A History of VHS Companies Part Five
BUDGET
LABELS
During
the video boom of the 80's, companies popped-up offering affordable
tapes (usually $14.99 or lower) of films of all genres. Some
companies got it right but most did it wrong, offering unwatchable
fuzzy dupes that rolled, fluttered and never tracked correctly. Below
are the major budget labels that were in nearly every retail store,
supermarket, car wash, outhouse and whorehouse. You know you own
some. We all do.
GOODTIMES
HOME VIDEO - Here is a budget company that at least
attempted to do it right. Foregoing the normal EP mode of most budget
labels, Goodtimes (founded in 1984 and still going strong today)
opted to release their tapes in the LP mode, far superior to EP, but
not quite as good as SP. Started by the colorful Cayre brothers,
Syrian immigrants whose father was a souvenir salesman in Miami
Beach, they decided to go into the budget VHS business after selling
their profitable music label, SalSoul Records. Starting with 25
public domain titles and a contract with WalMart, the Cayne brothers
sold 3 million dollars worth of tapes in the first year and turned
Goodtimes into a major budget label, selling films of all genres,
Richard Simmon's Sweating To The Oldies exercise tapes, animated
videos to compete with Walt Disney (who sued Goodtimes for trademark
infringement and lost!) and now they release mainly Christian-themed
DVDs. Some of the early VHS covers look as if they were drawn by a 12
year-old with palsy. Click on the Goodtimes link to see a good amount
of their early (and some later) VHS releases.
INTERGLOBAL
HOME VIDEO - Canadian budget label that crossed the U.S.
border and flooded the market with affordable EP and LP (and the
occasional SP) mode films. Their roster was quite ecclectic and they
seemed to have the exclusive rights to many of the films. They
released budget versions of action films (JAGUAR LIVES; COP
IN BLUE JEANS), horror films (CASTLE OF THE WALKING DEAD; LEGEND
OF THE WEREWOLF), thrillers (BLUE BLOOD; THE GRAVEYARD)
and the just plain weird (LONG WEEKEND; GHOSTS
THAT STILL WALK). While most of their tranfers were good for
a budget label, Interglobal had the nasty habit of having the tape
end before the film did, leaving the viewer to wonder how a film
ended. This happened to me on at least three of Interglobal tapes;
their version of LONG WEEKEND being cut-off at the 75 minute
mark. I went back and exchanged the tape, but each one cut off at the
same point in the film. It took me over three years to see a complete
version of WEEKEND, as eBay didn't exist and the film wasn't available anywhere else. We are
spoiled today. The 80's didn't offer us anything but refunds.
RHINO
HOME VIDEO - Before Something Weird Video rotted our little minds with
unknown exploitation films and weird comp tapes, we had Rhino Home
Video in the 80's doing the same thing. Rhino released all those
little 50's & 60's horror ond JD titles that most other companies
didn't carry. And most of them were released in the superior SP mode
for not much more than their inferior EP mode competitors. Rhino was
also king of the weird comp tapes, releasing titles (many in
conjunction with Johnny Legend) with names like SLEAZEMANIA, WEIRD
CARTOONS, DOPE MANIA and RHINO'S GUIDE
TO SAFE SEX as well as 50's JD films under the banner "Teenage Theater",
hosted by Mamie Van Doren. As the 80's came to a close, Rhino
released a bunch of tapes under the "Midnight Madness"
banner, a group of 50's and 60's horror films hosted by Elvira (who
had just recently stopped hosting duties on ThrillerVideo's
line of horror films). Fans began voicing their complaints about
Elvira's schtick interrupting the films and Rhino relented, having
her only at the beginning and end of the films. These video boxes had
a round green sticker slapped on them that said "Uncut.
Uninterrupted." and the fans were happy once again. During the
90's, Rhino released selected episodes the Mystery Science Theater
3000 TV series on tape (and later on DVD) and were very
successful. Rhino is still thriving today, releasing DVDs of
their catalogue as well as esoteric episodic TV (THE FAR-OUT SPACE NUTS and other Sid & Marty Krofft 70's Saturday morning TV).
Rhino was the king of exploitation during much of the 80's and I, for
one, will be always greatful.
STAR
CLASSICS - One of the most prevalent EP-mode budget labels
and one of the worst in terms of quality which made it all the worse
for the buyer because they had some pretty rare titles on their
roster. Trans World Entertainment licensed many of
their films for Star Classics to release in budget versions,
including WHITE FIRE, EVIL
TOWN, DEVIL'S
DYNAMITE and many others. Star Classics also released many 70's & 80's
horror films, including DREAM
NO EVIL, THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK, ALIEN
DEAD, THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS, NIGHT
OF HORROR, REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIE, BOARDING
HOUSE, CRAZE, MOVIE
HOUSE MASSACRE and many more. The only problen was that you
played Russian roulette with every purchase. Nine times out of ten,
the VHS cassette was defective. Either it wouldn't track correctly or
the print was so washed-out that it would be unwatchable. Still, some
of their covers were pretty decent and are considered collectable
today for that fact alone. It still amazes me that people would spend
upwards of $50 for a copy of Star Classics' version of the TV movies ANTS or GARGOYLES on eBay,
though. Star Classics went out of business in 1991.
STARMAKER
ENTERTAINMENT - Out of all the budget labels, Starmaker
Entertainment was always the most visually recognizable. There's no
mistaking a Starmaker video box as all their releases were framed by
a yellow/orange or blue/white border on the front and back covers.
They were also probably they best at EP duplication (using a process
called "QEP") as most of their tapes had very little
trouble maintaining their tracking in VHS players. Starmaker released
nearly the entire New World Video catalogue as well as some Prism Entertainment titles in affordably-priced slipcases, some replicating the New World
and Prism covers and some with new artwork (their cover for Lamberto
Bava's DEMONS is one such case). Starmaker was absorbed by Anchor Bay Entertainment
in the mid-90's.
UNITED
AMERICAN VIDEO/GEMSTONE ENTERTAINMENT - Long-lasting
independent distributor (1986 - 1998), who released a bunch of 60's
& 70's horror films (I think every company in this Budget section
has released a version of Roger Corman's THE TERROR, HORROR
EXPRESS and 1971's PSYCHOMANIA) , martial arts flicks,
westerns and cartoons, all in the public domain and all in the EP
mode. In the 90's, they would release EP versions of 70's and 80's TV
movies (THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE; A REAL AMERICAN HERO,
etc.) and 70's & 80's horror flicks that fell into the
"questionable" public domain category (CREEPOZOIDS; END
OF THE WORLD and THE DAY TIME ENDED).
Surprisingly, some of their later transfers were very good for EP,
but their early releases (MANIA; JAWS OF DEATH) were
washed out and barely watchable. Some of their artwork (check out the
ones for DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN and CURSE OF THE DEVIL)
was so amateurish that it's become collectable to me for reasons I
can't rightly understand.
VIDEO
TREASURES - One of the better bugdet labels of the 80's to
early 90's. Buying a Video Treasures tape was always a crapshoot,
though. You never knew if you were getting an EP, LP or SP-mode tape
because they released films in all three formats (I always tried to
weigh them in my hands before buying, the heaviest being the LP or
SP-recorded tape). Video Treasures always had the better horror films
in the racks because most of them were licensed from Media
Entertainment's library. Films like DEVIL
TIMES FIVE, HELL NIGHT, HAUNTS, DON'T GO IN THE WOODS, INVASION
OF THE FLESH HUNTERS and many more were available to buyers
for the first time, usually for under $10.00 each. Video Treasures
also raided the mysterious Regal Video, Inc. vaults, releasing budget versions of the notorious Christian
anti-drug film BLOOD FREAK and William Girdler's THREE
ON A MEATHOOK. Later on, Video Treasure would join forces
with Anchor Bay Entertainment, releasing remastered (and many times
widescreen) versions of the popular horror films SPIDER BABY, ZOMBIE, HORROR HOTEL and many others until Anchor Bay absorbed them
in 1996.
MISCELLANEOUS
COMPANIES
The
following companies released product in the 80's, but didn't release
a lot of films to make them as well-known as the others above. They
did, however, carry enough genre films to satisfy inclusion in this
visual tour.
ACTIVE
HOME VIDEO - Released dozens of horror (DEATH
CURSE OF TARTU), 70's TV Movies (STRIKE FORCE),
risque sports shows (BUXOM BOXERS) and just plain weird flicks (SOMETIMES
AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS, PREMONITION)
during its run from the mid-80's until the early 90's, usually in
those oversized cardboard boxes with the flimsy plastic inserts.
ALL
SEASONS ENTERTAINMENT - Distributor who released mainly Paul
Naschy horror films (VENGEANCE
OF THE ZOMBIES)
and early Jackie Chan Martial arts flicks (FEARLESS HYENA) in
big boxes and later in regualr cardboard slipcases. Buyer Beware: The
regular slipcase versions are of much poorer quality than the big box
versions. All Seasons later licensed all their films to Congress
Video for sale in the EP mode.
AMERICAN
VIDEO - Independent distributor who released a few horror
films (HATCHET FOR A HONEYMOON, TIME WARP, CRAZE),
but whose main claim to fame is releasing all three (official) ILSA films on VHS in uncut form.
ATLAS
ENTERTAINMENT CORP. - Short-lived New Jersey-based
distributor who released unknown Australian thrillers and equally
unknown home-grown product such as Donald Farmer's VAMPIRE
COP and the relentlessy bad BLOOD
SYMBOL. They disappeared almost as fast as they began.
CAMP
VIDEO - Independent label that released a couple of dozen
bad films (on purpose) in the mid-to-late 80's and then disappeared,
only to resurface in 2007 to release more 80's SOV horror films on
DVD. Taste has no bounds. According to Kim Gibbs (who graciously
submitted a lot of his scans for this section): "Camp Video was
a sub-label for LA Video, an adult video company in the
mid-eighties. Camp was to be their way of becoming respectable.
They even had premieres for HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS in
LA. The two owners were Jim Golff and Salvatore Richichi.
According to Sal Richichi Jr. (who kindly emailed me with informative
corrections), DEATH
ROW DINER, EVIL SPAWN, HOLLYWOOD
CHAINSAW HOOKERS,
and ROCK AND THE MONEY HUNGRY PARTY GIRLS were all Camp
productions and not licensed product (as erroneously reported by Fred
Olen Ray). Sal continues: "I was actually on set for some of
them and used to play with the props (like the 'bug creature'
maquette from EVIL SPAWN) in the Camp MP special FX
department. I met most of the cast and crew as well. My father
actually appears in DEATH ROW DINER and DEATH HOUSE (which is not listed on your page). Heh, I actually did have the
original 'cleaver' prop on the GORE-MET
ZOMBIE CHEF FROM HELL box up to a couple of years ago. I'm
pretty sure my brother still has a ROCK
AND THE MONEY HUNGRY PARTY GIRLS t-shirt. Unfortunately, between liquidation and about a dozen moves,
we don't have much of that stuff around anymore." Thanks for
that great info, Sal! NOTE: The new Camp Motion Picture label is in
no way associated with the old label.
CITY
LIGHTS HOME VIDEO - Before there was PM
Entertainment, founders Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi released their
earliest films on the City Lights label. See how they started......
MIDNIGHT
VIDEO/SELECT-A-TAPE - Midnight Video (a sub-label for adult
video label Wonderful World Of Video) only released nine big-box
tapes before disappearing, but the nine films were eye-openers in
their day. There were four Andy Milligan films (BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS; TORTURE DUNGEON; THE MAN WITH 2 HEADS; THE RATS ARE
COMING THE WEREWOLVES ARE HERE), three H.G. Lewis films (GRUESOME
TWOSOME; WIZARD OF GORE; GORE GORE GIRLS) and one
strange rarity (MICROWAVE
MASSACRE). All these films demand big bucks today in the
collectors market.
SHAPIRO
GLICKENHAUS ENTERTAINMENT (SGE) - Label
started by producer Leonard Shapiro and director James Glickenhaus
to distribute low-budget action and horror films. Eventually taken
over by MCA Universal in the early 90's.
SONY
VIDEO SOFTWARE
COMPANY (SVS) - While the majority of Sony's tapes were music videos from their vast
catalogue of artists (A Flock Of Seagulls, Bon Jovi, David Bowie,
Devo and many others), they also released a handful of interesting
genre titles, mainly Austrailian thrillers (VICIOUS),
homegrown horrors (HONEYMOON
HORROR), DTV action (NIGHT
WARS) and sex comedies (SUMMER JOB). Most of their
genre titles have yet to obtain a DVD release, so look for them on
VHS on eBay.
SOUTHGATE
ENTERTAINMENT - An independent distributor that released
mainly action and horror films. Noted for releasing uncut versions of
Michele Soavi's THE CHURCH and Dario Argento's TERROR
AT THE OPERA.
SUPER
VIDEO - Early 80's distributor whose product seemed to be strictly
Independent International releases of the 70's. All their films were
released in those oversized clamshell cases with lurid artwork. Many
of their releases would later turn up as part of VidAmerica's
World's Worst Video line.
VCII INCORPORATED - Not to be confused with VCI Home Video,
VCII was a Los Angeles, California-based distributor of every
conceivable type of film from the early-80's to the early-90's (They
are better known as the offshoot of porn label VCX). Some of their
most notorious releases were the bigfoot gore film NIGHT
OF THE DEMON and MARDI
GRAS MASSACRE, both commanding big bucks on the collectors
market, especially their big box editions (VCII would release their
films in both big boxes and regular slipcases).
WORLD
VIDEO PICTURES - Small company that released all their films
in big clamshell cases. They seemed to specialize in Nick Phillip
(aka: Nick Millard, Phillip Miller and Jan Anders) films (CRIMINALLY
INSANE, SATAN'S BLACK WEDDING, .357 MAGNUM)
and other bad 60's & 70's flicks including FLESH
FEAST, Andy Milligan's BODY BENEATH and the God-awful
early SOV sludge SLEDGEHAMMER.
Upcoming
visual profiles will be on:AIR Home Video and Genesis Home Video.
Check back on this page for updates.