AMC MONSTERFEST 2002

By: BRIAN THOMAS
Date: Friday, October 25, 2002

For many a horror fan, Halloween is amateur night, when the whole world wants to party in the graveyard we live in. But the holiday has its distinct advantages, and pretty high on the list is the accessibility of horror movies on TV. In between parties and tricker treating, there's plenty of frightful viewing to be had. A standout choice is Turner Classic Movies' broadcast of the restored-from-stills version of the lost classic LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (8:00 PM Thursday all times Eastern), which kicks off an evening of excellent vampire movies. The Independent Film Channel is showing MUTE WITNESS, DEAD ALIVE, and the fine documentary AMERICAN NIGHTMARE. TNN joins many local channels across the nation in broadcasting their own FRIDAY THE 13TH marathon. And then, you can always join WILL & GRACE to carve a Just Jack-O-Lantern.

But the

primo Halloween destination on the air the past few years begins Friday, as American Movie Classics once again presents their Monsterfest. AMC has changed a bit lately, focusing more on showing as many recent movies as they can get, keeping their annoying "bug" in the corner of the screen at all times, and running commercial breaks in the middle of movies. But they still show a lot of good movies, and you can just leave your set tuned there for a week to keep the Halloween spirit flowing constantly.

This year the theme is, appropriately enough, HALLOWEEN. They apparently couldn't get the original, which is playing on plenty of other channels, but they have the following four sequels, plus a special edition of their BACKSTORY program devoted to the series. Plus, the AMC website has the usual array of cool trivia games, prizes, screen savers and such.

The Schedule

With Halloween

falling on a Thursday this year, AMC has again stretched out Monsterfest to six days in order to take advantage of the weekend lead-in, starting in prime time Friday. Features that are repeated later in the schedule are marked with one of those little asterisk thingies like so: "*". According to their schedule, AMC isn't showing any of these features in letterbox format, a real shame in light of how many newer pictures they have this year.

Friday, October 25

6:30 AM THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE

Not an official part of Monsterfest, but early risers might want to get a taste of this 1950s gator mutant gumbo, with John Agar and Lon Chaney as the swamp psycho.

8:00 PM PREDATOR 2 *

Monsterfest kicks off in earnest with a sequel? Well, actually this underrated sci-fi action feature stands on its own, as Danny Glover plays a cop trying to solve some gruesome murders when a Predator comes to Los Angeles to do some hunting.

10:15 PM PREDATOR 2 *

Hey, who knows? Maybe they will show it letterboxed after all. That's AMC's practice sometimes when they show a feature twice like this but it's not indicated on the schedule.

Saturday, October 26

12:30 AM BACKSTORY: PREDATOR

AMC's fine documentary series covers the Schwarzenegger action classic that spawned a lot of comics and video games.

1:00 AM THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES

Begins a mini-marathon of Vincent Price features. Price is the diabolical doctor who avenges his wife's death by killing off the surgeons he holds responsible using ingenious devices based on the Biblical plagues. Terrorific!

3:00 AM DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN

Crazy Vincent Price goes to Egypt in this sequel, which is inferior but still good fun.

5:00 AM THE RAVEN

Roger Corman's comic horror flick has little to do with Poe, but has Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre as screwy sorcerers, with Jack Nicholson as the daft juvenile lead.

7:00 AM THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Corman combines Poe's "Masque...", "Hop Frog" and Vincent Price in a surrealistic voyage through color-based psychology.

9:00 AM THE CONQUEROR WORM

Price is the fascist Witchfinder General, meting out twisted justice in this scary gem.

11:00 AM BACKSTORY: HALLOWEEN *

The documentary

series looks at John Carpenter's masterpiece, and begins a HALLOWEEN marathon.

12:00 PM HALLOWEEN 2 *

Jamie Lee Curtis' longest night continues, as Michael Myers stalks her in a hospital.

2:00 PM HALLOWEEN 3: SEASON OF THE WITCH *

An attempt at making the franchise into an anthology series is a good chiller in its own right, but this tale of a mad scientist who distributes mind-controlling Halloween masks failed to make enough dough to continue the series in this direction.

4:00 PM HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS *

Ten years after HALLOWEEN, Michael Myers comes out of a coma for another Night He Came Home.

6:00 PM HALLOWEEN 5 *

Michael Myers' little niece Jamie (Danielle Harris) is stalked anew, and the only one who can save her from her creepy uncle is creepy old Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence).

8:00 PM HALLOWEEN 2 *

10:00 PM BACKSTORY: HALLOWEEN *

11:00 PM HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS *

Sunday, October 27

1:00 AM HALLOWEEN 5 *

3:00 AM HALLOWEEN 3: SEASON OF THE WITCH *

5:00 AM WEREWOLF Mystery Movie

According to the AMC schedule, they're showing WEREWOLF OF LONDON in this slot, but all other sources show CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF. Grrr. Well, they're both good werewolf movies.

7:00 AM BACKSTORY: HALLOWEEN *

8:00 AM HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS *

10:00 AM HALLOWEEN 5
*

12:00 PM THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW *

A Wes Craven supernatural thriller, in which Bill Pullman goes to Haiti and finds zombies, voodoo magic, an evil sorcerer, and some pretty horrific politics.

2:00 PM DRACULA *

1931 blockbuster

made an icon out of Bela Lugosi and shaped every horror film made since.

3:30 PM FRANKENSTEIN *

Intended as Lugosi's follow-up to DRACULA, this instead made a star of character actor Boris Karloff, and an even bigger trademark item for Universal.

5:00 PM THE MUMMY *

Classic in

which Boris Karloff stars as a reanimated necromancer scheming to be reunited with his reincarnated princess. Say, didn't they do a remake of this recently?

6:30 PM THE WOLF MAN *

Typically underrated George Waggoner classic made Lon Chaney, Jr. a star as an enduring monster icon. Is Lon turning into a werewolf, or is it all in his mind? You decide.

8:00 PM THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW *

10:00 PM THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW *

Monday, October 28

12:00 AM FRANKENSTEIN *

Monday belongs

to the Frankenstein clan.

1:30 AM THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN *

The Monster speaks in one of the greatest monster movies ever made.

2:00 AM SON OF FRANKENSTEIN *

Karloff, Lugosi and Basil Rathbone in another classic monster movie.

4:30 AM THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN *

Peter Cushing cobbles together another creature for this tongue-sewn-in-cheek Hammer Horror.

6:30 AM

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN

Plus the Wolfman and Dracula! Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney join the number one box office draw of 1948 in the funniest horror comedy ever.

8:15 AM FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER

Another relative joins the family business and creates a confused hermaphro-monster in this campy 1950s horror.

10:15 AM THE EVIL

OF FRANKENSTEIN

12:15 PM SON OF FRANKENSTEIN

2:30 PM FRANKENSTEIN *

1:30 AM THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

5:30 AM THE BRIDE

Sort of a remake of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN in which the doctor (Sting!) makes a mate (Jennifer Beals) for the monster (Clancy Brown), then decides to keep her instead!

8:00 PM HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS *

10:00 PM BACKSTORY: HALLOWEEN *

11:00 PM HALLOWEEN 5 *

Tuesday, October 29

1:00 AM  FRIGHT NIGHT *

Tuesday is Vampire Day! A teenager thinks a vampire moved in next door. When he turns out to be right, the only one who can help him is a local TV horror host!

3:15 AM DRACULA *

4:45 AM BACKSTORY: HALLOWEEN *

6:30 PM THE BRIDES OF DRACULA *

Peter Cushing's

Van Helsing battles Baron Meinster and his harem of hellions in this Hammer classic.

7:45 AM BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE

AMC plants a ringer in the bunch. Set your Tivo for this rarely seen 1958 Brit flick, in which hunchback Victor Maddarn re-animates doctor Donald Wolfit, turning him into a vampire.

9:15 AM SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES

A newlywed couple finds the castle they've moved into is already occupied by a vam-oh, you guessed.

10:45 AM COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE

Old world vampire Robert Quarry warms up to the swinging Los Angeles scene in the 1970s.

12:45 PM THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE

Bela Lugosi stars in this unofficial DRACULA sequel in which the count wakes up in London during the Blitz.

2:15 PM THE BRIDES OF DRACULA

4:15 PM DRACULA *

5:45 PM  FRIGHT NIGHT

8:00 PM THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW *

10:00 PM THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW

Wednesday, October 30

12:00 AM CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Wednesday is

Swamp Monsters, Big Bugs and Mummies Day! Don't hold your breath waiting for AMC to show the 3-D version of this classic about a gill-man found in South America.

1:45 AM REVENGE OF THE CREATURE

In this sequel to CREATURE, the Gill-man is captured and brought to Sea World, King Kong style. He breaks loose, grabs a blonde, and climbs to the top of a buoy.

3:30 AM CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE

Larry Buchanan shames Texas with this insane monster opus starring John Agar. My roommates and I played a drinking game with this one once: everybody takes a sip every time the movie is awful. We passed out midway through the first reel.

5:00 AM  TENTACLES *

Well, I always was a sucker for a giant octopus movie. Shelley Winters, John Huston and Henry Fonda (!) are among those dragged down.

7:00 AM ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY

In this parody of THE MUMMY'S HAND, Bud & Lou go to Egypt and face off against femme fatale Marie Windsor and a chubby Mummy.

8:45 AM THE MUMMY'S HAND

Action & terror for Americans in Egypt. The film that inspired the recent Mummy films.

10:15 AM THE MUMMY'S CURSE

A refreshing shift to Louisiana, and some truly chilling scenes, but this was the end of the Mummy series.

11:30 AM THE MUMMY *

There's life

in the old boy yet! This Karloff classic can still chill the blood.

1:00 PM EARTH VS. THE SPIDER

A giant spider crashes the high school sock hop. No, really.

2:30 PM VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS

Juvenile delinquents grow into giants, take over the town, and go out to the cemetery to watch H.G. Wells spinning in his grave at mention of this Bert I. Gordon nonsense, supposedly based on Wells' FOOD OF THE GODS.

4:00 PM EMPIRE OF THE ANTS

Joan Collins and her friends are attacked by giant ants! They flee to the top of a tall building so they can look down on the ants and they look tiny again.

6:00 PM  TENTACLES

See it again with someone you love.

8:00 PM PREDATOR 2 *

10:00 PM PREDATOR 2

Thursday, October 31

12:30 AM GODZILLA VS. MONSTER ZERO

AKA INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER. Start Halloween right with a Godzilla marathon. Godzilla and Rodan are shanghaied to Planet X to fight King Ghidorah, but it's all a plot by the aliens to enslave all 3 monsters and conquer the Earth! Damn that Planet X logic!

1:00 AM GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER

AKA EBIRAH HORROR OF THE DEEP. If Godzilla oversleeps, the terrorists win. No kidding, that's the plot of the movie.

2:30 AM GODZILLA'S REVENGE

AKA ALL MONSTERS ATTACK. In the Japanese film that inspired HOME ALONE, a lonely latchkey kid fantasizes about visiting Monster Island, where Godzilla teaches him how to deal with kidnappers.

4:00 AM TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA

The new alien plan to conquer Earth involves rebuilding MechaGodzilla and taking control of a giant mutant dinosaur named Titanosaurus. Only Godzilla stands in their way.

7:00 AM THE MUMMY

8:30 AM

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