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[Downhome]

Anyone else here have great memories of walking through the old movie stores back in the days of VHS and just enjoying the artwork? More specifically the artwork on the horror and sci-fi titles. Sure, every now and then you will find a nice DVD or Blu-ray cover, but for the most part the best days for this sort of thing were the VHS covers. Heck, some of the covers on the old horror titles were so freaky that I was scared of just the covers when I was really little and it was like testing fate just walking up close to them.

Thank God for things like Scream Factory where they have new artwork, and then on the other side of the covers they have the original artwork. I make it a point to at least buy all of the Collector's Editions of those titles just to support them doing so.

Here is what brought this back to mind for me. I was in a local Goodwill store the other day and found the hard to find VHS for R.O.T.O.R., a weird and horrible Terminator/Robocop mashup. Anyone else remember this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJV3qFsaozE

Just look at this cover...

 

[Deified Data]

Makes me wanna hit the flea market.

 

[G-Fex]

Rotor was no fun

it was just a guy with a huge mustache pretending to be a terminator.

 

[Salsa]

fede alvarez made a fake one himself for evil dead

 

[.GqueB.]

Some are terrible, some are great. Just like always.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

Love it.

 

[jond76]

When it came to 80's Sci-fi, the box art was always waaaay more ambitious than the actual movie turned out to be.

 

[MisterHero]

Shrek's useless giant box was pretty funny.

 

[kai3345]

fede alvarez made a fake one himself for evil dead

damn, that's awseome

 

[The Main Event]

Main reason why my local video store horror section was so much fun during that period. Just wasn't the same once DVD came in.

 

[Dead]

Love it.

This is better:

 

[plasmawave]

Love it.

Penis.

 

[MisterHero]

This is better:

No, not really.

There's not much to say otherwise. Aren't a lot of good VHS art copies of movie posters?

 

[Megadragon15]

This is better:

Ariel looks like she is the perfect wife material for Namor.

 

[Zaph]

This thread got buried far too soon. One of my favourites:

 

[Simo]

I love how the plot outline pretty much reveals and spoils ALL of the movie. lol

Compare that artwork to the Blu cover though..

 

[Effnine]

 

[Extra Sauce]

I have that R.O.T.O.R. poster on my bedroom wall.

Never watched the movie as it's very hard to find, and I don't particularly care to see it based on YouTube clips. I just know that its cover is one of the most badass things I've ever seen.

Some are terrible, some are great. Just like always.

Nah. The good-to-bad ratio truly is worse nowadays.

original painted artwork > cheap photoshop collages

 

[Alex Anderson]

Good ol' R.O.T.O.R. That's on one of my el cheapo Mill Creek Entertainment 50 movie sets

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZJ9VXY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[Giant Robot]

You should watch Rewind This. The documentary touches upon VHS box art and how it sometimes lured movie renters/buyers kinda like how LP artwork did.

Same logic with Drew Struzan poster artwork (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ET and many others)

There's some appreciation for artwork in there over stupid photoshopped heads.

 

[OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather]

Just look at this cover...

I need to see this.

 

[dsp]

I can remember going through the isles of horror tapes as a kid and being, well, horrified by the artwork. Almost none of the movies lived up to the artwork, but it was still awesome.

 

[benzy]

Problem is they made some movies appear more interesting than they actually were.

I need to see this.

This is what you'll see throughout the whole film.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Point is they made some movies appear more interesting than they actually were.

FTFY

 

[s_mirage]

I do miss the VHS days when I was really young, pre-internet (for me anyway), where the only things to help you decide which film you were going to rent were the cover art and the box blurb.

 

[dark_prinny]

 

[Takamura-San]

Love it.

I cannot hold all these penises.

 

[dark_prinny]

 

[sarcastor]

Beta - not even VHS!

DVD

 

[dark_prinny]

 

[Parch]

When it came to 80's Sci-fi, the box art was always waaaay more ambitious than the actual movie turned out to be.

Just like video games.

 

[dark_prinny]

 

[Mobius 1]

Oh man YES. Bring back the awe and inspiration of the 80s.

 

[dark_prinny]

Oh man YES. Bring back the awe and inspiration of the 80s.

Fantastic isn´t it?

I miss that era so much.

 

[Zaph]

Another great. Also had the added benefit of scaring the shit out of 10-year-old me...

That fucking hand-eyeball. Gross.

 

[dark_prinny]

Another great. Also had the added benefit of scaring the shit out of 10-year-old me...



That fucking hand-eyeball. Gross.

Classic.

EDIT: One more.

 

[Gouty]

Man, talk about memories. Use to rent this movie all the time as a kid.

 

[Zaph]

Our old black cat jumped from behind the curtains onto my shoulder during the tense barn scene in Critters.

Pretty sure I shat myself, but my mum and sister couldn't stop laughing for about 15 minutes.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

fede alvarez made a fake one himself for evil dead

Where's the Gativideo logo? Booooooo!

 

[bjork]

fede alvarez made a fake one himself for evil dead

But I owned seven different VHS covers for evil dead already, 8 would just be overkill.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Penis.

Where?

 

[POWERSPHERE]

That's a great gif, illustrates classic design over modern noise.

 

[Sparse]

This thread got buried far too soon. One of my favourites:

Love this one in particular.

 

[forgeforsaken]

Giger provided this great cover/poster for a pretty bad movie

 

[cj_iwakura]

I still have this VHS:

 

[Ravijn]

 

[pigeon interrupted]

Spoiler

Linnea Quigley cemetery dance ...,

It really wasn't "The Terminator for the nineties," but was a fun, quirky b-movie. Cool typical synthy 80s-90s closing track, too.
Public Image - The Order of Death

Hailvetica.

 

[dark_prinny]

 

[Deleted member 102362]

That R.O.T.O.R. cover is amazing. I know nothing about the movie, but that cover art would make a great statue.

I still have this VHS:

Reminds me a lot of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture poster:

So, my contribution:

Drawn by the late, great artist John Alvin.

 

[CadetMahoney]

I liked this one as a kid, even though it's still shit.