Horror on Television

Hey, what's up monster lovers? I want to continue our conversation about childhood monster memories. Remember the days before VCR and DVD players? If you had to miss a movie because your mother wanted to watch her soap operas or The Mike Douglas Show, that was it you missed it! You could not record movies or time shift back in the 1970's.

As a kid, I managed to convince my mother (most of the time) to let me watch, Creature Features or Chiller Theater on a Saturday night (after all what else was a kid supposed to do on the weekend). The funny thing was we never realized that most of these movies were "edited." This was done for two main reasons; mainly to cut out inappropriate content, or for the T.V stations time retraints. When we watched horror movies back then, we thought what we saw on the T.V was all there was to a movie. Years later when VCR's became popular, we would find out otherwise.

A perfect example of this concerned a gem of a film entitled The Blood on Satan's Claw (1970). This excellent British production was exquisitely by Piers Haggard, concerned a satanic coven headed by a "sweet" village girl named ironically, Angel. Played in a chillingly seductive manner by actress Linda Hayden, this film had it all. Of course I did not find out that this film was edited until years later when I rented it for me and my parents to watch on our VCR. As the opening scene played out, my mother would utter her usual lament, "is this another one of those English weirdo movies?" God knows she endured many of those movies for my benefit I just kept on looking at the screen, unaware how right how she would be. When the scene where Linda Hayden (Angel) begins to recruit the local village teens into the coven, I sensed that something dire was about to happen. One of the girls is violently stripped naked and one of the local boys proceeds to have his way with her (doggy style). While he was getting into it (or her, I should say), Angel viciously stabs him in the back with a pair of metal shears. At this point, (my mother had already left the room) my father finally speaks up, " is this your idea of entertainment?" After my jaw dropped, I responded, "gee I don't remember this scene when I use to watch it as a kid!" No wonder! Duh! Not on channel 5.

Now, I can look back at these memories with amusement. I will never forget that uncomfortable moment in the confines of our T.V room. A similar incident occured with the film The Excorcist. I don't even want to get into that one! Until tomorrow have a Bloody Good Day!