AMC's 'Fear Fest' vs Turner Classic Movies - Who Really Delivers The Halloween Movie Chills?

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Sources: AMC / TCM

Considering the fact that we just edged into October, and because it has been one hell of a slow news week, I have decided to dive right into my yearly rant about Halloween television programing.

Not too long ago, my wife and I used to look forward to the Halloween season as a chance to see a lot of our favorite 'classic' horror and monster films on TV. We used to delight in watching AMC's (American Movie Classic's) annual "Monster Fest" programing. Heck, we actually used to set our VCR (That was back in the day kiddies) to record hours upon hours of movies, so that we could enjoy them throughout the year. Such was the time when the network's thirteen day movie marathon would include such classics as "Black Scorpion", the Hammer horror films, the Universal horror films, and even, if you can believe it, a Godzilla movie or two.

That was then....but, this is now.

Then somebody over a AMC got an idea to change "Monster Fest" to "Fear Fest", not understanding the old adage "if it's not broken, don't try and fix it", and switched the emphasise from 'classic' horror and monster films to more modern 'slasher' films. Not really caring too much for those type of films, our interest in the festival fell by the wayside.

This year, I have tried to put aside my angst, and take a unbiased look at both of the cable network's Halloween schedules.

I spent a good long time going over each channel's schedule, and to be honest, I find both sets of programing very lacking. You really have to look no further than the prime-time line-up of each channel to get a good idea where their heads were at.

AMC - "Night of the Living Dead" - back-to-back-to-back from 6pm to midnight.
TMC - 5pm: "Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), 7pm" "Murders in the Zoo" (1933), 8:15pm "The Body Snatcher" (1945), 9:45 "Circus of Horrors" (1960), then "Dr. Jekyll" again at 11pm.

As you can see, AMC is going to show one movie over and over again, which seems to be the formula for the whole thirteen days of "Fear Fest". They have a short-list of films that they repeat on different days, at different times.

TMC, on the other hand, is showing some older, more obscure films, which is what they seem to be showing all month long.

I give AMC points for showing "Night of the Living Dead" on Halloween, though you might think that they would show another couple of movies along with it.

I also give points to TCM for breaking the mold, and showing rarer films.

I have also decided to take those points back from both of them for not showing such classics as "Dracula", "Frankenstein", "The Wolfman" or "The Mummy". Honestly, how can you NOT show these films on Halloween, or even during the week prior?

Now, so that it doesn't sound like I am picking on poor little AMC and TCM, I do want to say that there are some good films in their line-ups. Here are a few that 'popped' out at me:

TCM - October 24th - 3:00am "The Corpse Vanishes" (1942), 4:30 am "Mark of the Vampire" (1935), 8:00am "Son of Kong" (1933), 9:30 "The Land That Time Forgot" (1975) and 11:15 "Poltergeist" (1982)

TCM - October 25th - from 5pm to 9:30pm - "The Blob" (1958), "Die, Monster, Die!" (1965), "Riders To The Stars" (1954) and "Nosferatu" (1922).

TCM - October 27th - from 5pm to 12:30am - "Poltergeist" (1982), "The Power" (1968), "The Haunting" (1968), "Village of the Damned" (1960) and "Escape to Witch Mountain" (1975).

TCM - October 30th-31st - A real good run of older films including "The Mask of Fu Manchu", "The Ghoul", "The Walking Dead", "Psycho", "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" and "Cat People".

AMC - October 23rd - 8pm-10:30pm - "Alien" (1979) and "Aliens" (1986)

AMC - October 24th - 7:30am "The Fly" (1958) and 9:30am "Dracula" (1979)

AMC - October 25th - 6:30pm "The Shining" (1980)

AMC - October 27th - 6:15am "Frankenstein Meets The Space Monster" (1965)

AMC - October 29th - 8:00pm "Young Frankenstein" (1974) and 10:30pm "The Amityville Horror" (1979)

AMC - October 30th - 4:30am "Blood of Dracula" (1957) and 6:00am "The She-Creature" (1956)

Okay, I know what your thinking, "Gee Ken, you sure seem to have found a lot of films you like, on those schedules you said were 'lacking'?". True, there are some good ones in there, but my problem, when it come to AMC, is that these films are repeated over and over, instead of showing new ones.

Another beef I have with AMC is that they really made some strange choices in their amassing this marathon. Examples, they are showing the 2004 "Exorcist" movie, and not the original, they are showing the 1998 "Psycho" remake, and again, not the original, the 1999 "House on Haunted Hill", the 1994 film "Wolf" and not the "Wolfman" and the 1976 remake of "King Kong" and as you can guess, not the 1933 original.

Am I being 'picky'? Maybe, but I really feel that I have legit feelings about these selections. Feelings that I believe many horror and monster movie fans may echo.

Do I think that I could do a better job? I'm honestly going to 'man-up' here and say yes. I know that takes guts, but I really believe I can. I certainly wouldn't leave out "Dracula", "The Wolfman", "Frankenstein", "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "The Mummy"! Plus, I would add in films like "Them!", "Gojira", and many other gems for good measure. I may even throw in a good old sci film as well?

Oh, and before I forget, I give the nod on this one to TCM, mainly on variety on their rare choices. Granted, the network doesn't have a movie festival like "Fear Fest", they just show all different kinds of films the week of Halloween, but regardless, I like what they are showing better. I think that they could have done a far better job of putting together a schedule also.

See Also: Frank Darabont Developing 'The Walking Dead' For AMC