A New Sci-Fi Movie Is Releasing Only on VHS, the First in 20 Years

If you still have a working VCR in a closet somewhere, this might be a good week to dig it out. A new movie called This Is How The World Ends comes out on VHS on June 7, and tape is the only way to watch it. No streaming, no Blu-ray, no DVD, no theaters.

It comes from South African director Robert dos Santos, who is putting it out under his And Films banner. He is calling it the first straight-to-VHS release in about 20 years, which roughly lines up with the last VCR coming off the line back in 2016. The timing is on purpose too. June 7 is International VHS Day.

The story suits the format. A war has broken out between humans and AI, the government keeps saying everything is under control, and underground broadcasts keep saying otherwise. Convinced the end is coming, a young woman named Danni Freeman runs off to what the film calls the last party on earth, somewhere deep in the desert. Her brother Tom goes after her to bring her home. Josh Kempen plays Tom, Frances Sholto-Douglas plays Danni, and a good chunk of the footage was shot at AfrikaBurn, which is basically South Africa's version of Burning Man.

That AI war in the plot is the actual reason for the VHS release. dos Santos has been clear that putting the film on tape is his response to AI-generated content and the general direction the film industry is heading. The tagline on the official site is "made by humans, for humans," and Variety ran a story calling the whole thing a middle finger to AI. The thinking is simple enough: a tape is a physical object you buy and keep, with no subscription, no account, and nothing for a recommendation engine to bury.

For anyone old enough to remember, "straight-to-VHS" used to be an insult. It meant a movie was too cheap or too bad to earn a real release. dos Santos is treating tape as a deliberate choice instead, which is a fun way to flip the old meaning around.

He is not completely on his own here. Fan-run labels like Witter Entertainment and Lunchmeat have been pressing newer films onto VHS for collectors for years now, including titles like Terrifier 2 and 3, Alien Romulus, and Mandy. The difference is that those came out the normal way first and got a tape edition later. This Is How The World Ends is going to tape first, with nothing else lined up behind it for now.

If you want a copy, there are three editions running somewhere between 18 and 31 dollars. The Survival Edition has already sold out, but the Collector and Filmmaker editions were still open for preorder at last check, with a shop called VHS Haven handling distribution in the States. Tapes ship on release day.

One last odd detail: the crew reportedly took meetings at Cannes with Neon and AMC. So the movie that skipped theaters to go straight to VHS could still end up in theaters down the road. We will see how that goes.

Either way, it is exactly the kind of thing we like seeing around here. Physical media is not done yet.