First movie watched on VHS
Posted by TheGreyAlien@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 42 comments
What was the first movie you remember watching on VHS?
I remember my parents and othwr family friends got together and we watched on the same night Superman and Indiana Jones, it must have been around 1984. We were all glued to the TV that night, I felt we were the "rich" neighbors with movies at home.
OldBanjoFrog@reddit
Spiderman (1977)
elcad@reddit
We had a borrowed Beta. Star Trek II: The Wraith of Khan.
A year or so later we got a VHS. Rented the Jerk from the library for a week.
ONROSREPUS@reddit
I am WAY to old to remember that far back.
TheGreyAlien@reddit (OP)
I remember seeing Krull too, around the same time.
ConsistentAd3157@reddit
latenightnerd@reddit
Six Pack.
12DollarBurrito@reddit
Excalibur
budwin52@reddit
MASH or Grease One or The Other. My mom cleaned houses for weekenders (aka rich city folks!) I would go with her and watch movies and play video games. Actually our first VCR was a Christmas gift from one of her clients.
LithiuMart@reddit
Stir Crazy, but on Betamax rather than VHS. It was around 1983.
anchises868@reddit
It was a movie most people wouldn’t know unless they’re of a certain age: Ghost Story. It was rated R and came out in 1981. In 1983, when I was SIX, my dad got it on tape and watched it at home, in the living room, on the family TV, with me right there. I haven’t seen it since then, but I vividly remember watching the guy fill up the bathtub at the beginning of the movie, the woman scaring him, and him falling naked (full frontal) out a window while the bathtub ran over. I saw the whole movie.
Comedywriter1@reddit
Good movie. Was on HBO a lot back in the day.
It’s an even better book. By Peter Straub.
Comedywriter1@reddit
Jaws
wildmstie@reddit
I don't remember the first movie we watched on VHS, but I remember the first movie we actually bought our own official pre-recorded copy of was John Carpenter's Starman.
I also remember that for a couple of years we bought a LOT of blank tapes. Being able to record movies and programs was such a novelty that we were recording practically everything for a while. Of course, most of it would get recorded over.
incredible_turkey@reddit
All I remember was the neighbors renting a VCR and some movies for the weekend. I had never heard of a VCR before. I was maybe 8 years old. I remember watching the same 3 movies all weekend. Can’t remember what they were.
kavalejava@reddit
My teen aunts and uncles in the 80s rented a VCR with Nightmare on Elm Street 1. The first memory I have is the bus hanging on the cliff with Freddy walking with his claw.
JuliusSeizuresalad@reddit
Tron on a rented vhs player circa roughly 1983. It was a magical experience for a younger kid to experience a theater movie in my own living room, that blows right over the heads of kids today playing video games and a live tv show simulations on the same device at a Waffle House.
root_fifth_octave@reddit
I loved that moment in time— when there this sort of vcr craze, and going to the video store to rent a movie was such a novelty.
Crazy to think that whole thing basically came and went.
jojowasher@reddit
Star wars for me, but it was on Beta, my uncle bought a video camera, it was two parts, the camera and the beta part, nobody had one of those fancy home movie things yet.
DMGlowen@reddit
Grease. It was in Betamax.
loki_dd@reddit
Goonies
Mother_Midnight_8819@reddit
Clash of the Titans (Original)
kckitty71@reddit
I can’t remember what movie I watched but I know the VCR was a Curtis Mathes VHS recorder and it had a wired remote that was attached to it.
thatsnotgonnaendwell@reddit
Dumbo.
Januszek_Zajaczek@reddit
Oh man how the hell do you re that.? It was either some porn or commando. I'm leaning towards porn. A whole bunch of us would go to a mate's place during school to watch it. Fun times
dfghhkkk0@reddit
Freaky Friday [1976]. On a side note, the VHS remote was corded!
daedalus9973@reddit
Meatballs, rented from the same store we bought the VCR from
foos@reddit
Kingdom of the Spider People with Bill Shatner.
these-things-happen@reddit
DoomsdayMachineInc@reddit
Dr Detroit.
Cannonskull0519@reddit
I like this.....the first one I clearly remember watching at home was Ghostbusters.....rented it from the local Rite Aid.....my family saw the movie originally in the theater while on vacation in Lake Placid, NY.
bumpynuks@reddit
The Empire Strikes Back.
Brownskii@reddit
Mine was the original Star Wars. There wasn’t a real video store in town yet but the drug store had started renting tapes . I think it was a CVS
bumpynuks@reddit
It was with the VCR my mom won in bingo.
BillyBainesInc@reddit
Dawn of the Dead
GymHog@reddit
Nice
GymHog@reddit
Indiana Jones. The player was a rental from the gas station/laundry mat/video store.
Mr_Stimmers@reddit
A pirated copy of The Blues Brothers
MarquisInLV@reddit
Splash!
ranchoparksteve@reddit
My family never spent money on any movie. It was just movies recorded from broadcast TV.
Parking_Vanilla_4315@reddit
I can’t remember, but I do remember my dad renting the VCR to watch the rented movie. So weird.
Any_Pudding_1812@reddit
megaforce. my father borrowed a vcr and one tape from a friend for a weekend. we watched that movie over and over.
Any_Pudding_1812@reddit
also was in 1984.