Watching The Terminator (1984) on VHS again was a surprising experience

I collect a few ex-rental VHS tapes for nostalgia, and recently watched The Terminator.Having been so used to seeing it in HD/widescreen/surround etc, the VHS was obviously a very different experience. TV ratio, horrible resolution, occasional jutters.But WOW. It completely took me back to watching it for the first time with my parents around age 11 when dad borrowed the VHS from a friend. I could lock on again to that first memory where I had no idea what was going on at first, thought Reese was also a bad guy and didn't even know that Arnie was a cyborg. He was just this mysterious but terrifying assassin. I could feel the shock of when he accesses his wrist wires, and cuts off his eye covering, and how amazing the atmosphere and tension becomes with the realisation of what's going on. It was such a regressive, but magical viewing experience.Also though, I noticed differences on the VHS sound mix. The title credits have a scratchy metallic sound over the beats, until the melody kicks in which gives added tension. Also, significantly, the lasers of the machines in the future war sections sound like gun shots, rather than lasers in the later sound mixes. I much prefer the sound of gun fire, it sounds more like a war and has a gritty terror to it. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2VOltR9