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FeedNorth Campus Video: I'm sorry
I feel as though I’ve contributed to the death of a friend. And like all Columbus-based lovers of bizarre, obscure and gloriously bad films, I dearly will miss North Campus Video, which closed in late March.
After more than 30 years of supplying round-the-clock access to inexpensive video rentals that run the gamut from weird martial arts flicks to queer cinema and horror to blaxploitation, that video oasis on the corner of North High Street near Hudson Street finally has succumbed to the economic pressures of the digital age.
For an awful lot of people, new releases serve the home-rental purpose. I am not those people. Only at North Campus Video could I have found Grizzly II, Return of the Killer Tomatoes and Return to Horror High (in all of which a young George Clooney appeared, believe it or not).
But I got lazy. I became a Netflix addict. I could stream Sleepaway Camp IV while I waited for the first three to arrive by mail. And Netflix recommends other films based on my viewing history. They found Barn of the Naked Dead for me. It was like a beautiful dream.
Still, Netflix offers only so much. Even though its database of older and obscure films is impressive, it pales when compared to those indecipherably catalogued racks found at North Campus Video. What good is Piranha, which is available on Netflix, without the harder to find Piranha II: The Spawning (directed by James Cameron, no less)?
And so, even though my love affair with Netflix was full of passion, glee and carnage, I still found myself wandering into North Campus Video looking for some Linda Blair classic or another.
But then came the construction of 2009. For months on end—or was it years?—the cones and traffic on High Street made arriving and parking such a drag. When I found It’s Alive and It Lives Again on Netflix, but not the third installment, Island of the Alive, it was easier to buy it on Amazon for $4 than to rent a helicopter and parachute into North Campus.
And so North Campus Video has gone the way of so many other beloved local friends, such as the indie film lovers’ favorite Aardvark Video or that cornucopia of hardcore horror and martial arts flicks, Ozoner Video. I’ll miss the blue neon, the gamy odor and those surly yet helpful clerks.
I know the world keeps spinning and progress progresses and not everyone wakes up saying, “If I can’t watch Bloodsucking Freaks today my whole week is ruined.” But naively I thought North Campus Video might be the one rental shop that would survive.
I was wrong.
Goodbye, my friend, with apologies.
