Dan M. Kinem

(On Cable TV, April 2019) Even though I have a sizable DVD collection, I never really collected VHS tapes: They were expensive at a time when I had no money, and their self-destructive nature made it a dumb investment compared to optical discs. Adjust Your Tracking is not for people like me: It’s a documentary about VHS collectors, who keep accumulating vast libraries of obscure films (most of them in the horror genre) in spite of the medium’s obsolescence. At its best, the documentary is good fun, touching upon the thrill of collecting and of rummaging through old and potentially unsafe shops in order to find the rare collectible. I particularly liked the spotlight on a collector who has transformed his basement into a credible recreation of a video store as a way to showcase his collection. Other highlights include a few minutes talking about The Quadead Zone, an obscure film that nonetheless established records for eBay VHS sale prices. Some of the segments are illustrated through rough comic panels. If you know the horror community (and I have attended enough several consecutive years of the World Horror Convention to qualify), you can recognize its rough humour and familiar call-outs (such as referring to “pre-sellout Craven”). The film does get much weaker when it tries to extol the innate virtues of VHS (as if computers can’t be set up to lower DVD resolution and insert scan lines); but stronger when it points out that a significant fraction of those low-budget VHS films have never been re-released in digital format. Writers-directors Dan M. Kinem and Levi Peretic do well when they delve into the collecting impulse, finding echoes of other hobbies in the pursuit. I’m really not a fan of VHS as a format, but my congratulations go to all of those interviewed in Adjust Your Tracking—and I’d be really, really curious to get an update on the various projects outlined here.