Thanks to Paul for sharing this Tumblr blog of lurid VHS covers! Such a variety of weirdness, shlock and fine design!  Check out the Archive if you want it all or the tldr version at dangerousminds.net if you’re into that aggregator business.

The best of this stuff, like the poster art it comes from, crystallises a whole movie with startling economy...sometimes too much economy.  Consider, for example, River’s Edge—a body, teenagers...at the edge....of the river.  Or the nice, simple design of Herd or Bug.  Or Earthquake.

Some of it is just weird or puzzling, like Josh Kirby, Time Warrior! Chapter Five, Journey to the Magic Cavern, Donut Hole 2: Jesus Helps Us Share God’s Love or How to Have a Moneymaking Garage Sale starring Phyllis Diller.  And what the hell is Video Aspirin?

You can’t help wondering if there’s some video shame lurking here too.  How does Ethan Coen feel about The Naked Man?  Does Jim Carrey regret The Duck Factory?  And how did Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch) fall from the heights <cough> of Battlestar Galactica to Prisoners of the Lost Universe?

Even the tackiest and most misleading of these covers were probably successful though.  In the end all they wanted was for us to pick that video off the shelf, even if it was just to find out what it was!