New Midnight Syndicate music for the Halloween season!!

        DARK SYMPHONIC PIONEERS MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE RETURN WITH ‘PLANKETT’S GROVE’, A CINEMATIC AUDIO JOURNEY INTO GOTHIC HORROR AND DARK FANTASY

         
        CLEVELAND, Ohio — August 21, 2026 — Trailblazing dark symphonic composers Midnight Syndicate have officially released their new studio album, Plankett’s Grove, available today on physical media and all major streaming platforms. Celebrated as foundational audio architects of the haunt, Halloween, and tabletop gaming industries, duo Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka return with an 18-track immersive orchestral work designed to transport listeners into a shadowy realm of gothic mystery and dark fantasy. Building on nearly three decades of pioneering "soundtracks to imaginary films," Plankett’s Grove delivers the signature blend of orchestral composition, haunting melodies, and immersive sound design that has defined the group’s legacy.

         
        When Midnight Syndicate emerged in the late 1990s, Halloween music was largely limited to novelty pop tracks, basic sound-effects tapes, hard-to-find movie soundtracks, or vocal-driven darkwave. Douglas and Goszka broke new ground by blending full-scale cinematic orchestration with immersive ambient soundscapes—offering a level of production quality previously unheard in the niche genre. This distinct instrumental approach quickly established Midnight Syndicate as the premier music supplier for the professional haunted attraction, amusement park, and Halloween retail industries, while simultaneously filling a crucial void for board and tabletop role-playing gamers seeking pure atmospheric soundtracks for their sessions.
         
        "Our last full-length release was inspired by a themed 19th-century European nightclub, so we thought we'd take things in the opposite direction for this one and set it in a world that is far more rural and secluded," said Gavin Goszka.

         
        “We asked our fan community, Legions of the Night, where they’d like to see us go next, and that definitely helped make the decision. Folk horror is a treasure trove of creative inspiration with so many directions you can go,” added Douglas. “It made exploring this new section of the Midnight Syndicate world both rewarding and exciting.”

         
        “Plankett’s Grove is set near the town of Illswich. Rather than making the town abandoned, where the listener's task would be to uncover the mysteries of what once was, we decided it might be interesting to keep this location very much active and alive, although not without its own share of dark secrets," said Goszka.
         
        Listen to or purchase Plankett’s Grove:
        https://www.midnightsyndicate.com/product/planketts-grove/
        Join the Midnight Syndicate Legions of the Night Fan Community:
        https://legions.midnightsyndicate.com/join-legions-of-the-night
        Midnight Syndicate official website:
        www.MidnightSyndicate.com

 

        ABOUT MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE
        For nearly three decades, Cleveland-based composers Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka—known collectively as Midnight Syndicate—have been world-renowned pioneers in dark symphonic music, gothic ambient soundscapes, and cinematic world-building. Known as foundational audio architects of the haunted house, Halloween, and TTRPG music genres, Douglas and Goszka revolutionized the concept of a band that creates “soundtracks to imaginary films” by blending full-scale orchestral compositions with film-quality ambient sound design beginning in the 1990s.
         
        Since 1997, Midnight Syndicate has earned an international reputation as premier audio suppliers for the haunted attraction and amusement park industries. Industry analysts estimate that at peak adoption, 75% to 90% of commercial haunted attractions globally utilized Midnight Syndicate's music. Their compositions have been featured extensively across major global entertainment brands and international theme parks—including Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights (spanning multi-decade collaborations and custom vinyl releases), Cedar Point’s HalloWeekends, Busch Gardens, Six Flags, Ripley Entertainment, Europe's Alton Towers and PortAventura, Spirit Halloween, and Hot Topic. They have been featured on broadcast programming from SiriusXM's Scream Radio, NBC, CBS, ABC, SyFy, and ESPN, as well as live stage shows by horror music icons The Misfits and King Diamond.
         
        In 2003, Midnight Syndicate broke ground in the tabletop gaming community by collaborating with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro to produce the first official soundtrack to the legendary role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The album pioneered the use of atmospheric music tailored specifically for tabletop gaming sessions, establishing a precedent that influenced the modern TTRPG music genre. The band’s cultural legacy has been recognized with multiple Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, as well as ENNIE and Origins gaming awards. Their album Out of the Darkness was included in Rue Morgue Magazine’s list of "50 Essential Horror Albums" that defined genre music over the decades.
         
        The world of Midnight Syndicate encapsulates a dark ambient discography spanning over sixteen studio albums, multimedia live theater productions, original motion picture projects—including the feature film The Dead Matter (produced by Midnight Syndicate Films, directed and co-written by Douglas)—and scores to films like The Rage and Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan. Midnight Syndicate operates independently under Entity Productions and Linfaldia Records. Maintaining total creative control over their catalog, Douglas and Goszka continue to produce fine-art conceptual pressings and immersive album universes that captivate fans of horror, fantasy, and classical crossover music worldwide.

New Horror Host Book - Masters of Terrormonies

This week I released a project I've been researching and writing for over 20 years - Masters of Terrormonies: The History of Television Horror Movie Hosts in Nashville, TN.

 

Masters of Terrormonies is the definitive guide to the legendary horror movie hosts who terrified and delighted late-night viewers on the airwaves in Nashville, Tennessee from 1957-present.

From the dapper Dr. Lucifur (Ken Bramming) and the hunchbacked Sir Cecil Creape (Russ McCown) – Nashville’s most iconic and best-remembered host – to the modern mad scientist Dr. Gangrene (Larry Underwood), this book dives deep into the histories of these macabre masters and the broadcast eras that brought them to life in Music City.

Inside these pages, you’ll discover detailed biographies about the real-life people behind the makeup, exclusive behind-the-scenes stories, rare interviews, vintage newspaper clippings, and never-before-seen photographs and memorabilia.

Written by Larry W. Underwood, cover by Mark Maddox, interior illustrations by Jeff Wilson, foreword by Dr. Jeff Thompson.

Available on Amazon.com 

Dr. Gangrene's Creature Feature

Back in the mid-2000s I hosted a program on the WB Channel 58 in Nashville called Creature Feature. It debuted in 2005, and ran off and on through 2010. During the run of the show the station changed named from the WB to the CW. It was an exciting time for me, as it provided a much wider audience and the station provided a terrific package of films for me to host.

 

Below is a partial list of films hosted by Dr. Gangrene while on the air on WNAB, Nashville's CW58. These were listed on my Wikipedia page, but I decided to move them here to clean up the page a bit, and link to them. First airing only listed (not reruns):

Film	Date
Bruiser	October 22, 2005
Dreamscape	October 29, 2005
Sometimes They Come Back... for More	November 5, 2005
Piranha	November 12, 2005
Specimen	November 19, 2005
Total Recall(1990 film)	November 26, 2005
DNA	December 3, 2005
The Devil Bat	December 10, 2005
Beyond Tomorrow	December 24, 2005
Nosferatu	December 31, 2005
The Descendant	January 7, 2006
Aerobicide	January 29, 2006
The Giant Gila Monster	February 5, 2006
The Ex	February 12, 2006
Phoenix The Warrior	February 19, 2006
Little Shop of Horrors	March 11, 2006
Space Mutiny	March 18, 2006
The Screaming Skull	March 25, 2006
The Brain That Wouldn't Die	April 8, 2006
Future Force	April 15, 2006
Future Zone	April 22, 2006
Total Recall1	April 29, 2006
Piranha	May 6, 2006
The Wraith	May 13, 2006
The House That Dripped Blood	May 26, 2007
Night of the Living Dead	October 13, 2007
The Last Man On Earth	December 29, 2007
Five Deadly Venoms	February 2, 2008
The Little Shop of Horrors	September 13, 2008
The Phantom Planet	September 27, 2008
White Zombie	October 11, 2008
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2002 Version d. by Mark Redfield)	November 1, 2008
Night Tide	October 17, 2009
They Crawl	October 30, 2009
The Hollow	October 30, 2009
A Christmas Carol (1949 TV version)	December 25, 2009
Deep Shock	July 10, 2010
The Cave	July 17, 2010
Black Cadillac	July 24, 2010
Absolon	July 31, 2010
Dark Waters (1993)	August 7, 2010
Glass Trap	August 14, 2010
Dark Descent	August 21, 2010
The Untold	September 4, 2010
The Sadist	September 18, 2010
Eegah	September 25, 2010
The Dreadful Hallowgreen Special	October 31, 2010

 

Following this run we changed the name of the show to Dr. Gangrene Presents. The format changed to a half-hour, with the Doc now hosting public domain TV shows like One Step Beyond, Suspense, and Boris Karloff's The Veil.

 Below is an episode of Creature Feature hosting The Brain that Wouldn't Die.

Dr. Gangrene in the Hall of Fame!

 Greetings Fright Fans - I am excited to share some big news with you all - Dr. Gangrene was inducted into the Rondo Award Hall of Fame this year! 

The fact that last year marked my 25th anniversary as a host made it doubly meaningful. It was also my 20th year of hosting movies live at Wonderfest last year, as well as the 20th anniversary of our Horror Hootenanny show held every October (although we missed a couple of years during Covid). AND last year was the year that we got the Sir Cecil Creape historical marker installed in Nashville, something I'm truly proud of. 

This is a true honor, and I'd like to thank David Colton, everyone at the Rondo Awards, and everyone who voted for me this year. The Rondos are THE biggest award in our industry, and to be inducted into the hall alongside such greats as Zacherley, Vampira, Morgus, Chilly Billy, etc. is a true honor (I love that David used the photo of me and Zacherley on the website for the announcement). Congratulations to all the other winners as well as everyone who was nominated. Being recognized by your peers is the best part of the Rondo Awards. It makes it all worthwhile. #rondoawards

The Frozen Dead

 A couple of days ago my friend Tim Lucas (film critic, writer, former editor of Video Watchdog magazine) posted a photo on Facebook from The Frozen Dead (1966). I’ve been aware of this movie for some time now and always meant to watch it but somehow never got around to it. Which is surprising because subject matter-wise it’s right up my alley. So, I thought I’d do myself a favor and finally seek this one out.

The Frozen Dead stars Dana Andrews as a Nazi mad scientist named Dr. Norberg, speaking with a German inflection no less! I’ve always liked Dana Andrews, so that was a plus for me right off the bat. The plot is suitably ridiculous for this type of film: Norberg is attempting to revive a squadron of Nazi soldiers that have been frozen since WWII, and in the process, has been carrying out wild experiments, which include a wall of severed arms kept “alive.”

He maintains a hidden room full of botched experiments—soldiers that were faultily resurrected as brain-dead zombies. The doctor’s niece unexpectedly arrives for a visit with a friend named Elsa (Kathleen Breck). Their stay doesn't go as well as expected, however, as one of the resurrected soldiers murders Elsa on their first night at the mansion.

(Gotta love that the frozen soldiers are held by clamps on their HEADS, like frozen chunks of beef.)

Not one to let an opportunity go to waste, Norberg uses this as an excuse to perform an experiment he'd always wanted to try. He keeps Elsa’s severed head alive in a box, with a plastic dome mounted over the top of her skull where the brain is now exposed. Her skin is also inexplicably blue.

While I appreciate the mad science shenanigans in this one, it’s unfortunately nowhere near as interesting as it could have been. The setup is great, but the film falls short in the execution; large portions of this one are just plain boring. The film also lifts heavily from the much better film The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1962). Just as in that film, this one has a female head kept alive through science, a failed experiment locked away (the monster in Brain, the zombie soldiers in this one), and the head develops telepathic powers in each. Elsa begs for them to "Bury me," and in Brain we hear the woman (Jan, played by Virginia Leith) beg, "Let me die." By the way, The Brain that Wouldn't Die in turn borrowed material from the German film The Head (1959), which brings us back full circle with the Germanic influence.

The Frozen Dead was directed by Herbert J. Leder, who also directed It! starring Roddy McDowall. In fact, this film played on a double bill with It!. Leder had also previously written the screenplay for Fiend Without a Face.

Despite the pacing issues, The Frozen Dead is still worth a watch with plenty of outlandish elements, including zombies, frozen Nazi soldiers, gruesome experiments, a dungeon laboratory, severed body parts, and a head kept alive. Plus, it's got some memorable visuals. If you're a sucker for mad science films like me, then check it out!

Cameron Mitchell, Horror Host

Last week, I discussed actor Cameron Mitchell's appearance in the film Nightmare in Wax. A few days later, I posted about my Halloween countdown of films from the Shock! package of Universal movies and the horror hosts who showed those films in their initial run on television in the 1950s and 1960s. Did you know that Cameron Mitchell also took a turn as a horror host? 

Well, sort of. More accurately, he played a horror-host-STYLE character in Terror on Tape (1985). This was a shot-on-video production that featured Mitchell playing the proprietor of a video store that specializes in horror movies. A trio of customers come into the shop (including scream queen Michelle Bauer), each looking for the scariest and goriest films in existence. Mitchell shows them clips from various horror movies on a television set resting on the counter. The film keeps cutting back and forth between the video store and the movie clips, with Cameron enthusiastically introducing each segment with a cheesy flair that would make the best horror host proud.

This program was made by Comet Video and Continental Video, and the movie clips were all from films distributed by Continental.

The movies featured were:

Nightmare

The Eerie Midnight Horror Show

Frozen Scream

Cathy’s Curse

Return of the Alien’s Deadly Spawn

Ruby

Night Creature

Suicide Cult

Scalps

Slayer

2000 Maniacs

Blood Feast

Color Me Blood Red

To the Devil a Daughter

Kidnapping of the President

Vampire Hookers

Alien Prey

City of the Walking Dead

Bloodtide

Madhouse Mansion

The best I can tell, Comet Video shot this for Continental. Either it was a collaboration between the two, or perhaps Comet was a subsidiary of Continental. Either way, it was a clever idea from Continental. Put together a fun little video using clips from their catalog - Instant advertising for their own movies. Ingenious!

Terror on Tape was released straight to video and became a favorite of kids of a certain age who stumbled across it at their local video store. Nowadays, these tapes go for big money - a quick search on eBay showed listings between 150 - 400 dollars. However, I think 150 is the standard price you can expect to pay on VHS in 2025 depending on the quality of the tape. Someone has it for sale there on DVD as well, but it’s pretty cheap (and is probably just a rip from tape). It’s those original VHS tapes that are coveted by collectors.

This tape is a nostalgic snapshot of a bygone era,
an age of big-box VHS and mom-and-pop video stores.

This tape is a nostalgic snapshot of a bygone era, an age of big-box VHS and mom-and-pop video stores. The clips are fun, but the host segments are what really make this work. They’re campy and fun and Mitchell does a great job as the cornball spooky host. The fog-shrouded store is decorated with cobwebs and spooky artifacts, and Mitchell makes the most of it, shuffling about the set, conversing with skulls, and introducing the films with a hammy flair. It’s silly, ridiculous, and completely charming. Worth a look, you can find a copy on YouTube or archive.org.

Farewell Salute to Big Chuck Schodowski

I was very saddened this week to hear about the passing of legendary horror host Chuck Schodowski. “Big Chuck” as he’s known affectionately to fans, rose to fame in the Cleveland market and hosted films on television for an incredible 47 years on station WJW. He originally worked with the great Ghoulardi, crewing on that show as well as appearing in skits. When Ghoulardi left to pursue work in LA the station encouraged Chuck to take over the hosting duties. He was at first reluctant to do so, which is easy to understand since Ghoulardi’s show was incredibly popular and was a hard act to follow. But he eventually agreed, co-hosting the show with local weatherman Bob Hoolihan Wells beginning in 1966. 

The Hoolihan and Big Chuck show quickly became popular in its own right, largely because they didn’t try to do the same schtick that Ghoulardi did, instead creating their own unique brand of entertainment. Their show consisted largely of short comedic sketches filmed in and around Cleveland. That show ran for 13 years on WJW, until Hoolihan left and moved to Florida. He was replaced by Lil’ John Rinaldi, and the Big Chuck and Lil’ John Show became even more popular, running for another 28 years on WJW.

Big Chuck is a legend in the horror host field, and arguably the longest-running horror host of all time. Their host bits for their show were filmed live-to-tape in front of a studio audience and the show is fondly remembered by Clevendars to this day. Chuck published an autobiography that recounts his favorite stories over his 47 years of television work. It’s a great book and a fun read, I highly recommend it. 

We here at Shackle Island want to give a big salute to Big Chuck -  I’ve been able to see his show through recordings from fans and have loved the humor, warmth, and positivity of the show. Here’s to ya Chuck, thanks for all the entertainment and inspiration. You’re a one-of-a-kind!