Being an incredibly dedicated movie lover, I always wanted to work in a video store but never got the chance to. However, I was able to browse multiple outlets and marvel at all the varieties of videos, DVDs, and Blu-rays that stores had to offer. I really miss that. But Tim Rutherford and Cody Kennedy’s 2023 love-letter debut, The Last Video Store, brings all of the memories back to deliver a funny, gory, and meta throwback to the ’80s and cheesy bad movies.
Buy The Last Video Store Blu-rayTwenty-something Nyla (Yaayaa Adams) is left to pick up the pieces after her estranged father dies. She returns his overdue VHS tapes to Blaster Video, a time-capsule-filled video store run by the eccentric but lovingly movie-obsessed Kevin (Kevin Martin). Nyla shows him one particular (and weird-looking) tape, which they play. Bad idea! By doing so, they accidentally unlock the mystery of the cursed tape and bring into the video store a series of classic villains from many movies in Kevin’s store. Now, he and Nyla have to fight back or risk being trapped in B-movie hell forever.
With a sneaky wink to the audience watching, the film cleverly expresses how movie obsession can be both a blessing and a curse. It has plenty of sly references, solid jokes, and two great lead characters that you grow to really care about. It’s a refreshing, special-effects-laded, and delightfully goofy tribute to movie nirvana and the heroes like Kevin who came and went with it.
Arrow’s stacked special features include new audio commentary by film critics Matt Donato & Meagan Navarro; The Videonomicon Unleashed, a new visual essay by film critic Heather Wixson; Nostalgia Fuel, a new visual essay by film critic Martyn Pedlar; four short films by Rutherford and Kennedy; clips from the first attempted feature version; behind the Scenes; three previs shorts; trailer, and image gallery. It also has a collector’s booklet featuring new writing by film critics Anton Bitel and Alexandra West, with both a reversible sleeve and a double-sided fold-out poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by John Pearson.
