mom and pop video store | Nightmare Nostalgia

It was a sunny Spring weekend day in 1992. I had completed my Saturday morning ritual of waking up at 7 AM to catch the Saturday morning cartoon lineup with my TMNT aluminum TV tray adorned with Froot Loops cereal and my juice box of Hawaiian Punch, followed by the ever-so-important one-hour block of WWF Superstars. So it was time to get dressed, hop on my bike, and make the one-mile trip down to my local strip mall that held McDonald’s, Little Ceasers, Osco Drug Store, Smiths, Naugles, and of course, the whole reason for the visit, my local mom and pop video shop, ACTION VIDEO, to get my horror movie weekend fix.

With my orange rental punch card in hand, I headed straight to the horror section, and I was immediately stopped by Kelly, one of the clerks who knew my horror-loving 10-year-old ass by name at this point and directed me towards one of the new rentals they had just got in a few days prior: DEMONIC TOYS.

WALP. Even with a first look, it had plenty of boxes checked already! Killer toys? Check. One of them a clown? Check. Full Moon Features? DOUBLE CHECK. I didn’t even care what it was about, I was already sold on the cover alone-which was the main marketing appeal to many straight-to-video horror movies at the time. Add to the fact that movies about killer toys and dolls were HOT in the late 80s and 90s thanks to Chucky and CHILD’S PLAY for the killer doll resurgence in 1988 that spawned a ton of glorious films from various studios featuring homicidal playthings. Case in point, the killer-doll-genre was one, I, and still am, became obsessed with. So anything involving such, I was all in. PLUS, it was FULL MOON and Charles Band, who started my love for the genre, (no, it wasn’t Chucky) but with his collaboration with Stuart Gordon on the 1987 cult classic DOLLS; another movie that caught my attention purely because of the VHS cover alone and a true love for maniacal dolls was born.

I happily got my rental card punched, went to grab a chicken nugget Happy Meal, and rode my bike home to enter the world of Demonic Toys with my BACK TO THE FUTURE: ANIMATED SERIES Happy Meal in tow.

CHUNK STYLE chickie nugg nuggs of course.

For those unfamiliar with DEMONIC TOYS, here’s the basic deal, and mind you, this is 90s B-MOVIE at its peak: After a drug deal bust goes south and her partner/ boyfriend is killed, a policewoman follows a pair of thugs into an abandoned toy warehouse where, ultimately, her fate and the future of the world rest upon her… and her womb. The cop, Judith, played by Tracy Scoggins, has been having dreams of her and two little boys. The children, of the same age, yet one more sinister looking than the other, are playing a game of WAR with playing cards; clearly foreshadowing a game of tug-of-war between good and evil. And evil is the devil who was buried underneath this warehouse and brought to life by the blood of one of the thugs. But, he needs to be officially born into this world and enter trying to get inside Judith’s womb to become legit.

This fuckin’ guy…

The toys in the warehouse are ALSO possessed by said demon and are there to ensure the implantation of the Antichrist happens, and will walk, talk, and even shit their pants to secure the process. Judith, along with a burly security guard, a Chunky Chicken delivery driver, and a teenage runaway spend the night in the warehouse fending themselves off from the likes of an evil Jack in the Box, a crazed Teddy Bear, and Baby Oopsie Daisy among other possessed toys, and it’s the most ridiculous kind of cheesy chaos that you could imagine. By that meaning, the most delectable form of horror movie cheese one could devour. I don’t know how the demon can inhabit multiple toys and also show itself as a young boy, but that’s really neither here nor there because logical plotlines are not part of this movie’s agenda. Just go with it, eh?

I can definitely say that this line became a part of my regular rotation in language for the year of 1992.

That being said, let us honor Charles Band, the Patron Saint of B-Killer Doll horror films, who successfully executed an entire brand name under the idea of inanimate toys and dolls coming to life and murdering people. And a special shout-out to the Mom and Pop video stores who made sure to supply us with plenty of his movies, including this 90s cult classic in which I do believe, is how many of us first saw it. And this is my Toy Story.

You can watch it for free on TUBI today!

I have to credit my discovery of many different horror films to my local Mom and Pop Video Store growing up, Action Video. Under a mile away, it was close enough for me to hop on my bike and undergo one of my favorite journeys to take on a weekend afternoon or anytime during the Summer. It was located in a shopping mall that included a Smiths’, Osco Drugs, Naugles, Pizza Hut, and of course, a McDonald’s. Usually, before a trip to Action Video, we’d pop into Osco for the latest issue of MAD magazine and Fangoria and some snacks for later’s horror marathon festivities. Then a trip to one of the fast food chains located within to get some carbs in for the adrenaline rush to come later; a personal pan Pizza Hut pizza or ye’ old faithful Hamburger Happy Meal from the clown was my regular go-to. And then, off to Action Video for the finale to discover what new and glorious atrocities await to be feasted upon thine eyes.

The VHS cover art alone was all the advertisement we would need to be sold on a horror flick, as we would be standing there gawking at the enticing and illustrious covers of films I had never seen. Hell, if Return of the Living Dead or The Blob didn’t have the cover art they did, it may have very well been a long time before I would have seen those masterpieces. Take for instance here, Dead Pit, with its gimmicky light-up cover case (you’ll catch that in the video down below). I mean, the cover alone is cool as hell, but that extra flair from the art screaming “PICK ME UP AND RENT ME YA’ WALNUT” added that extra incentive to take it home with you.

Blockbuster, as popular as it was, didn’t have this kind of cool shit gracing their shelves, people. As a matter of fact, it was so bland with their mediocre white clamshell casings. Hell, you’d be hard-pressed to find ONE rental copy of, let’s say, MOTEL HELL or CHEERLEADER CAMP. That, in itself, is a travesty. One that a local Mom and Pop Video Shop never seemed to bear onto their consumers. At the very least, when you rented with a smaller venue, you would get a way cooler clamshell that looked like it contained something sinister inside. Oh and hey, with those places usually having those adult-only curtains in the back of the store, sometimes there really was, heh.

The last living relic of Action Video remains in my hands. Grabbed this when bitch-ass Blockbuster put them out of business back in 1997. THE EXORCIST III in rare mom-and-pop video form is a beautiful thing over 25 years later.

Unfortunately, time and many moves through my life took my bright orange Action Video punch hole rental card that I had hung on to long after they closed. I’ve looked far and wide for another one in the wild, but continuously come up empty-handed. So if anyone reading this is local to Las Vegas and happens to have one sitting in a dusty box somewhere, I will gladly take it off your hands and display it like the nostalgic treasure I deem it to be is.

Like Action Video, many of these mom-and-pop stores fell to the corporate giants of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, unable to compete. I personally, never went to one until there was no other choice as I was rather bitter that they put my favorite rental place out of business. The place where I struck up conversations about horror films with other fans and Nick, the son’s owner behind the counter who would always shoot me some wild recommendations like Basket Case; of which I totally rented upon his imaginative description of Belial. When I finally made my way into Cock-Buster, I found the horror section to be rather dull. It was too bright in there, kids running around unattended… The magic was just, gone for me. And the clerks with their Gap-inspired uniforms didn’t seem to be as knowledgeable as Nick from Action Video. So here I was, biting my lip and bitterly renting Blair Witch from these corporate clowns until Karma finally made its way back to them when Netflix came into the circle.

The City of Irving published a video back in 1988 highlighting all the wonderful things a Mom and Pop shack has to offer, much of what I’ve stated here and uploaded it to YouTube. Probably one of the most wholesome things you’ll see on the internet today, folks.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on Blockbuster, ( I don’t really think I am) but aesthetically and nostalgically speaking, you just can’t compete with the powerful entity that is the small video store.

A clusterfuck of films that beg you to dig in and really do your due diligence in searching for the right film.

While the memory remains solid for myself, we luckily have people on YouTube who prior to the video website ever being a twinkle in Google’s eye, had the good sense to video record trips to their local video store so that we may bask in its glorious nostalgia. People here like HugeMovieFanatics who uploaded this home footage from December 1992 doing what we all did-wander around aimlessly looking at all the mystical things a small venue like that had to offer.

Bless these guys. Bless the Mom and Pop Video Shop. And Fuck the Blockbuster. I hope you read that in the Iron Shiek’s voice.