Wizard Video

Background

Wizard Video was a VHS distribution label started by Charles Band in the 1980s. It was later revived in the 2000s as Wizard Entertainment; Band originally planned to re-use the Wizard Video name as-is, but had to change Video to Entertainment for legal reasons. Most of the 1980s Wizard Video library (with some exceptions) is today owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer via Epic Productions. Wizard Video titles (as well as its off-shoots Force Video and Cult Video) had originally been distributed by FHE as well as Spectrum Video, with Lightning Video taking over afterwards.

1st logo (June 1980-May 1981)

Visuals: A blue drawing of a wizard reaching out is seen at the top of the screen, with cote-out areas to represent his bearded face and details on his robes, as well as a circle to represent the moon behind him. Below is the text "WIZARD VIDEO INC." in a Century Gothic font, and after a few seconds "PRESENTS" fades in below.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on few Wizard Video releases from the era, including I Spit on Your Grave, The Boogeyman, and some prints of Zombie.

2nd logo (1984-1987)

Visuals: The wizard drawing from before, now colored maroon with white highlights, zooms out to the middle of the screen while glowing blue and shooting out various streaks of blue light. As it stops zooming, the blue glow disappears as a glowing red circle appears behind him, the moon popping in its place as it does. Below, "WIZARD VIDEO " slides in from both sides of the screen under the wizard and glow red when they stop. The streaks continue to move in the background.

Technique: Analog computer animation.

Audio: A high-pitched keyboard jingle ending with a held string sound, but otherwise none.

Availability: It can be seen on a lot of B-films on VHS released around the 80s, including a Wizard Video re-issue of I Spit on Your Grave (1978). On Headless Eyes and Dreamaniac, a stay tuned bumper appears after the logo; both the bumper and Wizard Video logo are retained on the Japanese VHS release of the latter film. This is retained on current prints of The Battle of the Last Panzer, which can be found on Amazon Prime Video UK via the MGM add-on, and also appeared on Zombiethon back when it was on Netflix US a few years back. In both cases, it follows the 2008 MGM logo.