Video trash & treasures from the 80’s – part I

In the early eighties after some soccer or street hockey, we would spend a good chunk of the rest of our Saturday afternoon browsing the horror or sci fi section in some good old “mom and pop” video store. In 1982, these stores were popping everywhere and before the arrival of mega video chain “à la” Blockbuster Video, those shops were wonderful. The smell of stale popcorn mix in with the dust filling the shelves, the friendliness of the owner whom would know our names by heart, the defective neon lights flashing on and off in the horror section and movie posters everywhere – some given to us and adoring our bedroom wall; all elements conjuring up beautiful memories of my youth. Moreover, in 1982 - 83 the horror genre was at its zenith in term of popularity and quality. The sub-genre slasher was at the end of a tremendous cycle started with Halloween and more and more great horror and sci fi films released. In complement, the new craze in high tech device was the VCR either of the Betamax or VHS type. Everybody wanted one. These humongous and noisy machines, some with the eject door on top, were a pre teenager best friend.

Some video stores, for instance in my old neighborhood: Le Club Vidéo International, were wall to wall packed with movies. In the horror section with our mouths salivating at the covers, we would dare ourselves to rent such “monstrosities” as Happy Birthday To Me, My Bloody Valentine, Shivers or The Funhouse. Besides, those video covers were little work of art. The more gory and titillating were they, the more tempting they became.

The excitement and the agitation of renting one of those videos was similar to climbing on a rollercoaster ride at La Ronde. We knew that it was a challenge. Firstly, would the owner let us rent those films, rated R? Would our moms let us watch such bloody, exploitative and perverse atrocities? After all and certainly, we would rave about the gory special effects but also nervously giggle at the view of the mandatory semi nude - for the actress ! – sex scene displeasing categorically our parents. Oh well…too bad for them!

Anyway, here are some pics taken with my digital camera of VHS covers from my personal collection. I don't own a scanner - I'm so old school, sorry! - therefore some pics might be a bit warped on the edge due to the poor quality of the lens. Again...oh well!