Back in the day, renting movies was a weekly exercise in patience. Finding the best entertainment options while beating your neighbors to the local store’s limited inventory (or not) felt like beating your head against the wall at times. For this Child of the ’80s, that meant visiting the local mom-and-pop video store (first it was Video Country, then Camera World and later Phar-Mor) on a Friday after school while prepping for the long weekend ahead of me.

And if the preferred store was out of copies of your intended release, you either had to choose a different rental location to pilfer through their inventory or make another selection. While this story begins with videotapes, it eventually led to the advent of DVDs, which were even more enjoyable as a pre-internet cinephile.

That leads us to Dead Media, a film that respects the previously released horror movies of the ’90s while fully supporting physical media. I totally approve of both statements.

This film begins similarly to my teenage years: One evening, a trio of friends chooses to host a Movie Night, but just like me, they spend too much time scrolling through their options. Hard decisions are not being made, and a lot of time is wasted before eventually deciding upon a title: Night of the Lurchers.

But just as they begin streaming the movie, their progress is halted when Maggie (portrayed by Sammi-Jack Martincak) invites her overbearing Uncle Heppy (Sam Landman) to the party.

Bringing treats (homebrew beer and edibles), he also reveals an ultra-rare hard copy of the horror classic on DVD. At the beginning of Dead Media, the audience watches these characters view the movie, but there’s a twist. Apparently, a couple of the filmmakers went missing after completing the film and an urban legend mentions an Easter egg is hidden somewhere within the DVD’s option menus that might help finding them.

Maggie’s endless determination wins out, but by unlocking it, she and her friends are literally sucked into the DVD, where they are terrorized by undead beast that feed on the living. Oh, and the previously missing filmmakers can be found there, as well, conveniently laying the “rules” for these killers.

“The first rule of any horror movie is to learn the rules!”

Horror movies of the ’90s rewrote the genre and Dead Media is an homage to that great period of time.

Right off the bat, this film just clicks with me. The nostalgia factor is strong with this one, but as I was watching, I realized how much I connected with Uncle Heppy. At first, the movie enthusiast/film buff seems like a loner who’s a little out of whack and an overall bad influence in Maggie’s life, but as their story unfolds, the layers of his character unpeel and reveal the true love he has for his niece. Heppy’s character arc goes from being a little creepy to becoming super sympathetic as they fight for their lives to escape the low-budget screams that become real-life risks.

Dead Media blends concepts of time-traveling adventures where characters take multiple attempts to find their fate with entries from the Scream franchise, which literally instruct the on-screen characters how to solve their problems. It also blurs the line between movie making and film fandom.

“Why do all doors lead to documentaries?

Using cheesy special effects — there’s blue blood dripping from the monsters, for crying out loud — lots of horror tropes and the painful effects of dealing with a skipping disc, the movie is filmed like a hallucinatory nightmare, and I loved every nostalgic moment of it, despite the overstated millennial disdain for ’90s culture.

And through this journey, multi-hyphenate filmmaker Joseph Scrimshaw’s message is crystal clear: Dead Media writes a love letter to physical media and in the process, it becomes an instant cult classic.

There’s even some commentary about filming movies with phones, but the one that truly hits home involves DVD bonus features. In this day and age, these nuggets of infotainment truly are a lost art and with the progress of digital entertainment options, their existence feel threatened. I have always been a very big fan of watching films in movie theaters and purchasing physical media for multiple viewings. Downloading one for a single viewing has never appealed to me and with Sony’s recent announcement that all media “purchased” and downloaded via the PlayStation Network is only temporary, the popularity of physical media has only skyrocketed.

And for good reason.

The popularity of physical media should have never waned, and for a film intently focused on the minutia of the horror genre, it’s not too much of a stretch to have a few Easter eggs hidden deep within its mid-credits’ scenes. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled!

Dead Media crafts a story centered around a haunted DVD steeped in Scandinavian folklore that questions what it feels like to be real. It also reminds me of the joy of physical media. I felt the nostalgia while mirroring Uncle Heppy’s fondness of the glorious year 1999. He speaks for all of us who remember the previous millennium and would love to return to it.

“I love the tension that your bladder places on movie night…”