[SMALL BUSINESS SCREAM] Frightgasm: modern horror made retro

In an era of digital streaming, Jeff Kepler says that horror is “the genre he loves to watch the most.” 

He’s just watching it on VHS.

Kepler, 38, has made a business out of reclaiming the nostalgic feel that requires use of a VCR, selling officially licensed VHS tapes of more modern cinema on his website, Frightgasm. 

Jeff Kepler posing with two CRT tv’s and his VHS tapes he’s designed and sold so far.

“My biggest thing is I really want to get some of these movies that people just really, really love on VHS and I’d love to give it the Frightgasm treatment,” said Kepler. “That has always been my goal, is just to get good movies that people really like and do something that’s really cool in really, really good quality.”

It starts with Kepler reaching out to companies who might be interested in a VHS release of one of their films. After meetings and pitches, if he is given the green light, Kepler will be given any needed materials – including a high-resolution file of the film itself – to rework into the VHS format. 

Though he says it’s not particularly difficult, the process is rather labor intensive and took lots of trial and error for Kepler to find “the cleanest output.” He also must go painstakingly through each and every scene, sometimes making small edits and adjustments so that the film looks – and fits – right on screen.

“It’s not that it’s difficult so much; it’s that a lot of it is very, very manual so it takes a lot of time to do this. Not a lot of it is automated really. You’re doing everything by hand for the most part.”

It is largely a one-man operation, though Kepler does work with a print partner. He even designs the box art.

His first official project was Stephen Cognetti’s ‘Hell House LLC’. To this day, it’s his most successful release, selling 100 copies in under two hours and requiring a restock.

Multiple copies of Hell House LLC on VHS.

“People just really gravitated towards that tape, and they really enjoyed that movie,” said Kepler. “Especially it being ‘found footage,’ it kind of lent itself really well to the VHS format.”

His Frightgasm journey began out of a desire to share his own horror collection with others.

“I’ve been collecting mondo posters for probably seven years or now, so I have a pretty large poster collection, and I just have a lot of kind of nerdy horror stuff in my apartment,” said Kepler. “Back in the day, I just kept always throwing it up on my [Instagram] story every time I got something new.”

“I was like, you know, I kind of want an account just to take some cool photos of this stuff because I’ve collected it over the years and putting it up on a story seems kind of lame.”

The page ultimately exposed him to the world of VHS production.

Kepler says that he didn’t know that VHS was “still a thing people could make.” However, upon that discovery, he realized that it scratched another need.

“I’m a full-time senior designer, and so I was like, ‘How can I combine my love of nostalgia things and horror and design,’ and that’s how creating VHS came to be.”

Kepler says that he feels many people enjoy VHS because of the nostalgia factor.

“Some people enjoy seeing the movie with the scan lines, the noise that comes up, and all the imperfections,” said Kepler. “That’s stuff that comes through when people watch it, because you’re basically watching something in standard definition.”

“It’s a nice little nostalgic factor from all the 4K that we get to see, which is still awesome to see, but this is something a little bit different that brings us back.”

Frightgasm currently offers American Mary, The Last Matinee, and Hell House LLC. Kepler is currently working on The Taking of Deborah Logan for an upcoming release. He also hinted that shirts and posters may also become available.

For more information or to purchase, visit Frightgasm.com. Kepler can be found on Instagram at @frightgasm.