Every child of the 80s will remember going to the video store and trying to find a movie to rent. Back before the days of Blu-ray and On Demand, selecting a movie usually meant finding the flick with the coolest box art. Like modern posters, classic VHS art has been lost but thanks to the Internet there are countless reminders of these cool creations. This column will be dedicated to bringing you reminders of a bygone era and a look at how cool some of these movies looked on store shelves.
2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK
What I love most about these covers is the STAR WARS pose featuring the hero in the front and the sexy grasping his leg. The biggest difference between these two boxes is that one features a mask-clad villain with green skin while the other shows a monkey-like creature. I have no idea if either appears in the film. Click here to purchase on Blu-ray/DVD.
OMEGA DOOM
If you don't have a soft spot for Rutger Hauer, then you were probably born after the 1980s. The man has long been a staple of everything from B-movies to cult classics all the way to big Hollywood fare. This movie looks marketed like a TERMINATOR clone with one box having Hauer's eye glowing like a T-800. Click here to purchase on Blu-ray/DVD.
RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS
A movie with Raiders in the title is either trying to piggyback on the first Indiana Jones film but this movie looks nothing like Steven Spielberg's epic. In fact, this looks closer to RAMBO or 2019 at the top of this list. I cannot say for certain how much of the mythical Atlantis appears in this movie, but it looks like it exists in some sort of bubble based on these covers. Click here to purchase on Blu-ray/DVD.
NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD
H.P Lovecraft has no bigger fan than Brian Yuzna. The filmmaker has made a career out of adapting films from the horror author's library of work. NECRONOMICON is an anthology film that captures some of the terror in Lovecraft's writing. While both of these boxes are content to just paste a bunch of stills from the film and call it a day, the first cover is pretty damn eerie. Click here to purchase on Blu-ray/DVD.
MIND KILLER
This box instantly recalls David Cronenberg's THE FLY crossed with a hair metal album cover. I cannot tell if the movie follows a bug monster at an abandoned amusement park or something more serious. In either case, MIND KILLER is a hard to find flick and that may be due to these confusing covers. Not available to purchase on Blu-ray/DVD.
THE CLOWN MURDERS
John Candy was in a horror movie? Why didn't I know about this? THE CLOWN MURDERS sounds like a network television movie title but the box is surprisingly classy. Well, classy for a movie about clowns and murder. The first box looks like something I would check out while the second is a bit too on the nose for my taste. Click here to purchase on Blu-ray/DVD.
Feel free to pop us your favorite VHS box art and come back for each future column. You can send your finds or photos of your own VHS tapes to alexmaidy@joblo.com