Daytime Horror Movie Memories
If there is one thing I hate it is missing deadlines. Nothing bothers me more than to commit to a time and watch it pass by, even when it's out of my control. Last night was one of those times. We were suppose to being this week's series for the Halloween Hell Show when my trusty Mac decided to give up the ghost. It couldn't have happened at a worse time too because just about everything was shot and completed, hours or work and loads of footage all gone in the blip of a second.
So, here I am with a new Mac and have spent all afternoon rebuilding what spent me a week to create so maybe I can be on time for once to begin a special segment for the Halloween Hell Show which will be announced and begin tomorrow. This is a fun one and will make your September just a little more chilly and spooktacular.
Until then I want to talk about a little promo I found while gathering footage for the super secret thing I am doing. It shot me back thirty years to a time when I thought the daytime was safe and the only fear was watching that orange hue grow a deeper red and slowly turn to dark. The ghosts around the back door only came out at night and while the sun was out I could enjoy thoughts free of the boogey man. As kid without siblings, a crazy imagination could really torture myself when left to my own devices. But it grew much worse when Channel 46 in Atlanta started doing a daytime horror block on Saturday afternoons much like this one from Detroit. In fact, I think it's the same one.
The narrator's creepy tone along with cheap reverb sound effects would stun me in place as I would turn the dial on the TV looking for Kidd Video or something of equal crap. It was like an invasion of a safe space for me! How did visions of demons and mummies appear when only moments ago I was eating cereal while watching M.A.S.K.? These horrors only happened at night, right?
It was some time before I would work up the nerve to see what was on these taboo blocks of daytime horror. Usually they were fairly obscure flicks or even an Italian horror but every so often they would have something that would stick with me for years to come. The Howling was one of those little gems.
This was my first introduction to werewolves other than Teen Wolf which to me was a cartoon, not a Michael J. Fox movie. The one o'clock start time was still a disorientating thing for me because scary movies were always supposed to be accompanied by the dark, or at least, that is what I had been told. The other crazy notion is that many of the shocks and horrors in The Howling happened in the daytime and that's also strange because of the whole "full moon" theory. So you can image, the seven-year-old me certainly was introduced to a new world of scary movie viewing which would be a factor as to why 38 year old me has a Halloween website. I don't need a long couch and a psychiatrist to trace my strangeness.
As I grew older and embraced my fondness for horror films and the macabre, my fears fueled by an overactive imagination became creature comforts. Especially when transitioning to the real horror of middle school and the zoology of girls. These Saturday fright features were a delight and great excuses when I was trying to postpone mowing the lawn or going to baseball practice.
This was when TV stations could run their own programming and the fright double features were as mainstream as soaps. It was a glorious time and had I not been exposed to it, I probably wouldn't be as big of a fan as I am today. Heck, sometimes they even had their own host who would be as much fun to watch as the movie they were introducing!
But that's another story for tomorrow. :) Sleep tight and enjoy your Sunday night! Try to catch a spook flick then wrap a hot towel around your head. Then get some soup. Have a nap.