THE AWESOME ART OF VENEGAR SYNDROME
For those lucky enough to grow up in the era of the video store, especially during the VHS era of the 80s, one would be presented with aisles upon aisles of B movies, churned out to keep shelves stocked as video rental became a vastly profitable enterprise for relatively inexpensive genre movies.
More often than not (actually, far more often), the cover art was either infinitely more exciting (or dubiously misleading) than the actual content of the film inside. Many of these titles, be it action, martial arts, horror, sci-fi or exploitation, used elaborate hand painted cover art as a way of selling the title as worthy of the few dollars coughed up to rent. As the VHS era continued into the 90s and early 00s, as DVD became the dominate format, cover art became decidedly less inspired via rush-job Photoshop cover ‘art’, using scans of the actors faces, generic color schemes, a visual gag found on countless other movie covers (like the overused ‘blue and orange’ motif), was a product of studios needing to sell titles based on an attractive face or a former star slumming it in the direct to video market.
One entity that clearly reveled in that era of the 80s VHS cover is the restoration and distribution company VINEGAR SYNDROME. The company’s name was derived from the effect caused by deterioration of celluloid film reels over time that creates a distinctively strong vinegar odor as the physical elements break down. VS has restored over 500 movies from a variety of underground and cult movie genres, in a literal race against time to ensure the preservation of a type of film making in scarce supply, many amongst their catlog that haven’t been heard from or seen since their last foray on video store shelves.
Be it blood soaked teen slasher films or wandering ninjas or samurai in places like New York City, even beloved comedies like Drop Dead Fred, VS has caught the acclaim of institutions and preservation bodies such as NYC’s Museum of Modern Art and DC’s Library of Congress plus ongoing screenings, including on 35mm, at film houses like The Alamo Drafthouse. Indicative of this effort are the stunning, newly commissioned art from a variety of independent artists works that find their way to the limited edition Blu Ray releases, as well as the multitude of genre specific design applied to their DVD releases. We’ve dropped a few of our favorite examples of the limited Blu Ray releases below, but a deep dive into their vast catalog is well worth your time (and money if you want to beef up your physical movie collection). Dig in HERE.
