Ask Ormsby #4 Oct. 30th 2011

Ormsby continues to answer viewer questions. This time he answers a question posed by one of the Daves from the Terror Beyond The Daves Blog, and responds to a less than nice email.

To have Ormsby answer your question, send an Email to host@bymagic.com.

Until Next Time,

Stay Insane!!!

Halloween Count Down: Day 8-Elvira's Haunted Hills

Sorry this is late, work and life got in the way so I'll try and post #8 through #6 today.

And number eight in my list of top ten Halloween movies for 2009 is Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001). What do you mean you never seen it/heard of it? Sure, it wasn't played in wide release, only small screenings, and went straight to DVD. As far as I know it never played on cable either. That doesn't mean it isn't a good film or that you should miss out on it.

It stars Elvira (Cassandra Peterson who also wrote and produced) as...well Elvira. Lost in eastern Europe (around the 1800's) she and her girl friday find themselves in a castle straight out of a Roger Corman Poe film. Richard O'Brien (Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture show) is the master of the castle, who is slowly going insane and mourns for his long dead wife.

This film is a love letter to the horror films of Corman and Hammer (it's dedicated to Peterson's personal friend Vincent Price)and it shows on the screen. It's a parody, but it's a respectful parody that doesn't belittle the original subject.

There's a great documentary on the DVD that talks about the shoot in Romania where the people dress and look like they did two hundred years ago, letting the production save money on having to pay extras in costumes.

One little bit of trivia I found interesting was that Richard O'Brien's part of Lord Vladimere Hellsubus was originally to played by Richard Chamberlain, who dropped out just two weeks prior to film rolling. I can see Chamberlain playing a Vincent Price like character, but O'Brien is an inspired bit of casting and he chews up the scenery very nicely.

Elvira's Haunted Hills is available at Elvira's web site HERE.

Until Next Time, Stay Insane!

UPDATE 10/27-I finally found a trailer so I just added it.

Elvira Hosts Chiller Theatre in New York on Halloween

This year Elvira Mistress of the Macabre will host WPIX New York's Chiller Theatre showing of The Evil of Frankenstein. I'm so happy I could melt into a blob.

I was a pre-teen and teen in the 1980's, and as I may have said before I missed the big horror host boom here in New York. So all I had was Chiller Theatre, which had no host, and the Nationally syndicated Elvira. Chiller went off the air in I believe 1982. Elvira was shown on a out of state UFH station and went off (at least on the only station I could find her on) about 1984. Since then it's been slim bone pickings for us New Yorkers.

Now it looks like WPIX will be bringing back Chiller as a yearly event at Halloween. Personally I'd like to see it every week with a horror host, but I'll take what I can get.

So if you live in New York and get WPIX, let them know you want your Chiller!!! Maybe if we make our screams loud enough they'll hear us and put it back on.

Click HERE to see WPIX's web page about Elvira hosting Chiller Theatre.

Horror Hosts Segment on E.T. (1984)

I remember this segment on Entertainment Tonight from when I was 14 years old. People my age growing up on Long Island missed the heyday of Zacherley and didn't have a horror host for our late night delights until Elvira got syndicated to a little UHF station we could barely tune in.

Up until I saw this I didn't know there were still horror hosts on local TV stations, I thought Elvira was the only game around. I remember watching this report and getting very jealous that people in other states got the joy of having a weekly local horror host. How lucky they were!

Now today we have the Internet, and we can get a glimpse of the greatness of local hosts from all over the country via classic clips on Youtube, and see what the new generation is doing with web shows.

Until Next Time, Stay Insane!