VHS Memories

Like most people who grew up in the 80's, my childhood was greatly shaped by the video boom of the time. Cable was a factor, but not a great one because cable came and went in my house at the whims of my dad. When he got tired of messing with the rabbit ears and missing out on the cable programming he would hear about, we would get cable. Six months later when he got tired of paying the bill, we would get rid of it, a cycle that lasted the better part of a decade. I was 12 when we got our first VCR in 1985 and it was love at first play.

Starting that summer I stopped spending my lawnmowing money on candy and spent it at the local video store. I was in awe of the place, it was paradise for a pubescent boy who loved horror. I knew the right times to go, when the guy in his early 20's was working who didn't give a crap how old you were as long as you didn't ask him any questions. I rented hundreds of horror movies at that place, from the standard familiarity of all the movies featuring Jason, Freddy, Michael, Leatherface and Pinhead; to soon-to-be video classics like Re-Animator, Evil Dead and Scanners all of which were sheer glory.

But the ones that stand out in my head were some of the more obscure titles, that brought the right amount of scares, gore, and nudity to make any boy of that age quite happy. Movies like Junior, Eyeball, The Mad Butcher, To The Devil a Daughter, Creepazoids, Nightmare Sisters, Terror at Orgy Castle, Because of the Cats, Return of the Aliens: Deadly Spawn, What?, Barn of the Naked Dead, and the great, great compilation video Terror on Tape. Not to mention my first exposure to the great Troma pics of the era. I could probably continue this list for hours as more titles come in to my head.

These days of course, you can probably obtain most of these movies with a few clicks if you're willing to look, which is a great thing to be sure. But I have to say I miss the days of spending an hour+ reading the back of box after box trying to find the perfect movie to rent,and the anticipation of  waiting to pop it in and escape reality (and your mom's fears that all these movies were going to turn you into a serial killer). Even in 2012 I think it's essential that everyone own 2 VCR's just in case one of them breaks.

(Two notes: in my mind the local video store does NOT include the giant monolith chains which shall remain nameless. Also I didn't discover the greatest indie video store I ever patronized until my mid 20's, B-Ware Video and Books in Lakewood, OH (an entire post or two will be devoted to it's greatness), which closed in '04, and is where I was first introduced to the 60's and 70's exploitation classics that I also love.)