The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

Like many Americans, this is the time of year when I find myself watching a lot of horror movies.  Like so many things in life, certain concepts and terms--like "horror" or even "scary"--are largely subjective.  (Personally, I think the movie Idiocracy is one of the scariest films I've ever seen and it's a work of comedic satire.)  When most people my age think of horror films, they're usually drawn to more contemporary fare--Freddy, Jason, Chucky, Saw, Leatherface, Pennywise, etc.  I personally gravitate toward the classic monsters made famous by Universal Studios from the 1930s to the 1950s like Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Wolf-Man, the Creature From the Black Lagoon, and especially Dracula--even though I wouldn't put any of them in my list of Top 5 Scariest Films.*  But I've always liked the visual aesthetic of those old Universal movies--especially when it came to gothic castles.  But then I always did have something of an overactive imagination.

If you grew up in Indiana--particularly in and around the central and southern parts of the state--between 1962 and sometime in the late 1980s, you are probably familiar with a ghoul named Sammy Terry (a play on the word "cemetery") who was the host of "Nightmare Theater" which aired on Friday nights at 11:30 on WTTV, Channel 4, an independent television station based in Bloomington (today it's a CBS affiliate, although throughout its 75-year history, it's been affiliated at one time or another with just about every other major network including UPN, the WB, the CW, and even DuMont back in the 1950s).  "Nightmare Theater" would show usually B horror movies (although some good ones too).  Sammy Terry would arise from his coffin and introduce these films.  Before the movie would resume from a commercial break, we would usually be treated to Mr. Terry commenting on the movie or talking to his pet spider, George--the most animated piece of rubber ever to grace the small screen.

I consider it a gift--even, dare I say, a blessing--that, as a child, my dad wanted to share with me all the things that he loved.  Without question, his love of movies of all kinds is something that was passed on to me at a very young age.  If I had been a good boy that week, I would go to bed on Friday night at my normal time and shortly before 11:30, Mom or Dad would wake me up and I would join Dad in the living room--we had one of those sofas with a bed that could be pulled out... and it usually was on a Friday night--and we would watch Sammy Terry on our black and white TV.  It was my introduction to the horror genre.  I grew up in the country in what was a former parsonage next to a church--complete with cemetery--that, to this day, I'm convinced is haunted.  As a young child with an overactive imagination, watching horror films (cheesy or not) only made it worse.  And I was easily frightened as a child.

What's interesting to me is that even as adults, whether we admit it or not, we still love being scared.  Maybe it's the rush of adrenaline, maybe it's the memories of what frightened us as children.  Somehow we're still drawn to these things.  In the last ten to twenty years, I've found myself enjoying horror movies--even moreso than I did as a kid.  If I had to hazard a guess as to why, I guess it's because the more "supernatural" things that scared me when I was a kid seem tame compared to the very real things that scare me as an adult.  Like most people, I suppose I just miss those simpler times in life.

So this week, I feel compelled to recommend the very first horror film I ever saw, introduced by Sammy Terry late one Friday night, while lying on a hide-a-bed with my father when I was six years old.  Produced by the famed Hammer Film Studios and released initially in the UK in November of 1968 (in the US the following February), this film stars Sir Christopher Lee as the world's most well-known vampire, Count Dracula, perhaps my favourite film monster.  (FUN FACT:  Lee played Dracula ten times in his career--more than any other actor--seven of them for Hammer Studios.)  Co-starring Rupert Davies and Veronica Carlson, and directed by Freddie Francis, this week I can't help but recommend Dracula Has Risen From the Grave.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock and roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

 

* My Top 5 Scariest Films:

1.  The Exorcist (1973)

2.  Rosemary's Baby (1968)

3.  What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)

4.  Alien (1979)

5.  Play Misty For Me (1971)

Runner-up:  Get Out (2017)

Honourable Mention:  Idiocracy (2006)