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Monday, October 1, 2018

Revenge of Slashback Video Brings Back Fond Nightmares

by Jonathan Bilski

Coming back from the dead and not leaving the scene until December is Revenge of Slashback Video. It's what the ancients called a "video store." In the before Netflix time or streaming time people just like you and I had to venture forth out into the world and check out killer box art to see what to watch.

It was a time of magazines and radio, there were no smart phones to check the reviews. It was only by sight that you could tell what there was to pick. And this "store" has some of the greatest covers for VHS, a format from long ago, that shows things that may never happen in the horror movie you're about the rent.

And you can't rent any of these. It's all for show. I had the misfortune of forgetting they flip half of the video covers over on Sunday, so you can read what's on the back. The covers that I did get to peer at we're wonderful pieces of art that made me want to look up the films they were for or brought me back to when I watched them.

This year Slashback has a video game section where you can play some classic horror games on an old NES. It's great they gave a little nod to horror in gaming. You might have forgotten they did make games for everything in the past and these are mostly quite horrible to play.

This year also has the Artist Section returning. Many titles never made real will be there for you to gaze at or covers for films that were never promoted that way.

The cost could really go down, it's $10 bucks to enter the attraction. It's a novelty and fun for Instagram or whatever your social media is, but still a bit pricey to just look at old VHS tapes. I did find it worth it for a quick stop in Burbank near good food and other Halloween shops like Dark Delicacies and Halloween Town.

You'll be wondering through the place for at least thirty minutes to an hour going over all the shelves with great cover art. Spotting something strange and taking a picture to show off to friends. "My Mom's A Werewolf," sounds truly weird and it's hard to believe it was made. And yet it was with other utterly strange titles.

Revenge of Slashback Video
Sun-Mon Noon-7pm
Tues-Fri 11am-7pm
Sat 11am-8pm
Mystic Museum
3204 W Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505
$10