality of it

was better maybe than "The Sandman."

So I could understand, okay,

if you're gonna not take
"The Sandman," but why would,

why would you take this one down?

Somebody had told me, "Hey,
what's going on with this movie?

"I wanted to watch it and it's gone."

You know, that's how a lot
of people found out about it.

It's a reminder, I think
when these companies do this,

that you're we're not in
control of our destinies.

They are.

- Greetings from Troma.

(group screaming)

When it comes to any independent business,

especially movies,
television, and the arts.

The effects that the oligopolies

have over visionary enterprise,

those effects are disastrous to us.

If you ran a business that saw revenues

decline by 88% over the
course of just two years,

you'd likely make the logical assumption

that the business was dying.

But what if that very same business

actually had a 65% increase

in customer traffic over
the same time period?

At that point,

you probably have to assume
you were being robbed blind.

- All right, everybody!

Drop your tacos or I'll
blow your brains out!

- Well, this is exactly

what's happening to Troma Entertainment.

Even as Troma's online viewership

increased substantially from
the fourth quarter of 2015

to the fourth quarter of 2017,

views increased from about 5
million to over 15 million.

The revenue generated from this traffic

dropped to almost nothing in
the fourth quarter of 2015.

"Electra Love," a typical
title distributed by Troma

was viewed 500,000 times

and received about a thousand bucks.

In the fourth quarter of 2017,

the same "Electra Love" was
viewed just as many times

and received exactly $1 and 20 cents.

- See, now that Disney owns Fox

and has already bought
and scooped up Marvel

and Lucas Film and Pixar
and I mean, it's soon,

how long's it gonna be
before Disney owns everybody?

The last film I made for Full Moon

was this thing called "Mega Scorpions."

Not my shining moment,

but that film was originally
made for Fox Home Video

and Fox Home Video, as far as
I know, still owns the rights.

In a roundabout way now,
Disney owns one of the movies

that I made for Full Moon. (laughs)

(light music)

- This is something that's true.

A lot of independent films just
don't make money and a lot,

just like the music industry,

a lot of albums just don't make money.

So there's nothing nefarious there,

but I think you got like a 50/50 chance

of getting an honest distribution company

versus a predatory one.

In the studio system, if you
are outside of that ecosystem,

I think the standard is
to essentially fleece you.

So if an independent filmmaker
does well for a company

and that distributor screws them,

then you're not allowing capitalism

to actually function in the proper way

because that filmmaker would've
gone on to a second film.

And what you've done is you've
destroyed that possibility

because if they lost a
quarter million dollars,

how the fuck are they supposed

to get another quarter million, you know?

The same story about Jason Carvey is true,

is that he was successful.

This is what happens when
capitalism gets too corrupt,

is that it actually doesn't
function the way it should.

It should be a hierarchy of competence.

- If I'm looking at 500,000
directly in front of you

and it's like, I should give Tom his 250,

or fuck it, I can keep it all myself.

(both laughing)

- And yeah.

- There's a lot of people who are like,

"Yo, I'm not giving you anything."

- When you look at nowadays
what is being remade,

it's so often a movie
that would be considered

like a niche film, like a
"Child's Play" getting remade,

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre,"

which was considered so shocking
at the time, been remade.

They're still making, you know,

direct to video sequels to it to this day.

You know, like when you think about

the characters that live on,

you remember Chop Top, you
remember, you know, Leatherface,

you don't remember, like,

who was the Academy Award
winner in 1982 or '85?

You don't remember half of that.

That's sort of of the kind of thing like,

"Oh yeah, I don't really remember,"

but you remember, you know,
Angela from "Sleepaway Camp."

You remember the shocking
ending to "Sleepaway Camp."

- The process bringing a
truly independent piece

of filmmaking to the
market is extremely hard.

Okay, it's always been hard.

There's no big breaking news here,

but here's what's extremely hard.

I was told by a lot of
people when I made the movie

that the ending was too much.

Even Harry Manfredini said to me,

he did the original score.

He said, "You really should
think twice about that ending."

And I was like, I heard him out,

I listened to him and I
understood what he said,

but I felt so strongly about it

and I spoke to my editor and he said,

"You're bringing the story this far,

"and then are you just gonna drop it?"

And I'm like, "No, no."

So there was no choice

to keep the ending in as it was designed.

And I'm still to this
day, glad that we did.

However, in the
distribution of this movie,

there was a couple different
companies that wanted it,

you know, smaller companies of course.

One that we went with Wild Eye

agreed to keep the title and not cut it.

The other company wanted
to change the title,

which wasn't a big deal, but, and cut it.

- Filmmakers love their
craft, but they also,

many times they want to get paid also.

They're tired of being broke.

So if in order for me
to make my money back,

I have to tone down certain things

in order to get on certain
platforms, they'll do it.

And you have very few people
who will buck that system.

- So went with the not cutting
it, you know, Wild Eye.

The trouble that Wild Eye
had with it though was,

okay, they put it out in DVD.

They couldn't get it into
any Red Box or Walmart.

It was just way too off the
charts graphic for them.

Even though it had, like,
an incredible message about,

hey women, stop judging yourselves.

Like this is, you know,
don't worry about this.

Do what you can do,

but love yourself and don't
fall into the pits of,

you know, beauty coming out of magazines

and all that sort of thing.

That was the message of the movie.

But all they saw was the
gore instead of the message.

- I wanted to be an actress.

I used to go on all the casting calls.

God knows I have the arthritic knees

to prove all the begging I
did in the casting office.

But it got me nowhere.

The younger, prettier
girls always got the roles.

You said that, that your thighs

were your biggest hurdle
to becomin' famous.

I can solve your problem!

(woman screaming)

- And so, but because of
the graphic nature of it,

there was no streaming service

that would even stream us and
that, but that was too much.

And so because we got
banned from the streaming,

which is where, where
everything is at now,

and we only have DVD.

The only Blu-ray that came out was

on the Special Horror Box
special edition that they did.

And they probably did
like 100 or so Blu-rays

just for their particular thing.

That's all that it was, that's all.

It was just a DVD and it
didn't stream a single place,

even on indies.

It may not be a Hollywood movie,

but the indies have very similar standards

to the Hollywood movies

if you want to stream on those big sites.

So it killed us, it killed us.

- I can go and watch "Human
Centipede" one through three.

Meanwhile, Debbie Rochon's
film is for some reason banned.

The idea that those films
are somehow less graphic

than Debbie's film is totally ridiculous.

And I really have to call in the question,

what's happening here?

There is a reason why people want to

experience something
horrific in a safe way.

That's what films are.

So I don't think there's
anything wrong with that.

And I think the mission
of independent filmmakers

and B movie filmmakers
is to push the limits

and to find those edges.

That's the only way

we can differentiate
from Hollywood garbage.

- Sometimes you gotta offend people,

you have to challenge their views.

My point of view, for the most part,

can stand up under scrutiny,
under bright lights.

And if it can't, then maybe
I should shut my mouth.

And a lot of people nowadays,

it's like, you know,
because you don't like it,

because it offends your sensibilities,

it should be automatically banned.

If I'm watching "Faces of Death,"

I can't really ban Kurt Cameron's stuff.

- [Tom] It is impossible to
talk about exploitation films

without upbringing in the VHS era,

for this was the first
time in American history

that people had continuous access

to these strange exploitation films.

Do you have any VHS tapes in the store?

- No, no. (laughs)
- It's all DVD and Blu-ray?

- It's all DVD and Blu-ray.

Yeah, they stopped making VHS in 2004,

so we stopped carrying
'em as soon as they,

when they stopped manufacturing them.

We started, we actually
started transitioning to DVD

and Blu-ray a few years before that.

- Interesting story

that when I myself worked for Blockbuster,

I was part of that transition where the,

we had the order from
corporate that we couldn't sell

or give away or even personally take

any of the old VHS tapes.

We had to double garbage bag

and put them all in the dumpster.

And we even had like, you know,

district managers coming in

and supervising that to make
sure that that took place.

I still took some.

- We've seen movies that have,

like, never gone past the VHS.

You know, they stopped there

and they've never made
their way onto DVD, Blu-Ray.

- [Tom] Did you ever see
the movie "The Howling VII?"

- "The Howling VII?"

No, I must have missed that one.

- [Tom] Did you know "The
Howling" went up to number seven?

- Oh, you. (laughs)

No, I did, I did not see that.

- One of the worst movies ever
made is "The Howling VII,"

and when it's the movie that
killed "The Howling" franchise.

"The Howling" franchise
has recently come back.

Well, it took it 20 years
to come back. (laughs)

It took it 20 years

to get rid of the stigma
of "The Howling VII."

We showed "The Howling VII"
on my show and it was so,

it was one of those movies that's so bad

you can actually start to
enjoy the badness of it.

The week after we showed it,

we got this massive amount of fan mail

and it's like, where is that?

I didn't, I didn't,

I thought the series
ended at "Howling VI."

Well, yes, that's because
New Line never released this,

but somehow we ended up with it.

Yeah, where is that?

You know, where can I get that?

And actually it had a VHS release.

It never had a DVD release.

It never had a theatrical release

and it does not exist as an actual film.

They pieced together enough of it (laughs)

to release the VHS version

and the rest of the 35 millimeter film

is just in cardboard boxes
somewhere at New Line in pieces.

It was never actually pieced together

so it could be shown in a theater.

There's an example of VHS
saving something for posterity.

Now, whether it should be
saved, who knows? (laughs)

- I have a whole entire room
full of VHS tapes and stuff

and you know, it fills up
and it's like, you know,

I'm not gonna be watching stuff
on VHS but I like to own it

for, like, collectors because, you know,

I'm nostalgic for that

and I like to have that in
my background of my videos

to show as hey, you know,

this is a period in time
that I don't wanna forget.

I like to, you know,
show that this is like,

almost like a period in
history, which I was a part of.

And it's, it's fun to look back at that.

Yeah, the video store!

- Oh shit!

- Don't you just love the video store?

- I love the fucking video store.

- It's the shit!

Probably the most nostalgic
thing to me personally,

is the video store.
- Yeah.

- Just the idea of going
into a place to actually

physically look at the
movies before you rent 'em.

(mysterious synth music)

Oh man, look at this.

A little VHS tape action.

Remember this shit?

It would become unspooled and
it would just go everywhere.

Look at this, it's just going.

It's tied up in the bike over here.

So I found this really cool
VHS, it's got great artwork.

If you look on the spine
it says Tromabilia.

So when I opened it up,

it actually says "Killer Condom" on it.

But it also says please
return as soon as possible.

- Oh, what? (screams)

(dramatic music)

- So we're here at Troma and
I'm gonna return this VHS

that says return as
soon as possible on it.

So hopefully he won't be too mad at me

'cause it's 30 years overdue.

(mysterious synth music)

Okay, I'm gonna ring the buzzer, right?

(buzzer buzzes)

- That's good porn.

YouTube, tubegalore.com.

- Jesus.

Hey.

- Hey Tom Seymour.
- Hey, Lloyd.

- Tom Seymour, who let you in?

- Lloyd, I found this VHS tape.

I think it's really important.

It says return as soon as possible.

- Wait a minute, this
is, this is 30 years old.

What?

No wonder "Killer Condom" had
no success in distribution.

You didn't return our screener.

This was the only one we had.

- Fuck!

Sweet, Lloyd's autographing my VHS.

My 30 year late VHS.

- Well, filmmaking is an art
and if you want to be an artist

then the filmmaking might be
a good profession for you.

But if you're a lazy son of a bitch,

then you aren't going to do very well

in the making of cinema.

And if you think you're gonna be able

to make a lot of money and be lazy,

it ain't gonna work either.

If you're an artist, you
might support yourself.

If you are a genuine artist
and if you've read some books,

and if you have something to say

and if you really love cinema,

you can probably make some
kind of life out of it.

But it's not going to pay
your rent or feed you unless,

unless you become an ally
of one of the vassals

of one of these giant devil worshiping

international media conglomerates.

It's been coming for a long time,

but the independent movie
industry is pretty much squashed.

The word independent's been stolen.

Fox Searchlight is called independent

movies made by the sons and daughters

of multi-million dollar
celebrities are called independent.

And the word has been
literally stolen away.

So it, if you're gonna
be independent artists,

you better be prepared to have a day job.

- [Tom] You don't foresee

any sort of gold rush again, right?

Like in regard to the various times

where indies could kind of
sneak in, like make some cash.

- I think there is a gold rush

and I think there is ways
to make a lot of money

become an internet star.

The Cinema Snob, he's got a great podcast,

he's totally independent,
he has his own company.

The Cinema Snob makes enough money

so he doesn't have to work at anything

other than being the Cinema Snob.

He's got at least one full-time employee.

He's made two movies

and it's all from his independent things.

His source of income is something
other than movie making.

It's something other than the
garbage that's on television.

And I've been talking
about this for a long time.

A base of power, the base of power, right?

Troma, we're out here in
the middle of nowhere,

but at least we have a
little base of power.

We've got, you know,

half a million fans and a cult following

and we're here in the Long
Island city where people come,

tourists come here and
we have kind of a brand.

Movie making has become democratized,

but you can't eat off of it.

You can't pay your rent

unless you are in with
one of the big shots,

and then you get your wings clipped

and you have to become reeducated, right?

So that unless you, if you
wanna be a real artist,

you have to be prepared for
those kinds of troubles.

- [Tom] Now I have to
figure out how to play this.

It's a VCD.

- [Woman] I'm sure I can
find my card for you.

(Tom laughs)

- [Tom] "Joe Dirt."

So Tom Poirier, one of our producers

has actually been shooting footage

at the last Blockbuster Video,

and it occurred to me that maybe

I should take this copy of a classic film.

It's actually not a very classic film

and I'm gonna try to
return this video tape.

I think it's really late.

I think it's, like, 30 years late.

- I have found out through our local news

that there is a video store in a town

that happens to be between

where I live in Albany, Oregon and Bend,

in a little town called
Sweet Home, Oregon,

and there resides American Family Video.

I'm gonna take you guys along with me

and we'll see what happens.

And this is Sweet Home, Oregon.

It is 9,000 people.

This is the front of
American Family video.

It's a clearance sale because
this store is closing.

- [Kathi] Well, I tell
you right now, I do not.

- [Tom] "Borrowed Hearts."

Okay, I don't know what
that is, but you'll never.

- American Family Video
started in '82 and '83.

It was like 49th in
the nation at one time,

so we were a big guy.

In 2008, when it started
doing the downturn,

they started shutting
some of our stores down.

The owner offered me an opportunity

to buy the Sweet Home store
and so I did then in 2010.

- [Tom] Okay.

- I figured I had 10 years
left because I'm 67 now.

So I figured, well, 10 more years of video

and I made it nine and a half.

- [Tom] You outlived Blockbuster.

You outlived Hollywood

and essentially every other independent.

- You have to really watch
on the not rated movies

because there's a lot of not rated movies,

but that's how some of these
independents get started.

I dealt with one distributor

that would bring in a lot of independents.

A video store is a tool
for the whole industry,

but they didn't realize what
the video stores created

for the studios and for the market.

- [Tom] Right.

- And so it's a bittersweet relationship

that the movie studios have
had with the video stores.

Even no regrets now closing at this time.

Would I have liked to gone another year?

Yes, but you know, when it's
my time to go, it's okay,

but I'm not done yet.
(Tom laughs)

And so we'll wait and see
what happens next year

because I know I'm going to have to evolve

with the industry and part
of it will be online selling

and then, but I still love
what I do, so wait and see.

- Awesome.
- Talk to me next year.

(both laughing)

(light music)

- So I just feel like now
there's such a collector's market

and that's what it's kind of become now

is much more of a collector's market.

But you sometimes see, you know,

Scream Factory releases in Best Buy,

which is so cool to see
these kind of releases

in a big store like that.

You see them in FYE, you know,

sometimes they pop up in Walmart.

So I feel like sometimes

people are saying the format's dying,

but I really think, no.

I think that the collector's market

is really what's going to keep it going.

I think exploitation
films really are important

in the big sense that there are films

that people talk about,

films that people remember,
films that have a lot of,

sometimes can have a lot
of controversy around them.

And controversy is really
what makes a movie survive.

For example, with something
like "Cannibal Holocaust."

It's one of those movies
where so many people

are so against watching
the movie for one aspect.

They go, "Oh, there's real animals

"being tortured in that
film and being killed."

So they refuse to watch the movie

even though the movie is
really, really well done.

And films like, you know,

"Blair Witch Project" wouldn't even exist

without the inspiration for

one of the first ever
found footage movies,

which was "Cannibal Holocaust."

But so many people out there

refuse to watch "Cannibal Holocaust"

because they hear about the controversy

of the animals being killed in the film,

which really was a terrible thing.

If they were doing that movie now though,

it would all be done fake

and it would be props and everything,

but back then they
didn't have all the rules

in place too about, you know,

you can't have an animal
killed on film and all that.

I think that's one of the movies too

that really got that kind of
into play and talked about.

- You could take a movie,

like a movie called "Hanger," for example,

extreme, like, completely extreme.

But there was a point
to it that, you know,

here's a guy who, he was, he had a back,

I actually was his mother,
backstreet abortion,

and he was brought up
in, like, homeless camps,

but he became this, you know,
full grown guy that, you know,

came for a vengeance from
his dad who was a pimp

and all this kind of stuff.

So I mean, you could
completely take this apart

and look at all, you know,
how disgusting and horrifying,

but there's a story there.

So it's just in the storytelling

and knowing that for a fact,

my movie is not gonna play.

You know, Sony's not
gonna pick my movie up,

so therefore I wanna tell the
story the way I wanna tell it.

You know, you have to really
rethink that nowadays.

- There were films that
were complete disasters

in the theater, even in the grindhouses.

There was a film called "Nightmare,"

which there have been several
films called "Nightmare."

But the "Nightmare" that came out in 1982

was a film about a serial killer

told from the point of
view with a POV camera

of the serial killer, the entire film.

Well, almost like a
Hitchcockian experiment

where you are the serial killer. (laughs)

Well, it was, it was a
disaster theatrically

because it was just too mean.

It was just too, first of all,

you thought what maniac made this?

Because it's like this,

it's this guy going up
and down the East Coast

doing these gruesome killings

and making you feel dirty. (laughs)

You know, you the viewer.
- (laughs) Right, right.

- And it was,

it was before the era of
that sort of experimentation.

And so you expect some release
at the end of the film.

No, it's just like the blood
lust is the whole thing,

is the whole point.

The first DVD extra
commentary track that I did

was "I Spit on Your Grave,"

and the way that came about

is the guy at Elite Entertainment
called me up and he said,

"Look, we just bought
the rights to this movie

"I spit on the grave
that every critic hates."

We were told by the director
that you're the only critic

that ever wrote a favorable review of it.

(Tom laughs)

Would you like to do the commentary track?

And I said, sure.

And so I did the commentary
track for the film.

- [Announcer] I Spit On Your Grave.

(ominous music)

- The director is named Meir Zarchi,

and that film, which was his first film,

destroyed his career.

He could never work
anymore because of the way

it was greeted by the critical
establishment at the time,

especially Ebert and Siskel,

which said it was a dangerous
film and encouraged rape.

I mean, what worst thing can you say

(both laughing)

about a filmmaker than he
was, he was a closet rapist?

You know, and poor Meir,

he thought he was making
an anti-rape film.

He thought he was making a pro-woman film.

The first title-

- [Tom] Yeah, empowered woman revenge.

- Was "Day of the Woman."

That was his working
title, "Day of the Woman."

- [Lloyd] Are we just whining because we,

you know, don't really have what it takes?

Or do you think it is more difficult now

to get established in the
media than it was, say, 1995?

- Well, it's way more difficult
to get established in media

than it was in 1995, simply
because there's less slots.

I mean, especially in film, there's just,

there's less movies being made overall,

even when at the studios, you know,

Disney in 1995 was probably
making 25 movies a year.

Paramount was probably
making 25 movies a year.

Now those studios are making,
I think Paramount made what?

Two movies last year,
Disney made four or five.

So there's hardly any movies
being made these days.

So it's a lot different.

And then independent film, of course,

has pretty much, you know, nearly died

in terms of there actually
being a market for it.

I think that a lot of the
revenue that went into films

has gone into video games and TV.

It used to be that, you know,

you would take a risk in watching a movie

and if the risk pays off,

you get an hour and a half
or two hours of a good movie.

If it goes bad,

you get an hour and a half
or two hours of a bad movie.

But with TV, people go online
now, they can watch it,

they can pay for a single episode.

If it's bad, they lose
an hour of their life

and if it's good,

they gained maybe 30, 40 hours
of television they can watch.

So the ratio's much different
in terms of the risk reward

and also just video games

are just so much bigger
than they were back then,

and that that takes up
so much to the market.

So I just think it's much
harder for films in general.

- When the technology to
make films became so cheap.

I thought that was a wonderful thing

because now everybody can make a film.

You know, for years the problem,

the reason you couldn't become a filmmaker

is it was just too damn expensive.

For $20,000 today,

you can buy 10 cameras
that are broadcast quality

and a full set of lenses
and everything you need.

So the economics of filmmaking

became really attractive to
young, low budget filmmakers.

So you start to think that's a good thing.

Then you see year, after year, after year,

crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

It's not like resulting
in, you would think,

okay, if suddenly we have,

instead of a thousand
movies coming out a year,

we have 300,000 movies coming out a year,

you would think five of
those are gonna be great.

No, it didn't work out that way. (laughs)

It's like, we don't have that many genius

writer directors who can pick up a camera,

not go to film school and
just start shooting, you know?

Fathers and mothers of America,

(laughs) when you give a kid a camera,

make him still go to
film school, you know?

(laughs) I always say, you know,

you still gotta plan your
shots and art direct your scene

and hire people who can actually act.

- I don't blame some of
the streaming services

for not wanting certain movies.

Like if a movie has really
badly recorded sound, you know,

and there's some indie movies
where the sound is horrific

or it's shot really bad

and I can understand, like,

keeping some of them off
of there for those reasons.

But nowadays with the equipment

and the way things can be shot,

you shouldn't really have

the problems like that that you did.

- It's okay to shoot the
film in your apartment,

but it should not look
like your apartment.

(both laughing)

- Right.
- You know?

It's like, you don't have a
dirty sock over in the corner

that has no purpose in the scene.

You know, it's like,

it's like you would think, you know,

someone would've told them this

long before they actually
showed their film in public.

But that's sort of the state
of the film industry right now.

- [Tom] If you could,

if someone could wave a wand

and somehow you could
break up conglomerates,

which seems impossible,
would it actually make any,

do you think it would actually help?

I mean, you'd break up
giants into smaller giants.

- The Consent Decree of 1948
broke up the stranglehold

that a small number of devil
worshiping conglomerates

had on the theatrical distribution system.

And as a result,

American International Pictures and Troma,

and about 30 other
independent studios sprang up

because there was competition.

The major studios didn't
own all the movie theaters.

It was broken up.

There were hundreds of family
owned chains and it was great.

It was not permitted for Paramount

to own or control movie theaters.

There was also a rule
that required the networks

to license at least a
third of their content

from independent sources like us.

All the rules that prevent monopoly

and encourage competition in
the entertainment or media,

the media world, have gone away.

So, of course!

You now have AT&T owning Warner Brothers,

and then you've got Viacom who
owned Paramount or so they,

they can own us.

There's, there's no way.

And and they should be
broken up, yes. (chuckles)

Why not?

They'd worked pretty well

when the financial
syndication rule was in.

In those days, we got "All in the Family"

or we got "The Jeffersons."

We got all sorts of
independently produced top,

you know, almost revolutionary art.

- And there's no clear path.

There's no real solid outline of,

like, how to get there.

Like, "Oh, I want to be a movie director."

Well, you don't just
become a movie director.

It's a lot more complicated.

So, like, you gotta have some kind of job.

You gotta make a living,

and I make a living by
complaining about video games.

- Slap the fuck outta crocodiles,

chickens, and wolves, even bunnies.

- Send those fuckers
into the stratosphere!

- Share your fate with the female tiger.

Stack up elephants and fuckin' buffalo.

- Nothing says romance like,

"Honey, I'm bringing you
a stack of rhinoceroses."

With hardcore tiger fucking.

- You get to play video
games and drink beer

and curse and (laughs) get mad
at 'em and vent to the world.

So, it's fun.

It's a fun thing,

but I always have to be working on my

big project behind that.

So I am working on another
horror film now, early stages.

It's honestly gonna be years.

It's probably gonna be a long time,

but that's what I learned.

These things take a long time.

If you're gonna try to
make a feature film,

a feature film on your spare time.

You don't have to go to Hollywood.

You don't have to work under a system.

You could do it yourself.

And it doesn't matter if
you don't have the money

that a Hollywood film does,

like I don't think that
you should limit your story

and limit your imagination.

You should be able to make
the movie you wanna make

no matter how much money
you have, years of practice.

Like, it's not gonna be like
your first try or anything.

I was like, this was years
and years and years and years.

And then YouTube came out and
then I built up a community

based on the Angry Nerd

in all the web episodes that I do,

all the web videos and then said,

"Hey, you know, I really
wanna make this movie,"

and the fans gave me
this great idea for this.

You know, they helped nurture
this character that I created.

They supported, you know,
my passion in making film.

So it was like, hey, here it
it, here's what I want to do.

But yeah, it's like the
ambition is what matters.

It just matters that the heart is there.

(light music)

- I remember when we were
shooting the first VHS Massacre,

we're like, "Why doesn't he have a show?"

Everyone loves this guy.

Would you ever go back to doing
a show, like a TV show or?

- You know, I don't know if I would do

a MonsterVision type show again,

simply because TV has changed.

They don't, they don't make
space for that anymore.

- [Tom] Right, yeah.

- We never started at the same time.

You just sort of had to figure out

when the show was gonna start. (laughs)

Well, I don't think any
network is that loose anymore.

No one's gonna do that.

No one's gonna let me do that.

- He was in a lull as
far as his TV career.

- So I don't think that world
is coming back. (laughs)

But, you know, TV constantly evolves,

and very rarely do you see something

that worked in one decade,
come back in another decade.

(light music)

- Recently, he just
did the Shudder special

and he crashed Shudder,
and it was so cool.

- That was the best in the
"Bikini Bloodbath" trilogy.

I would admit that.

Or "Feeders 2: Slay Bells."

You know, S-L-A-Y, slay bells.

- Dude, that was amazing!

- Okay, so here we are.

We are outside the Blockbuster
Video in Bend, Oregon.

I have this VHS tape

that I'm going to return
to this Blockbuster store.

So, let's do it.

(light music)

It's been a long time coming
for this little VHS tape.

Did I tell you it's going
to get back to its home?

Here we are at the drop
box and there it went.

All right, I hope this tour has been

as entertaining for you
as it's been for me.

The last Blockbuster in the United States.

(light music)

(ambient music)

- Artists like Debbie
Rochon, Lloyd Kaufman,

and Joe Bob Briggs hold a mirror
up to the Hollywood system

in that a film is like a carnival act.

One looks for something

to sensationalize or exploit for money.

This is truly the basis
of Hollywood industry

and any film that transcends
this to become profound

is a wonderful exception
to how the system works.

Though it is not necessary
for the system to function,

and it is also rare,

this is why independent films

and exploitation films are so important.

Because true experimentation

lies at the edge of acceptability.

(ambient music)

(airy synth music)

(heavy metal music)