American Scary (2006)

Simply A Masterpiece

Sick Product of a Sick System

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Because I grew up watching late-night horror hosts on television (in glorious black and white) and going to drive-ins, I watch documentaries like American SCARY and DRIVE-IN BLUES and long for "the good old days." The last time I searched the 'net, I found- much to my amazement- that there are, indeed, a number of drive-ins still operating around the country (none of them, unfortunately, near enough to make a trip practical)- but of the venerable late-night horror hosts there doesn't seem to be any sign. Certainly not locally: hereabouts, interactive programming like Public Access or locally-hosted "creature features" simply aren't part of the Corporate Plan (what the local low-brow commercial cable system hasn't monopolized, the Media Mogul has). American SCARY isn't quite as nostalgic as I'd hoped it might be (too many hosts are given too little time), but it's worth a look and is a reminder, if nothing else, that there once were Late Night Giants who strode the Airwaves.

*Spoiler/plot- 2006, American Scary, A documentary exploring the horror host TV shows. The TV show subjects covered were primarily from the eastern beltway cities and does not cover the subject well. *Special stars- John Hudgens is the film's director (yawn). *Theme- Horror host can bring back B-movies. *Based on- low cost documentary schlock*Trivia/location/goofs- The director of this documentary is a Star Wars fan video maker for many years. It shows here. Hollywood's Vampira was highlighted.*Emotion- American Scary is so extremely limited or myopic in covering the vast, interesting subject of horror TV hosts. After viewing this documentary, I was left unsatisfied and frustrated. Mr. Hudgen's job of director, editor, and camera person is responsible for this film's terribly slow pacing as to be boring and sleep inducing. Also, there are many more unexplored influential Californian horror hosts of the same time period like: JEEPERS KEEPER- Fred Stuthman, OTTOLA NESMITH, SEYMOUR, aka SINISTER SEYMOUR- Larry Vincent,ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK-Cassandra Peterson, ASMODEUS- Frank Sheridan, GHOULITA- Lietta Harvey,BUTCH PATRICK and IVONNA CADAVER-Butch Patrick and Natalie Popovich, SHRIMPENSTEIN and DR. VON SHTICK- Puppet character worked by Gene Moss as "Dr. Von Shtick". The coverage of this subject matter was shallow and very pedestrian. A much better & more complete documentary is about the horror hosts in Virgina called, "Virgina Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominon", 2009.IMDb LINK: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1524050/combined

American SCARY is a nice little walk down memory lane for adults who grew up during the generation that enjoyed their local version of "Creature Feature" on television. Where I grew up, it was on Friday and Saturday nights and decades later I have a warm place in my heart for Count Gore De Vol. So it wasn't at all surprising that I gravitated towards this documentary when I saw it listed on Netflix.Some background is needed for you young whippersnappers. Once or twice a week, in most of the major cities had a local horror movie evening (usually starting around 11pm or later). This film is about these local hosts--local celebrities who were hardly recognized outside their local markets (with only a few exceptions, such as Vampira). In most cases, the films they showed weren't all that great and sometimes watching the host's antics during commercial breaks made these sub-par films worth watching. And in every case in every market, the sets and acting were all pure cheese--enjoyable, fun but certainly cheese!Now as far as the documentary goes, it was quite enjoyable but suffered from a few problems. First, the musical track was really too invasive and too omni-present. Less would have worked better. Second, while I adored seeing all these local hosts after all these years, I don't know why they had other celebrities there as well (other than, I assume, they'd appear for free). The telepathic lady from "Babylon 5" and Booger from "Revenge of the Nerds", for examples, were shown quite a few times but I would MUCH rather have seen more of the hosts or old clips or more about the history of these shows. Third, and I can't at all blame the film makers, but seeing this stretched out--with more time for specific hosts would have been nice. I wanted more on The Cool Ghoul and Count Gore De Vol and also more on hosts I wasn't familiar with before the film. As they say, though, in entertainment it's important to keep them wanting more, so in this sense the film was a real success--and walk down memory lane.

I got a chance to see American SCARY at Comic-Con 2007 and was thoroughly impressed and entertained by the film. John Hudgens and Sandy Clark have collected a most impressive treasure of interviews and archival footage of the most notable (and notorious) horror host personalities spanning the decades of the horror host phenomenon.The documentary is a great treat for horror fans who may have been born in the wrong time or the wrong city to have seen classic hosts like Zacherley, Vampira, Ghoulardi of the 1950s and 60s to more contemporary hosts like Elvira, Son of Ghoul and Count Gore De Vol. Unless you're an avid bootleg collector, the video clips and old kinescope transfers may be the first footage you'll see of these monster mavens in action. Even based so much on archival material, the production quality remains excellent throughout.Horror host interviews are well balanced with comments and recollections from many prominent filmmakers, critics and fans including genre historians Forrest J. Ackerman and Bob Burns, makeup artist Tom Savini (the Romero DEAD films), TV host Joel Hodgson (MST3K), Leonard Maltin and many more.With the recent passing of Maila Nurmi (Vampira), this fondly crafted tribute to television horror hosts deserves to be seen and enjoyed by fans everywhere. I hope the filmmakers will release it on DVD soon so its value and quality can be appreciated by all.