Vinegar Syndrome, named for the acidic smell of deteriorating film, was founded in 2012 by Joe Rubin and Ryan Emerson. The company was founded to restore and distribute X-rated films from the 1960s to the 1980s, including pornographic films released during the Golden Age of Porn, on home media. Rubin and Emerson emphasized that the company is not a part of the pornography industry, with Rubin noting that they choose to restore films that they feel "provide value", and stating: "We are film archivists who happen to focus on preserving sex films." The first three films to be released on DVD and Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome were each directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis—Ecstasies of Women, Linda and Abilene, and Black Love. Previously thought to be lost, they were released in 2013 in a box set titled The Lost Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Since that debut release, Vinegar Syndrome's catalog has expanded to include cult and exploitation films in a variety of genres, including horror films and action films.
Formats
DVD and Blu-ray
Vinegar Syndrome began publishing films on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013, starting with the release of the Lost Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis box set. In 2015, Chris Coffel of Bloody Disgusting ranked Vinegar Syndrome as one of the five best Blu-ray labels releasing horror films on physical media, praising the company's customer service and calling the quality of their releases "breathtaking". That same year, Matt Serafini of Dread Central wrote of Vinegar Syndrome's releases: "Vinegar Syndrome has only been on the scene for a few years, but they've proved themselves a force to be reckoned with."
Streaming service
In 2015, Vinegar Syndrome began developing a subscription-based, VOD-style streaming service called Skinaflix, described by Rubin as "Netflix for sex films, but curated for cinephiles". Funded by an Indiegogo campaign, the service was initially intended to offer sexploitation films and other X-rated works, but its catalog was expanded to include films from other genres prior to its launch. Additionally, the name of the service was changed to VinegarSyndrome.TV and finally to Exploitation.TV before its launch. Exploitation.TV was launched online and on Roku devices on August 20, 2015. The service was discontinued on July 31, 2018, in order to allow Vinegar Syndrome to focus on its core operation of restoring and distributing films for physical home media.
