Castle Home Video

Logo descriptions by gshowguy and billywws

Logo captures by graaaaagh (Rexeljet), Eric S., MegaAveron25 and TR3X

Video captures courtesy of Dylan Fagan, Eric S. and TR3X

Background: Castle Vision, later Castle Home Video, was the video imprint of the British independent record label Castle Communications, which went defunct in 2007 when its then-parent company Sanctuary Records Group was sold to the Universal Music Group.

1st Logo

(1987-1993)

Nicknames: "Grid of Doom" Logo: Against a live-action sky background, a white grid can be seen with its tiles advancing forward. This scene then zooms out to reveal that it takes place on a rich lilac-colored background. Once it's zoomed out all the way, the words "CASTLE" and "VISION" on black squares in cyan can be seen above and below the sky/grid scene respectively. The sky/grid scene then splits in two and a flash of bright light appears in the middle of the screen, causing the logo to disappear and leaving just the background when it dies down. Variants:

Music/Sounds: A synth-timpani plays throughout. When the sky/grid scene begins to zoom out, a harsh distorted guitar drone begins playing. When the flash of light appears, both the timpani and the guitar stop and a loud, dramatic orchestral sting plays.
 * On a promo variant, the logo is shorten to when the grid splits in 2 and is silent, all before fading to the beginning of the promo. At the end, some of the titles are then shown on a still of the grid scene, all before finishing off with a slightly faster version of the logo.
 * Sometimes the logo would be extended for roughly another 10 seconds.FX/SFX: The keyed-in sky (similar to the Warner Home Video logo), the Scanimated grid and the zooming.

Music/Sounds Trivia: The guitar drone was also used in the 1991-1993 opening of the Russian news program, Vesti.

Availability: Should be available on all tapes with the Castle Vision label from 1987 to 1989, including videos of TUGS, Alvin and the Chipmunks and The Raggy Dolls. Also appeared on some later releases, including You've Been Framed! from 1991.

Editor's Note:The dated effects and the rapid-moving clouds are sure to unnerve a few, but the scariest thing about the logo is the music; there is very little rhyme or reason to the composition, and the droning and instrument choices sound ominous and foreboding.

2nd Logo

(1988-1998?)

WARNING: LOWER YOUR VOLUME BEFORE VIEWING THE VIDEO ON THE RIGHT, AS IT IS VERY LOUD.

Nicknames: "The Arrows/Portcullis of Doom" Logo: On a white cloudy background, three down arrows fly to the middle of the screen. A square appears on the arrows, forming a even more abstract portcullis design, and the background fades to white. Then, a chrome ribbon circles around the portcullis and a thin red line appears below the square. The words, "CASTLE HOME VIDEO" appears under it then flashes. Variants:

Music/Sounds: A dramatic synth note, which is a stock sound effect used in some horror films, coupled with three whooshes, a phaser-like sound and a reversed cymbal crash. Availability: Appeared on the company's titles from the era such as Through The Fire and Vampire Knights. The variant with "Castle Pictures" is seen on extremely rare UK prints of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
 * Sometimes, "HOME VIDEO" would be replaced with "PICTURES".
 * An alternate version of the above variant exists, where the logo is placed a bit higher; a filmstrip instead of the chrome ribbon covering half of the portcullis design, and 2 lines being drawn with "CASTLE" in Garamond, and "Pictures" in Laser Std Chrome, appear below in chrome and flash, in which it cuts to black.
 * The logo may cut off or fade out.FX/SFX: The arrows moving, the ribbon/filmstrip drawing and the text flashing.

Editor's Note: The cheap animation, unsettling music, and chrome ribbon may be unsettling to a few.

3rd Logo

(1989-1999)

Nicknames: "Portcullis of Boredom" Logo: On a black background, a teal square with a blue, stylized, slightly slanted portcullis appears. Below the teal square are the words "CASTLE VISION".

Variant: A white version exists.

Trivia: The stylized portcullis is the same as the print logo for Castle Communications PLC, only colored blue.

FX/SFX: None, except fading-in and out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Should be available on most Castle Vision releases from the late 1980s and across the 1990s.

Editor's Note: It's a very boring logo.

4th Logo

(1990-1992)

Nicknames: "Colorful Portcullis"

Logo: Against the white/blue gradient sky with the reddish-white horizon and the midnight blue ground, the scarlet, amber and celadon green arrows with elongated tails and the black drop shadow fly down to the middle one by one and the tails shorten, then two parallelograms with "CASTLE" and "VIDEO" in the modified Microgramma font slide in from the left and from the right, respectively, forming the portcullis design, and the company name flashes.

FX/SFX: Simple animation.

Music/Sounds: Three whooshes as the arrows fly down and the slamming sound when the company name flashes.

Availability: Extremely rare, as it was short lived. It can be seen on a few releases, like Izzy & Moe: Bootleg Busters.

Editor's Note:The sounds and logo taking up the whole screen might unnerve some, but it's still tamer than the 1st logo.

5th Logo

(1995-2007)

Nicknames: "Rainbow Oval In Space"

Logo: On a space background with the Earth and the Sun in the distance, we pan over the lowercase letters "castle", as if we are standing on the letters, from left to right. Around the letter "t", the camera pans down and turns in the opposite direction, then zooms out to reveal the text is rotating around the Earth (a la the Universal logo). As this happens, a series of rainbow light trails (a la Star Trek) cover the space background, and after a couple seconds, the screen flashes white to reveal nothing but the new Castle logo on a space background, as pictured above.

Variant: A slightly longer version from 1995 exists.

FX/SFX: The camera panning, the light trails appearing, the flash and the final product appearing. Decent CGI for 1995.

Music/Sounds: A trance-like electronic theme that ends with a guitar chord.

Availability: Seen on releases from the company during this time.

Editor's Note: The music may catch a few, but it is otherwise harmless.