A History Of Bootleg VHS

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by iluvdvds@Cult Labs

What were your covers like, Reaps? Much of an artist?

****ing Van Gough of the Blue Peter cover mate.
Many a magazine,postcard fanzine was cut,butchered and pasted on to VHS sized quality paper.
The bird who worked in 'Supasnaps' was my ex,so she ran the 'creation' through the machine which gave you a onepiece glossy finished item.

Then her wanker of a boss told her she was breaking the copyright of the artwork holder........ I MADE THE ****ING THINGS UP...ME!

[iluvdvds@Cult Labs]

Haha! The boss was clearly just jealous of your video skills You should bring back those VHS days - I imagine you'd be there forever with your massive DVD collection though!

Originally Posted by The Reaper Man@Cult Labs

You talking about a trailer compilation tape mate?

Yep as well as homemade compilations people would put together of crazy clips from films/TV/etc (gory kills, crazy sex stuff, tv bloopers, etc). There's a film called Retard-O-Thon (if I remember rightly) that's based on that idea.

[platostotal]

I remember Bloodsucking Freaks and Ferox showing up with photocopied covers more than once, we should also mention that probably 90% of bootleg tapes in the UK were ahem... adult in nature you could pop to London's Soho and pick up the latest XXX for £10, clearly a bootleg...um... so I'm told the most convincing conventional film bootlegs IMHO came from the far east, in cardboard sleeves to look like U.S. tapes some even had tag lines like "copied direct from high quality laser-disc" I had The Last Boy Scout (bought from a town centre market) on the back of the box was an address in Jakarta!!!

[Paul@TheOverlook]

I only haphazardly saw the two films I mentioned. My parents were quite responsible, Kyle

The films we used to trade were mostly the ones I mentioned - other stuff like STRAW DOGS, MS. 45, DRILLER KILLER, TENEBRAE, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, etc.

I've not heard of the "mix-tape" concept but I did make my own trailer compilations - I had five or six E240 tapes that were stuffed-to=the-gills!

[nosferatu42]

I acquired bootlegs of Texas Chainsaw massacre, The Exorcist and A Clockwork orange before they were given proper releases in this country, but as soon as they were released i bought legit copies.
These were pretty bad copies that somehow made the films more effective.

Also New York Ripper, Cat in the brain, Maniac and Texas chainsaw 2 from some random guy who i think advertised in dark side magazine, i may be wrong about this but seem to remember that's were i saw him.
They were actually decent copies the last 4.

Also used to know a guy who had stacks of bootlegs under the stairs at his gaff,
used to borrow a couple of him or watch them at his house.

Through this guy i first saw Cannibal Holocaust, Torso,Tenebrae, Last house on the left and many more dodgy masterpieces.

He also had a compilation tape of gory scenes, that he used to put on sometimes.

When i later had two vhs machines linked i used to make trailer compilations, still have two compilation dvds that i converted when i got a dvd recorder.

Because of this i love the grindhouse trailer collections nucleus released and the Something weird trailer collection.

I also once made a new cut of Dawn of the dead that consisted of all the scenes from the Romero & Argento cuts, but choosing my favourite version of each scene, so for instance i had the Argento tenement scene when the swat team are clearing corpses, because i prefer the music in Argento's version.
Where as a lot of the dialogue was from Romero's because it's more effective.

I also did a new cut of Coppola's Dracula, removing a lot of Keanu Reeves moments, much better film.

[Vampix]

Originally Posted by The Reaper Man@Cult Labs

Yep,before discovering CULT VIDEO in Amsterdam via mail order,I bought from Glasgow's infamous Barras

I went over to Amsterdam, years ago, to visit Cult Video and when I entered the shop for the first time I felt like a little kid in a candy store - I spent ages in there just looking at all the video covers. I remember though that some of the supposedly "original" Dutch tapes were little better than the bootlegs. I had one guy that I ordered bootlegs from in the UK and they were always fantastic first generation copies. That's how I got to see films that I'd missed before they started disappearing from video shops, stuff like: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, Cannibal Holocaust, Tenebrae, etc.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I do recall having SALO on bootleg vhs. Again it was quite late on in the scene as it was a laser disc rip. To this day i've never bothered to replace it.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

ET,Rambo First Blood Part 2 and Return of the Jedi were probably the most common bootlegs that floated around before their legit releases.
Especially ET.

[Paul@TheOverlook]

Originally Posted by The Reaper Man@Cult Labs

ET,Rambo First Blood Part 2 and Return of the Jedi were probably the most common bootlegs that floated around before their legit releases.
Especially ET.

ET didn't have a rental release until 1988 - SIX YEARS after the theatrical release!

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was 4 years and JEDI was 3! I saw STAR WARS o TV when it was first screened in 1981 or 1982. My mum flat-out refused to take me to the triple bill screening just after JEDI came out. I saw JEDI at the cinema in 1983 and then had to wait 18 months before I could see EMPIRE.

Could you imagine waiting that long now?

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

All they did by delaying video releases was open up to 'entrepeneurs'!

I remember-Empire Strikes Back was released on video at the same time as Sudden Impact.

Tbh,I remember Dirty Harry rather than Darth Vader sitting at the no.1 position in all the fleapits top 20...