Video Days

A Valley girl, a Hollywood punk, and a teen sex comedy that turned out gentler than its backers demanded. Valley Girl follows a preppy teenage girl from the San Fernando Valley who falls for a punk rocker from Hollywood, to the displeasure of her friends. Andrew Lane and Wayne Crawford wrote and produced the film and Martha Coolidge directed, with her friend and cast member Colleen Camp playing a...

Six strangers in one Seattle apartment building, a soundtrack that broke the film out of release limbo, and a movie the "grunge rock" craze almost overwhelmed. Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, Singles follows a group of twentysomethings circling the question of whether to commit to someone or stay single. Kyra Sedgwick, Campbell Scott, Bridget Fonda, and Matt Dillon lead the ensemble, with P...

Six suspects, one house, three different killers — depending on which theater you walked into. Jonathan Lynn directs a board-game adaptation built on a gimmick so bold it nearly sank the film, only for that same gimmick to become the reason it never really left theaters. Written and directed by Lynn from a story by John Landis, Clue reimagines the Parker Brothers game as a fast-talking whodunit, t...

Three boys build a spaceship the studio never let them finish. Joe Dante directs an autumn tale where childhood wonder meets adult ambition, only to have that conflict play out behind the camera. Written by Eric Luke, Explorers imagines three suburban kids who build their own spaceship from junk and dreams, only to discover the universe is stranger and lonelier than they'd imagined. Ethan Hawke an...

Road trip comedy too soulful to sell, too scattered to stick its landing. Kevin Reynolds writes and directs a coming-of-age story about five Texas college graduates on one last drive before the real world catches up with them. Trace how Reynolds' death-defying student film Proof caught Steven Spielberg's attention and how Warner Bros. never figured out how to sell Fandango , the feature-length ver...

A creature feature that runs two tracks — straight monster thriller and tongue-in-cheek comedy — without ever losing its footing. Trace how Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson's screenplay, Ron Underwood's direction, Gale Anne Hurd's production, and Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.'s creature effects built one of the era's most entertaining horror-comedies.  Find transcripts, screenshots, and source lin...

A teenage horror-comedy that couldn't decide what it was—and is timeless for it. Follow how director Joel Schumacher and Richard Donner's competing visions, Warner Bros.' ambitions, Santa Cruz locations, and cutting-edge makeup effects resulted in the most memorable vampire film of its generation. Find transcripts, screenshots, and source links at videocassettedays.com.