'Be damned to online streaming!': The film collectors keeping physical formats alive

Dean has over 12,000 DVDS, Blu-Rays, Laserdiscs and VHS. 

At the height of his collection, the 59-year-old office administrator had to rent a small storage unit to accommodate over 100 crates of DVDs. 

“I have a spreadsheet, which I add new titles to when I purchase them. It helps me locate them -  a bit anal, but necessary,” he tells Euronews Culture. 

Now they’re mostly squeezed into his attic, alongside a large screen TV and sofa. “I had hoped to have a projector, but the shape of the roof prevented it,” he laments. 

For Dean, it’s an addiction that began in the late 1970s with Super 8 films, exploded with the advent of affordable VHS, and gradually evolved into the most up-to-date (and thankfully more slimline) formats of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. 

“It's a personal film library that I can dip into when I wish to see a certain film, which may not be available on a streaming service,” he says.  

“You can share it with friends and family. You can curate your own film evenings. The extra features and commentaries on discs are also not available on streaming services, and for a film buff, these are often as good, if not better, than the film itself.”

While some might gawp at the size of Dean’s collection, a growing number of people are following suit by opting to buy physical media over subscribing to the ever-expanding number of streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and more. 

Back in July, the British retail company HMV shared that more people were buying DVD’s and Blu-Rays, with its managing director Phil Halliday citing a 5 per cent increase in its "visual category" for the first half of 2024.

In statements to the BBC, Halliday said: "People are willing to pay for a physical copy of shows or films they know they will rewatch,” adding: “When streaming first came out I think a lot of people saw it as cheap and with huge breadth of choice, but I'm not sure people see it like that now.” 

Indeed, people have become increasingly frustrated with films vanishing from streaming services or TV shows suddenly being cancelled, examples including Netflix's sci-fi mystery '1899' and Max (formerly HBO Max) axing 'Westworld' after four seasons in 2022.

Pair this with rising subscription costs and an overwhelm of content that often requires wading through to find the good stuff. For cinephiles especially, there's a desire to not only have the security of their favourite films always to hand, but also the extra features and high-quality picture that only physical media can provide.

More than anything, nostalgia is what keeps many of us going back to physical media. In a digital age that can only ever scratch at the surface of experience, physical formats give us a feeling: the grainy fizzle of an old VHS or repetitive theme of a DVD menu taking us back to a particular mood and time in which things might not have been better, but seemed, somehow, simpler.

While industry-wide figures may paint a less positive picture for physical formats, with Era, a digital entertainment and retail association, reporting A 4.7 per cent decline in UK DVD and Blu-ray sales as of 2024, there's still, evidently, a strong drive among many dedicated film fans to keep the older mediums alive.

These avid UK-based collectors prove it - and might even inspire you to catch the collecting bug too (if you've got the space).

Selene Paxton-Brooks, 58, primary teacher: "We have multiple copies of Harold and Maude "

I think my love of film came from my grandmother who had loved going to the cinema in the 1930s, and ‘if I had been good’ we would stay up and watch horror films on the TV.

As soon as I started work at 20, I bought myself a VHS video recorder and began taping films from the TV. I would buy the Radio and TV Times and mark all the things that I wanted to record. This was the start of collecting VHS tapes – buying films on video was very expensive in the 1980s, so I collected and catalogued my recordings. I would also go to film shops in London and buy posters and stills of the films I loved.

By 1988 I had found ‘The Gothique Film Society’ in Holborn, London. This was a group of likeminded people who gathered once a month to watch old films. I initially went along on my own, but as time went on, I met and started talking to other film fans and was able to swap videos and posters with others for my collection. There were only one or two women at the time, women were rarely part of the film scene in London.

Over time, I have collected a huge variety of film and TV memorabilia, and in 2019 I moved in with my partner (also an avid collector). We now have a whole house filled with our collections, which includes over 3,000 DVDs. We have multiple copies of Harold and Maude as I can’t leave it on the shelves.

We also have a huge collection of film tie-in paperbacks, TV and film annuals, and my partner makes models of film characters that we love. They are all over the house and I love coming home to new additions to the collection.

Simon J. Ballard, 45, writer: “In the horrors of hell, this is my heaven - and be damned to online streaming!”

Nostalgia is one reason I have not thrown away my VHS’s, presenting as they do a link with my past. Aesthetic pleasure is another, for those sometimes crude - literally cut and pasted covers, are an art form that now has a kind of punky underground feel to it. 

Sometimes the VHS covers were painted and often bore no relation to the contents, which, again, is half the fun of picking them up off the shelves and admiring them.

I still collect VHS, mainly concerned with Hammer films, which will always be my main passion. I recently bought three 1985 big black-boxed US releases of The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula and The Mummy. I can’t play them, but that’s not the point. Just to own something that links with the past is fascinating.

And reading the back cover blurb can be a joy in itself, such as this gem from the back of Horror of Dracula: “…bring in the cat, lock the door and keep a silver stake handy, because the Horror of Dracula is now unleashed!” Isn’t that just gorgeous? 

I spend a lot of time in my bedroom writing horror stories and magazine articles (there are worse habits), and every now and then, I pause and glance at my shelves, at the spines of videos and other physical media. It is inspiring to see those lurid greens and reds, with half glimpses of skulls and gibbets on the spines - and more fonts than those of every church in the world combined. 

In the horrors of hell, this is my heaven - and be damned to online streaming!

Merlyn Roberts, 51, teacher and film-maker: "My film collecting has really been film living and breathing"

I probably have around 5,000 films at my fingertips. 

I am a particular fan of European fantasy and horror from the 60s and 70s, and this is mainly what I collect today, often buying the same film multiple times as each new release promises to be the ‘ultimate edition’. 

Collecting films allows me to watch them whenever I want, and through the extras, learn more about how they were made. Also, the tangible pleasure of having a work of art in your hands is something any collector of films or vinyl records can connect with. 

My film collecting has really been film living and breathing for a large part of my life that's led to me making my own films and now, for the best part of a decade, running a private film club showing obscure world horror films in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

With the hard work of labels such 88 films (UK), Indicator (UK), Treasured Films, (UK), Severin (USA), Vinegar Syndrome (USA), Cauldron (USA) and my favourite label Mondo Macabro (USA), the depth and quality of releases continues to grow at a very healthy rate, and although the majority of film watching across the globe will undoubtedly continue to be via streaming, I am certain that the collecting of films as physical media will continue for many years to come. My 19-month-old daughter is proof of this as she now demands a film to be screened on the projector screen rather than laptop. 

Allan Bryce, 71, writer: “ I started collecting 8mm cut-downs of horror movies as a teenager”

I started collecting 8mm cut-downs of horror movies as a teenager. I used to love their garish covers, many of which looked like they had been drawn by 10-year-old kids who should have had their crayons confiscated. 

When home video came along, I immediately bought a VHS player and started paying through the nose for Video Nasties, many of which were only available under the counter. The DPP’s (The Director of Public Prosecutions) list of banned films became a valued shopping list for all we horror fans in the 80s. 

Moving with the times, I collected laserdiscs next, paying £80 (€94) for a beautiful print of Suspiria. But DVD was just around the corner and that laserdisc player was soon consigned to the attic. 

Nowadays of course, even DVD is old hat, what with 4K Blu-rays and the like. I’m glad I held onto most of my DVD collection though. There have been many occasions where I’ve fancied watching an old favourite and find that it’s not available on any streaming service. That’s when all collectors of physical media can rightly feel smug. 

Oh, and another great thing about discs is they are often packed with juicy extras, which you certainly don’t get when you stream a movie. I’ve actually done quite a few commentaries for favourite films, which I enjoy. But if I try talking all the way through the same film when I watch it on Netflix, I get told to leave the room.