By RYAN DYER
Starring Yaayaa Adams, Kevin Martin and Matthew Kennedy
Directed by Tim Rutherford and Cody Kennedy
Written by Joshua Roach and Tim Rutherford
Blue Finch Film Releasing
THE LAST VIDEO STORE is the latest in the neo-grindhouse wave of Canuxploitation films that, arguably, began with Jason Eisener’s Hobo With a Shotgun and the sleazy films of Ryan Nicholson and progressed with the efforts of Astron-6 (Father’s Day, The Editor). Directed by Tim Rutherford and Cody Kennedy (ABCs of Death 2.5, Straight to Video: The B-Movie Odyssey), the film depicts what happens after a cursed video tape (a horror device comprised of elements from The Evil Dead, Ringu and Videodrome) called the Videonomicon is brought to a genre fan’s dream store, Blaster Video, via Nyla (Yaayaa Adams), daughter of the store’s best (and maybe only) customer, who recently died.
The Videonomicon is returned with some rental tapes, including a Z-grade Predator rip-off called Preystalker and Beaver Lake Massacre 4, a Canuck version of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, which were not rewound. When the tapes are put into the rewinding machine and get mixed up with the Videonomicon, the cursed videocassette brings the characters in them to life, and Blaster Video becomes a Canadian cult horror version of The Pagemaster. Instead of young Macaulay Culkin getting chased around by Captain Ahab and Long John Silver, THE LAST VIDEO STORE finds the similarly bespectacled Kevin (Kevin Martin), owner of Blaster Video, as a sort of “tape master” who has to use his cinephilic wits to defeat (or even befriend) the schlocky monsters (such as the Jason-esque Castor Creely) and keep his video store from becoming a hypocenter of discount tapes – all while trying to educate Nyla with film facts she could care less about.
Martin, owner of a real video store called The Lobby DVD Shop in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is natural in his role as a slightly neurotic film lover. His previous acting credits, Twas the Night of the Tree Beast and the original 2013 The Last Video Store short, also featured him in the role of a video store owner, so with his real-life experience and warm-up roles, he was truly born for this part. Matthew Kennedy makes a cameo and his added spice along with Josh Lenner’s role as Viper, a poor man’s Chuck Norris, give THE LAST VIDEO STORE an Astron-6 vibe at times. (Lenner’s character is reminiscent of the over-the-top characters in Manborg.) The special effects by Steven Kostanski double down on the Astron-6 aesthetic, making THE LAST VIDEO STORE a must-watch for fans pining for something similar to Psycho Goreman.
THE LAST VIDEO STORE runs on fandom, with familiar – yet not completely identical – characters running amok in a literal temple of nostalgia and a protagonist who feels like a real video store worker who you’d shoot the shit with for 15 minutes before finally renting one of his recommendations (because he is). Genre fans are rewarded with quips like how the same decapitated head was used for two films because the filmmakers were too cheap, and THE LAST VIDEO STORE‘s short runtime and Easter egg-filled video store setting give it a high rewatchability factor. Only time will tell if, like Found and its fictitious film-within-a-film Headless, The Last Video Store will spawn real versions of films shown in it, like Beaver Lake Massacre 4.
In 2024, the collections of VHS aficionados resemble personal video stores, but some things are missing from them – the act of interacting with store employees and the sense of wonder one gets from browsing a collection that is not your own. THE LAST VIDEO STORE serves as either a reminder of or, for the younger generation, an introduction to this world, as the viewer experiences the film through the cinephilic Martin, who has seen too many movies to count and knows all the tropes, or through Nyla, who is introduced to this niche thanks to Martin’s enthusiasm. If Be Kind Rewind wasn’t the right nostalgic mom-and-pop video store throwback for you, then THE LAST VIDEO STORE might be the darker take you’re looking for.
