With Halloween around the corner, we’re all starting to take our horror movie binge-watching a lot more seriously. But no one, it seems, is more serious about watching horror films than goth icon Robert Smith of The Cure.
A Twitter user recently posted a fax written in 1992 by the Cure’s frontman to former Elektra Records A&R head Howard Thompson (later posted on Thompson’s Instagram account), asking the record company man to send him a bespoke selection of ‘video nasty’ horror films.
In the message, Smith details how he had planned to go shopping for movies himself in New York City, but due to unforeseen band commitments, he was unable to find the time.
Reportedly, the singer lost out on a day off when an extra show was added to The Cure’s 1992 US tour, rendering him unable to go hunting for the set of films, which at the time he’d have been unable to acquire in the UK, due to the British Parliament passing the Video Recordings Act of 1984: ie, the films were considered too graphic/gory for UK viewers.
Some of Smith’s choices included A Clockwork Orange, Driller Killer, I Spit on Your Grave and more, as well as any recommendations that Thompson might have “in the splatter-cannibal she-devil vein”, whatever that is.
Smith’s message reads: “Urgent attn of Howard Thompson.
Dear Howard,
I hope this fax finds you well! I have a favour to ask of you…I was hoping to have had a day off in NYC to do a bit of shopping, but the addition of Dayton, Ohio, and ‘meet the Winners’ at MTV, has put paid to that; so I was wondering; would you be able to get the following VHS videos for me? (all unavailable in the UK).
Clockwork Orange, Driller Killer, I Spit On Your Grave, Last House On The Left, Blood Sucking Freaks, Filthy Rich, Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, and maybe a couple of others you could recommend in the splatter-cannibal she-devil vein!!!
I’ve got a multi-standard player, so ntsc isn’t a problem…I’m asking you because you’re the only person I can think will know where to get them; but if you can’t, that’s fine.
Either way, I hope to see you at the Nassau Coliseum show…
Thanks for your time,
Robert, (The Cure).”
Check out the fax below:
Earlier this month, The Cure kicked off this 2022 world tour in Latvia.
During the performance, they debuted two new songs, Endsong and Alone, which are both rumoured to feature on the band’s forthcoming long-awaited new album, Songs Of A Lost World.
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