You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

The Emerald City Video Podcast is a periodic podcast hosted by entertainment journalist Russ Burlingame, with a rotating cast of hosts who used to work at the Emerald City Video store in East Syracuse, New York. The store was once awarded by the Video Software Dealers of America as the best small video store in the U.S. Though it closed in 2009, the store’s legacy still touches the daily lives of a lot of the people who used to work there, and the Syracuse community as a whole still has a lot of fondness for its memory.

The idea behind the podcast, which launched in 2016, was to bring the discourse you would get at a video store — talking with real humans about your movies, rather than trusting in an algorithm — back to…well, if not the world, or even Syracuse, at least to the guys who maybe missed that human connection the most: a bunch of pop culture junky loudmouths who used to run a really cool video store. Over the years, the Emerald City Video banner has flown over a number of themes, including specific episodes about TV series like Riverdale and Psych.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense. You can support us on Patreon, too, and do things like requesting custom episodes and the like.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.

It’s time to talk about Satanic Panic, a low-budget horror movie that Russ and Zach both LOVED.

You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

The Emerald City Video Podcast is a periodic podcast hosted by entertainment journalist Russ Burlingame, with a rotating cast of hosts who used to work at the Emerald City Video store in East Syracuse, New York. The store was once awarded by the Video Software Dealers of America as the best small video store in the U.S. Though it closed in 2009, the store’s legacy still touches the daily lives of a lot of the people who used to work there, and the Syracuse community as a whole still has a lot of fondness for its memory.

The idea behind the podcast, which launched in 2016, was to bring the discourse you would get at a video store — talking with real humans about your movies, rather than trusting in an algorithm — back to…well, if not the world, or even Syracuse, at least to the guys who maybe missed that human connection the most: a bunch of pop culture junky loudmouths who used to run a really cool video store. Over the years, the Emerald City Video banner has flown over a number of themes, including specific episodes about TV series like Riverdale and Psych.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense. You can support us on Patreon, too, and do things like requesting custom episodes and the like.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.

The Dead Don’t Die: 5/5

Hi-Death 1/5

Here are Russ’s notes from Hi-Death, as mentioned in the episode:

Opening shot of Romero’s star. Yeah, we get plenty of others — but the OPENING SHOT.

Titles looked amateur — budget or choice? And I love the music that sounds like just a 2-minute version of an old direct-to-VHS studio fanfare.

Zero budget in an endearing way. The acting is WOOF but little things like not having.a filter so the phone shows up properly onscreen feels properly guerrilla.

Cut from the opening scene of bright, musical, cheerful LA to the silent (for like 5 seconds, TOTALLY silent) train station at night felt jarring at first but was actually a great choice.  They hold the show JUST long enough so it feels like maybe your computer froze.

Diminishing returns when they did the same thing again from the nightclub to the alley. It feels like Chuck Palahniuk’s writing in Fight Club, where ehe found a couple of cool stylistic choices and just repeated them till they weren’t cool anymore.

The girl who is tripping in the first segment is actually great when she’s doing dialogue but her actual physical acting is really hit or miss.

This feels like a shot-on-shitty-o movie from the ‘80s and if it was shot in low resolution on VHS, it would probably look better. The HD doesn’t do many favors for effects like the Reaper.

The guy in “Night Drop” is the worst burglar ever. He takes off his mask AND takes the time to open the briefcase? Just steal the briefcase!

Why the surreptitious hand-off of the money/goods when they’re the ONLY ONESon the bleachers with no sporting event going on? That’s so much sketchier than just meeting anywhere else.

The “Switchblade Bandit” segment is full of cheap and lazy iMovie effects.

Rockoff doesn’t know how to smoke.

“Night Drop” was shot in a Family Video. The actors are pretty solid, especially by comparison to “Dealers of Death,” as are the filmmaking choices.

His hand trauma reminds me of the time I stabbed myself in the thumb with a pair of scissors while working at Blockbuster. I still have a scar and nerve damage to this day.

“Fantastic Flicks” is the fake name for the video store in spite of being able to clearly see Family Video logos in several shots.

Red DVD cases pretty much are always porn

The DVD from Night Drop is creepy on a David Lynch level and it really should not have been put right after the dreadful Night Drop.

All those copies of The Peanuts Movie on the new release wall pretty much dates this segment.

So it’s The Ring on steroids. Right.

“The only reason I’m seeing you for this audition is that my friend Michelle said that you were good” is a hell of a piece of expository dialogue.

The girl in the actress one (Fabiana Formica) is probably the best actress in the movie, which is fortunate. I’m not sure what that one has to do with the whole horror/supernatural thing though. And it feels incredibly indulgent.

She’s joined in that one by Julia Vally, who recently appeared in an episode of What They Do In The Shadows

Once the POV girl is lost, why not use her phone’s GPS? It’s obviously working.

Why is the painter rocking back and forth? And is that Gatorade in the water bottle supposed to be pee? It’s ORANGE.

The VFX people on this movie don’t really get how anything looks or works on the inside.

The devil guy talking over the guy’s shoulder in “The Muse” was actually not bad when he was bathed in shadow, or even when he was killing the hooker. But once you get clear shots of him in (relative) light it’s a mess.

The gratuitous mix of sex and violence feels the most like the ‘80s slasher movies the anthology is meant (I guess) to pay tribute to. The whole thing feels like a love letter to Creepshow and Tales From the Crypt, but done with 2% of the budget and 1% of the talent.

Creepy guy in the beanie has those weird sex backing his voice that sounds like they are doing the backwards talking thing from Twin Peaks, but without actually doing git. It’s weird. Also, this whole thing went from killing people in back rooms to a Cthulu ruling the world.

You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.

You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.

You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.

It is…pretty much exactly what you think.

You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.