West Hollywood pop up brings back the video store era

Ever miss the video store era? As a child of the eighties and nineties, I can’t even imagine what my formative years would have been like without my local video stores. I used to spend hours and hours just walking around, browsing the VHS covers, and chatting films with the clerks. In fact, for years and years in my late teens/early twenties, I was one! Of course, video stores have essentially gone bye-bye now, but the nostalgia remains, and now Netflix is giving folks a taste of this by-gone era with their own “Fear Street Rentals” pop-up experience. Our own JimmyO checked out this pretty cool interactive installation which, of course, ties into Netflix’s Fear Street Trilogy (read our reviews for the first two installments here and here).

Located on Melrose in West Hollywood, Netflix describes the pop up as follows:

On the outside, FEAR STREET RENTALS is a 90s video rental storefront, and on the inside, it’s an immersive experience that takes you back in time and brings to life the horrors of Shadyside in 1994, 1978, and 1666. Filled with iconography and Easter eggs from the Fear Street Trilogy and a secret passageway that takes you into the world of 1978 (Camp Nightwing) & 1666 (the church), the pop-up is an experience built for horror and Fear Street fans alike.

The event is free and open to the public. Admission is first-come, first served. 

This is a pretty neat little idea if you ask me. R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books were such a staple of the video store era that something like this feels entirely appropriate. Both of the films we’ve gotten so far feel like affectionate throw-backs to the kinds of video-store horror flicks we used to binge on all the time as kids. Its cool they’re giving the new generation these movies are geared towards a taste of what the experience of going to a video store was like.

Check out all of Jimmy’s photos below (along with a great JoBlo shout-out from the trilogy’s awesome director Leigh Janiak), and if you’re in the L.A. area, check out the pop-up for yourself. It runs until Sunday, July 18th, and, as noted above, admission is free. You can also get more info at FearStreetRentals.com