It’s time to dust off your VCR and clean the heads, because Alien: Romulus is coming to VHS as a limited edition on December 3rd alongside the other physical releases, director Fede Alvarez announced during “a special Beyond Fest-partnered screening” in Los Angeles yesterday.
The “fully functioning VHS tape” is meant to celebrate 45 years since the Alien franchise first (chest) burst into theaters, 20th Century Studios wrote in a release emailed to The Verge. It’ll present the movie, appropriately, in a 4:3 aspect ratio (hopefully without pan-and-scan). It also comes in a slick, vintage-style sleeve.
I like the collectability factor, but on the other hand, it is more plastic for the environment.
But it’s carbon capture and storage as it will live on your shelf for your lifetime and then, hopefully, raise a pretty penny on eBay so it can sit on someone else’s shelf.
I’m surprised the machines that create VHS tapes are still operational.
Magnets
Because you can just wave a magnet over a piece of plastic and get a movie like it’s Minecraft. No encoding necessary.
Magnets, how do they work
I read a while back about the efforts people go to in order to keep the vinyl pressing machines going. I imagine they are cannibalising old equipment to help the last few limp along.
I’m sick of this magnetic tape revival! It’s happening in music, too. People releasing cassettes again. It was good for its time, yes, but it’s a shitty, failure prone medium.
Cool, but I’ll stick with UHD Blu-ray.
But where do I get it?
They haven’t released any details on things like price and availability. We’ll be keeping an eye out for it though and will post when we know.
