On a hot day in June, while visiting The Veiled Mirror and talking with them about collecting old books and DVDs, I was told that next door would be opening as a VHS video store soon. All throughout July, several of my friends who knew of my movie library habit started sharing with me news stories about the opening of Monster Video in downtown RVA. Putting 2 and 2 together, I thought it would be a great idea to stop in and talk to the shop’s proprietor, Cody Denzler, about the importance of having a personal media library, rekindling feelings of what it felt like browsing video store rows, and redistributing actual pieces and artifacts of the collective story of pop culture by finding them new homes.
The first thing I noticed walking into Monster Video was a giant Frankenstein in the window and a My Pet Monster sitting in a vintage school chair, both such important icons and precious to my own childhood growing up in the ’80s.
Vintage shops, antiques, oddities, niches, estate sales, and thrift stores are a big part of our commerce story now, outside of the big-box places. Partially keeping stuff out of landfills as our elders transition spaces and planes of existence. Also using media boutiques to generate the feelings of in-person stores of the past that connect like-minded community members, be it chasing memories of a strip-mall video rental store, the larger mall walks through a Suncoast Video or a Tower Records, or even childhood trips to public libraries discovering new stories.
Whatever is this consumer products culture that is expressing itself in extrapolation patterns, it is also a reaction to the streaming subscription, cloud-based data center moment. Trading and selling online, retailers, resellers, or warehouses ship to our front doors, removing the parts of going to the shop, talking to the shopkeeper, getting human insight into recommendations, or having conversations with other customers. Seeing things you can’t anticipate in an algorithmic search, that can only be found in person in a random moment of synchronicity, chance, place, time, and person with a weight of desire. Doing searches for products that train an algorithm to spit back to us more of the same-ish products supports entirely different impulses.
All of this is the stuff of a satire about late-stage capitalism, horror movies, and science-fiction cautionary monster stories like Mary Shelley’s novel about a creation gone away from its creator that was adapted by so many filmmakers in the 20th and 21st centuries, Frankenstein.
Thoughts that come from seeing a ten-foot figure of a classic monster in a retro space in downtown Richmond, processing memory and looking for a good find. Which, for me, was picking up a long-sought DVD copy of Four Rooms with the quad of early 1990s indie movie star directors and a sweet vintage T-shirt from A League of Their Own.
TRAV: Thank you for welcoming us to Monster Video. What can you tell us about opening the shop this summer?
CODY: Just opened up Monster Video (207 N. Third St.) a couple weeks ago. Honestly, I have had a lifelong love for film and collecting VHS and DVDs, always wanting to work in a video rental store. They were all sort of closing up by the time I became a late teenager and would’ve been able to work in one. Several years have passed, but my love for browsing at the local video store never left. Lots of hard work, manifesting, and community building have brought my passion to life. And here we are, able to open up a video retail store.
TRAV: Did you have a favorite childhood video store? Was there one that was like “the one”?
CODY: For me, it was Video 2000. It was off Staples Mill, about a mile from where I was born and raised. My family and I would go there on weekends and pick out a few titles. That’s where I hold a lot of memories of my early years.
TRAV: There were definitely some mom-and-pop video stores that I remember my dad would go to in the 1980s, one by his office and one by the hospital where I grew up in New Orleans. He would come home with a stack of tapes, and he and my mom shared their favorite films with my brothers and me. They were so excited to watch them again and share them with us. That made way for the bigger franchises of Hollywood Video and Blockbuster.
CODY: Unfortunately, I don’t have as many memories of going into mom-and-pop shops. A lot of them had cleared out when I was a kid, and I didn’t really understand the whole corporate takeover of it all. But I can’t deny the impact from time spent in Blockbuster. They harbor a lot of great memories and have contributed toward the inspiration of Monster Video that is alive today.
TRAV: I saw in your rack of vintage T-shirts you had one for Last Action Hero. That has a great Blockbuster scene inside the movie, where it’s all the warped alternative versions of movies, like The Terminator, but it’s played by Stallone. Do you have memories of VHS in movies or characters’ stories that reflected that in the movies themselves?
CODY: That’s a good question. Of course, there’s the classic scene in the movie Scream where they are in the video store. I do love seeing movies where they are in a video store, though, and trying to make out the titles in the background.
TRAV: There’s a recent one that is a tribute to that time in Captain Marvel. She crash-lands in a Blockbuster. The movies she walks by in the rows are The Right Stuff and Jumpin’ Jack Flash, footnotes to the character story and the directors tributing Penny Marshall. Also, there is a poster of Babe as a timestamp to when it is set, as it is a period piece to the mid-1990s. Be Kind Rewind is also a good celebration of what the VHS store culture is to a neighborhood community.
With the televisions on display, the classic hum of CRT monitors you have here, and when I was listening to the Sifter interview Jerry Williams had with you and Holly Wright at Rewind Video (108 N. 7th St.), you spoke about creating an experience for people.
CODY: With my love for film, physical media, VHS, old-school CRT TVs kind of go along with that. I’ve come across a few of them in my ten-plus years of collecting, sourcing all that, and had accumulated a rather large collection in my home. I always dreamed of connecting them all together and doing some sort of funky art project with it. I have a little channel splitter and put a cartoon on between all of them, as we see here currently. It’s a fun, cool aesthetic for the video shop. People are able to come in, and even though it’s simple, just a channel switch distributing a bunch of wires, it looks very cool and people like to take photos with it.
Opening Monster Video, taking that leap of being a small business owner, comes with the necessary goal of being a successful venture and having the sales to reflect that. But what makes me truly happy is people coming in and seeing on their face an expression of “Whoa!” where they are brought back to a specific time, a specific memory. And if they buy something, that’s appreciated. But if they just come in, hang out, remember some old titles, “Oh, I used to have this one,” or “I never got to rent this one,” or “Have you seen this one?” it just brings me immeasurable joy. It’s a step back to a time, one that we haven’t lived in a bit. I don’t want to say that we’ve forgotten, but it’s become more distant as we’re getting more and more into streaming and digital normalcy. Opening up this store and getting people right back to it, that’s my goal with Monster Video.
TRAV: With the actual VHS tapes and other media that you have, is this pulled from your personal collection? Or had you made an effort to create the stock that you wanted to start with?
CODY: I would say a lot of it is stuff I’ve collected over time. Even if I knew I already had the movie, maybe it was a different cover variant, titles that I love, or I just found it for a really good deal, a friend gave it to me, or we traded. I hung on to it knowing I wanted to open up something like this and wanted to be sure that when the right place came, I had the inventory already ready to go. It’s a huge collection out of sourcing myself, having friends who are also out hunting and thinking of me that I could use old VHS. Even just opening up my doors, a lot of people are coming in here donating or trading. It’s been an ongoing cycle of getting new titles.
TRAV: Anything that is a holy grail or things that you’ve been looking for, anything that you want to put out into the ether that you’re looking for?
CODY: Definitely. I’m always looking for Universal Monsters stuff. I do have the majority of the VHS tapes, but a lot of the action figures that I grew up having that I ended up selling when I was a teenager, that’s really where a lot of my love for film and horror started for me. Being a kid watching the classic Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man. There are definitely a few VHS titles out there. I’m still looking for some really tough ones, such as Sleepaway Camp and Killer Klowns from Outer Space, stuff like that. But yeah, I’m patient.
TRAV: With these VHS mass-manufactured, pro-company releases, do you have any interest in recorded tapes off of TV programs or cable?
CODY: Definitely! I have acquired a bit of a collection myself, maybe finding a tape which has no label, a mystery tape, and I can’t wait to see what’s on it. I was just going through some boxes that I got recently, and there are tapes like: “Family Christmas,” “Family Easter,” from ’94, ’96. There was one that just said “Christmas in New York, 1992.” I’m waiting until the Christmas season to pop that one on and see what it’s like.
Stuff like that interests me, to see what was going on in that timeline and in that place. Seeing what toys the kids are getting. Some people might find it a little odd and invasive because of the families, but there’s so much more to it that I find interesting. When we talk about tapes from cable with some commercials that have been long since forgotten. Maybe not even backed up. We could argue the importance of a Toys “R” Us commercial from 1994, but I think the majority of things should be archived and learned from.
When it comes to future artists working on things, I love homages to the previous years. So if I can find a tape that’s The Simpsons recorded on TV and whoever recorded it fell asleep and left it running, and then we’ll find an episode of a show that became lost media or a commercial that isn’t archived on YouTube.
TRAV: Do you have a digitization practice, or is it more an interest to watch it? To see it, to the ephemera of that? Or is there also an archivist project like some of the Internet Archive channels?
CODY: I would definitely say probably 50/50 to that. I love the excitement of putting the tape in and seeing what’s on it, being pleasantly surprised. And there’s another side of an archivist who wants to back it up, save it. I have this tape, then once I see it, I feel it’s my responsibility to take it to the next level. I have the equipment for digitizing, but I would not consider myself a professional with it. I’ve done a few home movies from my own family, but if I found something special, I definitely want to get the best quality of whatever I found online for the world to see.
TRAV: I was able to give someone in Texas about 20 boxes, part of my dad’s old VHS tapes that I couldn’t process or house myself. He has a practice with tapes that he’ll watch with his child, teaching them about the past and digitizing gems. Thrilled I was able to save them from going into a dump and get them new eyes.
Talking about terms and collections to stress the importance of, in reality, libraries, personal and public. I don’t have Wi-Fi right now, the expense is just too great, so I thought, “Screw it, I’ll just watch all my DVDs.” With streaming media, cloud media, digital media, virtual media, viral media, archival media, mass media, political media, protest media, social media, print media, we’ve got all of these terms. Now there is use of “physical media.”
CODY: It’s funny that we now have this term “physical media” that ten years ago didn’t really mean as much. It was more like, “This is my movie collection. My DVDs are over here. Here are all my VHS tapes.” Now that digital media has become so huge, most everything is being streamed nowadays. There’s a lot of movies that you can’t find on streaming. Who knows who has the rights to it currently. If it is streaming, it might be edited, whether it be some sort of specific cut of the film or the aspect ratio is adjusted. There’s something special about the tactile experience of holding a tape in your hands and owning that title once you bring it home. I don’t want to see us lose touch with this practice…literally.
I want to get the movie and put it in and have that experience. I don’t want to be abruptly stopped in different sections of the movie to watch some awful commercials. I love putting in a film and sitting through five or so trailers, ones for movies I didn’t even know existed or forgot about completely. And then my world might even be opened up to some other different experience. I think a lot of us are getting so equipped with the normalcy of streaming that we need to not forget about the simplicity and enjoyment of owning your own copy of a movie, finding something used and letting it have a new life.
A gentleman came in here and was saying that he can be scrolling through one of the streaming platforms and there might be movies that pop up that have been on his watch list but are not really resonating at that time. But coming in here and seeing titles in front of your face and being able to pick it up, there’s something different about it, being like, “Man, I want to take this home and I want to watch this.” There’s something to it that I can’t quite explain. But when this gentleman said it, I knew exactly what he’s talking about. I can scroll through those pages and not get that same feeling. But being here, seeing a movie come in, “I’m going to take this home tonight. My fiancé and I are going to watch it,” that’s been exciting. I want other people to have that same feeling. The people who come here are very similar to myself. They’re nostalgic, they love movies, and I want us all to be able to experience that again.
TRAV: With the movie posters and other marketing elements, they do cross between promotional marketing, commerce tools, and art. When I was in film school, wall to wall, ceiling to floor, covered with displayed vinyl because the artwork is so big, posters, and rip-outs from magazines. Now it is my working studio, living space, hybrid library room, with all the movies on shelves. The inspiration of it all funnels into my collage art, film, and video edits in my art-making practice. A Human Data Center.
To the notion of “scrolling streaming title paralysis,” trying to figure out what you’re going to watch, scrolling endlessly. I find it analogous to looking at all my DVD spines, where I’m still like, “What am I going to watch?” Do you have any thoughts on box art and the posters, what that brings to our imaginations?
CODY: The cover art when it comes to VHS tapes, maybe it’s just me, but the specific ratio for the VHS tape box art, it just looks so appealing to me. DVDs are cool, and the same with Blu-rays, they’re fine, but there’s something about that specific ratio of a VHS tape that is appealing to the eye. I would say similarly with LaserDiscs, which are about the same size as vinyl records. I’ve collected a few LaserDiscs as well. I had Austin Powers in here the other day, and seeing the art in that ratio looked awesome. I love that.
When it comes to streaming and scrolling through, you rarely get to see the poster these days. When I swipe, immediately you’re just getting either the trailer or loop clip of the movie. It’s very abrupt and jarring. Sometimes my volume’s up too loud, and I’m kind of overstimulated. I need to turn it down. I don’t really want to watch a clip of the movie all the time. I want to see the poster. I want to read the description. It was a job for someone to create that poster. Let’s appreciate that for a moment. And then you might get a sentence about the description of the movie. But for most VHS tapes, when you flip it over, you’re going to get a pretty good summary of the film. And I think that’s important, as well as a good deciding factor on what to watch.
TRAV: I’ve had a couple instances, when William Friedkin and Rob Reiner passed, I wanted to watch their films. And in each of those instances, for Friedkin, I rewatched The French Connection, and then for Rob Reiner, I rewatched When Harry Met Sally for the first time as an adult, so I finally really understood it. Previously, I had watched Misery when James Caan passed. But I was seeing chatter, people talking online that they couldn’t watch When Harry Met Sally or Stand by Me because it wasn’t streaming at that instance.
With The French Connection, Disney had gone back and re-edited the film, trying to soften controversial character realities, which was an editing of film and history. But because the DVD version was still intact, I was able to see it as it was intended and think about contemporary issues around corporate re-edits leaving things out to obfuscate social commentary.
With people building their physical media library or having their favorite films in their collection, do you have thoughts or advice to someone about what might be a good way to start or why it’s important to have copies in hand or on a shelf?
CODY: It’s tough because I’ve been such a lifelong collector of movies, but if someone was coming in saying, “I really want to get off streaming. I want to start up my own collection. Where do I begin?” I would probably say, “Let’s start with what are the movies that you loved as a kid? What did you rent?” Maybe really dive into the whole nostalgic aspect. “When I was a kid, I used to rent Young Frankenstein.” Cool. “Let’s grab that. What’s another favorite movie that you maybe quote often?” “Oh, you know, I love Crocodile Dundee.” Okay, “Let’s grab a copy of that. Now, let’s find something that looks appealing to you. Just figure out a genre that you’re kind of drawn to, maybe find an actor that you really like.” “Big Nicolas Cage fan. Leaving Las Vegas. Haven’t seen this one. I’m going to go check it out.” Maybe just grabbing a couple that you’re familiar with and then maybe one that you are not, just to kind of expand out.
TRAV: Since you opened in July, who’s been able to find the store and come in?
CODY: I have been blown away. We’ve had tons of different folks coming through these past couple of weeks, sharing their love for this space. It definitely has been a passion project of mine, and I am very appreciative that people are seeing the attention to detail and loving the nostalgic yet unique experience that I’m creating. I’ve made new friends, learned about new movies from people talking about movies or people trading stuff. We’re only a few days in, so I can’t wait a few months down the road, what we’re going to be looking like.
This is the perfect area for what I’m doing. I had played around with VHS-style markets a little bit over the past few years. My main thing is I run a vintage clothing store called Cut and Run Vintage that has been open since January of 2020. It is maybe half a mile away at the corner of Marshall and Gilmer. Had a good selection of VHS there, but nothing too deep. It is mostly vintage clothing. I started to notice when I would do markets around the city or in other cities that bringing more VHS tapes and sharing that, people really get into it.
Last September, I did a collaboration with Studio Two Three, where I took over their Shop Two Three space and turned that into a video store very similar to this. And that was just wildly successful. Since then, I’ve had the itch to do it full time. All love and respect to Bobby at Vinyl Conflict for texting me one day and saying, “This space next door isn’t on the market yet, you should reach out.” And things just fell into place. Being right next door to an incredible vinyl record shop and also a really cool vintage antique oddity store in The Veiled Mirror, people can come down here and hit all three of us and leave with some cool things.
TRAV: Have you experienced any timing with Convention Center cons yet?
CODY: Anticipating some. I know there’s one coming up at the end of the month. Being relatively new to this specific area and hearing from our neighbors and Bobby from Vinyl Conflict about how busy it gets with the conventions. I’m not a big convention-goer myself. I never really noticed that opening up here is going to be great for the foot traffic from them. There’s one coming up in a couple weeks, trying to make sure I have a good amount of stock for that weekend.
TRAV: Can you speak to the generational aspect of folks that are in our generation bringing in their kids?
CODY: We’re definitely seeing a wide range of age here, mostly looking like 25 to 55. We’re getting a little bit of everyone here. I’m seeing a lot of folks in their mid-30s to mid-40s with young kids. They want to bring them here: “This is like where we used to go and rent movies.” And, “There’s movies on this. We used to pick these out, take them home on the weekend and watch them.” They get to show their kids how it was. We have a little family-friendly area so they can pick out old Disney movies or cartoons and take those home. I myself am not a parent yet, but it’s really been cool seeing people who are around my age and a little bit older bringing in their little ones and showing them what life was like for them when they were that age and sharing that experience.
A couple parents have shared, after getting off streaming and having their kid, instead of really dialed in to the streaming, looping episode after episode, stuck in a repetitive binge of this TV show or movie, that with a VHS, “This is a movie. You put it on. When it ends, we’re going on to the next thing. We can play outside, we can read a book, we can have lunch.” That’s definitely resonated with me, that it’s a great idea of when the movie’s done, rewind it of course, but then move on to something else. You don’t need to sit through and watch hours and hours of television or streams.
TRAV: We got the caution to not be a “couch potato,” but now there’s the loops and pre-starts and moving on seamlessly, jumping ahead to the next bite of doom content. There’s definitely something else happening with the pads and the screens, the constant nonstop digitized attention scroll. We have given up so much personal power.
To close out, was there anything you wanted to share around this movement, renaissance, revolution, or resistance that we’re doing here by loving these objects, what’s on them, and then the multisensory experience and effort of sharing them with each other?
CODY: I guess to go over some questions I get a lot here. We are designed to look like an old, retro video rental store, but at the moment, we are just doing retail. However, we have some rental ideas for the future, but for now, everything you see here is for sale.
If you love film, if you love Richmond, if you love the ’80s and ’90s, come on through to Monster Video. You might meet a new friend and talk about some movies, which we could all use more of, especially with the digital and social media normalcy that we’re in. It’s definitely important to chat with your neighbors who also share a love for film. Even if you don’t have a VCR, it’s fun just to come down the aisles and relive that experience a lot of us miss. If you don’t have the means of playing a VHS tape, but you want to get one, we’ve got VCRs, DVD players, Blu-ray players, old-school TVs, all for sale.
We are also starting to open up repairs. If you’ve got VCR issues, if you’ve got old VHS tapes that are getting moldy, we can clean those up, and we do disc resurfacing if you’ve got some scratched-up DVDs. Just reach out. You can send us a message through Instagram, which is just @MonsterVideoRVA, and we’d love to see you here!
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