Scariest Posters And Cover Arts

[Shadow Master]

Spending all month long watching various Horror films and TV shows got me thinking about this. Those of us old enough to remember VHS (I do) surely remember how scary some Horror film cover arts and posters could be back then. There was probably a VHS or two on the shelf that made you weary to be near it so you could avoid having to so much as peek at a scary cover and you'd always feel a certain uneasiness being near the VHS shelf out of fear you might see scary covers. Trips to the video store could feel like both a challenge and a rite of passage to see if you were brave enough to go to the Horror section and look at the many scary VHS covers (another fun memory of back then). What are some of the scariest poster and cover artworks you can think of?

The Crypt Keeper from Tales From The Crypt was my worst childhood fear, and anything featuring him always instantly frightened me. I remember there were some TFTC VHS tapes back then and it always scared me so bad to see the Crypt Keeper on any of them. I remember we lived near a video store one time and the Horror section was visible from one of the nearby windows, and one of the VHS tapes prominently on display was none other than a TFTC one with the Crypt Keeper right on it. It was always freaky to pass by the video store and have to so much as glimpse that cover. This image has most of the TFTC VHS covers, I believe.

While I was never scared of Freddy Krueger as a kid, the sole exception was the original VHS cover art for A Nightmare On Elm Street 2. Something about the evil, angry glare Freddy gives on the cover always unnerved me as a kid, and it's the only time I could ever recall Freddy scaring me as a kid.

The movie itself isn't anything great, but The Howling V's cover art was terrifying to look at as a kid with the rather gnarly-looking werewolf. We owned it on VHS and I remember always feeling jittery around it. Night Of The Demon's graphic cover with the bloody skull and spinal cord visible on it freaked me out as well as a kid. I guess even for my Horror-loving self at that young and impressionable an age it was a bit much for me. I remember we owned that film but I could only ever bring myself to watch it once because the cover always terrified me.

It's by no means the high point of it's series, but funny enough of all things, one cover art as a kid that scared me a bit was Jason Goes To Hell. I guess it was just that weird worm creature on the box that I found frightening back then and I remember always feeling a sense of uneasiness around the VHS box because of that.

At my age I'm obviously well past my fear of these covers and I look back and have a good laugh about it, but as a kid these cover arts were terrifying. I'm sure many of us have childhood memories of how scary some old-school poster and VHS cover arts were back then and it's always fun to look back and reminiscence.