I have a longer post, a kind of “opus” tracing the impact of the VCR on b-movies during the 80s. I’ll save the details for later, but while doing my extensive research I came across a gem from the past: TerrorVision. I re-watched it again last night, and I had totally forgotten the Grandfather (played by the great Bert Remsen) was a survivalist. He had his own bomb shelter and artillery room built into the basement of the home, and he was pushing a survivalist campaign for sustainable food, namely eating lizard tails given they will always grow back. And early moment of survivalism in film, pre-dating the 1987 b-movie The Survivalist and Burt Gummer first appearance in Tremors in 1990.

Anyway, TerrorVision is wonderful 80s camp, an experience I was afforded by browsing the shelves of a local, independently owned video store (the likes of which populated strip malls across America during the 1980s) for the most outlandish cover and tagline. The era of the independently owned video store is all but gone, but its legacy may have made possible one of the greatest periods in variegated film consumption ever known to a generation of waylaid youth. OK, I guess I gotta write the post after that teaser, but until then check out the trailer for TerrorVision, or watch the whole thing on YouTube in 9 easy pieces. Also, the theme song for the movie composed and performed by the Fibonaccis is an 80s gem in its own right.

TerrorVision Trailer

TerrorVision Theme Song