Tag Archives: VHS Promo

Home Video Releases, Horror Nostalgia

Spend The Holidays With Freddy Krueger and This Dream Master Vintage Christmas Promo!

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Are you ready for Santa Freddy?!

Ahh, the days of VHS retailers’ promos. If you’re new here. you should know this stuff is my Kryptonite and you’ll see me rant and rave over this a lot- so buckle up. In case you’re not hip to what the hell a VHS screener may be, let me break it down for you:

It’s basically an early release of a VHS tape sent to video store owners that will ultimately either sway them to stock the shelves with said movie or give it a hard pass. In addition, some of these screeners would be sent to the media for review. Hard to imagine a time when critics would have to actually wait on the postman to deliver physical media as opposed to a screener email that can be obtained in under 60 seconds, eh?

In the horror genre of the 80s, there was no better salesman than that of Robert Englund pimping his Nightmare movies to Mom and Pop video shops. Freddy, or rather the TRUE Sandy Claws here, gets into the holiday spirit as a December release date approaches for the Nightmare franchise’s biggest hit yet, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. For Video Stores, this wasn’t really a hard sell as stated, the movie did monstrous at the box office for a Nightmare film, and was a big hit for Freddy fans alike.

However, that didn’t stop Englund from making the promotional rounds in and out of his Freddy makeup to advocate for The Dream Master! From late-night talk shows to his own MTV hour-long special, 1988 belonged to Freddy. Also, let’s not forget this was also the year Freddy’s Nightmares debuted on syndicated television!

Yes sir. Freddy was the KING of horror in ’88.

The promo begins with a few snippets of 1985’s The Santa Claus Movie but is quickly interrupted by the 1988 “Sandy Claws Movie” as Freddy dives right into pimping his product that made him a pop-culture phenomenon and why Video retailers should stock up on Dream Master.

I mean, if that 3D media lightbox insert wasn’t enough to get them to buy even if they hadn’t seen the movie, then nothing would have swayed them.

This thing is totally on my horror treasure hunt list.

Anyways, enjoy another rad VHS Retailers promo but with a horror holiday slice to the gut nuggets!

Home Video Releases

Dial M For Monsters! The “Little Monsters” VHS Retailer Promo!

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Regarding gateway horror, Little Monsters ranks right up there with the best of them introducing a slice of horror to a young generation in some subtle, and some not so subtle ways. I mean, if you’re gonna tell me BOY didn’t scare the piss out of your apple juice as a kid, you just might be a sociopath.

In August of 1989, Little Monsters was unleashed in limited capacity to select theaters due to the film’s financial distributer Vestron filing for bankruptcy. I can only assume because of this, many kids like myself, caught their first viewing of Fred Savage and Howie Mandal fucking with Ronnie’s lunch via a stint of showings on the new Disney channel (totally me), or by a rental via their local video store. And oh man, did the studios really sell this movie to mom and pop video retailers across the US as we were up to our horns in promos for this national nostalgic treasure!

The biggest promotion to coincide with the film’s release on VHS, was obviously the “Dial M For Monsters” campaign; which had consumers flocking to their rotary phones and potential ass-whoopings’ in an attempt to win a grand vacation to Hawaii, among other prizes like a sweet Little Monsters glow-in-the-dark t-shirt and a pin-ball machine. The visual promo, seen below, is a two-minute long rap that was featured on the VHS to get pumped up about the contest, along with spreads in several Teen- targeted magazines like SuperTeen and Loudmouth to get the word out. Not sure who, or if anyone actually won these things, but damn it would be nice to know who owns that Black Knight pinball machine now!

At only $89.95 per cassette purchased for a VHS store, the retailer kit included with said contract was pretty sweet, and clever for bringing kids into the store looking to win this contest as the Little Monsters stand-dees and displays provided much needed clues for the game. Mom and Pop shops themselves had a shot at winning the sweepstakes with a picture puzzle delivered directly to them along with their purchase, and if they solved it, were eligible for the grand-prize themselves.

While it was, a radical promotional hype for the movie indeed, the best promos for this movie at the end of the day were all the prank ideas we got from the film as kids. That being said, I absolutely stuck peanut butter to our rotary phone, and saran wrapped the top of our toilet bowl just to see if it would actually work. That being said, my dad hated that movie and still does to this day because he ended up being the victim in both of those scenarios.

Anyway, enjoy this extended VHS retailer VHS promo, and at this time, you can get the Blu-Ray from Amazon for only $7.50 if you wanna relive the fantastical world of monsters under your bed and cat-food sandwiches!

Home Video Releases

Watch Robert Patrick Pimp Himself Out For “Terminator 2” In This Rare VHS Retailers’ Promo

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What better way to celebrate Terminator 2: Judgement Day than with an old-fashioned VHS retailers’ promo and the T-1000 hawking his liquid metal soul to chain stores to sell a few copies for consumption?

Oh and we’re throwing a couple of free copies of Drop Dead Fred too and a cheesy sitcom style family to boot. Because that’s how we roll in 1991.

In case you’re new here, VHS retailer promos are my Achilles Heel. It throws back to an era where video stores were the go-to spot for a night in and also gives some insight on the films themselves. Albeit this information was solely usually seen by video chain owners and Mom/Pop shops, thanks to the world-wide web we can now taste what prompted these rental stores to buy movies in copious amounts. Remember walking into Blockbuster and seeing three shelves worth of the same damn new release? These VHS retailer promos may or may not have had something to do with it. I mean, as stated above with free video tapes of Drop Dead Fred how could anyone say no?!

I gotta say, the not so subtle way studios would pimp out their talent to star in these retailer video ads, is goddamn legendary. Horror icons like Chucky and Freddy Krueger saw no shame in this, so why not the T-1000 get on the promo train as well?! The movie being hawked, is of course the 1991 smash Blockbuster, TERMINATOR 2. If you know your VHS retailer history, you’re well aware one video cassette alone could rape your wallet for up to a hundred bucks. Rent out that video at least fifty times and then you get your money back, and then enter your own profits. Now, in an effort to get you to buy as much as you could, perks and bundles were thrown in to convince retailers to buy a bunch of copies for their store. And these types of deals, with their promo swag (I’d literally sell my left arm for those glasses now), was just how it all worked back then. So those bad-ass movie standees’ you’d see at your go-to video store growing up; were very likely a part of a bundle deal such as this.

Now sit back and marvel at what the movie- pimpin’ business used to look like back in the early 90s’.