Cinemassacre Productions

Cinemassacre Productions

Type	Privately owned Video and film production
Founded	1989 as a company 2000 as a website
Headquarter	Havertown, Philadelphia, USA
Key people	James Rolfe (founder, owner) Mike Matei (executive producer; formally)

"Cinemassacre creates reviews and comedy shows about video games and movies, including: the Angry Video Game Nerd, You Know What's BS, Movie Reviews and more!"

-Cinemassacre channel description

Cinemassacre Productions LLC or The Cinemassacre Productions is the name of James Rolfe's independent video and film production company. James Rolfe said that the company started in 1989, however, the site was made in 2000. It has AVGN, James & Mike Mondays, Board James and more. It also features independent movies James has made. The channel currently has 3.84 million subscribers.

Along with their website, Cinemassacre Productions has two official YouTube channels: Cinemassacre and Cinemassacre Plays.

History[]

James received a VHS camera at a young age and began creating simple vlogs until James got the ambition to create short films consisting of comedy and horror. He used to work with his friends until he worked alone to create animations and films with toys. Even though he was limited in film making at the time, he used short cuts like recording the same tape and buying products like a title maker. He created many films such as the Snix series, A Night of Total Terror, Cinemaphobia, and more. He created more films at The University of the Arts where he met Mike Matei. James decided to create a website in 2000 to show his films since he wasn't sure if film studios would want him.

James and other crew members carrying a prop for the AVGN movie

In 2004, he did a review of the game, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest as a joke. Eventually, the series became hugely popular with the Nerd character. James and Mike worked together to edit, write, and act in these videos, Soon, Kyle Justin would join as the Guitar Guy. The channel soon expanded into individual series such as You Know What's Bullshit, James and Mike Mondays, Monster Madness and Board James, with Brendan (Bootsy) Castner playing as Bad Luck Bootsy. Sometimes James's long time friend, Kevin Finn will work with Cinemassacre as actor and writer. Cinemassacre began work on Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, which premiered on July 21st, 2014, which met with mixed reviews. They released two AVGN video games, The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures and The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures 2: ASSimilation.

In 2013, the company who owned Cinemassacre, ScrewAttack closed and only releases Death Battle videos. So Cinemassacre was acquired by ScreenWave Media in 2015. Screenwave Media mostly helped in production and editing before getting more involved with the channel. Kyle Justin left for unknown reasons and Bootsy left wanting to work more on his music. They released a new series called Rental Reviews and Retail Reviews, with three new members, Kieran Fallon, Justin Silverman, and Tony Piluso. They all handle editing, set designs, and have played characters in other Angry Video Game Nerd episodes, such as the Nerd's father(?), Clown, and Aladdin. The series also managed to get guest stars such as Macaulay Culkin, Mike Butters, Lloyd Kaufman, and Gilbert Gottfried. On December 2020, it was announced that Mike Matei would be leaving Cinemassacre to focus on his Twitch channel. An autobiography is soon to be released called "A Movie Making Nerd", talking about James's history about film-making.

Controversy[]

James has not had controversy himself, but the channel itself has received questioning. While James was making the Angry Video Game Nerd Movie back in 2013, Mike Matei was left to make videos on the channel. Mike uploaded videos which has received criticism such as him reviewing Minecraft with Inspector Gadget and Mike reviewing Elmo in Grouchland. Both videos received criticism for unfunny and vulgar humor. Mike received further hate online when he posted a picture of his penis on Twitter and Reddit since people were joking about his long genitals. Things became much worse for Mike when people discovered a comic he did back in 2004, The Loco Bandito. The comics were polarized for being extremely racist and unfunny, though most people say it's not countable since it was made back years ago. It has also been implied that Matei regrets making the comic.

Criticism has occurred recently, mostly toward ScreenWave Media by older fans. Many debate as the main reason why Kyle Justin and Bootsy left Cinemassacre. While Cinemassacre gave a reason to why Bootsy left, saying he wanted to work on his music, many debate that Mike kicked him out since he was becoming too popular. Though an official explanation for Kyle's departure is still unknown. Kieran, Justin Silverman, and Hack The Movies aren't received well by older fans, having been seen as lacking the amount of charisma Kyle and Bootsy previously had. They've also been criticized for their heavy amount of editing (such as the newest You Know What's Bullshit videos).

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Both YouTube channels have had name changes:
- The main channel was originally created as JamesNintendoNerd (and still appears as such in the address bar), before being renamed to Cinemassacre.
- The secondary channel was originally created as Cinemassacre (and still appears as such in the address bar), before being renamed first to James Rolfe, then to Cinemassacre Extras, then to Cinemassacre Extra (singular), and then finally to Cinemassacre Plays.

Cinemassacre Productions

Contents

History[]

Controversy[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

External Links[]