TERROR TEE-VEE: A Countdown to Halloween (Day 17)

PENNY DREADFUL

One part League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, one part Exorcist.  Penny Dreadful brings together many of the pulp standards to face a great and evil threat to the entire world.  There’s the great white hunter and his man friday, there’s the sharp-shooter with a secret, an ambitious young doctor out to beat death, a hideous creature of great feeling and dread and, finally, there is a woman who is the most cursed of them all.

Yes, it’s Frankenstein, his monster and the bride, Dracula, Dorian Gray, Jekyll and Hyde, the Wolf-Man, and there were even hints at The Mummy to come… all rolled into one series.

These are all characters haunted by their pasts, by either the things they have done or by the things they’ve failed to do.  Redemption and righteousness are clearly motivating factors for these people as they battle vampires, witches and the very antichrist.  The most compelling of these is Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives—a childhood friend of Mina Harker, who has been abducted by a vampire cabal.

It is, however, Ives who becomes the focus of the creatures of the night as they recognize her as the reincarnated mate for their master, the brother of Lucifer—DRACULA.

It is truly Green’s Ives who goes on the heroes journey —in a time when women were so repressed it is her character who must ultimately liberate herself from the destiny man and myth have placed upon her.  It’s an arc any actor would dream of and the power and vulnerability with which Eva Green tackled it were something to behold.

Penny Dreadful was three seasons of macabre resplendence,

well worth seeking out for those who have yet to experience it.

Netflix and Showtime still stream it…

jump in that stream and get religion.

Some of the finest episodes of the series are…

Season 1, Episode 7

“Possession”

Season 2, Episode 7

“Little Scorpion”

Season 3, Episode 9

“The Blessed Dark”

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 26): PENNY DREADFUL XIII

Penny Dreadful XIII or just plain old Penny Dreadful is a New England based horror host created by actress/writer/comedienne Danielle Gelehrter.  The persona was created because Danielle wanted to revive the concept of horror movie hosting on Boston-area television.  She is, appropriately enough for New England, a witch.

Her show is called “Shilling Shockers” and it premiered on local cable in January of 2006, first airing on Public-access television in Providence, Rhode Island; and, Boston, New Bedford and Salem, Massachusetts.  Throughout New England, it eventually expanded to over 200 cities and towns.

The witch, Penny Dreadful, is a mixture of both good and evil, being both silly and sinister at times.  She refers to her viewers as “Dreary Ones” and uses the exclaimation “hex-cellent!” when excited.

Penny had been a witch for centuries before going Hollywood.  She had cast a spell that backfired—she was poised to star in a never-made Universal horror film called ‘The Witch’—but the spell, instead, damned her to host the movies instead of starring in them.

“Shilling Shockers” is a rare horror hosting show in that there are storylines that develop throughout the season and they crossover into the hosted films at times.  Gelehrter has credited this to two influences, a horror host by the name of Dr. E. Nick Witty who hosted for about 20 years in Syracuse, NY and his storylines that ran on for multiple episodes and that the name and title of the character and show are serialized tales.  Readers would have to pick up the next installment of a penny dreadful or a shilling shocker to find out what came next.

Two-time winner of the Rondo Award for “Favorite Horror Host”, Penny was also the first host to recieve the award.

“The Dreadful HallowGreen Special”, a made-for-television film in which Dreadful co-produced and co-hosted with Larry Underwood aka horror host Dr. Gangrene, was nominated for a regional Midsouth Emmy Award in 2011.  In the special, Dreadful, Garou and Dr. Gangrene join forces to save Halloween.  In 2014, Penny Dreadful was inducted into the Horror Host Hall of Fame.

Penny’s sidekicks include Garou, who is a werewolf henchman and husband of the witch herself—portrayed by Magoo Gelehrter.  He communicates only through growls and facial expressions, as entusiastic as your average labrador retriever; Dr. Manfred Von Bulow is a semi-retired vampire killer with a thick German accent—he is Penny’s foil and is portrayed by Ivan Bernier; Luna is a highly intelligent madwoman who was released from the abandonded Danvers State Hospital.

Magoo Gelehrter, who was Danielle’s husband, died earier this year after a battle with cancer.  Due to this, the final and 9th season of “Shilling Shockers” won’t be completed and seen until some time in 2015.

Danielle has said that she may never appear at conventions or do another show as Penny, but that she is unsure how she will feel in five years.

Significant Sites Cited:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Penny-Dreadfuls-Shilling-Shockers/191730100857323

http://beyond-stories.com/post/73343038507/penny-dreadful-is-the-witches-revenge-on-new

https://www.youtube.com/user/xerlia

http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/tvhorrorhosts/hostsp.html

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 1

And here we go again!

If you are unfamiliar with the Countdown to Halloween, let me catch you up.

There is a community of bloggers out there who celebrate the season by dedicating their blogs, twitters, tweets, tumblrs and even their facebooks to the entire month of October

 and the great finale of it, HALLOWEEN.

And you are currently viewing one of those blogs.

Each and every day of this month, I'll be here with some new Halloween... THING.

Most likely multiple things as I like to overdo it most of the time.

I figure why throw a grenade when you can throw three grenades to make sure you hit something.

Well this year my main focus will be Horror Hosts--those fine and dedicated broadcasters who took to the airwaves to broadcast macabre movies out to all the kiddies and insomniacs out there who wanted more than just a movie with their cereal or tv dinners!  Those people who watch the flawed film alongside us and point out faults and follies while getting just as big a thrill as we do at home!

From the Cool Ghoul to Penny Dreadful, from The Advisor to Zacherley, from Vampira to Dr. Scar, from The Creep to Bob Burns, from Elvira to Deadly Earnest (all three of them!) I'll be giving you the lowdown on some of the most celebrated hosts of horror to ever reach the air.  It'll be educational for you and me as I'm learning as I go as much as I knew before--and more!

So stay tuned, kiddies, and don't cover your eyes!

You wouldn't want to miss the gore!

Postscript:

It's the 60th anniversary of

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON...

I will do something this month featuring my favorite creature.

He is, after all, the most persecuted of all the Universal Monsters...

the poor guy just wants a girlfriend and the world just keeps getting in his way.

Stupid air-breathers.

Now I leave you with three pictures of a creature that never was,

never will be,

and yet IS...

BEHOLD!