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Old School VHS Tapes - The Best Way to Watch Horror?
How did this article not make it into our 80's theme week? This is a topic that has been running wild on the HorrorBid's forum (click here) as of late and one that we really wanted to delve further into....
Follow up:
What is it about a horror film that gets to you? The killer, the "jump scares", the plot, the gore, the suspense, music, the twisted ending?
How about...the element?
When is the picture too crisp and clear? When is it overbearing to have such a crystal clear picture that it nearly ruins the whole essence of the film? It seems that technology just keeps trying to improve. As far as I'm concerned, it's fine as is. In fact, a bit too fine. High definition televisions, Blu-ray, what's next, 3-D TV?
"House of the Devil" was presented to the general public as a DVD/VCR combo set. From what I understand, the majority of viewers over 30 (that would be me) actually preferred the VHS over DVD. Something about the gritty style of the VHS tape that just gives the film a better presentation to the viewer. Why? Maybe it's the quality of the tape, the sound you get or maybe it's knowing that what we are watching is coming from a VHS tape and giving a sort of "retro I feel like I'm in the 80's" feeling. Nothing like sticking a tape in your player and wondering if it's going to jam up or not.
Granted, VHS will not make a comeback in the market place, you won't be going to any rental store anytime soon and waiting for the clerk of the nearest mom and pop shop to come back out with that brown plastic case while checking to see if the tape itself has been rewound. ("Be kind, Rewind" ...or it will cost you an extra dollar) As for those types of players, it's obvious VHS still has a life span. Combo DVD/VCR players are still sold in stores and even on Amazon.com
Let's not forget the box art. Not the cover art, Box art, it came in a box. It really grabbed you. It had definition. You would actually pick up a movie knowing nothing about it simply because the box art was cool. Something about today's cover art just isn't the same. What you saw on the box in the 70's and 80's really had meaning to it. It was creative, it had it's own story, it's when a picture actually had a thousand words...and then some. Example? Take a look at "Race with the Devil" or "Westworld" or "Vanishing Point". That's art.
Sound off old-schoolers, and you young grasshoppers too. I know you have wandered around video stores and snatched a VHS here and there to see what it's all about.
But take note; as the entire transition takes place in this lustrous world of cinema, snatching up those trusty old tapes I believe, may soon become an overnight short lived fad...that may not be such a bad idea.
Written by Lee Vervoort (www.leevervoort.com)
And below are a few collection pics from HorrorBid forum member Ryan Shaffer's (Harry Wardne) fantastic vintage horror VHS collection.
Source: HorrorBid
28 comments
02/25/10 @ 19:40
I remember giving a friend a copy of Ringu when it first came out, on VHS. I sneaked the little video clip from the movie at the end after some static. He watched it with some friends, I think they were 15 at the time and it shat them up. And when they discovered the clip at the end that shat them up even more. That wouldn't work on DVD.
So I think... See More in some instances what you ask might be the case. I saw Return of the Living Dead, The Blob, Catacombs, Aliens, The Shining, The Lamp, and a vast number more on VHS when I was about 8, back in '88 or '89, that some dodgy guy in the flat below ours, had. They were glorious days. It'd be nice to try and give the kids now, and future kids, something different to catch these sorts of films on.
And VHS would be a cool idea, as quite a few people probably don't even have VHS players anymore, so those kids would have to source a player to see the films. Makes them put more effort in, ad these days it is so easy to see anything. And right away. Which in one sense is great, but in many others, it ruins things.
So I think... See More in some instances what you ask might be the case. I saw Return of the Living Dead, The Blob, Catacombs, Aliens, The Shining, The Lamp, and a vast number more on VHS when I was about 8, back in '88 or '89, that some dodgy guy in the flat below ours, had. They were glorious days. It'd be nice to try and give the kids now, and future kids, something different to catch these sorts of films on.
And VHS would be a cool idea, as quite a few people probably don't even have VHS players anymore, so those kids would have to source a player to see the films. Makes them put more effort in, ad these days it is so easy to see anything. And right away. Which in one sense is great, but in many others, it ruins things.
02/25/10 @ 20:24
98% of my collection is on VHS. I just found original (I guess you'd say first print) copies of Faces of Death 1&2, The Howling, Burial Ground and Mondo Cane! I got the whole lot for $5! The only negative is when they wear out. My original Nightmare on Elm Street has the tracking jumping all over the place and the audio falls out. Same with my ... See MoreTexas Chainsaw. I bought the extra special re-digitized, whatever they do, DVD copy of Chainsaw and was blown away! I mean, when Leatherface is sitting by the window, you can actually see that his mask is translucent and paper thin dried skin.
Really tough call. Five years ago I would have said VHS forever, but now, seeing things cleaned up in really nice widescreen .......I don't know. I guess the question is, repurchase my collection in DVD, or wait for the next great thing to come along?
Really tough call. Five years ago I would have said VHS forever, but now, seeing things cleaned up in really nice widescreen .......I don't know. I guess the question is, repurchase my collection in DVD, or wait for the next great thing to come along?
02/25/10 @ 20:52
I've been through the VHS days; the worn spots, the tracking errors, the loss of resolution not intended by the director. I haven't popped in a VHS tape for years. If the director built murkiness into the shot, fine. I don't need the medium to degrade things further. Sometimes it can't be helped. Rob Bottin's superb effects in "The Howling," especially Eddy's nighttime transition, didn't play as well brightened for video. As an ancient recording studio guy, I say go for accuracy in the medium, and let the director decide where the mood should be.
02/26/10 @ 00:28
Nice Read Lee Vervoort! I am pleased that you guys have used my collection pics also!
I love VHS! Whats not to love provided you can transfer them onto a dvd this way if you would wear out the tape, you still have the dvd to fall back on in worst case...
Anyway, Nice write up!
--Ryan
I love VHS! Whats not to love provided you can transfer them onto a dvd this way if you would wear out the tape, you still have the dvd to fall back on in worst case...
Anyway, Nice write up!
--Ryan
02/26/10 @ 00:51
When it comes to horror, nothing beats the films of the 70's and 80's. Many greats were shot on 16mm; even many 35mm had that gritty look......the point is that the story content was magnified by the look and sound of the film. Now, take that and mass produce it on VHS tape and package it with a stellar box featuring awesome usually hand painted poster art? theres your masterpiece! I miss those days and I've been dying for a return to grimy, gritty horror.....the look that "HENRY" had; the feel that "LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT" or "MANIAC" had. Hail ancient horror and the days of VHS!
02/26/10 @ 04:29
Great article Lee. Took me back to when I was young and going to work with my Mom at our town's Mom and Pop video store. I think horror from the 80's is best when watching on VHS, I have actually bought quite a few VHS over DVD for this reason.
02/26/10 @ 05:41
great article, I'm 31 and vhs has a big warm place in my heart it's the medium that made the genre (in the UK at least).
The joy of hunting down films you've only heard about, Sometimes propelling a really crap film to legendary status because of 1 10 second scene. I still have my entire vhs collection with round about 600 Horror films, I can never let them go I spent a lot of time and money collecting them, I only stopped watching them a year or so ago because I didn't want to ruin them anymore but there is a feeling you get with the poorer quality it may be nostalgic memories of how you were scared as a kid, or having to concentrate more just trying to see whats going on , whatever it is it touches you in places a crystal clear picture can't. Things are different now dvds are cheaap easy to come by and have taken the fun out of things there is not much you can't get from the shops or internet and so collecting has been ruined, No more buying a film because it has a well illustrated cover that has absolutly nothing to do with what happens in the film no more looking for cover variations, and in the UK no more legendary banned films the jewel in my crown was a uncut version of Last House never released in the UK but I have a retail screener sent to video shops in 1982 I paid big money for it but now it's practically worthless. VHS will make a comeback there are collectors like myself out there who regard some VHS more valuable than gold.
The joy of hunting down films you've only heard about, Sometimes propelling a really crap film to legendary status because of 1 10 second scene. I still have my entire vhs collection with round about 600 Horror films, I can never let them go I spent a lot of time and money collecting them, I only stopped watching them a year or so ago because I didn't want to ruin them anymore but there is a feeling you get with the poorer quality it may be nostalgic memories of how you were scared as a kid, or having to concentrate more just trying to see whats going on , whatever it is it touches you in places a crystal clear picture can't. Things are different now dvds are cheaap easy to come by and have taken the fun out of things there is not much you can't get from the shops or internet and so collecting has been ruined, No more buying a film because it has a well illustrated cover that has absolutly nothing to do with what happens in the film no more looking for cover variations, and in the UK no more legendary banned films the jewel in my crown was a uncut version of Last House never released in the UK but I have a retail screener sent to video shops in 1982 I paid big money for it but now it's practically worthless. VHS will make a comeback there are collectors like myself out there who regard some VHS more valuable than gold.
02/26/10 @ 12:13
Nice collection, i have some movies like the mutilator that still airent on dvd.
03/05/10 @ 21:27
This is a great site! This article is a good one because it has brought back many good memories of that time when VHS was king and when I would spend so much time in the horror section of the local rental shop just trying to decide what to rent next. And the thing about quality of VHS vs. the new digital mediums. I think this comes down to the quality of the film itself and what is usually best at least in my opinion for horror films. And is they should not be very high gloss. What i mean is that horror should be grity and real a stark in your face kind of thing. When I think of some of the best horror films ever I think of films that usually had modest budgets and that was one factor that added to the realism of the whole film. That is not to say that a great film can't be made with a large budget. But somehow you can tell when a lot of money was spent. This is true in many of the horror films made today. Even when they try to get that gritty feel of films that came out in the 70's and 80's you get the impression that even the dirt was bought with money. Having said all that this is now and I'm sad to say that I have no VHS movies any more just Dvd But many of those are films from the 70's and 80'S and I'm always finding films I missed from that time!
03/08/10 @ 00:36
Nice! I miss the pre-Blockbuster days. Call me kookoo, I loved the smell of video stores, I even worked in a couple. The VHS box art is what got me into horror in the first place! That is, after scaring the crap out of me for several years first... That Body Shop cover haunted my dreams for a few nights after I first saw it in my neighborhood video store! Then when I saw the movie years later I couldn't believe how cheesy it was, same went for Pieces - the cover is way scarier than the movie! :)
03/08/10 @ 04:25
I LOve VHS and I'm happy because yesterday I bought an original uncertificated ex rental copy of WESTWORLD (guessing it's from 1981-1982) for the whoping price of £1 to me its worth 50times that.
The way I see it, it'll return to that sort of value when the vhs collectors resurface in the next few years and at that point the marketplace will be competitive as alot of people have landfilled entire collections reducing there quantity therefore increasing the value of whats left.
I'm a collector and I know there are more like me out there.
The way I see it, it'll return to that sort of value when the vhs collectors resurface in the next few years and at that point the marketplace will be competitive as alot of people have landfilled entire collections reducing there quantity therefore increasing the value of whats left.
I'm a collector and I know there are more like me out there.
03/10/10 @ 00:42
I LOVE VHS. I dont understand why dvds came about..well I do,but..they dont compare.. they fucking get scratched so easily and when they do they skip like a bitch,and that is SO annoying. Dvd players are SO cheap, and shitty..they break every year or so..sure vhs wears out after so long [so long = 20+ years]..but wow. dvds made cheaply like especially ones sold at walmart[I work there;and have bought from there never again though] and those movies with certain players or just all together will stop working half way through, they just dont have good quality or pay well at all.. I do have MANY of them,but..I have my vhs' too and if I could have them all that way instead..bring it! plus..once youve had oldschool NONREMASTERED previews before the feature kind of stuff..theres no comparison..because its more exciting and adds to the movie when theyre trying to get you to call Freddy for a bedtime story before you watch Freddy's Dead! V H S please!!!
03/24/10 @ 20:18
a lot of the old VHS horror movies were released in an uncut version and then when transferred to DVD they were edited for some reason, so VHS is still the only way to see a lot of the 80s horror flicks as they were intended.
04/08/10 @ 19:19
the old ways to watch horror are the classics such as 80's -2000's like aliens predators.
04/11/10 @ 03:52
A lot of mom and pop video stores still rent out VHS one i`d like to visit is Video Mart in Richmond, VA that was talked about in an issue of Horrorhound (i`m sure a lot of you have seen it) last year where all they rent out is Big Box horror movies from the 70`s and 80`s.
04/26/10 @ 20:00
Since many of the coolest and weirdest horror movies were never (and probably will never be) released on DVD, I love going to thrift stores or eBay and finding these "classics". I usually transfer them to my computer and burn them to DVD. I own quite a few VHS horror movies myself, and that collection is awesome.
08/16/10 @ 02:23
@ MamaChelle...You are not kookoo. I too loved the smell of video stores when they only had VHS merchandise. The plastic cases had a very unique smell that I could easily identify today with my eyes shut. The smell always seemed more intense in the horror section. I remember being mesmerized while walking through the horror section. All of the art work on the VHS covers made me want to rent every horror film in stock.
Nothing can top the feeling of renting Halloween III Season Of The Witch on VHS and Milon's Secret Castle for the NES on a cool, fall, Friday night. Being in the late-80's and early-90's also helped contribute happy feelings to the experience.
10/20/10 @ 19:48
Is this a custom word press theme? I would like to have a similar one for my blog…
10/20/10 @ 19:59
Is this a custom word press theme? I would like to have a similar one for my blog…
10/21/10 @ 10:33
I'm a frequent reader of your blog. I really admire your writings. Subscribed to your Rss.
10/23/10 @ 00:50
Very detailed info. I am very happy to have found your site, bookmarked for future reads.
10/23/10 @ 01:03
thanks for the inspiration, I was stressed at work but i learnt that life is about living to the fullest and enjoying every moment. Thanks allot.
12/07/10 @ 02:40
I think House of the Devil had a great look to it and it was pretty creepy but I'm not a fan of a satanic cult film but to each their own. That being said, watching films on VHS is pretty fun but the reason I stopped was because I was watching one of my favorite skate videos and the damn thing ate it up, ruining something that can't be bought anymore. I bought a dvd player and although most films are too glossy nowadays, dvd's are a lot safer...if you take care of them that is.
12/08/10 @ 15:19
Excellent review as always guys! But I'm probably the only one that doesn't miss the VHS. I went through quite a few tapes because of that inevitable eater of the tape! So I for one won't miss them . I do miss the box art that was the coolest thing. The stand-ups reminding you about the up coming new releases...wait! It almost sounds like I miss the VHS, ok maybe just a little bit! :)
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11/19/11 @ 16:38
thank you for helpful tips and simply good info
12/30/11 @ 21:25
I’m a long time watcher and I just believed I’d drop by and say hello there for your very first time.
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