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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Documentary Director: John E. Hudgens |
In the past it wasn’t unheard of to turn on the television late at night and see some television hosts who dressed up like a variety of
ghosts, ghouls or vampires and made jokes about that night’s horror flick during the program’s commercial breaks. Finally, for those
who miss those days, a DVD has been released to bring back those glory days and brings funs of the horror hosts a look at the hosts
from the past. For those who were never able to have the opportunity to watch these hosts in action, now is the chance to see what all
of the hype is about. “American Scary” is the first feature length documentary film from director John E. Hudgens and from writer and
producer Sandy Clark, whose prior collaborations have been in the form of short spoofs of the Star Wars series. This documentary film
digs up a variety of horror hosts from the past to reminisce about the days when horror hosting was a hit.
Horror hosting was introduced on May 1, 1954 when Maila Nurmi appeared as the camp-vamp Vampira on KBAC-TV in Los Angeles.
Three years later horror hosting became a nationwide phenomenon when Universal put together 52 of its horror films for television.
Horror hosts would fill up the extra time in the programming block with miscellaneous information, ease the minds of the young viewers
who may be afraid at what they are seeing in the film and provide a welcome distraction for the adults that were watching the films.
Horror hosting reached its peak in the ‘60s, diminishing only as local stations increasingly began to move towards the more popular
syndicated programming. It was able to get another shot of life in the ‘80s with Cassandra Peterson making her portrayal of Elvira
Mistress of the Dark a part of the syndicated horror show Movie Macabre. Horror hosting led to the eventual outbreak of a variety of
different shows, from Mystery Science Theater 300 to the more recent Dinner & A Movie that made its way to TBS. With the age of the
Internet coming, along with an interest on the rise through online fan sites and much more, there is a brand new generation of horror
hosts that are making their way onto local public access and streaming live media.
“American Scary” is a knowledgeable, uncritical and conventionally constructed fan documentary that mixes a variety of archival footage
with new interviews. The documentary film features dozens of horror hosts from the past and the present including luminaries Maila
Nurmi, John Zacherle ("Zacherley"), Jerry Bishop ("Svengoolie"), Ron Sweed ("The Ghoul") and Keven Scarpino ("Son of Ghoul"), each
of which are interviewed in this documentary. Also, publisher Forrest J Ackerman, Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson,
critic Leonard Maltin, author Neil Gaiman, and actors Tim Conway and Patricia Tallman are among the better known fans interviewed.
The only living former host that seems to be absent from “American Scary” is Cassandra Peterson, known for her role as Elvira
Mistress of the Dark though the filmmakers did spend the money for an archival clip of her in her prime.
When it comes to the overall presentation of the film, it offers viewers with a documentary that looks as a documentary would be
expected to look. It is presented in anamorphic widescreen. Although it is shot on film and the new interviews look soft and seem to
suffer a little bit from some slight aliasing, but it is still quite a bit better than the average documentary film of this type. The cropped or
zoomed archival footage is of varying quality with the video clips from the early ‘70s looking the worst out of everything. The audio is
presented in a tow channel stereo mix that is fairly adequate with mostly clear dialogue and no dropouts or distortions at any point in the
film, though the music in the film seems to be a little bit too loud at some points, making it difficult to hear some of the things that are
being said in the film. Since it is difficult to hear some of what is being said, subtitles would be a welcome addition to the DVD, though
there aren’t any provided.
There are a number of other extra features on the DVD. One of the features is an audio commentary with filmmakers John E. Hudgens
and Sandy Clarks that proves to be no less entertaining than the film itself. Unfortunately, the DVD’s audio team forgot to turn down the
volume in the feature film enough on the commentary playback. If viewers listen very closely they may be able to follow the commentary
despite the background sound, but it will be a very difficult task to make it through the entire film listening to the very quiet commentary.
Viewers will have a lot more fun spending that time watching the extra thirty minutes of deleted scenes and trailers, two trailers for
American Scary, one trailer for American Zombie and one trailer for American Shopper.
“American Scary” would easily find its place at a horror convention or festival of any type with a very enthusiastic crowd that is able to
relate and remember the times of the horror hosting from the past. It would work even better as a screening after a session with the
filmmakers and a few of the horror hosts featured in the film. Either way, fans of this type of television history should still get a thrill out
of the fact of seeing this type of film at home, though it is very unlikely to attract anyone that doesn’t know about horror hosting or its
illustrious past.
ghosts, ghouls or vampires and made jokes about that night’s horror flick during the program’s commercial breaks. Finally, for those
who miss those days, a DVD has been released to bring back those glory days and brings funs of the horror hosts a look at the hosts
from the past. For those who were never able to have the opportunity to watch these hosts in action, now is the chance to see what all
of the hype is about. “American Scary” is the first feature length documentary film from director John E. Hudgens and from writer and
producer Sandy Clark, whose prior collaborations have been in the form of short spoofs of the Star Wars series. This documentary film
digs up a variety of horror hosts from the past to reminisce about the days when horror hosting was a hit.
Horror hosting was introduced on May 1, 1954 when Maila Nurmi appeared as the camp-vamp Vampira on KBAC-TV in Los Angeles.
Three years later horror hosting became a nationwide phenomenon when Universal put together 52 of its horror films for television.
Horror hosts would fill up the extra time in the programming block with miscellaneous information, ease the minds of the young viewers
who may be afraid at what they are seeing in the film and provide a welcome distraction for the adults that were watching the films.
Horror hosting reached its peak in the ‘60s, diminishing only as local stations increasingly began to move towards the more popular
syndicated programming. It was able to get another shot of life in the ‘80s with Cassandra Peterson making her portrayal of Elvira
Mistress of the Dark a part of the syndicated horror show Movie Macabre. Horror hosting led to the eventual outbreak of a variety of
different shows, from Mystery Science Theater 300 to the more recent Dinner & A Movie that made its way to TBS. With the age of the
Internet coming, along with an interest on the rise through online fan sites and much more, there is a brand new generation of horror
hosts that are making their way onto local public access and streaming live media.
“American Scary” is a knowledgeable, uncritical and conventionally constructed fan documentary that mixes a variety of archival footage
with new interviews. The documentary film features dozens of horror hosts from the past and the present including luminaries Maila
Nurmi, John Zacherle ("Zacherley"), Jerry Bishop ("Svengoolie"), Ron Sweed ("The Ghoul") and Keven Scarpino ("Son of Ghoul"), each
of which are interviewed in this documentary. Also, publisher Forrest J Ackerman, Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson,
critic Leonard Maltin, author Neil Gaiman, and actors Tim Conway and Patricia Tallman are among the better known fans interviewed.
The only living former host that seems to be absent from “American Scary” is Cassandra Peterson, known for her role as Elvira
Mistress of the Dark though the filmmakers did spend the money for an archival clip of her in her prime.
When it comes to the overall presentation of the film, it offers viewers with a documentary that looks as a documentary would be
expected to look. It is presented in anamorphic widescreen. Although it is shot on film and the new interviews look soft and seem to
suffer a little bit from some slight aliasing, but it is still quite a bit better than the average documentary film of this type. The cropped or
zoomed archival footage is of varying quality with the video clips from the early ‘70s looking the worst out of everything. The audio is
presented in a tow channel stereo mix that is fairly adequate with mostly clear dialogue and no dropouts or distortions at any point in the
film, though the music in the film seems to be a little bit too loud at some points, making it difficult to hear some of the things that are
being said in the film. Since it is difficult to hear some of what is being said, subtitles would be a welcome addition to the DVD, though
there aren’t any provided.
There are a number of other extra features on the DVD. One of the features is an audio commentary with filmmakers John E. Hudgens
and Sandy Clarks that proves to be no less entertaining than the film itself. Unfortunately, the DVD’s audio team forgot to turn down the
volume in the feature film enough on the commentary playback. If viewers listen very closely they may be able to follow the commentary
despite the background sound, but it will be a very difficult task to make it through the entire film listening to the very quiet commentary.
Viewers will have a lot more fun spending that time watching the extra thirty minutes of deleted scenes and trailers, two trailers for
American Scary, one trailer for American Zombie and one trailer for American Shopper.
“American Scary” would easily find its place at a horror convention or festival of any type with a very enthusiastic crowd that is able to
relate and remember the times of the horror hosting from the past. It would work even better as a screening after a session with the
filmmakers and a few of the horror hosts featured in the film. Either way, fans of this type of television history should still get a thrill out
of the fact of seeing this type of film at home, though it is very unlikely to attract anyone that doesn’t know about horror hosting or its
illustrious past.
