If there’s a heaven and I get to go there when I die, it’ll be an ’80s-era video shop. It won’t be a Blockbuster or anything fancy like that, it’ll be in the back room of a corner shop and feel slightly seedy, with an infinite selection of horror movies that are never out on rental. This is how I remember my early video shop visits as a youngster and as much as I love a high-definition Blu-Ray, there’s a part of me that will forever mourn the loss of these dens of cinematic iniquity.
My first trip to such a place came, unsurprisingly, not long after my dad brought home our first video recorder. The endless rows of chunky, clamshell VHS cases must have been overwhelming for my young mind because even though I already loved scary movies, I also wanted to see all of the same films any seven or eight year old would want to see in the 1980s. This was a golden age of low-budget straight-to-video gems where each cover artwork looked more outrageous and action-packed than the next, with ninjas, fully-armed Vietnam vets and Boogaloo Shrimps as far as the eye could see.
As tempting as these delights were, after a bit of friendly encouragement from my old man to “make my mind up”, I made my decision. It was Creepshow. It’s no mystery why I chose Creepshow, just take a look at the VHS artwork. It looks scary but it also looks like a cartoon, which is something any kid can instantly understand. And it’s an anthology movie, which meant I was getting not one, but five scary stories to watch. Who could resist?
I ask you, is there a better gateway movie for a young fright fan? You’ve got zombies, body horror, vengeful spirits, monsters, creepy crawlies and even a bit of voodoo. It’s a greatest hits of horror, presented like a comic book come-to-life, all bright colours and dark humour. And who better to take a young boy’s movie innocence than Romero, King and Savini? I didn’t know the names at the time but these three legends would come to mean so much to me in the coming years.
Ever with an eye on his wallet, my dad wisely chose to rent videos on a Friday night which meant they didn’t have to go back until the Monday. I’m pretty sure I watched Creepshow as soon as we arrived home, then watched it again on the Saturday and Sunday. I especially enjoyed rewinding the part where the roaches burst out of the old man, watching it again and again and again. I’d never seen anything like that before and I was horrified, but I just couldn’t turn my eyes away. This was a different beast entirely to the Hammer classics I’d been watching.
If there’s one movie responsible for cementing my love of horror it’s this one. There are others I like more now but I’ll still go back to Creepshow time and time again because it’s just so much fun. I don’t believe that people are defined by the films they watch, the music they listen to or the books that they read, but life pivots on spur-of the-moment decisions and I feel my choice in the video shop that day has led me down a stranger and more interesting path than it might have had I picked a Disney movie instead. Who knows what kind of horrors THAT could have unleashed? I dread to think …
Billy Loves Horror 