Giant VHS coffee tables… with screens embedded inside of them?!
The mom and pop video shop may be dead, but Alamo Drafthouse is soon re-animating it at their Raleigh, North Carolina location. Opening soon, their own shop Video Vortex will be offering up over 75,000 titles on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray, including many horror movies on VHS that have to date not yet been released on any other formats.
The shop will also include merch, a bar and 7-foot replicas of horror VHS cases!
“The mission at VIDEO VORTEX is to provide one of the best, most well-curated archives of movies from across the globe as a free resource to the community. The VIDEO VORTEX archive features over 75,000 titles and is one of the largest collections on the planet, with particular depth in foreign language movies, documentaries and independent films. Many of these titles which have never been, and will likely never be, on any streaming service. Loans from this incredible archive will be available not just to Alamo customers but to schools, universities, non-profit groups, neighbors… to EVERYONE for FREE.”
In addition to free rentals, VIDEO VORTEX will feature the following:
- VCRs and blu-ray players available for rent.
- Crowlers (canned growlers) available to take home any of the 40-plus local draft beers along with your free movies
- A selection of board games curated by the Mondo game team, available for purchase and for free play in the beer garden or patio.
- Mondo game, toy, poster and music release parties.
- A grab-and-go selection of bombers and six-packs of local and hard-to-find beers.
- Video-store themed cocktails, milkshakes and non-alcoholic drinks designed by Alamo Raleigh beverage director Jason McCoon.
- VIDEO VORTEX will be home to VHStival, an annual VHS festival highlighting the best treasures of VHS-only releases as well as a VHS tape trading convention. The first event is scheduled for the weekend of October 27th
- Integration of video store programming into the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema; shows like VIDEO VORTEX (the namesake of the bar itself) which features the best VHS-only films of the ’80s and ’90s and Saturday Morning Cartoon Party, which features curated themes of cartoon classics and oddities to be enjoyed with a smorgasbord of all-you-can-eat sugary breakfast cereal.
- Giant obelisk replicas of classic VHS clamshell tapes curated from the personal collection of Josh Schafer, VIDEO VORTEX manager and VHS Culture Captain.
- At-table VCRs, allowing folks to grab a movie off the shelf and enjoy in the bar.
- A gallery of over 50 large format Italian and French exploitation posters featuring movies available for rent from the VIDEO VORTEX archive.
- “Slumber party packs,” a combo pack of pizza, crowlers of beer and movies to go for the ultimate “Alamo-at-home” experience.
Video Vortex will open simultaneously with the Raleigh Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, which doesn’t yet have a date. But you can preview the shop with the video below!
