31 Days of Halloween - Day 10: Tribute to Horror Hosts

Nothing brings back memories of my childhood introduction into horror quite like that of the horror host. They have a certain nostalgia for me. The main three I remember growing up were Elvira, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys, and of course, Joe Bob Briggs. I LOVED Joe Bob when I was a teenager. Unfortunately, the younger generations these days don't have the same frame of reference with the horror hosts as people my age and older do.

When production started on the remake of Fright Night, I was surprised to hear they had changed the character of Peter Vincent from a actor/horror host to that of a Las Vegas magician/illusionist ala Criss Angel. As a fan of the original, I was highly upset at the change. Yes, it's a very minor change, but it felt like they were trying to "update" the film a little too much for me. That's when it dawned on me: they HAD to change the character's occupation. Today's 18-25 crowd don't know what a horror host is. They all know who Criss Angel or David Blaine are, but none of them could point out Elvira if you asked them to. This is all very sad to me.

Growing up, I remember Friday and Saturday nights were reserved for the horror crowd. The horror host at one point was quintessential to American television. In the 60s and 70s, if some crappy B-movie horror film was playing on late night television, some cheesy failed actor with an even cheesier horror-themed name would be hosting the event. The first horror host on television was Vampira, who may have been the inspiration for Elvira's on-screen personality. Vampira didn't stay on air for long, but many shows following her could credit her show as inspiration.

My brothers used to make me watch Elvira's show Elvira's Movie Macabre, not to scare me with the movies that were shown, but with Elvira herself. They convinced me that her name meant evil, so the very sight of her face sent me into a cold sweat. In the 90s, I had grown more of a backbone so the horror host was seen as a point of humor rather than someone frightening. By then, I had discovered the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys and the aforementioned Joe Bob Briggs. By the time I got to university, the horror host had been relegated to television history and what we are left with is a whole generation that had never heard the term before, much less SEEN a horror host program.

With the proliferation of the Internet and the dawn of YouTube, has the horror host been rendered irrelevant? Any geek in his (or her) mom's basement can upload a video waxing poetic on the different Frankensteins through history. However, it just isn't the same to turn on your television late at night to see some guy in a Party City get up crawling out of a coffin to do an introduction to that night's showing of Dracula. Horror hosts, come back!