That moment the VCR ate my rental right at the scary part

So last Saturday I was watching my old copy of The Faculty from Blockbuster, the one with the orange sticker still on it, and right when the alien chick jumps out of the shower the tape just got sucked in with this awful grinding noise. I sat there frozen for a second, then hit eject and the whole bottom half of the tape was wrinkled and twisted like a slinky. I tried the pencil trick in the side hole to wind it back but the ribbon just kept snapping at the crease. Ended up finding a guy on Craigslist who fixes VCRs, drove 40 minutes to his garage in Akron, and he said my pinch roller was sticky from old glue residue. He cleaned it with alcohol and a q-tip while I watched, charged me $15, and the tape played fine after I spliced it with a tiny piece of scotch tape. Anyone else ever had a rental get eaten and had to explain to the store clerk why the cover looked like a wad of chewing gum?

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the_logan2d agoMost Upvoted

The scramble to find someone who can fix a busted machine is always the real horror show. Every town has one guy like that, usually in a garage with a dozen dead VCRs stacked up, and you just pray he knows what he's doing. It makes you realize how much we depend on stuff that's one bad day away from turning into a paperweight. The scotch tape splice is the final act of desperation, because you know it's not gonna last, but you're too stubborn to throw it out. That's the pattern, really. We'll drive an hour and pay fifteen bucks to save a three dollar rental, just because giving up feels worse than the tangled mess.