Indie Anthologies are where it’s at! The Video Maniacs rental store has everything you need, from candy to soda and a killer selection of horror movies. But even horror fanatics can get caught in a night of terror.
Renting tapes from the local video store becomes a movie night from hell. An anthology film from Horror Business Productions.
Video Maniacs
No-budget horror never ceases to amaze me, and Michael Atkinson’s Video Maniacs fits right in with my small cache of favorites. An anthology of VHS tapes with a wrap-around about a couple visiting a video store for said tapes is the vibe here: no pristine video quality, no ultra-animated effects, no star-bound actors to be had here. And that is fantastic news for us because that means we get the true essence of that 80s Video Nasty lifestyle here in the modern year of 2025. Horror fans rejoice!
Take, for example, the backrooms-style segment “Surfacing.” In grainy VHS, a man sits in front of a camera mirroring his own movements, until he is brought into a labyrinth-like room and ends up killing himself. “Fuel” gives us a masked demon taking over someone’s soul, leaking black slime into a fiery pit of despair. There’s even a XXX parody that had me heehawing at a particular joke — if you know, you know. All of Video Maniacs‘ segments featured regular Joe Schmoes, store-bought masks, and truly gave off the “made with a camcorder” vibe. I would never picture this in theaters, but I could absolutely see this in a family-owned rental store.
And if that wasn’t enough, starting each video is a preview of another homemade movie. I absolutely love when horror does this because the previews are sometimes even more awesome than the movies themselves. They’re silly and outrageous. “The Knight Knifer” and “Clown Dad” were two of my favorites.
Video Maniacs is a movie for horror fans by horror fans. It takes all of that nostalgic video rental experience and makes a killer anthology that will (at worst) make you laugh and (at best) make you unnerved. Of course, if you’re looking for a polished blockbuster, this won’t do it for you. But if you’re like me and like to see what greatness can be done on essentially zero dollars, this is perfect.
Buy the Video Maniacs on Etsy! See Michael Atkinson’s other films on Letterboxd, and give him a follow on Instagram!
