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.
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!
I finally watched HALLOWEEN KILLS this weekend. I initially planned to see it in the theater, but my schedule didn't allow it, so I finally relented and signed up for Peacock streaming and watched it at my house. I have mixed feelings about seeing movies this way. I'm a big supporter of theaters, but the past several times I've gone to see a movie anywhere outside of the Belcourt (Nashville's arthouse theater that doesn't allow talking or disruptions of any kind) the experience has been HORRIBLE. Audiences are so badly behaved nowadays that it ruins the entire experience. But I'll save my old man rant for another day - today I'm here to talk about Halloween Kills.
Spooky season is here and Michael Myers is back, stalking his way into theaters once again. I had heard there were a lot of folks upset about this latest installment in the franchise, and it was people posting spoilers online that finally made me go ahead and watch it at home. Admittedly, I wasn't the biggest fan of this team's first effort, HALLOWEEN 2018. I didn't hate it, I just kind of had a problem accepting the premise of it, to be honest. You see, there's just an inherent arrogance built into any filmmaker who takes an established franchise like Halloween and throws out all the sequels, proclaiming them trash and that theirs will be the only "real" storyline going forward. ESPECIALLY if they're not including one of the very best films in the franchise, HALLOWEEN 2, which I'm a big fan of. It's the second-best "Michael" movie, after the Carpenter original. It picks up immediately following the first film, builds on the events of that film, and tells a compelling story. It was also written by the man himself, John Carpenter, in conjunction with his creative partner Debra Hill, in 1981, just 3 years after the original, when the story was still fresh.
The new creative team (David Gordon Green, Danny McBride and Jason Blum) have gone on record saying the main reason for ignoring part 2 (and all subsequent films) is so Michael and Laurie would no longer be siblings. Not sure why they chose to discard this particular bit of lore, as it's one of the most well-known parts of the story. But they did, and it was a bit hard for me to accept that in the 2018 film. ESPECIALLY since that exact thing had already been done once, with HALLOWEEN H20 (1998). That one also chose to discard all the sequels, setting its story directly following the original 1978 HALLOWEEN. And here's the kicker - it did it better than the 2018 version.
In 2018 the biggest problem was the way they wrote Laurie. They were trying to portray her as a strong woman character, but instead, she comes across as a fearful loon, afraid of her own shadow and hiding in the woods with her guns. You know what's strong? Learning to cope with trauma, beating your fears, and being able to live a semi-normal life after the fact, even becoming headmistress of a school and raising a son. Hiding in fear isn't strong, conquering that shit and living life takes real strength!
So I found the 2018 version less than compelling for a number of reasons. BUT, I decided to put that aside and give the latest film, Halloween Kills, a fair chance - even if it is a terrible title. And it is. I mean... Halloween Kills? That's the best they could come up with? About as bad as FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, another really lame title for a spinoff property.
This one does get a bit convoluted story-wise by introducing a whole bunch of characters with ties to the 78 film. Probably a few too many, at least I had trouble keeping up with all of them. But that aside, the story was engaging and it felt more like a proper Halloween film this time around. There was even a nod to HALLOWEEN 3 in it, but I'm honestly not sure if it's supposed to be an homage or a middle finger to that oddball outlier of the franchise. But people can watch and decide for themselves, I suppose. Probably a better question for the filmmakers.
There's also an angry mob portion of the film that - you know, now that I think about it, a lot of the film is taken up with this storyline. Maybe that's what people disliked so intently. I was fine with it though, as it's at least something new that we haven't seen in any of the Halloween films before. I think it's good for the franchise to go somewhere new. That's what a sequel should do, not just remake the same film time and again.
There was a portion toward the end where Michael confronts the mob that kind of bugged me, cinematography/editing-wise, with them shooting it in slow motion, in kind of isolated shots highlighting specific kills, instead of letting us really see the action play out in real-time and revel in it. Makes me think of that amazing ending in CABIN IN THE WOODS when all hell breaks loose and the camera stays right on the action, pulled back so you can really see it in all its glory. I'd have preferred that here, but they got artsy with it, which is okay,I guess, it just lost some of its power that way, which is the complete opposite of what they were going for, I think.
So... is Halloween Kills a trick or a treat?
Overall, those gripes aside, I found this to be a bit of a mixed bag. The film is enjoyable, much more so than Halloween 2018, and I will probably re-watch it sometime, which I'm not sure I'd say for the 2018 version. I do wish the trailer for Halloween Kills hadn't given away so much of the story ahead of time. For the next chapter, the supposedly final one in this team's run (I think) titled HALLOWEEN ENDS (Really? Again, best you can come up with?), please, PLEASE - use some restraint on the trailer. Really. You don't have to give away major chunks of plot in the trailer. Study some classic trailers. There's an art to effectively teasing the action and intriguing audiences yet not giving away the story. You can do it, I have faith in you.
The 2021 Halloween Countdown continues as Dr. Gangrene takes a look at the underrated Universal film MAN MADE MONSTER, starring Lon Chaney Jr. This is a good one!
It's our 20th anniveriscary! 20 years ago today, July 1, 1999, the first episode of Dr. Gangrene's horror host program Chiller Cinema premiered! It has been a long crazy ride since then, moving the show to our local CW station, hostings films live and much more. In celebration of our 20th anniversary, I'll be posting announcements all week long about upcoming events this year as we keep the celebration rolling. This will be a fun year for us, and I thank all of YOU for your support over the years! #drgangrene
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