Roadshow Home Video

Anyone in their late thirties will recall VHS nasties and the horrors of the Roadshow home video 'sneak peek' previews that preceded movies in the mid 1980’s (and a shout out to those die hard movie fans who remained through the credits and saw the trailers AFTER the movie).

The horror that used to be shown during the early years of VHS was astounding. Creepy visuals and sounds mixed to create a sense of dread and horror that is still palpable today.

One example is The Secrets of the Phantom Caverns:

My brother had nightmares from the trailer alone and refused outright to see it. The film is relatively tame - it seems some albinos (people in bad makeup) live underground with hand puppets that stick out of fake rock walls. And stars Timothy Buttons as Major Stevens! (Who?)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8^th Dimension was another oddity in terms of trailers:

A disparate group of oddly dressed men (including Jeff Goldblum as a cowboy{!}) assemble in an urban drain, inter cut with bizarre imagery of otherworldly beings mixed with grunting electro pop synths. It produced a disorientating and undeniably disturbing experience for this ten year old!