Suspect Video

Suspect Video is the love child of Luis Ceriz and his long-time friend Merrill Shapiro. The duo launched the offbeat video shop back in 1991 when the local 7-Eleven was still renting out VHS players. Both former film students, Luis and Merrill were bored with the status quo; the two suspected the rental experience should be more fun.

This was during the reign of Blockbuster Video when all stores looked the same: sterile and seriously lacking the character that the film medium has to offer. Luis was writing a screenplay for a vampire feature at the time, but funding a feature length film was daunting to say the least, so he and Merrill decided to open Suspect Video to help fund their passion projects.

Suspect Video was designed with true cineastes in mind. Collectible action figures and movie posters are displayed up front and retro comedies play on televisions in the background. Luis is now sole owner of Suspect Video and estimates he has a stock of about 40,000 titles. After a devastating fire on Queen West in 2008 took out Suspect Video’s second location, the Markham Street store became home.