A History of VHS Companies Part Five

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.

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.