Succumbs is R.E.M.'s first commercially available full-length movie. Released in October 1987 by UNI/A&M, it contains video footage shot by R.E.M.'s lead singer Michael Stipe dating back to the early-1980s, while the band was still recording under the I.R.S. Records label. Stipe collaborated with local Athens, Georgia artist James Herbert, who directed Left of Reckoning.