Ah yes, the medium that offers a cornucopia of nostalgia. Tangible relics of a not-quite forgotten past that played an important part in film distribution and longevity. Portable monoliths full of entertainment and cherished memories which can elicit a nice feeling of, “Ah yes, those were good times.” The VHS format was a key part in the lives of many 90’s kids such as myself, plus the generation before that. I and many others grew up on the format that truly was/is one-of-a-kind. It’s something I could go into in its own post, but tonight we’re talking about one particular thing about VHS tapes.
The horror cover art!
For many collectors of videotapes, this is one of many reasons behind why they collect them. Horror films have always had unique, grotesque, even very iconic art on the front covers and have always evolved. Sometimes they’ve been changed to something totally different in later releases, eventually just having photos on more recent editions, making the originally-released copies & art highly sought after among collectors.
For me, the cover art is actually one of the things that made me want to watch these movies since it always caught my attention. I would go into the horror section of a video store and look at the covers, sometimes finding some of them a little creepy-looking. That didn’t stop me from looking at it, though. It made me want to look at them more. A lot more, in fact. I wouldn’t always rent something, since I was usually wanting to rent something else or a game most of the time. Plus, I was young and didn’t think my parents would want me watching what would likely be grotesque R-rated horror films.
That didn’t matter though, because I would later end up watching them on satellite TV when no one else would be home, or when everyone would be sleeping. After watching them, I’d sometimes find that the movies themselves, which sometimes had fairly creepy box art, weren’t actually as creepy as I expected.
I like to imagine that the artist was told to make the movie seem really gruesome and freaky, maybe being told of nasty details to add. Then I feel like they watch the movie, realize it’s not as scary as they expect, and then question why the filmmakers want something more terrifying to represent the movie on the poster. But then, perhaps the people in charge would say, “Yeah, ignore the movie, just make some really awesome gruesome art for our cover and you’ll be paid.”
Obviously I’m wrong, but it sounds funny doesn’t it? Who knows, maybe that sorta’ thing happened with some movie art. If so, then that is hilarious.
Personally, I find this aspect as part of the fun. A movie might not always be great, but the cover art would be a million times better (not to mention, fun to look at). Other times, though, the movie is just as good as the cover. It all depends on how it turns out in the long run. If anything, a movie might turn out to be a cult favourite with unique cover art.
Regardless of what the art shows, it always captures the spirit of the movie. A lot of great thought would go into some of these designs, even current movie releases could learn from them. And if there was ever something that wasn’t, for example, as detailed as other designs, there’s still something kind of charming about it. The fact that one movie could have numerous cover designs on different releases makes them even more collectible. Plus, if the cardboard sleeve is a little worn out, that further adds to the “relic” feeling of these tapes.
Looking at all the art on these VHS covers is always fun, and it really makes me wonder what we’d get if more recent movies had unique hand-painted cover designs. While there are some exceptions every now and then, most of what’s out there is made up of basic photo arrangements in Photoshop. On top of that, they might be cluttered or be overly simplistic compositions.
Still, there are some filmmakers and artists who do the retro approach for indie horror films made with that nostalgic vibe in mind. I hope it’ll inspire others to do the same thing, it’d definitely be nice to see more variety. For the horror genre (or really, any genre), it’d be great to see how current artists interpret the spirit of these movie(s) while showing their talent.
Until that happens, definitely check out all the horror art out there. There are tons of blogs that have some scanned in, forums where people share their favourite art, and especially Instagram uploads from numerous collectors.
There are also really neat articles and videos that go further into the subject of VHS horror art. This one that goes into why the art was often gruesomely detailed, touching on marketing tricks and some design choices.
In addition to that, there are other sites where people discuss their favourite cover art, as well as covers they found terrifying or really shocking. There’s this reddit discussion where people talk about that, and it’s fun seeing their reactions. They even link to photos of the art. If you’d like a list of many favourites, here’s a link to a post from Matt Mulcahey’s WordPress blog Deep Fried Movies. He’s got a lot more, so definitely check out his blog entries.
As far as other sites go, searching on Pinterest will bring up tons of results, even links to other blogs covering this subject. There’s also this and many other tumblr pages. Another great one is VHS Wasteland, which has a huge amount of not just horror VHS art, but other genres as well. And lastly, a blog post from Monster Brains that you can find here.
In short, the love for VHS horror art is here to stay. Newer mediums and technologies may be the big thing these days, but the nostalgia for video tapes is always strong. With stuff like Stranger Things getting a lot of influence from it (the blu-ray & DVD release is inspired by a VHS cover), it seems that we’ll likely see more throwbacks to the format. And hopefully, we’ll see more art inspired by all this.
Thank you for reading, everyone! And until next time… be kind and rewind.
Kasey Lewis - Actor, Writer, Creator 