It’s October and that can mean only one thing, it’s almost Thanksgiving!
O.k., maybe not (yet).
To most people, October means Halloween is creeping right around the corner. A time for candy, parties, and watching scary movies. It doesn’t have to be the “spooky season” to enjoy scary movies, though. Some of us watch them all year long and with good reason. We love the horror hosts who bring them to us!
When I was a kid, growing up in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area, we had a local horror host called The Cool Ghoul. Known for making a “bluhbluhbluhbluh” sound (as you can hear in the clip below), the character was a product of the late 60s / early 70s and he was pretty kid friendly. I mean, if my mom let me watch he had to have been. The Ghoul was funny, campy, silly, and all the things kids loved. Later in his life, the man behind the Ghoul, Dick Von Hoene, went on to become news director for our local cable company in cable’s infancy and did a news show there. To me, though, he was and always will be “The Cool Ghoul”.
The Ghoul with another Cincinnati area icon, Hattie the Witch (Larry Smith puppets).
While no one could ever replace The Ghoul in my eyes when it comes to horror hosts, I do have a bunch of other favorites that I currently watch. In no particular order we have:
Joe Bob Briggs: You may know him as true crime author John Bloom, for whom I apologize for lifting his “The Drive-In Will Never Die” mantra for the title of a couple of my articles here. In my opinion, Joe Bob is one of the pioneers in the genre. I remember back in the late 70s he used to have radio spots where he would do short drive-in movie reviews. “Joe Bob says, check it out!”. While these days (yes, he’s still going strong at 69 years old) he mainly does straight horror on the Shudder network, I prefer his older work when he would host sci-fi flicks like Escape from New York and They Live!. Back in my youth a Pizza Hut pizza, two liter of Coke, and TNT’s Monstervision was one of my favorite ways to spend a Friday night, which speaks volumes as to what my social life was like. I still wouldn’t trade those times for anything! Joe Bob tells it like it is, always has a terrible joke on hand, and gives us the “drive-in totals” before a film. These consist of how many “nekkid breasts”, “decapitations”, or any other recurring themes of the film. Truly hilarious stuff. Another “Joe Bob” staple is his mail girl who would deliver the mail used for the “letters from the fans” segment. The mail girls were always smart, funny, and gorgeous and his current one, Darcy, is no exception. These days, she does more than just deliver the mail to The Last Drive-In. She does most of Joe Bob’s social media (mainly on Twitter) and PR work. They’re quite the pair and doing their best to keep the drive-in alive!
Svengoolie: Rich Koz has been a staple of Chicago area television since the late 70s. Getting his start as “Son of Svengoolie”, he took over the reins from the original Svengoolie, Jerry G. Bishop. Since then, he’s done not only Svengoolie but Stooge-a-palooza (a Three Stooges-centric show), a local Fox Kids show as well as a couple of other movie hosting shows. It goes without saying that his Svengoolie character is one of the most popular and well-known horror hosts going these days, especially with the MeTv network now carrying his shenanigans all over cable television. Though I’ve never met him, Rich seems like a very likable guy. He once tried to help me find MeTv access over Twitter when I didn’t have cable. Regardless of where his career may take him, I’ll always be a Svengoolie fan and if you follow me on Twitter (if you don’t, why not?) you can usually see me live tweeting his show on Saturday nights using the #Svengoolie hashtag.
Doctor Gangrene: A horror host I only became aware of about a year ago, Larry Underwood has been doing a version of his “Cinatarium” show since 1999. Playing the part of a mad scientist from the mysterious “Shackle Island”, the Doc loves not only schlocky, drive-in-worthy sci-fi and horror but Vincent Price, as well. He started out doing Chiller Cinema back in the cable access days, made the move over to the local Tennessee CW network then over to the Necat public access network out of Nashville. Underwood also has quite an extensive YouTube channel where he posts old shows from the Chiller Cinema days as well as an October Halloween Countdown where he picks a topic and gives small reviews of (mainly) horror films fitting that genre. They’re mostly cheesy but always fun! The Doc also does public service announcements and parody commercials that are always hilarious and well done. A prolific writer and artist, Underwood started writing and drawing his own comic book before he put on the goggles and lab coat. He also does articles for various horror magazines and is featured in this month’s Scary Monsters Magazine along with some of the other hosts I’ve mentioned here. He’s another host whom I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting but seems like a very nice guy. As with Svengoolie, I'll sometimes be live tweeting Dr. Gangrene’s Cinatarium on Saturday nights after Sven with the #Drgangrene hashtag.
Ivonna Cadaver: The lovely and talented Natalie Popovich has been playing undead siren, Ivonna Cadaver, since 2002 as one of the hosts of Macabre Theatre with her partner in crime, Butch Patrick (aka Eddy Munster from The Munsters). They can currently be seen on the You Too America network in syndication. Macabre Theatre is definitely a bit on the ‘racy’ side with a lot of innuendo and silly puns with perfect delivery from the ghoul-amorous one, herself. Ivonna is very fan friendly on Twitter and can be found tweeting #macabretheatre tweets on Saturdays, as well.
Mr. Lobo: Erik Lobo is a media renaissance man of sorts. He acts, directs, draws, and does radio work as well as hosts events like his famous “pop-up drive-ins” in the Pennsylvania area. Originally from the California market, I first saw him and Cinema Insomnia about 13 years ago on one of those syndication stations (I’m thinking Retro T.V. but am not sure) and was hooked from the start. He created the OSI 74 channel which, in the words of the website, is an “off-world” production colony and distribution network bringing you unusual, experimental, and entertaining programs from many different creative worlds. With his “co-host” Ms. Mittens (a potted plant), Mr. Lobo hosts Cinema Insomnia from the comfort of a yellow rocking chair, a tribute to his horror host mentor Bob Wilkins (the original Creature Features host). Mr. Lobo is very active on his Cinema Insomnia Twitch channel where he hosts live movie streams on Saturday nights. He’s knowledgeable in most all genres of films and his credo is that there are no bad movies, they’re just misunderstood.
I would be remiss if I didn’t add a few honorable mentions. These are shows I watch when I get a chance and wish I had time to catch them more frequently:
The Mummy and the Monkey: Cleveland, Ohio’s Janet Jay and James Harmon play Janet Decay (The Mummy) and Grimm Gori (The Monkey). The duo host “The Mummy and the Monkey’s Hairy Scary Hangout” on their YouTube channel every Friday. They play all sorts of movies, mostly corny and always fun.
Count Gore De Vol: I honestly don’t know much about The Count’s background other than he’s been in the horror-hosting biz since 1973 and is still going strong1. Quick-witted and still hilarious, he can make any movie fun and does so every time I tune in.
Creature Features: Washed-up rock star Vincent ‘Vince Vandal’ Van Dahl (Jeff Bodean), his long-suffering butler Livingston (Raven Green), along with silent and violent housemate Tangella (Ali Noel) host horror and sci-fi films from the haunted Poulter Manor2. The show airs every Saturday night on their YouTube channel. The only problem (at least for me) is that it starts at midnight my time (9:00 pm Pacific) and it’s sometimes tough staying up for the entire show (being old and all).
Have you heard of any of the hosts above? If you have one, who was/is your local horror host? Any favorite movies to watch during the “spooky season"? Any special plans for Halloween?
Let me know down below!
Until next time—
Count Gore de Vol - Wikipedia
Creature Features (TV Series 2016– ) - IMDb
I'm not familiar with all of these, as I'm a Brit, but I love the names (eg Dr Gangrene) and word play (eg sin-sational)! I was in America for the first time when I was 15, and as we were tucking into the Thanksgiving meal I innocently asked what we were giving thanks for, to be told @Freedom from you lot!"
Great article - certainly brings back memories I'd long suppressed! Not that in Western NC we had any of these types of hosts (well, Elvira was in the mix somewhere I vaguely recall) - but 70s and 80s TV certainly wasn't shy of providing great scares, some of which stick with me to this day. Dark Shadows, Twilight Zone, Fantastic Stories .... Good stuff!