HALLOWEEN 2025 - VHS HORROR

 

The nights are drawing in, a subtle chill has started to creep it's way into the air and our thoughts turn to spooky things...

OK, So it's still light till 8 o'clock at night, here in Norfolk it's still hotter than a stripclub in Hell and (arguably) we're always in semi-spooky mode here in the backroom, but whatever, it's September - which means it's time to start celebrating Halloween/Spooky Season by taking a deep dive into all things horror related.

This year we're going to be jumping into our own personal TARDIS and going back in time to the era of VHS HORROR !!!!

The long ago era of the humble video store (roughly around 1980 - 2005) was one of great nostalgia for many people of a...ahem..."certain" age. Indeed it was a time where a lot of teenage kids on both sides of the Atlantic received thier first introduction to the world of horror movies.

Those long, seemingly endless rows of dusty plastic tapes with their garish and gory artwork defined horror for an entire generation, and even now a quarter of the way through the 21st century they still resonate and have started to fascinate an entire new generation of fright fans - because some times there's just no better way to watch a cheesy old slasher movie than on a flickery screen with interference and tracking lines (it certainly hides some of the special effect's shortcomings at least).

What I'm basically saying is that not everything NEEDS to be in Ultra High Definition - sometimes the simpler times can be just as atmospheric in their own sweet way.

So this Halloween we're going to be celebrating horror movies from the VHS era (basically the 80's and 90's, with some 70's stuff thrown in).

So, if your teenage years where spent renting the latest Nightmare On Elm Street movie, if your Friday and Saturday nights started with a trip to the local video store, if you always dreaded seeing the elastic band of doom wrapped around the film you'd been looking forward to seeing for ages, if you got annoyed when Blockbuster killed off all the small independent stores, if you spent your school dinner hour hanging around at the local video shop staring at all that fantastic horror cover art, then there should be something for you here.

Happy Halloween...and remember - be kind, please rewind.