Gremlins Online!

I was thinking about some 80’s horror movies this week and it occurred to me that I have a blog where I can share my thoughts and feelings about said horror movies. What a concept!

These four covers all have a common theme – I was scared of them because they confused a young me. Browsing the video store shelves was a hobby I would engage in a few times a week and when not renting My Pet Monster, or The Gift Of Winter (Which I recently discovered has a great fansite!) I would grab a NES game like Alien Syndrome and browse while my mom looked in the section with the swinging saloon-style doors. While she browsed the not-for-kids section I would try and understand the often abstract VHS covers…and these confused and scared me the most!

1. Rawhead Rex

Rawhead Rex was another at Nord video that always taunted me, and I think this was due to my tiny brain trying to figure out what I was looking at in the cover. At first it looks like some kind of carnival funhouse opening. Then it shifts to what looked like a church with a demon biker in the doorway. This one didn’t terrify me as much as others, but it more confused me, which was enough to send my brain into a tizzy. As for the film itself, I didn’t see the film until I was in my 20’s and had no clue what kind of film I was getting myself into. I don’t own the film these days but I plan on revisiting it sometime soon(tm).

2. Ghoulies

Ghoulies is probably on everyone’s scary VHS cover list simply because it shows a kind of cute green monster coming out of the toilet. What makes this post interesting is the story, and I don’t think I have ever shared this one online, so why not here?

I was probably seven or so, and Tasha, a girl that lived down the block enjoyed telling me scary things for some reason. One day she told me all about GHOULIES. Of course I had seen the cover and she told me that in the movie, the Ghoulies creature comes up from the toiled while you are using it and…get this…eats your poop. This absolutely scared me to the point of tears, I have no clue why this concept caused utter terror, but after getting myself together, I told on her and she was not allowed over to my house for a period of time. Let that be a lesson to everyone reading this, I will tell my mom if you scare me.

3. The Fog

The Fog had a cover that unsettled me because I somehow got this one and The Stuff confused. It looked to me that the woman was being devoured from her fridge, and that was her arm turning black from The Stuff. Not much else to say because I am not a huge fan of this film. Nothing wrong with it, just it didn’t do much for me the few times I have seen the movie.

4. Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

This one is a plethora of awesome cover design and nightmare-inducing art. You have the eyeball popping out of metal-rocker Freddy, the rainbow girl watching you as claws attack you from a volcano? I have no clue. The back is what got me though. One photo. This one.

In combination with the robot-bug looking “creature” in the image to the right, I kept trying to understand what I was seeing. Of course rather than actually watch the film and find out, I would go look at this image while trying to avoid Freddy’s maniacal eyes for extended periods of time. I thought it was something grabbing her, like a leech or the hand of a creature about to tear her arms out of their sockets from a strange angle.
To be fair the reality of what happens in that scene is far, far, weirder and amazing than anything I could have predicted.

Thanks for joining me on another romp through my childhood memories of scary VHS boxes! These are always a blast to write and I would love to know if you have covers that got under your skin well before actually seeing the movie.