Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector

The choice to film it in VHS style may put off some, but if you want to see a bunch of weirdos and hoarders talking about how much they love VHS movies, this is for you! At the least, it'll make you more confident in your own life choices.

A wicked documentary showing the sub culture of finding and collecting VHS even though it gets harder and harder to track them down. Mostly horror VHS is sought with people paying ridiculous amounts for certain titles ($660.00 for Tales Of The Quadead Zone). They look at several collectors collections and interview them. I'm an avid collector myself with almost 7000 dvds so I enjoyed it. I don't care myself what format I get as long as I get to watch it.

It is cool however that people like Massacre Video now release on DVD all those rare VHS only titles like Tales From The Quadead Zone and Spine. Very informative flick. Of course I watched this on DVD.

No one before has dared to make a whole documentary on a video format many thought was dead for many years. For others, including myself, it has been thriving since it first came out. Dan Kinem does an amazing job interviewing several actors, directors, and collectors on their experiences with VHS and why they love it so much. Special guests include Lloyd Kaufman from Troma as well as Freg Vogel of Toe Tag Pictures as well as several other awesome people I am sure you will recognize. If your someone who likes going to Best Buy to purchase the newest hot DVD , then Adjust Your Tracking is absolutely not for you. There is no glamour, just loving independent fans and people who really have a strong love for VHS . Only the most hardcore fans and lovers of VHS dare to watch this film! You will absolutely love it! I highly recommend checking out Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector!

Recent years the interest in collecting VHS tapes seems to have increased. I don't do that myself but I've watched couple of collectors' web shows because I enjoy the nostalgic 80's feel of the cover artworks and of course like to hear recommendations and opinions on crazy cult movies.

Adjust Your Tracking brings you a whole bunch of people involved in this retro hobby. There's talk about where did their collecting start, general memories from the past, what are the most expensive tapes they have bought, and all kind of other interesting talk. They bring back a whole different time. I don't remember it like that because I was born just a bit too late, so it's interesting to hear how the video craze was in the early 80's. I feel like I've missed something cool because it wasn't until 90's that I could rent videos myself.

It's a very good documentary. Anybody interested in the 80's pop culture should see it.

Even as an executive producer (well, one of 200!) I can look at this from a distance, somewhat. It's entertaining, sometimes very funny, but also a bit unfocused. I wish it had a little more about the change from VHS to DVD and how now DVD is becoming "dead" due to VOD. But the collections are fun to look at, the Quadead Zone story is epic, and you can tell they all either love what they are collecting, or are, at worst, the kind of people you might WANT to watch on Hoarders.

The highlight though for me is the gentleman who has such a collection in his basement that it has become a video store, complete with a crappy old computer, magazine from twenty years ago to tell you what is good or not, and sections delineating this or that film (surprise, he doesn't like drama). On a personal level it bugged me just slightly that the film doesn't have any other video collectors except the horror-hounds (or maybe some collect porn, though I'm sure they hide that - or maybe not, I dunno, I'd need to look through the film again with a fine-tape comb). Are there other collectors out there than JUST horror? Or maybe horror and sci-fi and genre stuff is just where the fun collections are at. Why just have stuff like Ingmar Bergman films when you can have basically home movies that have cool covers? Some of these folks love movies that are featured I'm sure. Others? A stamp collection might be the same thing.

But I say these criticisms with affection. I too am a collector, not to THIS extent that we see with these subjects - one of whom, I must admit, is to the point of possible madness as to pay over 1,000 for a single tape. I will want to watch this again though to soak up some of the titles and the anecdotes. I'd be curious to see what folks who aren't in the "Know" think of all of this; the screening I saw the film was loaded with fellow VHS collector-geeks, some of whom wanted to trade and buy tapes right there. A collector never sleeps, really. Whether someone will actually WATCH Tales from the Quadead zone after they plunk down a month's rent, I am sure I still don't know. As a look at a handful of people holding on to and praising a supposedly "dead" format, it's charming, mostly harmless, featuring crude animations and the "look" of VHS which is appreciated, and has some bite. If it had a little more about the format itself, not just about the collectors, then it would be truly great.