"Be Kind, Rewind" is a new feature here at DoomsdayDVD. Although this site is enthusiastic about the ever-developing format of digital video, there is also a great deal of nostalgia for the pioneering format in home video rentals, the videocassette.

"Be Kind, Rewind" revisits the horror VHS titles of yesteryear and their strong presence on the shelf at your local video store. You may notice that certain video labels will resurface several times since they specialized in genre films. Labels such as Thorn Emi, Wizard Video, Midnight Video (Select-A-Tape), Vestron Video (the old "V" logo), Continental/Comet Video, Paragon and Gorgon Video are among the few.

So read on, enjoy and experience the videotapes that were surrounded by posters, neon signs and were accompanied by high sale prices and high membership fees!

Many prominent genre film makers probably didn't foresee the power of the home video rental market. The most that they had hoped for was the initial success of their film, the occasional re-release and television airings.

Although it was a tremendous success in the theaters, George Romero's Dawn of the Dead became an instant home video rental classic. Thorn Emi, one of the earlier distributors of videocassettes (the company responsible for releasing videos of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Evil Dead and Deep Red, to name a few), released the theatrical cut of Dawn of the Dead in late 1983. After the cassette is popped into the VCR, the serene music and animated logo for Thorn Emi appears.....

Picking up roughly where Night of the Living Dead left off, Dawn of the Dead continues through all of the chaos that has resulted from a zombie plague. As the zombies begin to become the dominant component of the struggle, four of the main characters take flight in a helicopter and end up taking refuge in a shopping mall. Greed and apathy overtake the group as they struggle for control over the mall against the zombies and a band of looting motorcycle raiders.....

The print utilized by Thorn Emi is the same transfer used in all successive VHS editions of the film (up until Elite Entertainment and Anchor Bay Entertainment re-released the film in the mid-90s on laserdisc, VHS and DVD with new transfers of the original cut put together by George Romero for submission to the Cannes Film Festival). In addition, the newly-created artwork of one of the main characters rising from the dead over a daybreak sky graced all home video versions of this film from its initial video release on up through the late 80s with all of the corporate brand name changes (Thorn Emi/HBO/Cannon/Weinthraub). The artwork even survived up until the mid-90s with the Republic Pictures VHS and short-lived laserdisc release.

Even though Dawn of the Dead has been re-released several times over on VHS, laserdisc and DVD in bigger and better editions over the years, the original Thorn Emi clamshell VHS is the first, the version that made the horror section of any video store in the 80s complete.