The distribution and production company Blue Finch Films has unveiled a cool image from the upcoming horror movie The Last Video Store, which just wrapped production in Hamilton, Ontario. Deadline got the first look at the image, which can now be seen at the bottom of this article. I say the image is cool not just because I’m a fan of slasher movies and it happens to offer the sight of a masked slasher walking through an old school video store with VHS tapes on the shelves, but also because Friday the 13th is my favorite franchise and the slasher in this image looks sort of familiar. It’s clearly meant to be a stand-in of sorts for Jason Voorhees.
Directed by Cody Kennedy and Tim Rutherford, The Last Video Store is described as “a love letter to the era of the video store”. The story centers on
a young woman who takes a collection of old video tapes to one of the last video stores in the world. Unbeknownst to her, she is in possession of a legendary “cursed tape” that holds the power to connect the real world with another dimension in which B-movie fantasies are reality. When she and the video store owner unwittingly reawaken its curse, a raft of cinematic villains is unleashed.
Cinematic villains like the pseudo-Jason featured below. This film is a feature expansion of an idea Kennedy and Rutherford previously explored in a series of short films. Those shorts starred Kevin Martin and Joshua Lenner, who also star in this movie and are joined in the cast by newcomer Vanessa “Yaayaa” Adams.
Blue Finch Films is planning a festival premiere for The Last Video Store sometime in 2023. The film was produced by Greg Jeffs at NJC Picture Co and Laurence Gendron at Genco Pictures. Executive producers include Michael Baker, Brendan McNeill, Patrick White, Ari Taub, and Blue Finch’s Mike Chapman and Simon Crowe.
I haven’t seen the short films Kennedy and Rutherford made, but this feature version of The Last Video Store already has my full attention. I look forward to checking it out sometime down the line.
Here’s the first look image. Let us know what you think of it by leaving a comment below.