Like many of you reading this, I love old school VHS cover art. Since I recently found a bumper crop of websites devoted to showcasing 80’s VHS cover art, I just had to share. Although most of these focus solely on horror/sci-fi, a few do feature cover art from other genres:
Video Cultures
80’s VHS Cover Art
The Great VHS Haul of 2011 – VivaVHS
VHS Wasteland – Serial Killer Magazine
those we left behind: Video cover art of the 80s
VHS Cover art from the 80s – THE RUE MORTUARY
those we left behind: VHS Video Posters from the 1980s
Profondo VHS: Italian Horror Cover Art from Around the World
Insane 80s Horror Movie Video Artwork | THE SURFING PIZZA
I also discovered there are numerous videos on Youtube devoted to showcasing VHS covers. First up is a collection of British cover art uploaded by dawnsbrother68:
Up next, here’s MrMovieNight’s collection:
This video by jmsflyXdvd focuses solely on VHS covers with drawn artwork. He also has several videos featuring covers from every horror movie released for each year during the 80’s:
Finally, MoviePalaceOfBlood offers us “167 Of The Greatest Horror Movie VHS Covers”:
Of course, I would would be in remiss if I didn’t note that cool cover art doesn’t necessarily mean the movie will match up to the expectations that said cover raises, let alone be good. On the flip side, sometimes a film’s cover art will be so bad that it can drive away people from a good movie. Then again, sometimes bad art can be so bad that it somehow becomes good. The following will show several examples of this (covering horror and other genres):
those we left behind: Bad VHS cover art
those we left behind: Bad VHS cover art sequel
Awesomely Bad ’80s VHS Horror Movie Cover Art
80 Awesomely Bad ’80s Video Covers | TotalFilm.com
80 More Awesomely Bad ’80s Video Covers | TotalFilm.com
As you’ve probably guessed, there are videos devoted to bad cover art. Here’s a several part series from
OcpCommunications (although I disagree about Robo Vampire; I think the artwork for that movie is amazingly awesome):
If that isn’t enough VHS cover art for you, then I recommend checking out the Lunchmeat VHS fanzine, which often features interviews with the artists behind the artwork we love.
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[…] The last time I discussed VHS cover art, I had wanted to include a video featuring artwork by a British artist. As I was unable to remember his name, I was unable to find, let alone include, it. Thankfully, diligent searching has paid off and I finally remembered his name: Graham Humphreys. British readers will no doubt remember Mr. Humphreys’ work and how it got caught up in the infamous “Video Nasties” controversy. As for the video, it’s a labor of love put together by one paintnothing: […]