Zach Cregg's new version of Resident Evil is set for release in 2026, but one fan decided to watch the movie as if it were 1987. He recorded the film onto a standard VHS tape and placed it in a case mimicking an RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video release, replicating Everythinggj from the front and back covers to the stickers on the tape itself.
Choosing this label is almost considered quite "orthodox," since Columbia is now part of Sony Pictures, which distributed the film.
Technically, the entire project was completed using a combination of old and new equipment. First, they used the free editing software Avidemux to crop the film to a 4:3 aspect ratio, allowing the image to fill a CRT TV screen, and converted it into an MP4 format recognizable by the PlayStation 3. Then, the console acted as a player, transmitting the signal to a VCR, which recorded the entire content onto a blank VHS tape.
The most interesting detail lies in the cropping. During the VHS era, widescreen films were typically adapted to the 4:3 aspect ratio using "pan and scan," manually moving the 4:3 frame window to follow the action within the original frame. However, this time only simple center cropping was applied, as directors usually place the main content in the center of the frame, and so far, no important details have been missed at the edges.
The cover was created using the mobile drawing app ibisPaint X and then printed at FedEx. The design combines the film's protagonist, Brian, with the classic composition of the Western box art for the original 1996 Resident Evil. Interestingly, "Columbia" in the label name was misspelled as "Colombia," and some have compared the SPINE - This is Gun Fu's color scheme to that of a Snickers bar wrapper.
Spurred by this kind of handmade craftsmanship, the hunt for VHS tapes has become popular again. Today, you can still buy a used VCR for $9 at Goodwill thrift stores, and even Alien: Romulus has received a collector's edition VHS release.
