Dead Video

Once upon a time, circa 1990, video stores were the cornerstone of every suburb. Often gargantuan pieces of real estate in pride of place with a golden glean only akin to these stores. It was a special time but one that has almost vanished. Luckily, we can still cling to a Blockbuster-esque nostalgia fix. Dead Video in Christchurch's port suburb of Lyttelton, is open for business.

Owner Evan Kiddey has transformed an old barber’s shop into a wall-to-wall homage to cinema. Mountains of magnificent movies to rent – just like the good ol’ days. And to put into context how rare this is, there are only two other DVD rental joints left in Canterbury.

Inside Dead Video you’ll find over 2,500 DVDs to rent (all from Evan’s personal collection), a selection of DVDs to buy, and a bespoke collection of VHS tapes to hire if that’s your jam. Think Thrillers to Anime, True Story to Sci-fi – we recommend you leave plenty of time to browse. If you’re afraid you’ve booted out your VHS player along with the framed photo of your ex, no sweat, Evan can rent you a player too. Now you can rewind your favourite parts of Big Trouble in Little China to your heart's content or sit back and reminisce with local 80s movie The Quiet Earth starring the inimitable Bruno Lawrence. 

Be sure to get utterly lost in all the cinematic memorabilia, vintage comics, curios and collectors cards. There’s everything from original Transformers to Star Wars lego, figurines from recent cult favourites like Stranger Things and Game of Thrones to original Simpsons trading cards. It’s all rounded off with a healthy dose of 80s paraphernalia - a couple of mint Sony walkmans, a home camcorder and retro polaroid camera. This place comes with a hefty Advisory Warning: you’ll want to buy it all. 

So if you’re wondering, did streaming kill the video star?? Well, not quite, thanks to neat people like Evan at Dead Video.