Tampabay.com
JULY 08, 2008

Top 5 unintentionally frightening videos

Genesis The humor website Cracked.com has a great 80s list that needs a little more love: Top 5 unintentionally scarring videos of the 1980s. (Click here to see it.)

Cracked goes into great detail on the emotional damage inflicted by each video. Not to mention the great phrases they use. Stuff like "pant-crappingly troubling" and "Pinocchio from Hell."

I don't want to give away its list, but I'd like to add a few of my own:

ROCKIT (Herbie Hancock): Directed by Godley and Creme, the video plays out like "Blade Runner" on acid. I keep waiting for Herbie to jump out of the closet and scream, "Time to die!" (By the way, if you haven't seen it, here's the song performed at the Grammys in the '80s with Hancock, Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby and Stevie Wonder. Amazing.)

TWILIGHT ZONE (Golden Earring): "When the bullet hits the bone." As soon as my mom heard that lyric, I wasn't allowed to watch that video anymore. But it's the syringe being jabbed into the arm that makes me turn off this video on my own every time it came on.

LAND OF CONFUSION (Genesis): Give credit to Britain's "Spitting Image" puppets for this nightmare-on-a-stick. Heads being yanked out of ground by storm-troopers? It's not bad enough that we have to picture Ronald Reagan as president again -- no, now he's waking up from deep inside a pool of sweat with Nancy wearing a snorkel.  (And how come Mike Rutherford's puppet looks better than the real thing?)

What other videos from the 80s scare the bejeebus out of you?

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About the blogger

Relive the '80s music, movies and culture with Tampa Bay Times entertainment news editor Steve Spears. A teen during the greatest decade ever, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to Reaganomics.

E-mail Steve Spears:
stuckinthe80s@tampabay.com
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