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Tobe Hooper's 1985 sci-fi vampire film "Lifeforce" is one of the stranger genre exercises of its era. It was produced by the Cannon Group, an exploitation movie house founded in Israel by B-movie luminaries Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, so it comes with a schlocky imprimatur right out of the gate. "Lifeforce" also has plenty of traditionally schlocky elements, including space vampires, amazing monster effects (it has one of the best practical living corpses in film history), and extensive nudity. The first detail many may remember from "Lifeforce" is the vision of actor Mathilda May wandering around a space laboratory without a stitch of clothing.

The rules of the space vampires in "Lifeforce" aren't entirely clear, as Texan director Hooper was more interested in a sense of dread than plot clarity. It seems that the space vampires can not only shape-shift, but also subsist by "drinking" lightning-light energy out of the faces of their victims.

Nukie is a terrible sci-fi film unapologetically copying E.T., making it universally disliked on nearly every level. Red Letter Media sold a Nukie VHS for $80,600 after destroying all but one copy to benefit charities, sparking controversy. Nukie's production was a disaster with reshoots, bad effects, and disappearing crew, deemed one of the worst films ever made.

Nukie is a South African science-fiction film that is so bad, that a charity based around its destruction has garnered more interest and controversy than the film itself. In 1987, a group of South African and German filmmakers released Nukie, a movie that concerns the titular alien who crash-lands in South Africa and acquires the help of two young children to save his brother Miko, who has been captured by US government agents. If that sounds familiar, here's a hint: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came out to worldwide acclaim five years earlier, in...

The enduring “Rocky” fandom sure packs an expensive punch.

The rise of VHS auctions has included a whopping sale of $53,750 for the “Rocky” trilogy starring Sylvester Stallone. A February sale from Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas marked a return for videotapes. As Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary relive their video-store days with a VHS-centric podcast, and video production company and YouTube channel Red Letter Media raised over $80,000 for charity by selling a sealed “Nukie” tape, consumers are flocking to collectibles. And especially as content keeps getting yanked off streaming services.

“A man told us he found a sealed first release of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ at Goodwill,” Heritage specialist Jay Carlson, a collector who uses an Instagram account titled Rare and Sealed, told The New York Times. “He paid a quarter. That will probably go for $20,000.”

Carlson’s first auction in June 2022 profited more than half a million dollars.

Sias Odendaal and Michael Pakleppa's 1987 film "Nukie" is only remarkable for how undeniably terrible it is. Very clearly riding on the coattails of Steven Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Nukie" follows the adventures of the titular space alien as it crash lands in the African savannah and befriends two young brothers named Tiko and Toki (Siphiwe Mlangeni and Sipho Mlangeni). Much of the film is devoted to reuniting Nukie with his alien compatriot Miko (both played by Anthony Morrison) who crash-landed in the United States, and who is being held in a high-security military facility. The two aliens can communicate telepathically, and they repeatedly scream each other's names, perhaps inspiring rowdier audience members to join in.

"Nukie" has appeared on lists of the worst movies ever made, and is a largely miserable experience. Steve Railsback from "The Stunt Man" and "Lifeforce" appears, as does Glynnis Johns from "Mary Poppins.

The YouTube channel Red Letter Media proved how much nostalgic cult classic VHS tapes are worth.

Rlm, comprised of Mike Stoklasa, Jay Bauman, and Rich Evans, set out to capitalize on their massive fan-sent “Nukie” VHS collection to benefit charity. With 1.46 million subscribers, a Patreon page, and frequent celebrity guests like Jack Quaid, Macaulay Culkin, and Patton Oswalt, the Rlm film review founders opted to use their platform for philanthropy. After almost a decade of collecting VHS copies, the trio of hosts finally watched the 1987 South African sci-fi movie “Nukie” — the infamously bad “E.T.” knockoff about an alien who sets out to rescue his brother from evil researchers — and sold their best copy for upwards of 80,000 on eBay.

Host Stoklasa explained that the idea came from a recent sealed VHS copy of “Back to the Future” selling for 75,000 at auction, and the YouTubers were curious about what “Nukie” would garner.