Programming Trends

For this entry, I decided to look at Amazon instant video. Arguably the least popular among the big three of streaming services (the other two being Netflix and Hulu). Though it may be the least popular, it has a variety of content that Netflix or Hulu can’t touch, and though they may have an edge over Amazon when it comes to their slew of new or original movies and television; there is something that Amazon has that the two do not, and that is a plentiful supply of cult films.


Now, Cult films can be defined as any film that was considered a flop or a failure, but gained a cult following later due to the advent of home video, or syndication on television. So, the term doesn’t necessarily limit itself to the genres I’m going to mention, I’m just talking about cult films in the genres I like that are on Amazon Video. Some may argue that the streaming service FilmStruck has the greater quantity of cult films, and at a higher quality. Though that maybe true, I currently am not subscribed to FilmStruck, due to not having a convenient way of streaming it to my television.

 Anyway, why does Amazon have such an abundance of cult films available for streaming? There are two reasons that I believe I can give. The first is probably the simplest. Many of these films, and the American dubs of the foreign cult films, are in the public domain. So, you can probably catch a lot of them on YouTube as well. The second reason being because audiences like to do what is called, “riffing,” while watching low budget cult films. “Riffing,” is basically watching a bad or cheesy movie with friends and making fun of the movie. This was popularized by Joel Hodgson and his television show, “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” which ran on television in the 1990’s and has been brought back by Netflix (you can watch the trailer for the new MST3K here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ct0Z2bQndM and you can watch episodes from the original run here, for free: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYy4ZargUluf-iyr4vFpe-xaJ46GEDpBI )


What makes Amazon better than watching some of these movies on YouTube or via. Mystery Science Theater 3000, Amazon offers MOST of these movies in high-definition, as opposed to the standard definition rips on YouTube. This is most noticeable in the Saw Brothers kung-Fu movies of the 1970’s and 1980’s (example of definition quality, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2xkzWiWW98 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxfXdb6Kxc). Not all the movies are high definition on Amazon though, this is evident in the spaghetti western movie, “Death Rides a Horse,” the image quality is horrendous, I tried to screenshot it from my phone, but it wouldn’t let me, but a pretty close reference can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6It5ouqR40U. To be fair, many of these movies’ original negatives are probably damaged beyond fix, so this is probably as good as we’re going to get. 

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