Back in 1982 Tobe Hooper directed Poltergeist, a movie that was written and produced by Stephen Spielberg, and in all honesty it may as well have been him behind the camera. Everything about that movie screamed Spielberg, from its familial tone and grandiose set pieces to its high profile marketing strategy and tantilsing teaser poster. The grisly touch of Hooper – a wonderful director in his own right – was nowhere to be found.
Back in the early ’90s the horror genre began to look decidedly second-rate.
Part of this was due to the increasing availability of CGI for low budget movie makers, its bargain basement lows becoming more widespread and accessible. Another, perhaps more telling part, was the plethora of made-for-TV Stephen King adaptions, their overabundance flooding VHS stores at a rate fast approaching that of his fiction…
Back in the 1980s a trip to the video store was an experience in itself.
In a era before widespread graphic design, movie production companies relied on a more traditional art form in order to promote their pictures, employing canvas artists to turn their predominantly low budget VHS Vehicles into the kind of visual spectacular that would leap off the shelves amidst an oversaturated market…
