Please Rewind Video Store
STOREMAGAZINE
ARTICLES // REVIEWS
STORIES WORTH REWINDING
Reviews, retrospectives, lists, nostalgia, physical media and all the movie conversations that refuse to end when the credits roll.
● NEW ISSUES ADDED REGULARLY
Magazine rack
MORE FROM PLEASE REWIND
BROWSE // READ // RETURN LATE
RENTAL_01
Sandra Bullock: The Hollywood Star Who Made Being Likeable Look Effortless
From Speed and While You Were Sleeping to Miss Congeniality, Gravity and an Oscar-winning dramatic career, Sandra Bullock became one of Hollywood’s most dependable stars without ever losing the warmth that made audiences fall in love with her.
RENTAL_02
The Funny Man Who Always Feared He Was Living on Borrowed Time
John Candy spent his life making other people laugh. Behind the warmth of Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and some of the most beloved comedies of the 1980s was a man shaped by the loss of his father, anxiety, Hollywood’s obsession with his weight and a haunting fear that his own life might also be cut short.
RENTAL_03
1986, 1996, 2006: Three Movie Years That Defined Three Generations
Forty years. Thirty years. Twenty years. In 2026, three extraordinary movie years hit major anniversaries — and looking back at 1986, 1996, and 2006 reveals just how dramatically cinema, audiences and the way we watched movies changed.
RENTAL_04
$5,600, 16 Days, 12 People: How Kızım Went From Micro-Budget Film to Turkish Cinemas
Most feature films require substantial crews, equipment and budgets. Kızım had about $5,600, 16 shooting days, and a team of just 12 people. Writer-director-producer Gökhan Gökçay tells a very different kind of filmmaking story — one that eventually took his tiny independent production all the way to a commercial theatrical release.
RENTAL_05
Why Horror Movies Are Scarier at Night — Even When We Know They’re Not Real
We know Michael Myers isn’t standing outside. We know the noise downstairs is probably the heating. And we know the film ends the same way whether we watch it at two in the afternoon or midnight. So why do horror movies become so much scarier after dark?
RENTAL_06
Why Horror Movies Feel Better in Autumn
Every year, horror movies start working differently. It doesn't arrive on October 31. It happens earlier than that. Maybe it's the first evening when you notice it's getting dark before you've finished dinner. Maybe it's the first properly cold night after summer. Maybe it's rain hitting the windows while you're deciding what to watch. Or perhaps it's simply walking through a supermarket and seeing pumpkins where the barbecue charcoal used to be. Whatever triggers it, something changes. Suddenly, watching a horror movie feels right again. You can watch Halloween in June. Of course you can. Michael Myers doesn't become less effective because it's warm outside. You can watch The Lost Boys on a bright Sunday afternoon in May. Freddy Krueger can turn up in February. The Exorcist doesn't check the calendar before frightening the life out of you. But put those same films on during a dark autumn evening and somehow they feel different. The film hasn't changed. Everything around the film has. And perhaps that's why horror movies feel better in autumn.
RENTAL_07
Why VHS and Horror Movies Were Made for Each Other
Before streaming gave us every horror movie at the touch of a button, there was VHS. From video-shop shelves and outrageous cover art to video nasties, sleepovers and cult movies finding a second life, horror and videotape became the perfect partnership.
RENTAL_08
Why Practical Effects Made 1980s Horror So Terrifying
From The Thing and An American Werewolf in London to The Fly, Hellraiser and The Evil Dead, 1980s horror put its monsters physically in front of the camera — and more than forty years later, we're still trying to work out how they did it.
RENTAL_09
Why the 1980s Were the Greatest Decade for Horror Movies
From The Shining and The Thing to Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, The Evil Dead, The Fly and The Lost Boys, the 1980s didn't just produce great horror movies. It changed how horror looked, how we watched it and who its biggest stars were.
RENTAL_10
How the 1980s Turned Horror Villains Into Movie Stars
Horror once asked audiences to fear the monster. In the 1980s, something changed. Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead and Chucky became the faces audiences paid to see — and horror's killers became movie stars.
RENTAL_11
How Halloween and Horror Movies Became Inseparable
Halloween existed long before the movies. But over more than a century, horror cinema and America's favourite spooky holiday have borrowed so much from each other that it's now hard to imagine one without the other.
RENTAL_12
Halloween 5: The Sequel That Wasted Halloween 4’s Perfect Ending
Halloween 4 ended with one of the franchise’s boldest twists: Jamie Lloyd standing at the top of the stairs with a bloody pair of scissors. One year later, Halloween 5 had the perfect opportunity to take the series somewhere genuinely frightening. Instead, it mostly backed away from the idea.
RENTAL_13
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers — The Sequel That Saved the Boogeyman
Six years after Halloween III dared to leave Michael Myers behind, the Shape returned to Haddonfield. Halloween 4 wasn't revolutionary. It didn't need to be. It simply remembered exactly what audiences had been missing.
RENTAL_14
Halloween III: How the Franchise's Most Hated Sequel Became a Cult Classic
It removed Michael Myers and replaced him with killer Halloween masks, androids, Stonehenge, and the most irritatingly catchy advert in horror history. In 1982, Halloween III: Season of the Witch was the sequel many fans didn't want. More than four decades later, it might be one of the franchise's most interesting films.
RENTAL_15
Why Michael Myers Is Still Scary After Nearly 50 Years
Nearly half a century after Halloween, Michael Myers can still make standing at the end of a quiet suburban street feel terrifying. No elaborate costume. No clever speeches. No explanation required. Just a white mask, a kitchen knife and a man who refuses to tell us why.
RENTAL_16
The Video Shop Horror Aisle Was Scarier Than Half the Movies
Before trailers followed us around the internet and every horror movie was a click away, sometimes all it took to scare the life out of you was a VHS cover. For a generation of horror fans, the video shop horror aisle was where the nightmares really started.
RENTAL_17
Why Are People Choosing Streaming Over the Cinema? It’s About More Than Ticket Prices
Cinema tickets aren't cheap, but money alone doesn't explain why so many of us would rather watch a movie from the sofa. Streaming hasn't killed our love of cinema—it's completely changed what we expect from a night at the movies.
RENTAL_18
Brad Pitt Heads Back to San Sebastián With David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast
Brad Pitt is heading back to San Sebastián. The actor will join director David Ayer at the 2026 festival for an out-of-competition screening of Heart of the Beast, their new Alaskan survival thriller about a former Special Forces officer and his combat dog.
RENTAL_19
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review
But Spider-Man: Brand New Day gives Tom Holland's Peter Parker a slightly different problem.
RENTAL_20
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey Review: A Huge, Brutal and Surprisingly Human Epic
There are certain films where you know before the lights even go down that you're probably in for something massive.
RENTAL_21
Hayden Panettiere Shock Death
Hollywood is in mourning over the death of beloved Hayden Panettiere.
RENTAL_22
How Cinema Has Changed in the Last 20 Years — And What We’ve Lost Along the Way
From Friday-night queues and packed multiplexes to streaming, phones and endless choice, going to the movies feels very different now.
RENTAL_23
Whatever Happened to the Friday Night Movie?
Before endless scrolling and infinite watchlists, Friday night meant choosing one film, getting the snacks in and actually pressing play.
RENTAL_24
Why Movies Used to Feel Like Events
Posters, trailers, release-day queues and months of anticipation once made a new movie feel enormous. Have we lost that — or just changed how hype works?
RENTAL_25
Streaming vs Cinema: Where Do You Actually Prefer to Watch Movies?
The big screen or the sofa? Streaming changed movie night forever, but has convenience really beaten the cinema experience?
PLEASE REWIND STORE POLICY
NO SPOILERS.
NO JUDGEMENT.
JUST MOVIES.
The good ones, the bad ones and the ones we'll defend until closing time.
BE KIND // RETURN TAPE // READ ANOTHER