Shocktober is coming….
We now pause for station identification:
If you grew up in the tri-state area (for those on the West Coast, that means New York-New Jerz-and Connecticut) like I did, you may remember the original Channel 11 - WPIX, before it became the WB and now the CW or whatever it is. Channel 11 used to run tons of movies, usually in the evenings you could probably catch Pretty Woman or Goonies or E.T. or something of that nature, and then the 10 o’clock news and then at 11:ooPM it was like Cheers heaven. Blech!
The best thing that I remember Channel 11 did was during October, it would rename itself “Shocktober,” and it would air horror movies all month, all the time - well, not actually all the time, but like, at night, and on the weekends round the clock. Now in my memory it was just October, but in the preview below they seem to indicate that it was also during September and November too. This would jibe with the sheer number of horror movies I remember them showing. They would have all the Nightmare On Elm Streets one week, then the next would be Friday the 13th, then Halloween 1-5, Child’s Play, Creepshow 1 and 2, Night of the Creeps, Poltergeists 1-3, Critters 1-3, Tales of the Darkside the movie (which scared the shit out of me during the Gargoyle sequence), Cat’s Eye (which I was also vaguely creeped out by), Psycho 2, 3, and 4: The New Beginning, and probably tons of 80’s horror movies that I can’t even remember.
I just loved this stuff when I was about 11, 12, and 13. I had just started reading Stephen King novels, and I had plowed through the popular teen-lit horror books by people like R.L. Stine, who wrote the Fear Street series, which basically ripped off every famous horror movie ever, and Christopher Pike, whose novels usually featured some sex along with the blood and guts and vampires. There’s something just incredibly comforting about being able to watch these old promos on YouTube. WPIX was pretty loyal to their audience, and the horror craze was as huge then as it is now. They had a popular horror movie program - Chiller Theatre in the 70’s, check out this creepy intro that used to frighten kids more than the movies they showed!
I really miss this stuff, and the channels that used to get that when October rolls around, we wanna watch scary stuff, and not Fast and the Furious Part 7. So in October, I’m gonna devote this blog to all things scary and scary movies. Be forewarned! I’m also thinking of a way to put on a party where I can show all the crazy weird horror movies I’ve been collecting - many of which I picked up on my trip to LA.
Bonus Clip: Check out this promo for an episode of the Tales from the Darkside show. Renee Taylor plays a nagging Jewish mother with a voodoo charm! I’m calling Eddie Brandt’s tomorrow to see if they got this on tape. I just gotta see this.
Now go to sleep, before you all turn into a piece of date bread.
I am trying to remember the name of this movie I saw during Shocktober. I think it was about some apocalyptical disaster happening when evil takes over the world. I remember the last scene vividly. Theres this guy who is running through a city looking for his friend, and everyone has turned to zombies. He finally finds his friend at like a church or something. His friend and an apparently evil woman are naked and embraced in a hot and passionate moment, deeply kissing each other inside of this portal of light. His friend finds them, and yells down to his friend, trying to get his friend out of that moment, and giving him some type of sharp weapon that looked like a spear, and shouted down, “Kill her! You have to kill her!”. His friend finally looks up and reaches up to take hold of that weapon while that beautiful woman is still wildly kissing his body. He then fatally stabs her, and she dies, and apparantly the world goes back to normal. At the last scene we see this satalite type of machine reversing directions in the earths orbit. Please tell me you know which movie this is. Please email the name to me.
Comment by gabriel — January 25, 2008 @ 3:48 am