Posted by Jennifer Asencio | Published
Remember the VCR era? The Ultimate Video Store he remembers it well in this horror movie honoring the age of videotape.
Nyla (Yaayaa Adams) walks into Blaster Video to return the VHS tapes her father rented and inquire about a mysterious tape in his collection. Kevin (Kevin Martin), the store owner, is a big movie buff and immediately sits down to watch a strange video. The tape opens a portal to a movie world that traps Nila and Kevin in the store as their video characters come to life. Things go even better when they call in an action hero from his worst movie to come and save the day.
So Self-Knowing Is Painful
If this makes sense The Last Action Herothat is perfectly fine. “Videonomicon” represents the Golden Ticket from the Schwarzenegger spoof, although the movies come to Nila and Kevin rather than from inside. But The Ultimate Video Store is more than just an action-movie shoot: a loving homage to the era of movie rentals, Blockbuster Video, and the camaraderie that renting a video can bring.
Blockbuster and its local brethren were truly magical places, especially for young movie fans with a rental card, which was almost as powerful as a driver’s license back in the 80s and 90s. This film remembers that dynasty while at the same time lamenting its decline.
Accept the Throwback Format
From the beginning, the film is given the appearance of video viewing on a VCR, zooming in on a television as a Star Wars-style scrolling screen describes the “Format Wars,” which heralded the demise of the video store. The Blaster video, which is shown throughout the original movie with clever throwback ads, is part of this past era. Kevin himself is a throwback, crazy, odd-looking, and almost evil director in the cinema, reminding us constantly of the video store mantra, “Be Kind, Please Take Back.”
Kevin is also a representative of the logic of the movie that passes the store after watching a bad tape. It obviously doesn’t take much to convince Kevin to watch it, and as the chaos continues, he’s there to offer valuable advice, such as “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt us. It’s just CGI,” and “The only thing that matters is the power of friendship!” His direction is also visualized with exposure set to the classical piece “Bolero” and presented as trailers from his Blaster Video commercials. Given the attention placed on the soundtrack in the movie, the regal song highlights that Kevin is the king here.
Meta Humor That Would Make Screaming Proud
Meanwhile, the entrance of Jason’s singer Castor is announced when Nila starts hearing ominous music, which a shocked Kevin explains, “It’s his theme… he’s coming.” My partner is the actor of the film Viper (Josh Lenner), an artial hero wearing a tanktop, and not only has his theme song, but the entire film is dedicated to the training sequence of the hero of the 80s from the movies featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme or the Lethal Weapon duo.
The attention to detail is so focused that even the movies themselves are ridiculously named, familiar titles like these Bed of the Dead, The Gremloids, The Beaver Lake Massacreagain The Fury of the Serpent. Whoever sat down and made all the spoof tapes and movie posters that made the set had a lot of time on their hands, a wicked sense of humor, and a deep appreciation for the source material. The closing credits roll on the TV screen as it shows its attached VCR taking Kevin’s advice and rewinding the movie we just watched.
The movie is self-aware at every turn, piling on layer after layer of references, jokes, and themes. And the doorknob steals the show as such an influence on events that he is a character.
Cancel or Pay the Price!
The Ultimate Video Store maybe they had a very low budget (that information has not been made public), but the special effects show that they used that budget well. Yes, they’re cheesy, but it’s in 80s style that harkens back to classic fantasy and sci fi from the era, like Beastmaster or the 1984 version of A mound. Even the film quality of the film is stylized to match that of videocassette, complete with tracking (remember when you had to “track” your movies so they would play clearly? The Ultimate Video Store he did!).
And it doesn’t take too long to pack a punch: clocking in at just 78 minutes, the movie doesn’t waste any time making its point, keeping its flow tight as it blends various movies into a genre-crossing mayhem. So much happens in such a short amount of time, leaving viewers with time to say, “oh yeah!” with familiarity but not too much before sweeping us into the next scene and the next adventure. The movie covers its thinking, and we accept the idea of the movie closely because when there is time to think about its themes, the movie is over and you think about it for days instead.
The Ultimate Video Store is streaming on Shudder and is its #3 rated movie on the platform as of this writing. There’s a lot to see in this short film, so watch it a few times to make sure you get it all!
