31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 24 Ghoulies Svengoolie Airing

 

TITLE-Ghoulies

SOURCE-Svengoolie TV Airing from 2023

Months ago,think it might have been late 2022,Dish Network dropped MeTV. One of the few channels I watch. No big issue for me I pay for the FRNDLY app and it has MeTV. So I didn't miss Svengoolie.

Most years during 31 Days of Horror,over the last 10 years,I try to cover an episode of Sven's show. He almost always shows something owned by Universal. And I have used this as a way for me to cover older stuff.

Since FRNDLY has an unlimited DVR space I will sometimes have months worth of Sven episodes sitting on it. Back sometime in July I was off in some rural town filming wrestling. When I checked my phone during intermission someone had messaged me saying how SVen was showing Ghoulies II. I get home and check the DVR and yep GHoulies II and the week before was GHoulies .

Now years back I covered Ghoulies III. And enjoyed it. I remember seeing the first film when it hit home video and not really enjoying it. The poster and trailers made it out like a more horror less comedy version of Gremlins. The Ghoulies don't show up that much in this film and the non Ghoulie parts were just boring.

So Ghoulies is one of those longer running horror franchises where the first film is the worst in the run. 

Pretty much unless you feel like you gotta see every Gremlins rip off avoid this movie. Even Sven's bits before and after ad breaks can't save this turd.

Ghoulies get D-.

31 Days of Horror Day 31 TARANTULAS: THE DEADLY CARGO

Title-Tarantulas:The Deadly Cargo
Source-Svengoolie airing

Back in the 70s it felt like every few weeks one of the 3 networks would air a new made for TV horror film. Some were great like Duel. Some were middle of the road. Then some were boring like today's movie.

We start off with Tom Atkins and Howard Hesseman are smuggling a large amount of coffee beans fro  Ecuador.  Yea not drugs these morons are smuggling coffee. And in those black market beans is a deadly bunch of banana spiders.

The plane crashes right outside the town of Finleyville CA. These spiders have a fast acting deadly venom. People all over town start dropping dead.

While this movie is only 100 minutes long it feels like it was 6 hours. Not sure if the print Sven showed was in bad shape, but the colors look faded. And if I didn't know better I would think this was filmed on an cheap early 90s camcorder.

At least Sven's bits were entertaining. But they weren't good enough for me to ever watch this movie ever again.

Tarantulas:The Deadly Cargo gets a F+.

31 Days of Horror Day 11 The Blob(Original 1958)

Title-The Blob(Original 1958)
Source-MeTV Svengoolie airing

Months back,I think it was in May I saw that Svengoolie was gonna air the original Blob. So I made sure to save that airing on the DVR. I DVR Sven every week. But usually end up just watching his host segments,mostly when it is films I don't care for. Or end up building up 10 or more episodes on the DVR and put them on when I clean the house from top to bottom.

As normal with when Sven airs a film he fills his segments with trivia about the movie.I knew that the lead male was Steve McQueen. But had no clue that the lead female was later Andy's love interest on the Andy Griffith show.

Now I have heard various people talk about how cheesy the original Blob is. And yea it is. But for it's time and being a indy film with a tiny budget it is way better than it should have been. The FX work is decent. But it wasn't until the remake from the late 80s/early 90s that we got to see a fully realized version of what the Blob could do.

Steve McQueen and his gal pal are up on a hilltop watching for shooting stars. They see one,and it turns out to be a meteorite. An old man pokes it with a stick and this glob what appears to be strawberry jelly comes out. And ends up eating the man.

The rest of the film is a 30 year old or older,suppose to be in his late teens,Steve McQueen trying to convince the cops and other adults that something is up. I do wonder why Steve got cast to play a much younger person. He looks like he is in his 30s. But then McQueen always looked about 30,even in his final years.The cops think this is all a prank the local teens are playing. So they do nothing until almost the end of the film.

There is 2 real setpieces in the film. The first is when the Blob attacks a packed theater. It is a bit after midnight and the theater is having a Spook Show!!!. So it is packed with teens and young adults. The Blob comes in thru the vents and attacks. This same theater still exists and will show the Blob once a year as a charity event.

The other big set piece is near the end,people are trapped in a building that the Blob has engulfed. And this is were we learn that the Blob hates the cold.

Honestly if you are under 30 and have already seen the remake skip this movie. It is one of those movies that is very of it's time. And I get the feeling that if McQueen wasn't in the movie it would be another forgotten 50s horror.

For being a lower budget indy film I was shocked at how good the colors looked. The red of the Blob stands out. The FX work is pretty good.With most of the mat lines and forced perspective shots not being super obvious. The acting isn't bad. McQueen of course is the best. But the one really goofy copy is pretty damn good too.

By it''s self the Blob is a average horror film. But add in the skits,songs and trivia that Svengoolie adds and it becomes much better.

The Blob gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 09 Mr Sardonicus

Title-Mr Sardonicus
Source-MeTV Svengoolie airing

Last year I reviewed at least one film that Svengoolie was showing. But back then I didn't get MeTV. For some reason even though I get most of the Jackson channels on DISH,they didn't give us MeTV. Then back in March they added MeTV to our lineup. So each week I would go see what Svengoolie was airing and sometimes DVR it.

Since there is only one TV in the house with a DVR I am lucky if I get maybe 4 hours a week to watch what I have DVRed. I have built up a bunch of episodes of Svengoolie to watch. Was trying to decide which one to watch and realized while I have seen pieces of the film and read a decent amount about it I do not think I have ever seen all of Mr Sardonicus.

Released in 1961 Mr Sardonicus was directed by William Castle. Who was known for how most of his films had gimmicks. Like the skeletons that would fly around the theater on wires during House on Haunted Hill. Or 13 Ghosts ghost viewers. With Mr Sardonicus they had the punishment poll. As you entered the theater you were given a card. With a glow in the dark thumb on it. Near the end of the film Castle would appear and ask if the audience thought Mr Sardonicus should be punished. And you gave a thumbs up or thumbs down. Castle would pretend to count the votes then would show the ending the audience had voted for. Now Castle swore that he had filmed two endings. But so far the only one that has been proven to exist is the one were Sardonicus gets punished.

The plot is simple a doctor gets summoned to a remote castle. In a made up Eastern Euro country. And over the course of the 1 1/2 hours of the film odder and odder things happen. The owner of the castle,Mr Sardonicus,wears a full face mask at all times. There is two reasons for this. One is so when his face is revealed near the end it would shock the audience. The other is cause the actor playing Sardonicus,Guy Rolfe who is best known for being the Puppet Master in Puppet Master III,could only wear the makeup  for an hour without it causing him pain.

So what does Mr Sardonicus look like........ Well let me warn you he is pretty hideous.

Anyways it is a fun film. Svengoolie's bits are pretty funny. And if you get a chance catch this one when Sven reruns it.

Mr Sardonicus gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 04 Svengoolie's Twilight Zone marathon

Title-Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon
Source-DVD-r recording of the original TV airing.

It was  few years ago I finally got to see Svengoolie for the first time. Sven has been a horror host in the Chicago greater area for decades now. And thanks to him getting a slot on MeTV,Saturday nights at 8pm central,Svengoolie is one  of the few horror hosts that has nationwide TV. Until earlier this year I didn't MeTV.Dish network wasn't carrying it in my area. And I would have to spend a bit over 100 bucks for an antenna to get the channel. So I had a friend that got the show that would record the episodes to DVDs then mail me boxes of DVDs a few times a year.

Ever since I have been watching Sven on MeTV he shows horror films from the Universal library. Which I do enjoy cause Universal has made some great horror films. I know that before Sven was on MeTV he was airing films from many different studios. But until I was sent this DVD I had no idea he had ever did a Twilight Zone mini marathon.

The show starts off like most episodes of Svengoolie does. We get some info about what we are about to watch. Sven cracks some bad jokes and the movie starts. This time instead of a film we get 4 episodes of from the original run  of the science ficiton anthology classic The Twilight Zone.

Growing up my parents would tell me all the time about the Twilight Zone. Even at a young age I was into horror. Not long after Twilight Zone the Movie had come out one of the local UHF channels started airing the classic Twilight Zone episodes every night at 10pm. Even though at the time my bedtime was 10pm,my parents would most nights let me stay up to watch Twilight Zone. It wasn't long after this that the 80s Twilight Zone series started up. And I was so happy. Not only did I get 5 episodes off the classic show each week,but I  also got a new episodes each week.

So what episodes is Sven showing us the loyal viewers? The first one is the infamous "Wish you into the cornfield" episode. Starring a young Bill Mumy this one is about a young boy who has God like powers. It is considered one of the best episodes of the original run. And was even remade as part of the previously mentioned Twilight Zone the Movie.

The second episode is one that I don't remember seeing as a kid. I think the first time I saw it was during one of SyFy Channels New Years Twilight Zone marathons. It is titled,I think,Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.Our lead has her head wrapped in bandages. And we find out she has had surgery to "make her no so ugly". Of course near the end of the episode the bandages are removed and we see our lead is played by Ellie May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies who is far from being an  ugly woman. It  is after this reveal that we noticed that all through out this episode we never saw anyone's face. They  were always in shadow or blocked by something. When the other peoples' faces are revealed we see that everyone has this weird deformed pig like face.

The third episode is another one that is considered a classic. Starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner it is about a man who has had some mental issues. He is flying and sees what at first he thinks is a man on the airplane wing. But this is no man. It is one of the gremlins some fighter pilots in the big war claimed to have seen. The Shat starts freaking out cause he is sure this creature is damaging the planes wing and engine. Like the first episode in this Sven mini marathon this one was also redone in Twilight Zone the movie. It was the last story in the film. With John Lithgow in the role Shatner played. It is one that I saw the original episode after having seen the film. Which explains why while I get why this episode is considered a classic to me cause of how cheesy the suit the gremlin is wearing I prefer the version from Twilight Zone the Movie.

The final episode is another I didn't see until the Syfy marathons. We got a group of older men that hang out at the local general store. One of whom is Floyd the Barber of Andy Griffith fame. The lead guy is able to weave a fairly entertaining tall tale about his time in the war. He ends up getting kidnapped by some aliens. Then discovers a weakness the aliens have. Lets just say that I get the feeling Tim Burton got the idea for the Martians in the Mars Attacks film's weakness from this episode.

Out of the four episodes included in this Svengoolie Twilight Zone Mini Marathon 3 of them are episodes I would consider some of the best the original Twilight Zone produced. But that final episode is just not that good. It has a decent cast and a good idea. But the execution fails.

Still this was a fun watch. I got to see 3 great episodes of TZ. Plus got to see the ads and stuff from Sven's non-MeTV show. There is even a commercial for the midnight airings of Sven's old shows. If anyone reading this has copies of the pre-MeTV episodes of Svengoolie please leave a comment. I am more than willing to pay you for copies of these episodes.

Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon gets a A-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 28 Svengoolie MeTV airing of SSSSSSSs

Title-Sssssss
Source-Svengoolie airing on MeTV

Since I have to wait on someone to upload the episodes I am way behind on Svengoolie.So when I got home earlier tonight I was looking for something to watch,and something that while I had seen it before it had been a long time. Saw the dvd-r of the Svengoolie's recent airing of this show and threw it into the blu ray player.

Dirk Benedict becomes the local snake expert's lad assistant. The Doctor starts shooting him up with chemicals,saying they are to help if he gets bit by a snake. Of course we know this will cause Dirk to transform into a snakeman.

Lots of real snakes in this.According to one of Sven's segments there is only one scene with a fake snake.The acting is pretty good. And over all it is a fun way to waste 2 hours. The only big fault with the film is the non-ending.

Sssssssssss gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2014 Halloween Day Extra Movie 01

Svengoolie's airing of Abbot and Costello meet Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde
Source-DVD-r of the original airing with all the original commercials

When I was a kid WPMI Channel 15 outta Mobile Alabama was the best channel around. Saturdays it showed all kinds of great cartoons from the Golden Age of animation. Then around 11am the movies would start.I noticed quickly that they showed movies in blocks. Like for a month or so the movie would be martial art movies or those old b/w movies based on the Blondie comic strip. Well one Saturday I looked in the newspaper and the movie was going to be Abbot and Costello meet Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde. My dad seemed really excited for this. All that morning he kept telling me how funny Abbot and Costello are and explaining who Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde were to me.

Now I have no idea if this was the first episode of the Sgt Graves horror host show or not. But it was the first I saw,and the only time I remember him airing during the day. Normally he started at 10:30pm Saturday night and lasted 4 hours. He would show 2 films. At 11am I hear this weird music coming out of the TV. Then I see a zombie dressed up in a Confederate Army uniform. He said his name was Sgt Graves then spent about 5 minutes explaining a bit of history of the Abbot and Costello meet the Universal monster series of films.

Since I can not find anyone with any Sgt Graves shows,when I found a torrent of Svengoolie's showing of the movie on MEtv I grabbed it. I had seen 2 or 3 episodes of Sven before this. About a week ago my back was hurting me pretty badly. I need to buy a new mattress. When ever my back is hurting real bad I end up sleeping on the spare bed in the spare bedroom. I had brought a table and my laptop back there. So I could fall asleep while watching/listening to something I had on my HD. I saw I had this episode. Turned it on expecting to fall asleep fast. But I got wrapped up in the film and ended up watching all of it.

Abbot and Costello are in the UK. Part of a police exchange program.After some wacky stuff they run into Boris Karloff. Thinking back on it this film was only the second time I had seen Karloff. About 2 years before I saw this movie for the first time I got to see Frankenstein with Karloff. Karloff is of course Dr Jekyl. And through the rest of the film our bumbling duo are trying to capture the evil Mr Hyde.

I know some fans of the classic Universal horrors hate the Abbot and Costello Meets series of films. I can see their point of view,about how the films reduced these once terrifying creatures into jokes,but I don't totally agree with it. I have noticed that with people of my generation lots of the time we first got into the Universal Monsters because of the various Abbot and Costello films.I enjoy most of the A&C meets films,

I guess I should talk a bit about Svengoolie. I mentioned him in passing kind of in my piece on Horror Hosts. And currently he is one of the few that has a nationwide tv show. He has a cheeseball sense of humor that works with these older films. And I love how each show ends with him telling horrible jokes while people off the camera chuck rubber chickens at him. If I got MEtv,and I am working on a way to get it, I would record his show each week. Even if it is a film I don't like or have seen too many times.

Just the film Abbot and Costello Meet Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde gets a B. It isn't the best of the series but is far from the worse. The blend of comedy and horror in this one works most of the time. Svengoolie's airing of the movie gets a A-. The host bits are all well done and make me laugh.

Keep checking back here on the blog all day until midnight central time. I got some surprises coming up today. Have a safe and happy Halloween.

31 Days of Horror Day 27 Horror Hosts

Last year for 31 days of Horror I reviewed a documentary about American horror hosts.

American Scary a documentary about Horror Hosts

The first horror host I saw was Sgt Graves.He was a zombie of a Confederate Army soldier. He was on the air for at least 5 years. Airing at 10:30pm Saturday nights. He would show two films. Most of the time I could manage to stay awake for the first film. But would have to record the second one. I can find no info on him on the internet. Even talking to people from the area that are my age,only one of them remembers Sgt Graves. If you are reading this and remember him please leave a comment at the bottom.

The next Horror host I saw,has to be the most famous of the modern era. Elvira,it was Halloween night. I got home around 9pm from trick or treating. While I was sitting on the floor going through all my candy,my father saw that on WPMI Channel 15 Night of the living dead was showing. I had never seen it. So he said I could stay up past my bedtime to watch it. I think I was 7 or maybe 8 at the time. We flipped the channel and I got to see Elvira for the first time. During this time she had her syndicated show Elvira's Movie Macabre. I do not think what I saw that night was part of movie macabre. But she was showing the colorized version of the original NotlD. And I sat on the floor,not moving,not talking,totally engrossed in the film. After the end of the film,Elvira came back on and said she was going to show the Vincent Price classic House on Haunted Hill next. My dad was nice enough to let me stay up to watch it also. So I got to stay up to 1am and watch another great horror film. After this I didn't see Elvira again until the "Elvira Mistress of the dark" movie came out.

Thankfully when she revived Movie Macabre my local CW network picked it up. At first it was airing at 10:30pm Saturday nights. But after a month or so she got moved to midnight. Then to 1am. Using my set top DVD recorder I recorded all but 2 of the episodes. The only thing that sucked about the new Movie Macabre was she only showed Public domain films. Since the original show,the tv rights to lots of the types of films she would show had gone sky high. Sadly after one season Movie Macabre was cancelled. Elvira is back on HULU now. She is showing mostly Full Moon Studio films. But they are free. Plus I hear she is showing NotLD again. I might have to watch that one again.

Right after Thanksgiving 1990 cable tv finally made it's way to the super rural community I lived in. Instead of offering HBO or Cinemax like every other cable company,Rural Cablevision only offered Showtime and TMC. Being the movie nut I am I offered to pay the monthly fee for both. The first weekend we had cable I was flipping channels and saw Job Bob Briggs for the first time. Joe Bob got his start reviewing the films he saw at various Texas drive ins in a newspaper. Then sometime in the 80s TMC offered him a weekly show. Each Saturday he would show a film. I made it a point every weekend to either watch the show or record it. The only of these recordings I still have is when every weeknight at 10pm on Showtime Joe Bob would show a different Emanuelle movie.

I guess not many people saw this show,because when I mention Joe Bob to most people they talk about his TNT show Monstervision. Which I never cared for. Mostly because since it aired on TNT all the films were edited for content. Earlier this year I got a dvd that is a Joe Bob's Drive in theater episode where he shows the Night of the Living Dead remake. And before and after the film he has most of the cast of the original on the show for a Q&A segment.

Once I got online in the mid 90s I started looking up stuff on horror hosts. By the early 2000s I had found a horror host website. But it had no info on Sgt Graves. And no one I talked to remembered there every being a horror host in MS. And until March of 2010 I thought MS had never had a horror host. I went to Coastcon. Saw in the programming guide that Saturday at 3pm they were screening Night of the Living Dead. I figured what the hell I will go watch it before going out to eat with some friends. I get there and find out it is an episode of what I think is the only horror host in MS history.

Margali hosted a show on a station out of Jackosn MS for a good number of years. The episode with NotlD never aired. She was already at Coastcon that year to help judge the costume contest. And for the first time ever her NotLD episode was shown. After the screening I got to meet and talk to Margali. She was really nice. And she told me she still had all her episodes. "Newt if you are willing to pay for postage I will make you copies of all my episodes." I gave her my email address and asked her to email me once she got the copies made. With my plan being to pay her postage and a bit more for them. I guess she forgot cause I never heard back from her. But at least now I know that Mississippi had it's own horror host. And it was fairly recent.

The horror host website Margali told me about had a huge section on Count Gore De Vol. He is based in the Washington DC area. And was the first horror host to go over to the internet. Almost every week he has up an new episode, Sometimes it is a movie,with most movies he divides them into 3 or 4 parts. Or it is a short film. But even when the films are total shit ,the Count's host segments are entertaining.

Count Gore De Vol's website

Back in March one of the torrent sites I visit got a new uploader. He was uploading episodes of Svengoulie off MeTV. Sven has been around for since 1979. And is the second actor to play Sven. He seems to have a deal to show lots of Universal horror films. Since March I have gotten ahold of over 20 episodes of his show from the MeTV airings. Each episode besides giving us some back history on the film,he reads the mail. Then in the final segment answers the door of his crypt. Tells some bad jokes and each show ends with him going to his casket as people off the screen throw rubber chickens at him. Just the other night I watched Sven's airing of Abbot and Costello meet Jekyl and Hyde. Then 2 days ago I watched Murders in the Rue Morgue episode.

I hope everyone enjoyed me blathering on about Horror hosts.