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.

Movie Night with Dr. Gangrene

 I kicked off a new series on Youtube this week I'm calling Dr. Gangrene's Movie Night, where I'll pick a movie at random off my shelf and watch it and review it. For the first episode I looked at a pretty neat little indy flick from 1990 called METAMORPHOSIS... have you seen this one?

Vincent Price Nikon Ad

I was going through an old VHS tape this weekend and stumbled across this vintage Vincent Price ad from the 1980s for Nikon camera. It is a wonderfully creepy ad featuring a crawling hand in a haunted mansion, with voiceover from Vincent pitching the Nikon one-touch camera. Good ole Vincent was the pitch man for everything from cameras to cottage cheese and much more. His face was everywhere in the '80s, and it is always a treat when something new pops up like this - now I'm going to have to go through more of my old VHS tapes, who knows what gems are lurking there waiting to be rediscovered?

Weeknight Rewind at The Belcourt Theater!

For those of you in the Nashville, TN area that are fans of bad movies, VHS, and exploitation flicks (who isn't?) listen up! The Belcourt theater, Nashville's arthouse cinema of all things sinister has had a series going for a while now that I've been meaning to tell ya'll about. It's called WEEKNIGHT REWIND, and it's a genius idea.

Host Zach Hall brings three VHS tapes to the theater - that's right, I said VHS - and reads the back of each box, showing a clip from each of the evening's contestants in this analog battle-royale. Then it's up to you, as the audience votes, by applause-o-meter, on which epic will screen that night, projected off of glorious VHS tape!

It is too much fun, and must be seen to be believed. Come join us Tuesday, May 26th for the next entry in this insane series! I'll be there, so come say hi! Did I mention they serve beer, and wine, and mixed drinks there, too? As well as coffee for us old geezers who need help staying awake!

TUESDAY, MAY 26th at 10PM

The Belcourt Theater,

Nashville, TN 

By the way, here's the last film I saw during the Weeknight Rewind series - tell me this doesn't look like something you gotta see!

The Times they are a Changin... are Video stores a thing of the past?

I tell you what I miss… I miss mom and pop video stores. They are all too quickly becoming a thing of the past.

My favorite video store was a place called Video Depot that was located just around the corner from my house. It was run by two brothers (identical twins, actually) who knew most of their customers by name. They rented VHS and DVD movies as well as video games. They went out of business last year and I tell you, it was heartbreaking to see it go. I miss walking in to rent videos or check out the new releases and being greeted with “Hey, Larry what’s new?” from one or both of them, or their dog running out from behind the counter to greet customers, or seeing other people I knew renting videos there. It was a real community place and I miss it.

But I understand the decision. They just couldn’t compete with Netflix, Hollywood Video, Blockbuster and Redbox. The Hollywood Video in Hendersonville has become the latest casualty. They are closing shop this month, and I wonder if perhaps Blockbuster isn’t far behind it. We still have Redbox’s around town, but I really dislike those dispenser style rental kiosks. They are so impersonal, and waiting in line behind someone indecisive at one of those things is excruciating.

Fortunately there is still one other video rental place in town called Captain Video. It is part of a local chain of stores, but it still has that independent feel to it. In addition to renting videos they also have tanning beds. Yep, you read right, tanning beds. That’s a throwback to the 80’s, ain’t it? Who uses tanning beds nowadays? Apparently plenty of people in Hendersonville, TN as there always seem to be more people getting microwave tans than movies when I’m there. Nowadays I rent all my videos from Captain Video to help support them. Their older movies are just one dollar each for a 5-day rental. Not bad, plus their selection is better than Redbox and I don’t have to wait for my movie in the mail like you do with Netflix. Over the past year they dumped all their VHS tapes and only carry DVDs now, which is fine, but I sure would like to stumble on a place that had VHS tapes for rent, just for the nostalgia factor if nothing else.

Over the next few years we may just see the complete demise of video rental stores and that’s a shame. I think we may even see the end of physical movie copies, with everything turning digital. Instead of buying DVDs in cases we’ll buy downloads onto hard drives. I guess that’s the nature of technology, it’s ever-changing, but I still hate to see the mom and pop shops close.