Alamo Drafthouse wants you to rent VHS tapes like it's the 1990s
Alamo Drafthouse is about to put your '90s nostalgia into overdrive.
The movie theater chain is bringing back an authentic video store. Yes, we're talking about VHS.
The store, Video Vortex, will be part of an 11-theater cineplex expected to open early next year in Raleigh, North Carolina. It'll rent VHS tapes, along with Blu-ray discs and DVDs.
The company knows watching VHS tapes isn't much of an option without a VCR, so the antiquated machines will be available for rent along with a free rental for HDMI-to-RCA adapters. Low tech is back for the win.
Video Vortex will have more than 30,000 movies, TV series, short films, and more on the tapes and DVDs. The company said in a release the collection includes "rare" VHS tapes and other titles never released in digital formats.
Rentals can be returned at the store or through a mailing system, which seems similar to the early days of Netflix.
Alamo isn't new to old-school video. It features straight-to-video movies from the 1980s through early 2000s as part of an ongoing series. And when Lost Weekend Video closed in San Francisco, the local Alamo Drafthouse kept the beloved video store -- and its collection of obscure films and campy favorites -- alive in its lobby.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
