Punk Vacation: An Unofficial Vinegar Syndrome Podcast

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

With episode 56, we're catching up on a bevy of titles from VS from mainline to sublabels (spoiler alert: there were A LOT of bangers) including some favorite discoveries of this year. After that, we're back with a much overdue 15 Minutes with You! Celest and Eli are joined by Chris to help talk about the stacked Melusine releases from May and June!

Since November has a split release scheule due to the B...

October and November have consistently been some of the best months for Vinegar Syndrome across mainilne and sublabels, and 2026 is no exception. We are joined by the very hard working and passionate Dino Proserpio to review all of the October announcements. Dino's encyclopedic knowldge of Italian and German cinema is on display as he breaks down some of what he has been working on and gives a stirring history of Krimi films that would make Edgar Wallace proud. 

After Dino we quickly transition to filmmaker, VS employee, and Punk Vacation regular Kurtis Spieler to discuss his latest film: N...

One of this month's releases includes a commentary by a regular contributor to VinSyn's disc releases, so we're thrilled to welcome Erica Shultz, co-host of the Unsung Horrors podcast and author of The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film! We chat with Erica about the work that goes into recording audio commentaries, video essays, and booklet essays for releases. We also highlight one of our favorite annual fundraising events set up by Erica through her podcast, Horror Gives Back! This year's contributions go to Best Friends Animal Society. This is a great way to support an...

September is here with an absolutely wild lineup of new release titles and the Labor Day sale which is going on for a full week this time! Chris and Eli are joined by our most returning guest, Lead Archivist at VS, Oscar Becher! Reviver 4 was part of the new release schedule and being one of our favorite new sublabels, we had to bring Oscar back to discuss rescuing a lost film and putting together a feature length documentary included on the disc about saving the movie and restoring it. If you love Oscar's Winding Through segments as much as we...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 52, we have reached singularity. Eli is not on PV exactly as many episodes as he has not been on. To celebrate, we put him through a grueling exercise of all of the July VS and select OCN titles with Chris and all of the April Melusine titles with Celeste. Thank you Eli! 

This podcast has improved with you on it, and we're lucky to have your passion and diligence. H...

It's August, which means there's a new slate of releases and we were so excited to see Iconoscope return with TWO new titles, so we had to bring back Iconoscope founder and lead scanning tech at VS, Brandon Upson and we're thrilled to welcome a first time guest on the show: film and tv historian - and Iconoscope co-producer(!) - Amanda Reyes!! 


Amanda does incredible archival work in the film world, especially when it comes to made-for-TV movies, we talk with about the history and cultural impact of TV movies, the various projects she's worked on, and f...

This week, We're stoked to bring you a first time guest on the show, director of theatrical and special events for Vinegar Syndrome, Theresa Mercado! She's been with the company from their west coast beginnings in Brighton, Colorado and we get to spotlight the hard work that goes on behind the scenes at the warehouse, the opening of The Archive (now Vinegar Syndrome Denver) and the various events they throw at all their locations, and finally taking a deep dive into Vinegar Syndrome's ever-growing theatrical exhibitions with VSP titles!

Afterwards, Chris and Eli took the Hurculean task of...

Summer subscriber week just wrapped up with a terrific mainline slate and some exciting sublabel announcements, including one of our new favorites, Reviver. So, who better to have on than friend of the show and VinSyn's lead archivist, Oscar Becher. After multiple delays, The Lady in White is finally here and we talk with Oscar about the painstaking work of restoring three different version of the film (it really did take a village)! We also discuss the rest of the VS lineup, which includes two exciting VSAs in 4K, and of course, Reviver 3! In keeping with the Reviver tradition we...

While Vinegar Syndrome's Halfway Subscriber Week has officially kicked off, we'll be talking about that in full next week with a special guest, so in the meantime we thought we'd spotlight one more OCN partner label with another one of our favorites, Kani Releasing! Co-founder Ariel Esteban Cayer joins Chris and Eli to talk about Kani's incredibly diverse catalogue, highlighting some the best in underseen Asian cinema, and how they've grown from their start as a blu-ray label to theatrical exhibition. We also get to chat about some of the early releases, highlight a few new ones, and going deep...

It's Episode 47 and we're continuing are focus on partner labels with another one of our favorites and a newcomer to OCN, Muscle Distribution, with founder Elizabeth Purchell! We talk with Liz about her work in film preservation, distribution, and a Kickstarter Muscle Distribution has launched to preserve and restore 4 films that have been long out of circulation! We highly encourage you to check out the details on the Kickstarter page and donate if you can and sign up for Muscle's newsletter that alerts you to any upcoming screenings in your town. And of course, check out Muscle's partner pages on...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

It's Episode 47 and we're continuing are focus on partner labels with another one of our favorites and a newcomer to OCN, Muscle Distribution, with founder Elizabeth Purchell! We talk with Liz about her work in film preservation, distribution, and a Kickstarter Muscle Distribution has launched to preserve and restore 4 films that have been long out of circulation! We highly encourage you to check out the details on the Kickstarter page and donate if...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 46, we're going up north and chatting with the co-founders of Canadian International Pictures, Jonathan Doyle and David Marriott! CIP has been a partner label for over 4 years and we talk about the company's formation, how they select titles, and the process of restoring and releasing them! We also highlight some of our favorite titles and discuss a very anticipated title for June, The Other French New Wave Volume 2! You can keep...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

On Episode 45, we're kicking off our first of a few partner label interviews for this month by welcoming back friend of the show Ross Snyder, co-founder of Saturn's Core Audio & Video! We talk about all things SOV, from preserving and restoring titles from tape masters, to highlighting some past releases and of course, discuss this month's release: Dead Hunt, the final film from regional director Don Dohler! You can follow SC on Instagram...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 44 we get our wings up, our scentific mondo clipboards out, pop on a classical piano nocturne and lock in on an epic journey through 7 VSL releases in April, 2 other sublabels, 2 mainline, and the OCN titles we could get to. 

We begin by reviewing the partner label titles that we bought during the first day of the sale and quickly pivot to all of the April releases. 

June is...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 43 we sit down with Kurtis Spieler. Kurtis is a key member of the restoration team at Vinegar Syndrome, but also is involved in many parts of behind the scenes production and even finds time to be a filmmaker. We talk about the Halfway to Black Friday surprise announcements, including a few that Kurtis played a major role in getting them out and ready to ship.  

As always, Kurtis is an...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 42 is reviewing the May announcements that we know. In preparation for Halfway to Black Friday, VS has released a portion of their slate in addition to a new slate of OCN partner titles. We are joined by film historian Casey Scott and film and culture writer Gentry Austin who run the amazing Sin Syndicate podcast. 

Casey is on record saying he has known Joe Rubin since he was 16 years old, a...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 41 is Eli and I covering March titles in depth but most importantly it is sitting down with one of our heroes. Moviemaker, raconteur, philosopher, and now available on Shudder, Scooter McCrae joined Punk Vacation.

Scooter is the actual best. Get this man into any discussion of the Mount Rushmore of moviemakers from history. He is takes the craft so seriously, and spends a lot of time in this conversation breaking...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 40 is one of the most in-depth and interesting conversations Punk Vacation has had on the language of physical media. That is not meant metaphorically, literally the subtitling and the importance of language and copywriting. Dino Proserpio does most of the subtitling work for VS and a lot of the copywriting. He's a polyglot and film historian, and was a fantastic interview.

Eli and Chris both spend 3 hours geeking out with...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 39 Eli and I cover the Feburary announcements and determine if this Feb was better than last years. But before all of that, we are joined by one of the most exciting young filmmakers in the US, Kansas Bowling.

I dare you to find anyone under 30 who loves film and loves talking about film as much as Kansas. She's obsessed, and her obsession naturally translates into a rich vocabulary of...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Before kicking off episode 38, we've unearthed a lost discussion from the Punk Vacation archives, restored for your listening pleasure: Chris and Eli are joined by the lead archivist from Vinegar Syndrome, Oscar Becher, to talk about the second release from his new sublabel, Reviver! Like the releases themselves, we won't spoil anything here, you'll have to listen to find out what we talk about!

Then, we return to our regularly schedule...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 37, Eli and Chris are back for Part 2 of the Valentine's Day special of Celeste's world famous "15 Minutes With You" segment. This will also be available on Celeste's YT channel if you want to see the video.


Celeste can now say they are done with 2025. Jan and Feb titles will be featured on upcoming episodes of 15 Minutes With You. Also, huge congrats to Celeste who recently was finally able...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 36 we are fortunate to be able to sit down with one of the most exciting new voices in exploitation and horror, Alex Phillips. This dude loves genre movies, and we dig into All Jacked Up and Full of Worms and his new feature, Anything That Moves. 

I think everyone will enjoy hearing from this creative and darkly funny filmmaker. He gave us almost an hour, which was more than w...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 33 we are going to try something slightly different. Eli and Chris recorded an extended "15 Minutes With You" segment live on Celeste's YT channel back in December and we are going to use that as Part 1 of a 2-Part Valentine's Day Melusine special. 

Both Valentine's Day episodes will focus on the Melusine side of the house, and next week we will be back to also discuss what drops on the V...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 35 we finally sit down with the esteemed stepfather of the boutique physical media community, the most connected man on the internet, and future playgirl model, Ryan Verrill. In addition to the incredible community Ryan has built with the Disc-Connected, the podcast network and special features consortium he has established and grown with Someone's Favorite Productions, Ryan has also recently launched the longtime stealth project, Antenna Releasing.


Ryan is...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 34 we welcome one of the giants of horror on IG, Jay Blake from A Fistful of Horrors. Jay is many things to the community of horror lovers online, but he is also complete on the VS mainline dating all the way back their initial Indiegogo campaign.

I don't know whether to call him the Daiseke Beppu of horror and exploitation, or perhaps the Mr Rogers, whatever it is Jay...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 32, we welcome back Brandon Upson. In addition to being employee #1 at Vinegar Syndrome, Brandon is the Lead scanning technician, Restoration Artist, and director / producer of the newly announced Iconoscope sublabel.

It's clear Brandon loves movies, and throughout this interview I believe his passion for restoring and releasing so many movies every month. He's a wonderful advocate for Vinegar Syndrome, and knows a little to a lot about every release s...

We did it y'all. 30 episodes in our second Christmas together. Thank you to everyone who has listened to any of the episodes, and please seek us out if there is anything you want to hear more about.

We wouldn't look this good without the amazing art of Adam Danbury (https://www.adamdanbury.com/film). We wouldn't sound this good without the regular segments from Celeste de la Cabra discussing the hardcore titles and all of the guest who add depth and weight to our discussions.

For the final episode of 2025 we are bringing back Prof, or...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 30, we celebrate Eli's first booking on the show with one of the coolest people in the business. Bret Berg, Director of Theatrical Sales for AGFA.

Bret is the guy behind the guy for theatrical distribution of almost every boutique label on your shelf, and it's a conversation I really loved. He talks about AGFA's mission, Museum of Home Video, some of the new OCN titles, and a fantastic background...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 29, We were lucky to be able to sit down with Austin Jennings, Director of Eight Eyes which got a VSP release. We also review the September and October releases from the mainline plus subs.

Off the top I just have to say, holy shit, Austin was an incredible interview. His day job is being a co-founder and director of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, so he has...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 28, We were lucky to be able to sit down with Joe, one of the co-founders of Vinegar Syndrome, as well as three-time VS champion podcaster Oscar Becher. He wants to always stay at least one episode ahead of Kurtis.

Joe and Oscar were extremely candid, as always, and have the old married couple routine nailed down perfectly. They had Eli and I cracking up off mic by fighting over...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 27, Eli, Chris, and Celeste walk through a tour of some VS horror that cannot be forgotten. Going all the way back to some of the first 15 releases, we call out some horror that is worth revisiting during the next sale or maybe streaming if its sold out. We end by going over the August releases and should be caught up by mid November.

This was a really fun one...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 26, Eli Oslberg joins as the official co-host of Punk Vacation, I'm beyond excited to move this to a co-host situation, as Eli puts the 'we' in weird and wet and wendigo.

This is a long time coming and I could not feel better about having him join up and help Celeste and I take Punk Vacation to new heights.

Eli can be found on most socials @eliolsberg...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 25, Eli comes back to help break down September announcements and we geek out over the new Pinku line from VS. Celeste brings us home with another 15 minutes of you where they catch us up to being current for the year.

I titled the episode this way because of the conversation we had around the crazy titles that exist within the pinku subgenre.

First episode of Season 2 was...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 24, Celeste de la Cabra and I reflect back on the crazy first year of Punk Vacation!

We do go over August announcements as well, and we end the episode with Celeste doing a great job during the next installment of 15 Minutes With You.

I want to say thank you to every guest, co-host, and champion of fringe creativity that has come along and supported the Punk Vacation...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 23 we welcome back Sam Panico who can now say he is a contributor to a VS release! In addition to his look into 5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas, Sam is a frequent collaborator with Visual Vengeance, has his own podcast bandsaboutmovies and co-hosts a YT show called Drive-In Asylum.
You'll hear this in the episode, but Sam has a deep knowledge of exploitation and low-budget cinema and a great sense...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 22 we are joined by a fantastic group of panelists to attempt a roundtable discussion and figure out what Vinegar Syndrome is in 2025.

I did my best to find a diverse set of interests and backgrounds for the show, but this is very much meant as an open discussion and I would love to hear from anyone!

The structure of the episode basically breaks down into three parts:<...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 21 we look at the OCN announcements in June for partner month. Pearl Chan, one of the co-founders of Kani Releasing, was a surprise guest and joined to help me gush about the wonderful work Kani is doing as I highlighted their label. To close us out Ryan and Jeremy rejoin for Merch Mates. It's a packed 97 minutes!

I have a movie crush on Ariel and Pearl from Kani, I...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 20 we get to chat with the unofficial Vinegar Syndrome rep from Finland, Ville Lähde.
Wille is the best, his YouTube channel @videotalkvideospace is a cornucopia of physical media discussion and unboxing, with a focus on VS and the wilder side of cinema. The dude has over 3,000 VHS tapes and is an encyclopedia of genre and exploitation cinema.

He brings passion to each discussion, and is always very h...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 19 I am joined by Special Features Producer extraordinaire, Claudia Pretelin!

Claudia is a fascinating person. She is an international art curator, has worked with some very innovative contemporary artists such as Gary Baseman, and approaches disc production through the lens of wanting to know everything about the movie she just watched.

I really enjoyed this interview, and I'm proud to share with everyone that gets to hear...

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 18 I am joined by Oscar Becher, Archivist and Vault Manager at Vinegar Syndrome. We discuss around half of the May announcements that are part of the halfway to black friday flash pre-order, discuss why these were all ambitious projects for different reasons, and get to hear Oscar's passion for his first official producer credit.

Ross Snyder from Saturn's Core comes on next and gives us some insight into what...