Top Ten Scariest Home Video Covers: C.C.C Issue #68

Top Ten Scariest Home Video Covers

Do you remember seeing certain movie covers (on VHS or DVD or even Blu-ray) that freaked you out while perusing the video store as a kid (or even an adult)? I sure can. 

I’ve searched high and low, and these are the ten home video covers that I find most-disturbing of all. 

10. Leprechaun 2 (1994) – North American VHS/DVD

Kicking things off is this lousy sequel in a horror series that’s so bad it’s good. The first Leprechaun cover has the Irish creature peeking out from behind a door in the background. Not that creepy. Then there’s Leprechaun 2’s cover, which doesn’t put Leppy in the background at all. This time he’s front and center (though still obscured somewhat by shadow, which only makes it worse) and holding a candle for some reason, snarling and staring right at you. He looks really monstrous, and without seeing the movie, just this cover makes him seem like a seriously nasty villain. Perhaps this cover is a bit of an outside choice that not many will agree with, but I recall seeing this cover at the video store and averting my gaze even when I was in my teens. 

9. IT (1990) – North American Release 

From afar, this cover doesn’t look that disturbing, because it’s mostly just a blank background and the two-letter title. What is IT, anyway? But then when you pick it up and look closer, and you see Pennywise the clown, with decidedly un-clown-like hands (hands more suited to a demon) that seem to be ripping the cover apart. He has an open-mouth sneer, and a dead-ahead stare. It’s such a great cover, they haven’t changed it for any of the North American home releases—which is funny, because there’s a VHS tape behind Pennywise, no matter the format. Obviously the original idea was to look like the VHS cardboard sleeve was torn, but they never bothered to change the background for the DVD or even the Blu-ray. Maybe they thought no one would notice.

They were wrong.   

8. Evil Dead 2 (1987) – Standard Edition North American VHS/DVD

The original Evil Dead has a freaky image, as well, with the deadite arm reaching out of the ground to pull that poor girl into an early grave, but it’s not quite as blatant as the cover for the sequel. What I find so unnerving is the skull against the black background. There’s nothing else to look at except the skull, and your eyes are instantly drawn to its eyes. Not only does this skull have life-like eyes, they’re a deep brown and they look right at you—the kind of eyes that seem to follow you around the room. Plus, It’s doing a sideways look, as if it’s taken notice of you. Definitely disturbing, which is ironic, given how funny the movie actually is (though it is scary, too).

7. Saw franchise (2004-2017) – North American Releases 

I couldn’t pick just one. Every cover of every Saw movie is revolting, though they only really accurately represent the later films, and the creativity degrades as the series progresses. The original isn’t overly horrible, just a dead-looking hand and foot/leg laid at abnormal angles, but the second one is grossly smart, and the third is just sick. Every year in the later part of the 2000s, the horror section at the video store became more disturbing, as the franchise grew, and the number of torturous covers stacked up, eventually taking up an entire shelf. The font, too, adds to the creep factor.   

6. House on Haunted Hill (1959) – Australian DVD 

I had to search the internet to find a version of the DVD that featured this film’s poster as the cover, because I knew it had to exist out there, somewhere. House on Haunted Hill (the original, not the remake) is in the public domain, meaning there are numerous DVD releases, but for some reason, almost none of them use the poster, which is extremely graphic—for its time, and for all-time. It has a classical font, the creepy titular house in the background, and front and center is a giant skeleton holding a noose, with a woman at the end of the rope. Okay, so it’s not 100 % accurate to the movie, but damn is it an effective marketing tool. The poster is even more gruesome, with additional images of Vincent Price holding a woman’s severed head and some dude melting in a pit of acid.

5. The Room (2003) – North American DVD

 

There is something disturbing and just plain wrong about seeing Tommy Wiseau’s face plastered on the DVD cover for The Room. Why is it in black and white? He could afford to shoot the movie in colour, couldn’t he afford colour posters and home video covers? And he’s got this messed up look, like he’s drunk, or stoned, or both, but it’s a total pedo-look if you ask me. It’s simple, un-suggestive (I guess), and actually hard to look at for more than a few seconds without strongly wanting to turn away. This face was seen all across Los Angeles on billboards back in 2003 when Wiseau first promoted the film, and is likely one of the reasons The Room went on become such a cult hit. Whether intentional or not, The Room’s DVD cover aptly reflects the film itself: weird, unique, and in its own league of bad.

4. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – North American VHS/DVD

 

This one really creeped me out when I was younger, mainly because it was such a vague image and told next to nothing about the plot of the film. I’d look at The Silence of the Lambs DVD cover and says things like: “What does it have to do with lambs? Why is there a moth with a skull on its wings sitting on her lips? Why is her face so white? What is this movie even about?” To this day, I find Jodie Foster’s ghostly white complexion and her blank stare unnerving. A great cover for a great film. What’s kind of weird is it looks a bit similar to The Room, which just makes The Room’s cover seem even weirder, because at least this is actually a horror movie, so it should look scary.

3. Braindead (A.K.A. Dead Alive) (1992) – North American VHS/DVD

I mentioned this horror-comedy film in last week’s top ten, but in case you missed it, here’s a simple summary: Think Evil Dead II in tone, only with zombies, and ten times more outrageous. The cover for Braindead is just plain scary. I recall seeing this one at the video store as a kid, and really being repulsed by it. The woman’s look of terror and pain and confusion reflects everything I feel when I see it. What is even supposed to be in her mouth? A small human skull with what looks like rotting flesh still on it and eyes still in the sockets? Nothing like that is even in the movie, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s still a very sick and very effective draw for horror fans, and aptly represents the film.

2. Jaws (1975) – All Releases 

Everyone knows this one. A snapshot like this is so immensely effective and purely genius that it’s never been altered, and was copied by all three Jaws sequels, plus dozens of other rip-offs. It speaks to anyone who has ever swam in open water and wondered what may be lurking beneath. The Jaws cover art shows us that very fear, displaying a colossal great white shark’s chompers bristling with dagger-like teeth on a collision course with that poor naked woman, and it spurs that sick curiosity within you, wanting to see what will happen next even though you are already well-aware. This is a special case where an infamous poster has gone on to become more than just an advertising image. The Jaws poster has been spoofed and copied endlessly. It is symbolic, iconic, and still scary today.

1. Monkey Shines (1988) – North American VHS  

This is it, the reason I made this list in the first place. The number one spot belongs to Monkey Shines, a psychological thriller from the late great George Romero. It’s about a quadriplegic who gets a genetically modified pet monkey to help him, but it goes ape shit and starts terrorizing the poor man. Why is it number one? Remember what I mentioned about seeing creepy covers in the video store? Well, this was the one I came across at a very young age that made me avoid the horror section for years and years (the VHS cover is the one I’m speaking of—for some reason, future home video releases used different, less frightening versions). A real monkey would’ve been far less scary. Instead, it’s one of those freaky stuffed ones holding the cymbals with that stupid, weird grin and those eyes opened way too wide. Only instead of cymbals this one is holding a razor dripping with blood, and has jagged teeth and claws. I couldn’t even look at it as a kid. I’ve since got over my fear of Monkey Shines’ cover, but I still find it genuinely upsetting. I think my distaste for those cymbal-smashing monkeys originates here. Whether that be the case or not, Monkey Shines is the scariest movie cover I’ve ever come across.