Tag Archives: 80s horror posters

When The Poster Is Better Than The Movie: ‘Trick Or Treats’ (1982)

Posted on by
Reply

Surprisingly, I have not seen every Halloween-themed horror movie. And one of those that I hadn’t seen was 1982’s Trick or Treats! Not to be confused with Trick or Treat…or Trick ‘r Treat, I had remembered seeing the VHS version of Trick or Treats when I was kid – but I never rented it. Over the years, I became more and more curious because I had nothing better to do with my life. And the other night, it finally happened after 45 years! I had sex. Oh, and also I finally watched Trick or Treats!

And, I started a new paragraph to leave you in more suspense as to what my thoughts on the movie are. Well, I’ll get to the point I suppose: It was shit. Not even good shit, if you know what I mean. Like, I didn’t even finish the movie. That might be a first as far as Halloween-themed horror movies. Some lowlights: There was a kid playing pranks and a crazy guy escaping an asylum, David Carradine was in it for some reason, and also some person with the last name ‘Snodgrass’ which made me laugh. But anyway, I’ll save you the time and show you the best thing below about the movie…..the poster. So steer clear of Trick or Treats if you haven’t seen it, and go watch the other two movies with ‘Trick’ and ‘Treat’ in the titles instead!

Horror Movie Posters I Love: Trick Or Treat (1986)

Posted on by
Reply

“What would we do baby, without us??  What would we dooooo baby, without us???” Oh, sorry.  For whatever reason I have the Family Ties theme song stuck in my head today. And then I got to thinking about Skippy (Marc Price) from that show.  And that of course got me to thinking about the 1986 horror/metal hybrid Trick Or Treat!  I always loved the original poster art for this movie, so I wanted to show some love to it.  So…….gaze your eyes on that Sammi Curr prize below!

MV5BZGM2MTAwYWEtNzhlYi00OTc1LWJiZTQtYzY0NDA0MzY5NDU3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_

To me, this is a quintessential 80’s horror movie because it combines the horror AND the metal – two of my passions back then and still today.  But the poster art really stuck out to me, including the font used for the title.  The use of the jack-o-lantern is rad (figured I’d use an 80’s term there), and the tagline “What are you afraid of? It’s only rock & roll.” hits my horror spot.  Seek this movie out this coming Halloween, as I feel a lot of people forget about it.  A proper Blu-ray/DVD release would be ideal (I’m looking at you, Scream Factory) – but until then, scrounge up your old DVD copies and watch it on Youtube if you have to!  Sha la la la………

Horror Movie Posters I Love: Vamp (1986)

Posted on by
Reply

I’m sucker for fangs.  Ahhhhhh – see what I did there?  Unintentional puns are the best!  So it’s really no surprise that one of my favorite horror movie posters of all time is for the 1986 horror/comedy hybrid Vamp.

vamp

Quite honestly, it’s a gorgeous poster.  Now just a quick sidebar:  If you haven’t seen Vamp, then you might not get the subtle awesomeness of the poster.  This post is strictly about just that, so I won’t disclose my feelings on the actual movie (but with Grace Jones, vampires, boobs, and pure cheesiness – how can you go wrong?).

The poster is simple, but it works.  The red from the lips pops right off, with the ‘V’ and the ‘M’ in the title forming a pair of fangs of course.  This movie is about vampires, so fangs are a must somewhere on the poster.  The only thing I’m not jazzed about is the Vamp tagline “A Frightening Comedy“.  Meh.  Pretty boring and could have used something more fun and clever to coincide with the tone of the movie.  But overall, I honestly love this poster and would display it proudly on a wall next to my Grace Jones shrine.  Fangs for reading this post and look out for the next installment of ‘Horror Movie Posters I Love‘!

Rental Regrets: Junior (1985)

Posted on by
Reply

Here we go with one of my favorite recurring posts about VHS horror movies that I wish I would have rented, but never did.  Now – there is one movie that always sticks out in my head that I passed over in my many trips to my local Mom & Pop video stores in the 80’s. The cover was enticing.  The tagline was even more enticing.  But yet I wasn’t enticed enough to ever rent it.  And that movie is……………Junior!

4427752115_66189a9d58

Sorry for the subpar quality pic – it’s the best that Google Images could offer.  But anyway, I can’t tell you how many times I picked up the VHS copy of Junior and put it down.  The artwork is actually pretty sweet considering this was 1985.  The burning boat in the background is intriguing as well because it makes me want to know why the boat is on fire and who is in the boat when it’s on fire.  Genius marketing on their part.  Considering I still haven’t seen Junior, I have no real clue as to what it’s about other than that it’s going for the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre knock-off‘ gold.  Good thing we have IMDB to clarify about the plot:

K.C. and Jo are two hardened female ex-cons who decide to build a marina on a lake in backwoods Texas to start a life for themselves, only to be hassled by the redneck locals who do not like outsiders, and that the lakeshore is their own regular hangout. But K.C. and Jo’s worst troubles come from Junior, a slow-witted psycho redneck who gets the ok from his equally demented mother to kill the two. 

Oooooh – two hardened female ex-cons, huh?  I see Caged Heat potential sex going on here.  And what a shocker – redneck locals who don’t like outsiders and a psycho redneck with a psycho mother.  Nevertheless…………….oh wait – BREAKING JUNIOR NEWS! Here’s another poster that popped up on Google Images:

junior-cdn-450

Ehhhhhhh.  I’ll stick with the original artwork.  As much as I love seeing Junior in his wife beater overcompensating for his probable small penis with his large chainsaw, the original cover art is far superior.  And how the hell do you leave ‘The‘ out of ‘Friday The 13th‘ at the top of the poster?  Nice touch using the chainsaw as an ‘I’ in the title though.  For those curious about this movie (and how the hell could you not be?), there’s a full version up on Youtube.  Let’s all waste an hour and a half of our lives together and see what kind of wacky situations Junior gets himself in…….

Horror Movie Posters I Love: Ghoulies (1985)

Posted on by
Reply

I love a good pun.  And something that I love even more than good puns are slimy green creatures with bad teeth that stick their heads up out of toilets.  So, naturally it was a win-win situation for me when I first gazed upon the poster for Ghoulies back in 1985.

MPW-42348

Take a good look at that beauty of a poster……because the actual movie is pretty awful so the poster is really all that we have going for us unfortunately. Yes, Ghoulies as a film is not good.  But dammit if those involved with the marketing knocked it out of the park, because the poster and cover art for the VHS lured people into watching this crap.  Sure, it’s an 80’s guilty pleasure to some and uncomfortable toilet paper to others – but you can’t deny the sheer genius of the tagline ‘They’ll Get You In The End!” along with the image of that green Ghoulie coming out of the crapper.  Speaking of crap and crappers, they rode that toilet theme all the way to Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go To College. That’s right….they actually went to college.

GHOULIES-3-GHOULIES-GO-TO-COLLEGE-VESTRON-VIDEO

Horror Movie Posters I Love: Hatchet (2006)

Posted on by
Reply

I love a movie that knows where it belongs.  And Adam Green definitely knows that his 2006 throwback slasher flick Hatchet (and the sequels for that matter) belongs in the 80’s.  The only problem is that the original poster didn’t exactly have that true 80’s feel, but this one below done by artist Justin Osbourn sure as hell did.

18x24-hatchet-poster

Boing!  Horror boner going on over here.  TMI.  Fright Rags put 250 of these beauties up for sale a while back and all were numbered and signed by Victor Crowley himself, Kane Hodder.  This poster just screams 80’s and is everything that is right in the horror world.  I read that Adam Green was so impressed as well that he would have used it to promote Hatchet during the release.  Bad news is that I see none of these up on Ebay for sale.  The good news is that you can just gaze at it here and get your fix.