‘A nostalgic trip back to the stores that formed our love for movies...’
Ahh the video shop. That safe haven for film geeks everywhere. As a child of the ‘90s, my own video shop memories are both plentiful and eventful. One of my earliest and most formative memories is of pissing myself in my local video shop whilst two teenage shop assistants laughed hysterically at the rapidly spreading wet patch that was befouling my jeans and spreading over my groin area. I was 28-years-old. I joke, of course. In reality, I was barely out of my toddler phase, no doubt hoping for a Care Bears video to go with my chocolate milk. Later, my lifelong love of horror movies was awakened by seeing such dark and mysterious box covers as The Evil Dead (about which I had endless nightmares) and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (something about the kid in the clown suit just got me). In a desperate attempt to recapture these VHS glory years, I have taken to scouring charity shops for old VHS cassettes, despite the fact that I don’t own a VHS player. Nostalgia’s a hell of a drug…
All of this wittering on brings me to Ex-Rental – a film history podcast hosted and created by lifelong friends Ash Ward and Brad Hanson – the latter of whom film fans may be familiar with due to his contributions to Mike Muncer’s excellent Evolution of Horror podcast. Ex-Rental sees a string of guests including fellow podcaster and EOH contributor Becky Darke, Muncer himself and Creeper frontman Will Gould pick out one film from the ‘90s – arguably the golden age of the VHS – to analyse, reminisce over and just generally geek out about. Films chosen so far include Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Se7en and Men in Black. As the show goes on, it’ll be interesting to see the choices become more diverse as both hosts have a penchant for the lesser lights of the world of cinema – the forgotten titles that lingered in the dark corners of video shops everywhere.
There are hundreds of film history podcasts out there and it can often be difficult to decipher which ones are worthwhile. Ex-Rental is a true celebration of ‘90s cinema from a pair of passionate hosts who clearly adore the era. Drink it in like an extra large serving of Sprite served in a promotional Blockbusters cup used to advertise Space Jam.