Horror In The Basement. Also Comedy.

November 13, 2022 4:38 PM

During quarantine, many of us watched a lot of movies, and perhaps yearned for a time when one could browse the shelves of the local video store looking for inspiration. For Jeff Kuykendall, writer and cult / horror movie aficionado, the solution was simple: build a video store in his basement. Midnight Video: the Private Video Store I Built in Quarantined Cabin Fever.

You might wander "upstairs" to read some of his reviews, like 100 Essential Films of the Fantastic or Around the World in 24 Hours of Film.

posted by Ishbadiddle (9 comments total)

Cinemassacre has a good video about something very similar, about nostalgia, VHS, video stores, and recreating a place in a time.
VHS Memories and What Nostalgia Means to Me - Cinemassacre
posted by shenkerism at 5:26 PM on November 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

I thought this was going to be the basement video store I saw on reddit a couple months ago, and was pleasantly surprised when it was an entirely different basement video store! (But do check out the reddit post, it is also amazing.)
posted by fings at 6:18 PM on November 13, 2022 [4 favorites]

cool project.

Strange, I went to work at a video store to beat the quarentine fever only to realize the days of the video store are over.

so I purchased every copy of Solaris
posted by clavdivs at 8:02 PM on November 13, 2022 [4 favorites]

Next up is installing curtains in the windows to prevent the covers from sun fading.

Oh, come on. For the proper video store experience, half your titles should have covers that are so sun-scorched they look like they've been through an A-bomb blast.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 8:23 PM on November 13, 2022 [10 favorites]

Also as a child of the 80's I can attest to the fact that the correct window covering is posters that you haven't changed in a decade.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:41 PM on November 13, 2022 [8 favorites]

This is such a lovely idea. I want to go there and soak up the atmosphere.
posted by JHarris at 2:47 AM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Where's the beaded curtain that leads to the back room?
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:58 AM on November 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

fings I thought this was going to be the basement video store I saw on reddit a couple months ago

That is amazing! Now in my head canon these two live across town from each other and are rivals. Until one day when the internet goes down...
posted by Ishbadiddle at 10:10 AM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

#UnderstoodTheAssignment
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:32 AM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]