Be Kind, Rewind

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the video rental store... We're back with yet another monster fish movie, because that is just such a super viable subgenre on the horror world for some reason. And I guess it's not that surprising, in the end. The ocean is endless, vast and practically unsearched, so we don't know what horrors lie in wait, and that's pretty terrifying. That being said, this is one of the more mixed box arts I've covered, because it's both awesome and terrible, somehow. Before we move on, let's just state the obvious...DevilFish is a TERRIBLE title. There's no getting around that, alright. It makes it sound like Satan possessed a giant fish and is now causing havoc off the shore of a beach, and that's just lame, man. Satan's got better things to do. Also, the tagline, while not terrible, is actually pretty bad in this context, as it implies the viewer is the DevilFish, seeing as humans don't sink their teeth int...

In what looks like a scene of a creature from the depths of the ocean trying to seduce a woman, we have the cover for Island Claws, another VHS classic steeped in genetic experiments gone awry leading to the growth of what the back blurb only describes as "a man eating creature, beyond all parameters of science and evolution". But, like, it's a crab. Like look at the front cover artwork. That's a crab, my dude. I don't usually just jump right in like this, but I'm sorry, I will not let a movie try and purposefully mislead me into thinking there's something grotesque and monstrous in it, when even the movie itself shows me on the front cover what its creature actually is. It's a giant fucking crab. This is a truly basic cover design, so basic even that I'm not sure it warrants a discussion. There's not much of note outside of the fairly well done pencil sketching on the front. The single non contextual screenshot we're given on the back is n...

    I for the life of me cannot possibly fathom why this woman seems to be shrieking in terror. She's not the apex predator here. Look at how much goddamned bigger she actually is than that shark. She should just turn around and eat him, quite frankly. The look of absolute "I can't draw a screaming face" on her...face, is pretty hilarious. I laughed pretty damn hard the first time I saw this, about 15 minutes before writing this post. And honestly, it's not just her, there's actually a lot to love about this entire box, front and back. First of all, let's get the obvious out of the way and, can't believe I even have to state this but I will, this film is CLEARLY an attempt to capitalize off the popularity of Jaws, which released only a year prior in 1975. I mean, for fucks sake, they put the words "jaws" IN the title. What more proof do you need? Honestly, the plot sounds cool enough. A man working for the marines learns he has the ability to...