DEAD FORMAT Teaser Unleashes a Cursed VHS Nightmare With Killer Retro Horror Vibes
Remember wandering through a video store, scanning rows of VHS boxes and hoping to find some weird horror movie you’d never heard of? Dead Format wants to take you right back there, except this particular trip to the video store comes with a cursed tape and a potentially nasty price for all that nostalgia.
Reel Splatter Productions has released the first teaser trailer for the indie horror film, offering an early look at a practical FX-driven throwback built around VHS culture and the dying days of the neighborhood video store. The movie is currently finishing post-production and is expected to arrive sometime in 2027.
The story follows Kevin, played by Mark Worth, a collector struggling with the death of his father while desperately holding onto the past. During the final days of the video store era, Kevin discovers a mysterious tape at his local shop, Video Castle, and learns that nostalgia isn’t always as comforting as we remember it.
There’s something fun about seeing a horror movie embrace the old video store experience, especially one that appears interested in more than simply putting VHS tracking lines over everything and calling it retro.
Video Castle looks like the kind of place I could spend hours digging through shelves, and throwing a mysterious VHS tape into that environment makes for a cool concept.
The movie comes from Mike Lombardo, an indie horror filmmaker and FX artist who previously directed I'm Dreaming of a White Doomsday in 2017 along with several horror shorts. Dead Format marks his second feature film. Lombardo also founded and runs Reel Splatter Productions, which is bringing plenty of practical effects and old-school horror flavor to the project.
Lombardo and Nathan Ludwig wrote the screenplay from a story by Lombardo. Pat W. Dougherty, Brian Keene, Samantha Kolesnik, Lombardo, and Ludwig serve as producers.
Joining Worth in the cast are Joey Cook, Austin Greene, Fia Thomson, Mia Grichendler, Henry Sirota, Chet Williamson, and Matt Lake.
It’s also worth pointing out that this Dead Format isn’t connected to the video game of the same name. Both projects happen to involve VHS tapes, but Reel Splatter’s production is a feature-length indie horror movie.
Dead Format hasn’t premiered at a film festival or screened publicly yet, with post-production still underway ahead of its planned 2027 debut. For horror fans who miss video stores, practical gore, strange tapes, and the days when picking a movie meant judging some wild VHS cover from across the aisle, this one looks worth keeping on the radar.
