I’m a delivery driver. My job takes me all over the city. I deliver packages to some of the nicest neighborhoods in town, as well as some of the not-so-nice neighborhoods. I happened to be driving through one of those not-so-nice neighborhoods when an old video rental store caught my eye. The building was dilapidated and there were no cars out in the parking lot. However, there was an open sign in the window. A glowing, red open sign. Not one to pass up on a bit of nostalgia, I made a mental note to come back and take a look at the place after my shift.
After work, I made my way back to the old store. It was a weird place for a video rental store, sandwiched between a liquor store and a pawn shop, both with bars on the windows. The video store didn’t seem to have any sort of extra security. It did have a worn out sign that hung above the door that read “Video Direct” in large red letters. To my surprise, it was, in fact, open. As I stepped in the door, a little chime went off.
Walking in was like stepping back in time. It was actually pretty clean inside, and bigger than I had expected. The sweet smell of stale popcorn hung in the air. Stale popcorn and something else. Bleach? Floor cleaner? I wasn’t entirely sure.
Candy and other snacks were for sale up at the front. The videos were divided into sections. “Horror,” “Action,” “Comedy.” Even “New Arrivals.” All of the videos appeared to be VHS tapes. I guessed it was some sort of nostalgia thing.
A heavyset man with thick black glasses stepped out of the back and up to the counter. He wore a red polo shirt and khaki pants. His name tag said, “Chris.”
“Hey, how can I help you?”
“I noticed your store when I was driving by today. Are y’all for real? You still rent out the tapes?”
“Yes sir,” Chris said with a smile, “I know the quality of VHS tapes was never great, but there’s just something about the experience of watching one. On top of that, our collection here is extremely rare. A lot of these movies never got DVD releases. There are some films in our collection that are the only copy in existence!”
“That’s pretty impressive. Do you mind if I take a look around?”
“Go ahead,” Chris said, gesturing toward the videos.
It didn’t take long to notice there was something off about the store. The videos were divided into sections, but for whatever reason, there was no box art on display. Each movie just had a plain white case with black lettering that said the title. There were no actors listed, no blurbs about the movies, no ratings, nothing. I decided to ask Chris about it.
“Yeah. Like I said, a lot of these are Indie films. Real obscure. I can recommend a few to you if you’re interested.”
“What the hell, it’s been years since I’ve used my VCR. It’s still sitting in the back of my closet. It’d be kind of fun to fire it up again.”
Chris led me through the store. Our first stop was in the romance section. Chris grabbed a movie called “First Degree.”
“Even if you’re not really into romance movies, you’re gonna love this!”
Next, we went to the comedy section. Chris scanned the tapes for a minute, scratching his chin.
“This one,” he said, grabbing a tape titled “Oops!,” “It’s a classic!”
The New Arrivals section was last. The titles of the movies were things like, “High Voltage,” “Hit the Deck,” and “Shell Shocked.” Chris grabbed one titled, “I See You.”
“They’re still making new movies on VHS?”
“Yep. Indie filmmakers, people who appreciate the medium. This one’s pretty good, if I do say so myself.”
I went up to the counter and paid for the tapes. Chris took down some of my information and got my card on file. I didn’t think I’d be a frequent visitor here, but it seemed like I was signing up for some new email list week, so it didn’t bother me too much.
“They’re due back in three days. We like to keep close track of them, since our collection is so rare. Also, just to warn you, our late fees are pretty high. So, be sure to have them back on time!”
“I gotcha,” I said with a laugh. Late fees. It had been years since I’d had to worry about late fees!
I headed home and hooked up the VCR.
It was kind of exciting. The VCR just been collecting dust in my closet for literal decades. I cleaned it off and hooked it up to an old TV I had. The screen turned blue as the thing whirred to life. I decided to start with “Oops!”
The quality of the movie wasn’t great. The title screen looked like something from the 80’s or 90’s. It was in bold yellow font on a yellow background. The movie began and I watched as a man in his 50’s climbed a ladder and began to clean his gutters. This went on for 10 minutes. It was incredibly boring.
Was this some kind of art house thing? Maybe I was just missing the point?
I reached up to turn off the VCR. Maybe the other movies wouldn’t be so weird. Then, something happened. The ladder wobbled. The man tried to steady himself, lost his balance, and fell. There was a loud crunch as he hit the ground. Hard. His body was mangled, his limbs sticking out in different directions. The man screamed in terror and pain. That’s when the laugh track started.
The man writhed on the ground, still alive. It looked too real.
“Oh god! Oh god it hurts! Someone, please god! Help me!” The man’s screams were almost inaudible under the uproarious laugh track. The more the man screamed, the more the laughter seemed to build. The man tried to crawl away. With one arm he tried to move himself, still screaming for help. Blood started to leak from his mouth, a sign of internal bleeding. The laugh track distorted. It’s cackling grew dark and manic. I shut the movie off.
What the hell was that?
I put Oops! back in its case. The whole point of the video store seemed to be nostalgia. The tape was odd, but maybe it was supposed to be like something you saw on Adult Swim late at night. Like Too Many Cooks or something like that. I decided I would try First Degree next. Chris had promised I’d like it.
The movie began with a man sitting in what looked like an interrogation room. There was a time stamp on the bottom of the screen. It looked like the recording had been going for several hours, despite being the start of the movie.
The man appeared to be in his 30’s. He was wearing a trucker hat and a flannel shirt. His eyes were red and puffy, like he’d been crying. A door opened and a police officer walked in. He took a seat across from the man and let out a long sigh.
“The deputy told me you have something to tell me about your wife,” the cop said with a thick southern drawl.
The man broke down now, sobbing. He tried to gather himself several times. This went on for a few minutes. Finally, he collected himself.
“She was in the trunk,” he said, still sniffling.
“What the- She was in the trunk of your car? Your car that you drove into the river?”
“That’s right. She was gonna leave me, Sheriff. She was gonna leave me for that bastard she’d been runnin’ around with. She was gonna ruin me. I loved her! And she was gonna ruin me!”
The man continued to sob. The sheriff just shook his head. I stopped the tape.
I hesitated to put the last movie in the VCR. The other tapes had been incredibly disturbing. Why would someone make movies like this? Maybe their defense was that they were well acted? The man being interrogated had certainly seemed very authentic.
I had to know what was on the last tape.
This movie also seemed to be a recording, based on the time stamp in the bottom corner. This recording had been going for a few hours as well. The recording was of a bedroom from a high angle. Maybe it was security cam footage?
I watched for several minutes, and nothing happened. The first movie had done that too. On it’s own, the tape started to speed up. A few hours ticked by on the time stamp. A light flicked on in the room. A man in a suit walked in. He started to undress. At this point, I realized there was no sound.
After putting on his pajamas, he got into bed. It was so boring, but I couldn’t pull my eyes away. I just kept waiting for something horrible to happen. The man clicked off the light, rolled over, and went to sleep. The tape sped up again.
About an hour later, the door to the man’s room opened. A figured stepped inside. He was a heavyset man with glasses, wearing a polo shirt and khakis. It was Chris.
Chris walked over and stood beside the man’s bed. He stared down at him. The tape sped up again. The numbers on the time stamp ticked on. Chris stood there for several hours, not moving, just watching. Morning came, and the room started to grow lighter.
The man rolled over and woke up. It took him a minute to process what was happening. He jumped up in bed. This is what Chris had been waiting for. He had a switchblade in his pocket. The man tried to get away, but Chris was faster than he looked. He got the man in the back. Then in the chest. He stabbed the man over and over again. The bedroom became a bloody mess.
When it was all over, Chris walked over to the man’s dresser. He opened a drawer and pulled something out. Turning, he smiled at the camera, revealing what he’d taken. It was a Video Direct tape. The screen went black.
I didn’t sleep that night. The movies haunted me. Were they just low production art films, or something else? I’d heard rumors about snuff films. When I was younger, there were old urban legends about people accidentally renting them. When I woke up in the morning, I drove straight to the store. Chris was standing at the front counter.
“Hey! You’re back! Guess that means you enjoyed the movies?”
“I finished them. I’m not really sure they were for me.” I tried not to say anything else. I didn’t know what I had witnessed, I just wanted to get the fuck out of that store.
“What did you think of I See You? Did you recognize anyone?”
“I uhh- Yeah. That was you, huh?”
“It was! Some of my best work, I think. What did you think of it?”
“It was- You know, I think I just didn’t really understand it.”
“Understand?”
“Yeah, like, the point. You know, the umm, message.”
“Oh? And here I thought the message was so clear! Don’t forget to return your tapes!”
I walked out of the store and didn’t look back. I try not to drive through that neighborhood on my routes anymore. Sometimes I still get emails from them, though. At the bottom, there’s always a warning about bringing the tapes back on time. And about late fees.