Streaming is the new VHS. Why we still encounter the best movies of our life on home video

There’s a new Sylvester Stallone action movie out but you’ll only be able to see it at home – which, for an 1980s kid like myself, is a bit of deja vu.

Sure, like everyone else, I saw “Rocky IV” at the movie theater in 1985 when I was 9, where Stallone’s patriotic boxing champ essentially solved the Cold War. But the actor’s R-rated films were a different matter: Because I was too young to see them on a big screen, I watched the "First Blood" Rambo flicks and movies like “Cobra” and “Tango & Cash” on a rented VHS in the rec room with my father – usually much to my mom’s chagrin.

The arrival of the VCR was a godsend to a generation of film fans. While going to the movie theater was always an exciting proposition, home video allowed grown-ups and kids alike a chance to revisit older films and newer stuff that would slowly make its way from big screens to small ones.

These days, streaming services are the new VHS albeit writ large, where viewers can find pretty much find any classic movie they’d ever want, as well as fresh fare like Stallone’s superhero project “Samaritan” on Amazon Prime or the “Predator” prequel “Prey” on Hulu. (Bonus: You don’t have to wait forever for that “Ghostbusters” videocassette to finally come out.)

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VHS was an entertainment game changer back when cellphones were too huge to ever misplace and you couldn’t even imagine watching a movie on a computer. The Apple TV and Roku of yesteryear were the shelves of your TV stand, where several tapes contained random TV shows, perhaps a Super Bowl or a movie, and you hoped that a parent or sibling didn’t record over anything important accidentally. (Our family's first VHS "mixtape" in 1984 included the werewolf movie "The Howling" and the short-lived sketch comedy "The New Show.")

During the ’80s heyday of video rental stores, "every single movie of the past was available, at least in principle," says Nathan Shumate, author of "The Golden Age of Crap: 77 B-Movies From the Glory Days of VHS." Plus, thanks to the VCR, it was the first time that a recent movie could be seen repeatedly.

"That's one of the reasons that 'Ghostbusters,' 'Pretty in Pink,' 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' and 'The Goonies' are so cemented in our pop-culture vocabulary, even today," Shumate adds. "Aside from being really good movies, they were the movies that were available to be rewatched enough to be memorized."

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The VHS boom and today's streaming popularity "have a lot of similarities," says Wesley Younger, creator and co-host of the "VIA VHS" podcast, who was introduced to classics like "Back to the Future" and "Star Wars" courtesy of his uncle's VHS bootlegs. Both proved to be havens for mainstream as well as more obscure fare, though while the latter became harder to find in the later days of video stores, they've benefited greatly from streaming: "You couldn’t take up shelf space for unpopular movies but when it’s on a server in the cloud, you can broaden the variety of films you show."

Is it hyperbolic to call those trips to the video store magical? Maybe. Yet Erol’s, Hollywood Video and Blockbuster were heaven for a young film lover and a gateway to escapes of every genre.

I spent hours poring over shelves and annoyingly hanging out by the drop-off bin, waiting for someone to return “The Untouchables” and “Red Heat” or eyeing the latest R-rated “Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Revenge of the Nerds.” My dad and I watched PG and PG-13 films as well but there was something special about the forbidden fruit. (Did we watch those on the down-low? You bet. Did we tell Mom? Certainly not. Was it always a blast? Heck, yeah.)

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Since then, watching movies at home (especially as an adult paid to do so) has always been a major part of my life. So when the pandemic happened two years ago and theaters shut across the country, my generation was particularly suited for this scenario. We binged movies at home back in the day, and we did so again as Hollywood was forced to shift its content to home video – in this case, Netflix, Apple TV+, Peacock and their ilk. Like with the VCR, the streaming era changed the game again, this time with less accumulated dust and fewer tracking issues.

This summer, blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World Dominion” brought the big screen back in a major way for audiences, even if there are some signs it’s still on shaky ground (Cineworld, the world’s second-largest theater chain, is weighing filing for bankruptcy). Yet streaming and video on- demand is just as essential a part of our entertainment diet, and for loads of people: As of July, Netflix had 220.7 million subscribers while Disney+ reached 152.1 million subscriptions this month.

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As a kid, some of my favorite movies were discovered perusing the aisles at the video store and, with so much more available at people’s fingertips, it's easy to imagine that happening on a larger scale now. Mike Ryan, a senior entertainment writer at Uproxx, thinks streaming actually improves on the old rental model.

"I’ll see people slightly younger than me waxing poetically about Blockbuster while saying streaming is the pits. Are you kidding me? This is much better," says Ryan, who grew up in "a Betamax family" in the ’80s. "In the ’90s, if I wanted to see a movie I had to drive to a store and they may or may not have a pan-and-scan version of 'Ice Pirates,' or whatever I was in the mood to watch that night. Right now, I can be watching 'Ice Pirates' in the next five minutes, in its original aspect ratio, if I want to."

Shumate allows there's less of a "treasure-hunting" aspect with on demand than with video stores. Plus, "in the old days, if you had paid for one or two videocassettes and schlepped them home, you were going to damn well watch them, no matter how bad they were. Today, with video on demand, I abandon a lot of low-budget movies in the first 10 minutes, because it's competing for my attention against literally everything else ever made."

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Since the COVID-19 outbreak two years ago, many major movies have skipped theaters and gone right to streaming. There was much Twitter hand-wringing – as there is about so many things – in regard to “Prey” premiering on Hulu, being that it’s a splendid sci-fi horror movie with a great female lead (Amber Midthunder) that could have made some box office. The thing is, good movies should be in theaters and on streaming – the latter shouldn’t be seen as a “lesser” option.

I've seen just as many streaming gems this summer as I have mediocre big-screen showings. Yet sadly, that mindset from the days of underwhelming direct-to-DVD flicks seems to have carried over in certain circles, though Younger sees streaming getting really close to being on the same level.

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"If most people are honest with themselves, they prefer the comfort of their own home to the theater," he says, adding that streaming is "waiting for its 'Jaws' moment." That ’70s blockbuster "ushered a new era for cinemas. Streaming needs that one big exclusive movie that tells everyone the theater is no longer needed."

Honestly, I enjoyed many more action movies on a TV screen than in cinemas when I was a kid, and "Prey" warmly reminded me of my first experience with the OG 1987 “Predator”: at home, with my dad, cheering Arnold Schwarzenegger taking on an alien.

Perhaps I’ll introduce “Prey” to my 9-year-old daughter someday – she's too young for most R films, though she has watched "Die Hard" with Dad – or even the new PG-13 Stallone flick since she’s never seen one of his movies. ("Over the Top" is sitting right there on our Apple TV, all she has to do is say the word.)

Right now, though, we’re too busy streaming “Stranger Things” together.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Streaming becomes the new VHS as more movies skip theaters