12 Movies Only On VHS That Are Still Worth Watching

When we talk about lost films, most people immediately think of silent movies, cinema on nitrate that either went up in flames or was in the hands of studios who didn't see the value in preserving it. Although we've come a long way in terms of film preservation since then, there are still plenty of films from the second half of the 20th century that may not be technically "lost," but are nearly impossible to track down and actually watch. They may have been put out on comparatively low-quality VHS back in the day, but not a peep since then — these films never got a DVD or Blu-ray release, and aren't available on any of the streaming services. 

If you're lucky, you might be able to find a grainy, unsanctioned VHS transfer on an unauthorized YouTube account, but even then, there's a lack of permanency, since they could be taken down for copyright infringement anytime. The saddest thing about all of this is that most of these movies aren't just amateur productions: Many feature notable actors and some were even released by major production studios in their day. Here are just a few of the forgotten films that are still worth watching — if you can get your hands on them, that is.

You might think there is not a single frame of archival footage of The Beatles that isn't available to the public — but you would be wrong. In 1970, Michael Lindsay-Hogg created the documentary "Let It Be," which detailed the production of the album of the same name and included an extended sequence of The Beatles' famous rooftop concert. The film's initial release accompanied the earthshaking news that The Beatles were breaking up, and it does feature — amongst other things — shades of tension that foreshadowed the iconic band's eventual dissolution.

After the 1980s, when it was released on VHS and Laserdisc, "Let It Be" largely faded into obscurity. There were efforts to resurrect it with a new DVD or Blu-ray release over the years, but these plans never seemed to pan out, and to this day, the original film is only available (officially, of course, with numerous bootlegs abound) on VHS. Lindsay-Hogg's work was given new life by Peter Jackson, however, who incorporated much of his original unused footage from the documentary for his sprawling, if flawed, 2021 series "The Beatles: Get Back."

In the 1950s, teenagers stepped out onto the scene as their own demographic, with money to spend and an identity of their own for the first time. As a result, American cinema got plenty of teen horror films that were designed to market to their specific target audiences, many of which famously followed the "I Was a Teenage ..." naming convention. "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" was arguably the first of these, starring Michael Landon (who many may recognize from "Little House on the Prairie") as Tony Rivers, a high-school hooligan who has a slight problem with lycanthropy, as the title suggests.

Although it was a massive box-office success for its distribution company, American International Pictures, the glut of other teen films released in its wake diluted its pop cultural impact. There are unsanctioned DVD transfers of "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" floating around out there, but these are largely VHS quality, and the film has yet to receive an official release, let alone one that has been restored.

Alright, so this is less of a traditional theatrical release as it is an experiment in visual arts, but it's still wild that it's not more widely accessible. "The Amazing Mr. Bickford" is a collaboration between musician Frank Zappa and claymation artist Bruce Bickford, combining songs composed by the former with the trippy animated creations of the latter. It was given a VHS release in 1989 (just a few years before Zappa's death), but nothing has come out since, despite its popularity among Zappa enthusiasts. 

The good news? Both the Internet Archive and shady sources on YouTube have the avant-garde animated film available online (clocking in at just 52 minutes), so you don't have to bust out your VCR just yet. With post-modern imagery and a fantastic soundtrack, "The Amazing Mr. Bickford" is a feast for both the eyes and the ears — it's worth spending an hour on even if it's not quite your thing.

Two aliens descend upon planet Earth. One is a good guy, one is a bad guy, but the people of Earth have no idea which is which. This is the basic premise of the 1990 sci-fi film "Peacemaker" (not to be confused with the 1997 film starring George Clooney or the DC Comics TV series starring John Cena), and as humans get pulled into their cat-and-mouse game, things only get more complicated. Although it fits squarely into the science fiction genre, it almost has a Western feel to its narrative, revolving around a lawman and an outlaw at odds with one another.

"Peacemaker" is a fun movie, and for the most part, it matches the quality level of other '90s sci-fi adventures that are much better remembered. Alas, "Peacemaker" was relegated to the dustbin of history, only receiving a VHS release back in the 1990s. Frankly, it deserves better. Still, would-be viewers can easily track down this film to watch — albeit not with the clean, pristine images of a DVD or Blu-ray restoration.

Remember how weird the romantic arc in "Big" was, with a grown woman falling in love with a 13-year-old boy in a grown man's body? Well, "14 Going on 30" offers similar vibes, only the romance takes on center stage and is presented as though it isn't creepy. Danny (Gabriel Olds and Steven Eckholdt) is a 14-year-old boy with such a massive crush on his beautiful teacher Miss Noble (Daphne Ashbrook) that he uses his nerdy best friend's aging machine to become older. As a 30-year-old man, he thinks, he will have a much better chance of wooing her. And as the film unfolds, he does just that. That's ... romantic, right?

"14 Going on 30" originally aired as a television movie on ABC, before being released on the VHS market by Walt Disney Home Video. From there, it has faded into obscurity, overshadowed by "Big," which featured some wild Tom Hanks improv, and the silly but charming "13 Going on 30," and it was never granted a DVD release. But "14 Going on 30" is responsible for one of the genre's biggest Mandela effects. Some people swear that they remember "Big" ending with Susan (Elizabeth Perkins) reverting to her 12-year-old self to be with Josh, but they may actually be thinking of the ending of this film. 

"Phantom of the Ritz," as you might gather from the title, is a play on the classic "Phantom of the Opera," which also inspired the ending of Tim Burton's "Batman." Only instead of a 19th-century Parisian opera house, our misunderstood loner is squatting in the bowels of an abandoned movie theater after suffering severe burns in a drag race in the 1950s. For the most part, he's perfectly satisfied with his unconventional digs. That is, until someone buys the theater, intent on turning it into a 1950s-themed music venue and inadvertently disrupting the life of its unknown inhabitant. So he, you know, goes on a little bit of a killing spree.

Good luck watching this forgotten beauty, though. After coming out on VHS, it essentially disappeared. And unlike many of the other films on this list, there's not even a garbage print of it available from an illegitimate source on YouTube. To watch "Phantom of the Ritz," you might actually have to track down the VHS or Laserdisc print of the film.