Horror movies you never heard of until you rented them on VHS

[Hedji]

Lol Steven Tyler... I had the same thought.

Being a young teen and browsing the horror VHS boxes in the store was like a dream come true. The crazy box art was usually better than the movie itself. I can remember looking at tapes and the mind just whirling, wondering what the movie would be like. That kind of experience is now gone thanks to the instant gratification of YouTube.

I guess the one that made the biggest impact was Dawn of the Dead. It just blew our minds. I remember being really repulsed by the violence in the beginning at the tenement raid, but as we stuck with it, the chuckles began to flow, until we were all belly laughing by the end.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^I vividly remember the cover to "A Company of Wolves" but never rented it. I thought the dude on the cover looked like Steven Tyler.

Chris

[madmarva]

Re-Animator is pretty freaky.

A Company of Wolves is one I looked at in the video store several times before renting.

[sprytel]

I Spit on Your Grave

Yup! Also "Dead Alive" (aka "Braindead")

[Earth 2 Chris]

Evil Dead 1 & 2, Re-Animator, Near Dark...tons of 'em!

Chris

[cyberjerk]

The Legend of Boggy Creek. I guess it's kind of a "horror" movie; at last that's how my local video store classified it

[boss]

I Spit on Your Grave

[Iron Mego]

I spent almost all my time in the Horror section of the video store. Most of the movies I had no real prior knowledge of because I would have been too young to see them in the theater when they first came out. Evil Dead was eye opening for sure!

I remember liking Dead & Buried. Didn't it have some pretty cool SFX?

The one movie I always used to stare at, and had heard so much about, was Eraserhead. Just the name made you go, "Huh?" My sister and I finally rented it one weekend when my parents were out of town. We couldn't finish it. Not because it was boring (although a lot of people would argue that point) but because it was just so bizarre and creepy! We'd NEVER seen anything like it, and really had no way of processing what it was we were watching. A few years later I'd watch it again, and since that time it's become my all-time favorite movie.

[Mikey]

The Evil Dead ....

Back in the mid 80's my local video rental store nerd said "you've got to see this movie"

Dawn of the Dead --- see above

Frankenstein Unbound (wish I missed this one)

Dead and Buried --- didn't love it, but felt I got my money's rent worth

Godzilla 1985 --- LOVED it

Return of the Living Dead (part-2) --- Entertaining and worth 2 bucks (rental fee)