Midnight Movies?

[J.R.]

One cliche I have seen over and over and over again in film and TV is The Late Night Movie, Midnight Chiller Theater, or some such titled show that airs B-movies late at night. Now, I have lived in many areas in my time, but I've never seen anything like that. Have any of you? Perhaps it did exist at point, but has lost popularity. I guess Elvira counts, but she went away about seven years ago. BTW, around about '95 I saw this horrible show on NBC called Attack Of The Killer B Movies. It was hosted by Elvira and a bunch of annoying kids from Saturday morning teen comedies and it featured half-hour clips from classics like The Wasp Woman and The Tree People (Cut down? Blasphemy!), interrupted every so often by the hosts' lame MST3K knock-off riffing. If Midnight Movies were indeed aired I would be the happiest of men.

[Nathan]

Apparently there really have been such late-nite film hosts; they still have cult followings.  (For some reason, they all seem to hail from the midwest.  I never had one myself.)

Nathan

[Scott]

Yea, we had quite a few different host in the 70's in upstate New York. At the time some of them seemed alittle hokey, but we loved them anyway.

[Squishy]

I mention this once in a while, but for one season back in the '80s (I think), SNL alumnus Laraine Newman starred in The Canned Film Festival, which did Tor-Johnson-friendly skits around clips of the "Worst Movies Ever Made!" crammed into one hour. They hit Robot Monster, They Saved Hitler's Brain, Bride of the Monster, and other suckfests. I also remember that Dr. Pepple sponsored it, and the show featured Dr. Pepper's funky Godzilla parody-commercials.

If you do a Google search for "Zacherley's Horrible Horror"--I have to work fast here my computer's acting up--you won't be disappointed. It's a hoot.

[Squishy]

OK. I rebooted.

Terry's Far Out Videos has "Zacherley's Horrible Horror" for sale/trade (http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/5723/). Watch him do his semi-lame routines (he seems...not quite right) amidst the best collection of B-movie clips I've ever come across.

[AndyC]

I recall that, for a while, one of my local stations carried Elvira's show. There is also Off Beat Cinema, on WKBW TV from Buffalo, with a group of beatniks hosting bad movies from a coffee house.

However, the one I remember most fondly was Not-So-Great Movies. This aired on City TV, a Toronto station that pioneered a lot of unconventional stuff that everybody is doing today. In the 80s, they showed this as a play on "Great Movies," the title under which they broudcast popular movies. Not-So-Great Movies started out as a Sunday afternoon thing, and included stuff like Plan 9, Creeping Terror, King Kong vs. Godzilla and stuff like that. When the Terminator came out, they showed Hercules in New York. NSGM also ran late at night for a while. No corny hosts or anything, just cheesy movies.

[Flangepart]

There is a book about the late night Horror Hosts! Andrews links can get you to a site that lists the Hosts, and boy, is it a doozy. One of the guys i work with has a book, and it gives chapters about Ghoulardi, Svengooli (old and new), Symour (Larry Vincent), Zackerly and Vampira, Dr. Madblood (Who looks a bit like Dr Freex, thank you very much)....oh,man, its a great list. In fact, the book is mentioned in the latest Videohound book, "Cult flicks and Trash picks". If you haven't at least read it....you do yourself a disservice.

[Vermin Boy]

There used to be an independent station in my area that played all kinds of great b-movies. It didn't have any horror hosts so far as I know-- I didn't stay up too late when the station was in existence-- but it worked some primo bad movies into the schedule. I caught War of the Gargantuas one afternoon, and Plan 9 from Outer Space at 3 am. I'm told they also played Glen Or Glenda?, Robot Monster, and several Troma films more than once. Unfortunately, it's since been bought out by PAX-- A network I absolutely LOATHE.

[Joe]

I have seen "USA Up All Night" that showed B movies such as "Sorority Babes in the SlimeBowl'O Ramma" and i remember a show on Comedy Centeral or something that showed the worst part of certian B movies I think it was called Tralerpark Theater Anyone else remember ???

[J.R.]

Good God, I remember Off Beat Cinema! I used to live in Lockport (a Buffalo suburb), and I caught an episode at like 5 AM. They were showing some classic Stooges shorts. And I do remember a cool show on Sci-Fi (sounds like an oxymoron, I know) called Trailer Park, in which science fiction themes like cloning, invading aliens, etc. were explored through trailers from films. It came on after MST3K, making a solid block of good viewing on the otherwise dead Saturday night.

[AndyC]

My absolute favourite wasn't even a real horror host, but rather a parody. Joe Flaherty's Count Floyd was hilarious on Monster Horror Chiller Theatre. Really enjoyed the 3-D "movies" with Dr. Tongue and Bruno. Wish it was a real show.

[Mofo Rising]

Ah, "USA Up All Night".  Or T&A movies without the T&A.  It's a winner of a formula.  It's like watching DEAD ALIVE with all the gore cut out.

[J.R.]

I've seen Mosquito on Up All Night a bunch of times. And they show one of my all-time favorite genres: Bad '80s comedies. They're all set in summer camps, frat houses, beach resorts and ski lodges, and they are so good, yet bad. Has anyone seen White Water Summer? Not a comedy, but it seems like one. Sean Astin and Eddie from Growing Pains and some other kids are taken on a camping trip by Kevin Bacon, who slowly goes mental and terrorizes them. And the other kids don't like Samwise, until they bond while p**sing.

[Vermin Boy]

I loved the episodes where Count Floyd had to introduce something blatantly not scary, like a Bergman film or a Dick Cavett episode. "Ooh, Dick Cavett, kids! He, uh... scares me... bluh."

[Squishy]

"Tonight I'm going to suck! ...your blood!"
--Kount Krusty (the perfect Midnight Movie host, misreading his cue card)