VHS Box Theater

This production line was literally born in a day.  I was watching an episode on the excellent Red Letter Media YouTube channel and got to thinking about old VHS videotapes...or more precisely, the boxes those videotapes came in.

You see, if you lived during the age of VHS, when Blockbuster was king, you probably had the experience I had.  You come across a video with a wickedly cool piece of box art on it, promising a mind-blowing cinematic experience.  You turn the box over and read the back cover, which is bombastic and loud and promises you that this film is the shit.  So you rent it out, take it home, put it in the VCR and...the film is just lousy and in some cases nothing like what the box promised us.  What if, I asked my fellow players, we did audio plays inspired not by the movies themselves but the VHS boxes those movies came in?

I posted a couple of examples, including one for something called Death Code: Ninja.  Within an hour, David Ellis came up with an outline and I told him to go to town.  And a new line of audio productions were born.

VHS Box Theater will be done-in-one productions.  Two will be released each quarter, beginning with Death Code: Ninja in January and Beauties and The Beast on Valentine’s Day 2021.  These productions will all be inspired in some way by a particular VHS Box, and will be available in two form--a shorter version that will be available for free at the Two True Freaks Network, and a ‘Director’s Cut,’ featuring extended and extra scenes and special featurettes on the production and the film that inspired it--well, whose box inspired it.  The ‘Director’s Cut’ will be available for a small fee.

(Actually, there is one being planned that won't be done-in-one...but you'll know all about Doom Asylum as we get deeper into 2021!)

We welcome fans to suggest particular VHS box artwork they’d like to see brought to life; just send us your ideas to ocadecagonagontheater@gmail.com.

 

 (Just leaving this one here...I love hints!)