User reviews

Terror on Tape is similar to the 1984 horror compilation Terror In The Aisles, but without the star power of Nancy Allen and Donald Pleasence as hosts, and with a more exploitative selection of movies. The curator of the clips in this case is Cameron Mitchell, clerk at the Shoppe of Horrors Videostore, who helps his customers choose their evening's entertainment by showing them excerpts from the tapes available.

The clerk shows footage from such trashy b-movies as The Deadly Spawn, Vampire Hookers, Cathy's Curse, The Slayer, Scalps, Nightmare (AKA Nightmares in A Damaged Brain), Alien Prey, City of the Living Dead, and a handful of H. G. Lewis classics. Of the titles shown, there were only a couple I hadn't seen, but the clips are the best bits in all of their gory glory and are worth seeing again, if only as a reminder of just how great old school splatter is.

The parts between the clips are also a lot of fun, with Mitchell hamming it up a treat, and scream queen Michelle Bauer popping into the shop (and almost out of her top), desperate to be scared: the gorier the clips, the closer Michelle is to being satisfied, the woman moaning in ecstasy at the sight of all the horror. Now if only Nancy Allen had done that in Terror In The Aisles...

This is the film I credit with helping to mold me into the depraved little horror movie ghoul that I am today. Released at the height of the Video Craze "Terror on Tape" is a shameless vehicle for the now defunct Continental Video. In the spirit of classics like "Terror in the Aisles" "Filmgore" and "Coming Soon" it contains numerous clips from some of the most infamous horror flicks ever made. All horror fans know that during this time period, in the realms of horror, there were several fondly remembered and now bankrupt video distributors of the time who specialized in our genre. Names like Vestron Video, Gorgon Video, Wizard Video and of course Continental come to mind and bring forth a flood of blood soaked memories. This particular film introduced me, as a second generation fan, to the legendary Herschell Gordon Lewis with clips from his classic "Gore Trilogy" ("Blood Feast", "2000 Maniacs", and "Color Me Blood Red"). It also introduced me to one of my personal favorites "Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn", brought the hidden horror gem "Scalps"into my life, subjected me to the pure insanity, horror and hilarity that is "Vampire Hookers" and it conned me into rushing out to rent hideous cinematic upchuck such as "The Eerie Midnight Horror Show", and "To The Devil A Daughter". Of course, I can never forgive "Terror on Tape" for introducing the hideous film maker's abomination known as "Cathy's Curse" (Why oh why does this retched film keep getting randomly thrust into my face?) "Terror on Tape" changed my life and if you can locate a copy I can promise it will do the same for you!

A great collection of clips from long gone Continental Video. I mean come on, how bad can it be? You have the wonderfully drunken madman himself Cameron Mitchell and the lovely Michelle Bauer and loads of bad gore clips! The only thing that could make this more fun is Rondo Hatton and a choir of shroom tripping midgets (and no i'm not talking about a Alejandro Jodorowsky movie!) Oh yeah , and to the dude that said "no doubt inspired by the success of Terror in the Aisles", actually this came out a year before Terror in the Aisles reared it's ugly head.

Anywho, a cool tape of a time that has sadly disappeared.

Sure it was Continentals way of plugging their own video line, but the cheesy skits that tie it altogether are great! Plus when you consider some of these flicks are painfully boring or just plain terrible acting wise, the fact that all the non-gore scenes are cut out makes them actually watchable. Some how a couple non-horror flicks made there way into the mix, The Kidnapping Of The President could have been omitted in my opinion. There are some real gems included. Movies like 2000 Maniacs, Blood Tide, and Blood Feast are always a treat. But also included are more obscure flicks like Scalps, The Return of The Aliens Killer Spawn and The Slayer. I was in grade school when I first rented this movie, I think I probably rented it at least 4 times. Of course I have a copy in my video collection. Would love to see a DVD release but I wont hold my breath and neither should you... Find a used copy today!

Cameron Mitchell play the owner of an all night video store that specializes in extreme horror movies. Various customers come in, looking for "something special" and Mitchell plays them the goriest clips from the goriest movies around. The reason for these compilations is to introduce the video viewer to what is out there. It forms a nice sampler for the unadventurous who prefer to have heard SOMETHING about a video before renting or buying it. It has some classics as well as many obscure movies. Recommended if you like campy videos or remember the heyday of the mom and pop video store.

Sheesh ....if a drunk Cameron Mitchell had ever tried to persuade me to rent out Vampire Hookers i'd have torn up my video shop membership card right there and then. Still gotta love how Cam responds to a VHS renter's request for a 'milder' horror movie by showing him clips of the face ripping scene from The Deadly Spawn, then when some hard hat comes into the VHS shop looking for a zombie movie to rent, Cam instead throws on scenes from The Kidnapping of the President, and about several other non-zombie films, before doing the decent thing and providing gore highlights from City of the Walking Dead. Of course VHS rental shops were never really as cool as this, Cameron Mitchell wasn't to be found behind the desk, the customers didn't look as hot as Michelle Bauer, and they didn't let you watch whole chunks of the movies before deciding whether or not you wanted to rent them out....but never let future generations know this, otherwise they might not be as green with envy that you lived through this era.

Heres an excellent selection of all the classic gore flicks that came out on continental video back in the day, such as nightmare, vampire hookers, the deadly spawn, 2,000 maniacs, and lots more. Cameron Mitchell does a nice job as the demented video store owner who shows various customers clip of his best goodies. A very cool movie to watch on Halloween or with a group of friends, or as an opportunity to see about some of these great films that are highlighted throughout, also had an excellent strong nostalgic 'video stores of the 80's' feel, ha ha. If you are looking for the ultimate fright clip collection, look no further than terror on tape. a must. 9/10

Terror On Tape is an awesome hour and a half of violence, sex, exploitation and gore! I highly recommend this compilation to anyone that loves the grimy/grotesque aspects of horror films.

Absolutely no redeeming qualities here with clip after clip of gratuitous violence, gore, breasts and buckets of blood. Each clip is identified on screen and, wonder of wonders, all of the titles appearing in "Terror on Tape" are (were) available from the very company that produced all of the films featured in "Terror on Tape"! Go figure!

Anyway, it's essentially a 90 minute ad no doubt inspired by the success of "Terror in the Aisles" which had been released in theaters earlier the same year.

A rental for gore lovers only but good luck finding a copy. I saw this way back in 1984 and haven't seen it anywhere since -- which isn't a bad thing, really.