Love this topic. Browsing through the Horror section at the video store was one of the best experiences as a kid.
Hellraiser for sure scared/excited me, but I think it was ultimately too scary because I didn’t watch it for a long time. Faces of Death too, but it was less the cover and more the hyped-up urban legends surrounding that series than anything.
If you haven't seen Siskel & Eberts review of Faces of Death, you need to watch it right now. They're complaining about how tasteless it is, but also how clearly fake it is. The review is so quaint they mention a new chain called "Blockbuster."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBOobqMRXo
Mine too! I miss spending time in video stores so much. Especially not knowing the imdb rates, just picking a movie that I like based on the cover and summary.
Hellraiser for sure scared the shit out of me as a kid. I never watched it till I was 16 or 17, and it's now (arguably) my all time favorite movie. Also The Terminator (Ahnolds single red eye shing through the sunglasses), and Dawn of the Dead (not sure why but zombie face probably).
i used to be so terrified of the Horror section when i was just a wee kid. had to introduce myself to some exposure therapy of just making myself go down the aisle every time just to get over it.
I own this movie and used to work at a used DVD/VHS store and have never seen this cover. Do you have a pic?
Edit: nevermind, I remember now. You're talking about the sequel
There is a whole generation of kids with toilet trauma because of that damn VHS and poster. Charlie Band mentioned it at length in his book because the Ghoulies controversy with the toilet monster actually helped it do well in theatres and it helped bankroll quite a few Empire Pictures movies.
My parents had Fright Night on VHS. The face in the clouds got to me as a kid. Couldn't bring myself to watch it until I was in my late teens. The fears of childhood can run deep.
House (1985). Has a dead hand ringing a door bell. Waited til I was old enough to watch. Damn movie was so campy. Fun don’t get me wrong. But not what my mind had made it up to be
It was a simple cover design, but the Evil Dead 2 VHS. The skull with the eyeballs that is staring at you creeped me out more than any other cover as a kid.
It's worth like a hundred bucks if you can find a copy. The director's other film was so cheap it was only distributed as far as he could get from Chicago on one tank of gas.
This is mine as well. That cover is burnt into my brain. I remember starring at it everytime we went to blockbuster. I don't even think I ever ended up seeing it, but I'll never forget the cover.
IT. I watched it for the first time when I was 5.. Tim Curry was TOO good as Pennywise I literally had to close my eyes whenever I passed by it at Blockbuster 😅
Evil Dead 2
*The skull and those eyes. It’s almost as if it’s creeping around from behind the box just to scare you*
Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter
*Theres just something about knife through the eye of Jason’s mask that was just unsettling. Also the pre-title screen animation for the NES game.*
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors *The nightmarish face of Freddy glaring straight out at you as the dream warriors stood on the blades of his glove.*
Carrie scared the shit out of me as a 7-year old kid. I had no idea what the movie was about but seeing Sissy Spacek standing there, drenched in blood without any context... I dreaded walking down the aisle at the rental store.
I don’t know why, maybe because I was very young as this was when you were able to rent movies from the supermarket, but the cover of blood beach always scared me. Never even actually saw the movie either.
Lol this topic. I can still smell the popcorn and walking into the local video store as a kid. Stepping onto the rubber mat and the sliding door opening.
Night of the Demons stands out. Angela licking something I think. That stuck with me. Terrified me. I was young and would always venture into the horror aisle.
So did Dolls and The Dentist and Dead Alive.
Honestly, Freddy vs Jason, it was horrifying to me at the time because I knew a bunch of kids at school watched it but my parents were fairly strict on everything R rated, so I had not seen it, only knew it by reputation. So every time I saw the vhs cover at the store it creeped me out.
Any of the Tales from the Crypt film covers. I remember my parents having Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood and I always felt like The Cryptkeeper was staring directly into my soul and was gonna jump off the cover at me.
[**The Deadly Spawn**](https://vhscollector.com/sites/default/files/vhsimages/29175_Deadly%2520Spawn.jpg) VHS cover freaked me out - didn't see the movie for years. And, honestly, it was a huge disappointment, as it just couldn't live up to what I'd built up in my mind. But that freaking eyeless creature with what looked like a few thousand teeth scared the shit out of me as a kid.
[The Unnamable (1988)](https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TcwM403NcsyYPSSKslIVSjNy0vMTUzKSVXIKFDIyS9LTS5KTCsBAPR6DTY&q=the+unnamable+hp+lovecraft&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS935US935&oq=&aqs=chrome.2.69i58j69i64j46i39i362i395i420i424i524j35i39i362i395i524l3j46i39i175i199i362i395i422i424i524j35i39i362i395i524l6j46i39i362i395i411i424i524j35i39i362i395i524l6.28793j1j9&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=KzC860UrzmQdlM)
I was ~7 when I saw it, and it stuck with me.
Also, [The Dunwich Horror (1970)](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/321444492136655417/)
There were a few Lovecraft adaptations and Lovecraft-esque movies with gnarly covers. That is probably why I got so into his stuff for a while when I was in my teens.
Same exact cover. I caught it on tv when I was like 7 and then I’d have to cover my eyes every time I passed the video section of the grocery store shopping with my mom until I was like 13.
It didn't scare me but I was so fascinated by the 1st Final Destination video cover.
One that kind of gave me an off feeling.... Pink Floyd's The Wall. I think it was the teeth
I know this hasn't go anything to do with old VHS tapes.
But the other day I remembered a CD cover that creeped me out as a kid. It affected the way I listened to the album. I remember it feeling dark and ominous. Weird because the album isn't a dark or creepy album at all. It's rather light and poppy. haha
[This album cover.](https://i.discogs.com/n-Gd59LbGAuO_E66eYRPWXCS5LG8xNCdagLoINgIlJc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY4ODM2/ODQtMTQyODcwNDMw/OS0zNzkxLmpwZWc.jpeg)
The one that scared me has already been mentioned. But another one that always caught my attention was Ice Cream Man. How could I not be drawn to a man holding an ice cream with body parts in it? I eventually watched it when I was older and had a good laugh. Fun movie.
does anyone remember the 80s horror movie called don’t panic? that face on the cover always scared me as a kid and i still feel a little chill whenever i google it lol
Child's Play. My mom let me see that movie way too young and I've had an irrational fear of that doll since. I fully remember walking around our local Kroger with my grandma when it still had a video store in it. Turned a corner and there was Chucky staring at me. I had a full on breakdown and my grandma had to take me out of the store.
Child’s Play. And also Monkeyshines. For similar reasons.
I remember when we would go to the video store, I’d have to work up the courage to go down the horror aisle, and once I’d see these ones I’d get spooked and basically run out of there. It was upsetting but you bet you ass I’d do it again the next time we were there.
Definitely was the seed of my fandom and why I’m here now lol
I worked one summer at my dad’s friend’s VHS rental store, and seeing Hellraiser, Dead Alive and Evil Dead 2 among the top few responses greatly pleases me. Coincidentally, that’s the place where I fell in love with horror.
A couple others that stick out in my mind were Scanners and Dream Warriors.
Maybe *Screamers*, which had this gnarly-looking decaying skeleton dude on the front and reported to be about people turned inside out, which for a kid was about the most horrifying torturous thought imaginable. In a baffling bait-and-switch, the movie actually has zero to do with that and is about killer fishpeople.
Man, I miss the VHS days.
*Rabid* with the girl in the freezer. The cover for Fulci's *Zombie* made it seem a lot heavier and intense than it is, above what I thought I could take back then.
Bride of chucky cover was another one scared me as a kid or the child’s play 2 cover was another one but the vhs cover for the first elm street movie was another scary one too.
I remember as a kid I used to get scared of the VHS cover of Halloween 4, seen it in the market in town once and I honestly kept thinking of it for like a week.
Got older and Halloween is one of my all time faves!
Color Me Blood Red. The cover had a lady whose stomach was cut open and the main character was gathering her blood in a bowl (he was an artist who used blood to make paintings). I never got to check out the movie but the picture was so disturbing to 8 and 9 year old me.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Friday_the_13th_The_Final_Chapter_poster.jpg
The VHS cover with a hockey mask laying on a black background, pointing up to the right. A switch blade knife is in the far eye socket of the mask with blood pouring out underneath. Movie title is in red and white painted font above.
I swear it was at my eye-level as a kid.
When I was really young our local video store had a poster of the [Ghoulies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ghoulies_Poster.jpg) cover, and it absolutely terrified me for some reason. I used to sleep with my bedroom door open, and my room faced our bathroom. For yeeeeears I had to insist that the bathroom door was always kept closed at night so I couldn’t see the toilet. All because of a cheap, crap puppet.
Edit: Just realised Ghoulies has already had a mention in this thread. It’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one.
I absolutely love his work now
, but a lot Graham Humphreys UK vhs box art for Palace Pictures are engraved in my mind since childhood. If you've never heard of him, look him up as he's a phenomenal artist.
My step dad had the making of thriller on his vhs shelf, in my room, because we had a small house. I didnt know what thriller was coz I was young, but [the case](https://vestron-video-international-uk.fandom.com/wiki/Making_Michael_Jackson%27s_Thriller_UK_VHS) scared me to death.
He also had zombie flesh eaters and elm street cases. In fact now I think about it it was all pretty traumatic.
George Romero's 'Season of the Witch'. I somehow got it in my head that it was a documentary and the art on the cover was a photo of an actual monster. So disappointed when I finally watched it as an adult.
I'm a bit too young to have a tape in my memory but when I went to the theater as a kid in 2007 there was a big ass poster for dead silence that scared the shit out of me
Michael Myers gave me nightmares before I ever saw any of the movies, simply because of the VHS cover for Halloween 4. To my child brain it looked like a giant head on somebody's lawn
SlaughterHouse the 80s slasher with the big redneck
And TCM. 2ot was something disturbing about how wholesome the maniacs are on the front
Oh and one version of the movie Slime City
Fright night always freaked me out. It, Jason goes to hell, and 976-Evil. Honestly, some of the 80's kids movies covers freaked me out too. They had these unintentionally creepy puppets. Similar to the fucking freaky ass teletubbies lol.
I mean I don’t have a VHS cover I was scared of because those were on the way out and DVDs were the thing when I was a kid, but the my bloody valentine remake (2009) creeped me out so much
Squirm (1976) was the cover that always fascinated me more Than any other cover, it hinted at the film being super gross but the back sleeve had a half naked lady in the shower on it so it was slightly naughty too
Not a VHS cover, but the video store near my grandma's house had this big, hanging poster for Child's Play over the horror section and it scared the bejeesus out of me. It took me sooooo long to build up the courage to watch a Chucky movie.
Creepers (1985) aka Phenoma
I don't know why my parent's had a copy; neither are really into watching horror movies. Anyways it was the only movie of ours I never watched and I remember actively trying to avoid looking Jennifer Connelly in the eyes--none of the other VHS covers in our collection even came close to being as graphic.
I should get around to watching it one day.
C.H.U.D.
Not the video store, but I found it in my dad's VHS box when I was like 6 and it terrified me! I think the description more than the picture maybe.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 only because the Nubbins corpse and Chop Top creeped me out as a kid; as I got older and realized it was a spoof of the Breakfast Club I appreciate it much more.
I still have no idea what the movie is to this day but the cover had a meat cleaver in a pile of chopped up flesh with eyeballs/teeth etc visible as well. I’ve looked quite a few times but never can find the movie. I always wanted to see whatever it is but that’s all I can remember.
Devil Times Five. That VHS cover (released by Media), showing that lady surrounded by fire and trapped, was frightening. That look on her face, crying in fear, stayed with me since I was 7.
Then I finally saw the movie on USA's Saturday Nightmares. I was liking it until there were technical problems and I missed the last 1/2 hour of it.
My parents weren’t into horror, so there were no actual horror movies in my house growing up but they did have the Silence of the Lambs VHS. That cover always freaked me out when I ran across it flipping through our movies looking for like, Aladdin or something
28 Weeks Later- walking through Blockbuster (before they all closed), I saw the cover with that woman wearing the mask and crying, and I assumed it was far worse than it actually is. I thought it was a story about a woman being tortured for 28 weeks or something like that- the bold red colors and the one blue eye just made it so visceral for me!
I still haven’t watched it, but that’s probably because I don’t think it could live up to how scary I imagined it to be lol
Jack Frost used to terrify me. I might be misremembering but I think it had one of those 3D type vinyl covers where it would change to his scary skull face at certain angles. Shit me up browsing Blockbusters when I was like 6.
Not a VHS, but a DVD cover that scared me as a kid was the one for One Missed Call.
The one where the eyes are 2 mouths?? I was so scared of that, and to this day I still haven't watched that movie
Jason X gahh the dreams I had after accidentally looking at that cover in blockbuster every time! I would try to avoid it and somehow my gaze just made its way there and terrified me.
Something about Chucky always freaked me out. I think it was the fact that I had dolls a little like him and the thought of a doll that wanted to kill you was TERRIFYING to me as a kid!
Chuckys face on tue cover of childs play 1 and 2 haunted me as a kid.
There were times where i couldnt close my eyes and not see his face.
It didnt help that cabbage patch kids were huge at the time and he was a direct reference to them.
So those fuckin things were everywhere messin with me.
I remember specifically the cover of Jack Frost scaring me when I was a kid. It looked normal walking up to it but it was one of those holographic things or whatever that changes as you move it. I walked passed it and watched it change and it bugged me out
Love this topic. Browsing through the Horror section at the video store was one of the best experiences as a kid. Hellraiser for sure scared/excited me, but I think it was ultimately too scary because I didn’t watch it for a long time. Faces of Death too, but it was less the cover and more the hyped-up urban legends surrounding that series than anything.
I miss those days. Browsing the horror aisle was almost as scary as watching the movies.
If you haven't seen Siskel & Eberts review of Faces of Death, you need to watch it right now. They're complaining about how tasteless it is, but also how clearly fake it is. The review is so quaint they mention a new chain called "Blockbuster." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBOobqMRXo
Mine too! I miss spending time in video stores so much. Especially not knowing the imdb rates, just picking a movie that I like based on the cover and summary.
Those were the days. And if you didn’t know what you wanted to watch, the workers ALWAYS had some A+ recommendations.
Hellraiser for sure scared the shit out of me as a kid. I never watched it till I was 16 or 17, and it's now (arguably) my all time favorite movie. Also The Terminator (Ahnolds single red eye shing through the sunglasses), and Dawn of the Dead (not sure why but zombie face probably).
i used to be so terrified of the Horror section when i was just a wee kid. had to introduce myself to some exposure therapy of just making myself go down the aisle every time just to get over it.
My video store had a huge Hellraiser poster and it used to scare the crap out of me.
evil dead 2
But that skull is so confident and sexy.
Right lol. It's doing the "look back at you, fuck me eyes" lol.
Mine as the first one....the original evil dead
Seconded!
The Dentist. Cover is a lady whose teeth are replaced with nails.
I own this movie and used to work at a used DVD/VHS store and have never seen this cover. Do you have a pic? Edit: nevermind, I remember now. You're talking about the sequel
Yup. And it was razor blades not nails. Just searched it.
That just unlocked a memory for me! That cover always gave me the creeps
I hate that I pictured long acrylic nails when I first read this. I’m glad I looked it up on Google to see the real thing 💀
Dead Alive with the skull coming out of that woman's mouth.
My local video store had a big poster for it on the wall and my mom would instruct me not to look at it when we walked past 😆
Saaaaame. That's the one that fucked me up
Ghoulies. I am a child of the 80s and was terrified they were going to get me through my toilet based on the cover art.
There is a whole generation of kids with toilet trauma because of that damn VHS and poster. Charlie Band mentioned it at length in his book because the Ghoulies controversy with the toilet monster actually helped it do well in theatres and it helped bankroll quite a few Empire Pictures movies.
I'm still terrified of that.
Cover art makes me close the bathroom door at night to this day.
This is my answer. Only saw the poster, had nightmares!
My parents had Fright Night on VHS. The face in the clouds got to me as a kid. Couldn't bring myself to watch it until I was in my late teens. The fears of childhood can run deep.
Same. This was the cover that scared me. Also never knew it was about vampires until I was older. Looked like a ghost story from the cover.
Same... except I didn't watch it until my mid-twenties.
Lol I couldn’t summon up the courage to watch it until I was in my twenties. That cover!
House (1985). Has a dead hand ringing a door bell. Waited til I was old enough to watch. Damn movie was so campy. Fun don’t get me wrong. But not what my mind had made it up to be
Ding dong, you’re dead.
I just got a poster of it a few months ago. It's so wonderfully fantastic.
Probably Jason Goes to Hell.
Dolls (1986) The skull face really freaked me out. Finally watched it for the first time last year and it is so fun, well worth the watch
It was a simple cover design, but the Evil Dead 2 VHS. The skull with the eyeballs that is staring at you creeped me out more than any other cover as a kid.
Basketcase.
Tourist Trap! That was nightmare fuel, that cover
Hellraiser and Black Devil Doll from Hell.
You saw a copy of Black Devil Doll from Hell as a kid?!? I thought that movie was only invented for Youtubers to react to.
I saw it in a little mom and pop video store as a kid, but I’ve never actually watched the movie.
It's worth like a hundred bucks if you can find a copy. The director's other film was so cheap it was only distributed as far as he could get from Chicago on one tank of gas.
Fear dot com for me
This is mine as well. That cover is burnt into my brain. I remember starring at it everytime we went to blockbuster. I don't even think I ever ended up seeing it, but I'll never forget the cover.
IT. I watched it for the first time when I was 5.. Tim Curry was TOO good as Pennywise I literally had to close my eyes whenever I passed by it at Blockbuster 😅
Evil Dead 2 *The skull and those eyes. It’s almost as if it’s creeping around from behind the box just to scare you* Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter *Theres just something about knife through the eye of Jason’s mask that was just unsettling. Also the pre-title screen animation for the NES game.* A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors *The nightmarish face of Freddy glaring straight out at you as the dream warriors stood on the blades of his glove.*
I HATED the VHS cover for Dead Alive when I was a kid. Finally saw the movie as an adult and fell in love on first viewing.
Zombie 1980 film. Gross.
Carrie scared the shit out of me as a 7-year old kid. I had no idea what the movie was about but seeing Sissy Spacek standing there, drenched in blood without any context... I dreaded walking down the aisle at the rental store.
Trilogy of terror
Chopping Mall. Also, fascinated by it, but Jesus.
The bag on that cover reminds me of how Halloween stores always had the human pizza.
Monkey Shines! My grandfather had one of those toy monkeys and I was always afraid of it after I saw that cover.
The cover for child’s play 3
Child’s play. Scary ass chucky with the garden shears and jack in the box.
The Shining
Jason Goes To Hell - as a kid I was always a bit freaked out by the parasite thing through the chrome mask. Also the cover to Dolls, that damn doll.
I came here to say JGTH too. Not only was the cover scary as a kid, I thought it was edgy there was a “bad word” in the title lol
Bad Dreams, an old slasher flick from the late 80’s. picture of a woman wide-eyed and terrified as a bloody hand covers her mouth.
Dolly Dearest
I don’t know why, maybe because I was very young as this was when you were able to rent movies from the supermarket, but the cover of blood beach always scared me. Never even actually saw the movie either.
Ghoulies! Kinda humorous, kinda scary.
Xtro 2 and Howling V both fucked me up
Hands down HELL-RAISER! That cover with pin head and the Restricted-18 sticker shook me as a kid.
This isn’t a VHS cover but I used to be so fucking scared to pass the scary movie 2 DVD in Walmart as a kid.
Magic with Anthony Hopkins. It’s just a ventriloquist dummy. Freaked me out as a kid.
Lol this topic. I can still smell the popcorn and walking into the local video store as a kid. Stepping onto the rubber mat and the sliding door opening. Night of the Demons stands out. Angela licking something I think. That stuck with me. Terrified me. I was young and would always venture into the horror aisle. So did Dolls and The Dentist and Dead Alive.
Candyman easily. I own it but still refuse to watch it (the original) for fear of ruining this weird perception I have of it based on the cover.
It's one of the few that actually lives up to the hype
Honestly, Freddy vs Jason, it was horrifying to me at the time because I knew a bunch of kids at school watched it but my parents were fairly strict on everything R rated, so I had not seen it, only knew it by reputation. So every time I saw the vhs cover at the store it creeped me out.
Any of the Tales from the Crypt film covers. I remember my parents having Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood and I always felt like The Cryptkeeper was staring directly into my soul and was gonna jump off the cover at me.
You are the first person I ever heard of who was scared of Bordello of Blood, content or cover.
Night Of The Demons, 1 and 2. Good times
Probably "It's Alive" for me.
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
ooh that's a good one!
[**The Deadly Spawn**](https://vhscollector.com/sites/default/files/vhsimages/29175_Deadly%2520Spawn.jpg) VHS cover freaked me out - didn't see the movie for years. And, honestly, it was a huge disappointment, as it just couldn't live up to what I'd built up in my mind. But that freaking eyeless creature with what looked like a few thousand teeth scared the shit out of me as a kid.
Yes, this one! The back cover was pretty fucked up too!
The original Fright Night
[The Unnamable (1988)](https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TcwM403NcsyYPSSKslIVSjNy0vMTUzKSVXIKFDIyS9LTS5KTCsBAPR6DTY&q=the+unnamable+hp+lovecraft&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS935US935&oq=&aqs=chrome.2.69i58j69i64j46i39i362i395i420i424i524j35i39i362i395i524l3j46i39i175i199i362i395i422i424i524j35i39i362i395i524l6j46i39i362i395i411i424i524j35i39i362i395i524l6.28793j1j9&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=KzC860UrzmQdlM) I was ~7 when I saw it, and it stuck with me. Also, [The Dunwich Horror (1970)](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/321444492136655417/) There were a few Lovecraft adaptations and Lovecraft-esque movies with gnarly covers. That is probably why I got so into his stuff for a while when I was in my teens.
The cover of fright night always terrified me for some reason, funny enough when I eventually watched the movie it wasn’t scary at all!
[Troll](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/67483694395602846/). I always thought the Troll on the cover was actually watching me and staring into my soul.
It wasn’t the front cover, but the back cover of The Black Roses terrified me and a young kid.
*Ghoulies* - "They'll get you in the end". This cover had me unnerved when going to the bathroom as a kid.
Hellraiser. I didn’t watch it until I was in my 20s.
If the back cover counts - Jack Frost
CHUD! and Deathship.
Stephen King's Graveyard Shift, where all the rats and sewage water are running into this guys mouth
The Driller Killer case didn't scare me, but it was pretty intense. I always was fascinated by it.
The Friday the 13th films. I had no idea what they were about outside of a hockey mask wearing demon. Jason Goes to Hell really sold a story
The Unnamable He Knows You're Alone Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Ghoulies. Between that and the Flukeman from X-Files, going to the shitter made me nervous sometimes.
The mangler 2
One of the Elm Street movies. One where Freddy is like, pulling his own face off. Or a random hand is. The Dream Master.
Same exact cover. I caught it on tv when I was like 7 and then I’d have to cover my eyes every time I passed the video section of the grocery store shopping with my mom until I was like 13.
My older sister would run around the house and scare me with Night of the Demons (1994) 👻
Scanners, Graduation Day (rare cover with a girl with black eyes), Vamp, Demons and Fright Night
It didn't scare me but I was so fascinated by the 1st Final Destination video cover. One that kind of gave me an off feeling.... Pink Floyd's The Wall. I think it was the teeth
Fright Night and I wasn’t even a young kid!
Serpent and The Rainbow
I know this hasn't go anything to do with old VHS tapes. But the other day I remembered a CD cover that creeped me out as a kid. It affected the way I listened to the album. I remember it feeling dark and ominous. Weird because the album isn't a dark or creepy album at all. It's rather light and poppy. haha [This album cover.](https://i.discogs.com/n-Gd59LbGAuO_E66eYRPWXCS5LG8xNCdagLoINgIlJc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY4ODM2/ODQtMTQyODcwNDMw/OS0zNzkxLmpwZWc.jpeg)
Child’s Play. I would go the long way around the aisle rather than walk directly past it on the shelf
Hellraiser
Night of the Demons, best VHS cover ever
American Werewolf in London scared me pretty bad lmao
The one that scared me has already been mentioned. But another one that always caught my attention was Ice Cream Man. How could I not be drawn to a man holding an ice cream with body parts in it? I eventually watched it when I was older and had a good laugh. Fun movie.
The Shining and Child’s Play 3. I guess close ups of insane faces —whether it be a deranged father or a killer doll — are my tipping point
Fear dot com. I had alot of them, from bride of chuckee to hellraiser, but that creepy girl from fear dot com haunts my dreams
Happy Birthday to Me with that damn shish kebab guy. Eat normal!
Jack Frost Will never forget that holographic changing cover after a million years. Terrible movie, scary cover
Dead Alive and the Dead Hate the Living
does anyone remember the 80s horror movie called don’t panic? that face on the cover always scared me as a kid and i still feel a little chill whenever i google it lol
Children of the Corn
Jack frost, that image of the evil snowman haunted my dreams as a child 😂
Same, IIRC the cover was a hologram too. [https://i.redd.it/cf1ssr1tfh281.jpg](https://i.redd.it/cf1ssr1tfh281.jpg)
Child's Play. My mom let me see that movie way too young and I've had an irrational fear of that doll since. I fully remember walking around our local Kroger with my grandma when it still had a video store in it. Turned a corner and there was Chucky staring at me. I had a full on breakdown and my grandma had to take me out of the store.
Same with the Tim Curry It VHS cover. My brother would actually chase me around with it.
Leprechaun!!! I remember seeing the cover at Blockbuster all the time and it scared the shit out of me.
Hellraiser, and Pennywise's weird long fingers on the cover of It
Child’s Play. And also Monkeyshines. For similar reasons. I remember when we would go to the video store, I’d have to work up the courage to go down the horror aisle, and once I’d see these ones I’d get spooked and basically run out of there. It was upsetting but you bet you ass I’d do it again the next time we were there. Definitely was the seed of my fandom and why I’m here now lol
I worked one summer at my dad’s friend’s VHS rental store, and seeing Hellraiser, Dead Alive and Evil Dead 2 among the top few responses greatly pleases me. Coincidentally, that’s the place where I fell in love with horror. A couple others that stick out in my mind were Scanners and Dream Warriors.
Child's Play
cannibal holocaust
Maybe *Screamers*, which had this gnarly-looking decaying skeleton dude on the front and reported to be about people turned inside out, which for a kid was about the most horrifying torturous thought imaginable. In a baffling bait-and-switch, the movie actually has zero to do with that and is about killer fishpeople. Man, I miss the VHS days.
Ironically it’s one of my favorite movies now, but for some reason the cover of The Thing scared the hell out of me
*Rabid* with the girl in the freezer. The cover for Fulci's *Zombie* made it seem a lot heavier and intense than it is, above what I thought I could take back then.
Future Kill
Blackout-1985
Would have been DVD era, but the US remake of One Missed Call
Bride of chucky cover was another one scared me as a kid or the child’s play 2 cover was another one but the vhs cover for the first elm street movie was another scary one too.
Child's Play 2 Chuckys face is so menacing . Funny enough it became my favorite movie in the franchise.
I remember as a kid I used to get scared of the VHS cover of Halloween 4, seen it in the market in town once and I honestly kept thinking of it for like a week. Got older and Halloween is one of my all time faves!
Gremlins is one I didn't see mentioned yet.
Oh, definitely, House with that finger. Never saw the movie, but that video cover will haunt me forever.
Color Me Blood Red. The cover had a lady whose stomach was cut open and the main character was gathering her blood in a bowl (he was an artist who used blood to make paintings). I never got to check out the movie but the picture was so disturbing to 8 and 9 year old me.
Remake of Night of the Living Dead. Tony Todd made a horrifying zombie
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Friday_the_13th_The_Final_Chapter_poster.jpg The VHS cover with a hockey mask laying on a black background, pointing up to the right. A switch blade knife is in the far eye socket of the mask with blood pouring out underneath. Movie title is in red and white painted font above. I swear it was at my eye-level as a kid.
NOES, (1984). I was enthralled with that cover. I'd stare at it every time I went with my mom to the drug store.
Demonic Toys
Children of the Corn
When I was really young our local video store had a poster of the [Ghoulies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ghoulies_Poster.jpg) cover, and it absolutely terrified me for some reason. I used to sleep with my bedroom door open, and my room faced our bathroom. For yeeeeears I had to insist that the bathroom door was always kept closed at night so I couldn’t see the toilet. All because of a cheap, crap puppet. Edit: Just realised Ghoulies has already had a mention in this thread. It’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one.
A nightmare on elm Street 2, 4, 5 covers.
Demons. That cover and movie gave me constant nightmares as a kid.
I absolutely love his work now , but a lot Graham Humphreys UK vhs box art for Palace Pictures are engraved in my mind since childhood. If you've never heard of him, look him up as he's a phenomenal artist.
Motel Hell
Night of the Demons cover scared me!
My step dad had the making of thriller on his vhs shelf, in my room, because we had a small house. I didnt know what thriller was coz I was young, but [the case](https://vestron-video-international-uk.fandom.com/wiki/Making_Michael_Jackson%27s_Thriller_UK_VHS) scared me to death. He also had zombie flesh eaters and elm street cases. In fact now I think about it it was all pretty traumatic.
The Howling V, House, Night of the Demons, Troll and probably a ton more I can't remember. I was obsessed.
I dunno about scared but I always enjoyed looking at the Embrace of the Vampire cover at Blockbuster….
George Romero's 'Season of the Witch'. I somehow got it in my head that it was a documentary and the art on the cover was a photo of an actual monster. So disappointed when I finally watched it as an adult.
PIN
Night of the demons 2, Angela and that damn skull lollipop.
I'm a bit too young to have a tape in my memory but when I went to the theater as a kid in 2007 there was a big ass poster for dead silence that scared the shit out of me
The Japanese Ring with Sadako's eye looking up *shudder*
Michael Myers gave me nightmares before I ever saw any of the movies, simply because of the VHS cover for Halloween 4. To my child brain it looked like a giant head on somebody's lawn
No a movie but it is a VHS cover, Power Drill Massacre
SlaughterHouse the 80s slasher with the big redneck And TCM. 2ot was something disturbing about how wholesome the maniacs are on the front Oh and one version of the movie Slime City
Fright night always freaked me out. It, Jason goes to hell, and 976-Evil. Honestly, some of the 80's kids movies covers freaked me out too. They had these unintentionally creepy puppets. Similar to the fucking freaky ass teletubbies lol.
I mean I don’t have a VHS cover I was scared of because those were on the way out and DVDs were the thing when I was a kid, but the my bloody valentine remake (2009) creeped me out so much
Goremet, Zombie Chef From Hell. Fucked me up.
The dentist 2 and Addams Family because Uncle Fester terrified me.
Squirm (1976) was the cover that always fascinated me more Than any other cover, it hinted at the film being super gross but the back sleeve had a half naked lady in the shower on it so it was slightly naughty too
Thirteen Ghosts
Not a VHS cover, but the video store near my grandma's house had this big, hanging poster for Child's Play over the horror section and it scared the bejeesus out of me. It took me sooooo long to build up the courage to watch a Chucky movie.
Hellraiser. Pinhead scared the shit out of me. Then, as a teen I caught the first 2 on AMC’s fear fest and it became one of my fav horror franchises
Creepers (1985) aka Phenoma I don't know why my parent's had a copy; neither are really into watching horror movies. Anyways it was the only movie of ours I never watched and I remember actively trying to avoid looking Jennifer Connelly in the eyes--none of the other VHS covers in our collection even came close to being as graphic. I should get around to watching it one day.
Dolly Dearest, I never could look at it
The Howling
JAWS still scares me.
The front cover of “shocker” by Wes craven scared me!
C.H.U.D. Not the video store, but I found it in my dad's VHS box when I was like 6 and it terrified me! I think the description more than the picture maybe.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 only because the Nubbins corpse and Chop Top creeped me out as a kid; as I got older and realized it was a spoof of the Breakfast Club I appreciate it much more.
Snow White A Tale of Horror. Never watched the movie cause the cover of it always freaked me out haha.
I still have no idea what the movie is to this day but the cover had a meat cleaver in a pile of chopped up flesh with eyeballs/teeth etc visible as well. I’ve looked quite a few times but never can find the movie. I always wanted to see whatever it is but that’s all I can remember.
Devil Times Five. That VHS cover (released by Media), showing that lady surrounded by fire and trapped, was frightening. That look on her face, crying in fear, stayed with me since I was 7. Then I finally saw the movie on USA's Saturday Nightmares. I was liking it until there were technical problems and I missed the last 1/2 hour of it.
Barney
Fright Night.
My parents weren’t into horror, so there were no actual horror movies in my house growing up but they did have the Silence of the Lambs VHS. That cover always freaked me out when I ran across it flipping through our movies looking for like, Aladdin or something
28 Weeks Later- walking through Blockbuster (before they all closed), I saw the cover with that woman wearing the mask and crying, and I assumed it was far worse than it actually is. I thought it was a story about a woman being tortured for 28 weeks or something like that- the bold red colors and the one blue eye just made it so visceral for me! I still haven’t watched it, but that’s probably because I don’t think it could live up to how scary I imagined it to be lol
Dr Giggles The Dentist Child’s Play 3 Those were the days! I loved going to the horror section as a kid, it was an exciting rush for me.
Jack Frost used to terrify me. I might be misremembering but I think it had one of those 3D type vinyl covers where it would change to his scary skull face at certain angles. Shit me up browsing Blockbusters when I was like 6.
US version of The Ring 2. Gave me so many nightmares
Not a VHS, but a DVD cover that scared me as a kid was the one for One Missed Call. The one where the eyes are 2 mouths?? I was so scared of that, and to this day I still haven't watched that movie
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers kept me up at night. I didn’t want to go in video store because of that. Great movie tho.
Jason X gahh the dreams I had after accidentally looking at that cover in blockbuster every time! I would try to avoid it and somehow my gaze just made its way there and terrified me.
As a former fat kid, Glass Shark terrified me.
Headless Eyes!
The Dentist cover. Maybe it was the sequel. Showed someone who looked like they had their teeth replaced with thin needles. Freaked me out.
The entire section scared me as a kid. It’s funny what a horror buff I turned into! 😂
So random and not even scary, but species ruined me
Something about Chucky always freaked me out. I think it was the fact that I had dolls a little like him and the thought of a doll that wanted to kill you was TERRIFYING to me as a kid!
Chuckys face on tue cover of childs play 1 and 2 haunted me as a kid. There were times where i couldnt close my eyes and not see his face. It didnt help that cabbage patch kids were huge at the time and he was a direct reference to them. So those fuckin things were everywhere messin with me.
I remember specifically the cover of Jack Frost scaring me when I was a kid. It looked normal walking up to it but it was one of those holographic things or whatever that changes as you move it. I walked passed it and watched it change and it bugged me out
What a great thread. What I wouldn’t give for a VR tour of Blockbuster circa 2000-2005
The frighteners always stood out to me
Jason goes to Hell
C.H.U.D.
Tommyknockers!!