Chiller TV Offers More Fright…or Flight

Chiller TV Offers More Fright…or Flight by Roxanne McDonald

While Chiller TV can’t take credit or blame for the making of The St. Francisville Experiment, the network at least delivers something worth talking about.

Better than the fortieth repeat of …the Damned movies, The St. Francisville Experiment gives viewers plenty to talk (or argue) about.

I stayed up until nine in the morning to see this film through, just so I could 1) figure out whether it was a Blair Witch Project knockoff and 2) to get closure enough that I could sleep.

The movie is delightfully deceiving: sets up as a documentary following the explorations of four people who are planning to spend the night in a reputedly haunted Louisiana mansion, prefaces the overnighter with interviews with a paranormal expert (Karen Smith), a voodoo priestess (Ava Kay Jones), and a psychic (Sarah Clifford). Then the four participants in the “experiment” are given a quick lesson in the tools of the trade—heat gauges and movement sensors and the like.
The problems begin for me, however, when Troy Taylor says he is not going to divulge any historical information to the four ghost hunters, and then continue as continuity, editing, and blooper gaffs.

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A Little More Thrilled about Chiller

A Little More Thrilled about Chiller by Roxanne McDonald

I know I complained a bit about Chiller TV. I also stayed with it to find some redeeming qualities few other channels can boast.

I was thrilled than chilled—in a bad way—by the repetition of programming on the Chiller channel. And yes, Children of the Damned and other …Damned movies have appeared ad nauseum since then.

But as I continue to watch, I find a couple of characteristics—at least one—that actually delight this self-proclaimed television connoisseur.

One wonderful feature…Hitchcock Presents. First, the old episodes are not those on the SciFi Channel, so they are for the most part new to us, whether new as in never having seen or new as in having seen them so long ago that they feel new.

But second, Chiller has retained the integrity of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents format, using very few commercials–as Hitchcock reportedly and evidently had issues with commercial interruptions (and as we likely were not so money-mongering then as we are now).

During intercessions of an episode, Hitchcock makes his hallmark appearance and statements, commentaries on his craft, the show, or a running theme. He also speaks to the upcoming commercial or introduces it by saying how long the interruption will be. Well, back then, commercial breaks lasted a minute, so the commercial breaks Chiller TV has are also a minute…ONLY a minute.

If you are as fixated on watching the progression of the infiltration of commerce [and yes, I get the irony of the image to your right–>], you likely have noticed how commercial breaks have evolved from loud, long, and

aggressive to louder, longer, and so aggressive we need pills they are advertising to put them out of our misery. They have gone from one minute during the fifties to two minutes and two seconds in the late 70s/early 80s to five minutes in these early double oughts… (…to say nothing of the weird starting times for shows all of a sudden: 9:31? Please. Where do you think that extra minute has gone?)

AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH.

True dat: you pay for non-commercial channels to get away from these aberrations. But you also pay a cable bill or dish bill that in effect sponsors those sponsors.

At least Chiller has let up on us in one area. Gotta give it that.

More Repugnant Repeats than Psychological Thrills or Chills?

More Repugnant Repeats than Psychological Thrills or Chills? by Roxanne McDonald

While there are the joys of old shows not shown anywhere else on TV, Chiller is tending toward re-runs that are not all that repeat-worthy, really.

I should have known better than to get all excited about a new channel and a channel running all horror and suspense twenty-four hours a day, to boot.

Not even a month old, Chiller has fallen back on re-running movies, instead of bringing us programming from the many, many possibilities of archived greats.

In this past week alone, I have seen Children of the Damned three times…maybe four. Okay, it’s a cult classic, maybe. It has some progressive and politically inclusive elements. It has a theme that is (or was fresh). But how many times we need to hear the clanging as the adults get ready to demolish the devil spawn is beyond me.

Also relentless is the airing of Frankenstein 1970. It has come up twice in two days, so far, and I am not all that keen on counting how many more times it is going to

grace our screens with its neat concept but obnoxious old-time screaming and typical mad-scientist limping, etc., etc..

What still appeals to this avid psychological thriller fanatic, though, is 1) the uninterrupted by commercials approach, as when Chiller brought us one of the best thrillers of all time, The Shining, which many of us took the day off to watch, as all work and no play make, well, you know…; and 2) the return of series, Night Gallery, the lesser-known production put together and hosted by the brilliant Rod Serling as a follow-up to his Twilight Zone works.

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Have You Found Your Thrill in the Chiller Channel, Yet?

Have You Found Your Thrill in the Chiller Channel, Yet? by Roxanne McDonald

As much of a TV fiend as I am, I didn’t come upon the Chiller until today. Turns out serendipity was on my side. Is it on yours?

I thought I would have to admit embarrassment for not having found the Chiller Channel sooner, but evidently it is fairly new: in a January 12th article by Kevin Kelly at TV Squad, NBC and Universal had announced plans to launch the DIRECTV channel which would be for horror and SF movies and shows and classics.

The news included how such shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales from the Crypt, and The Shining will be included in the thriller station lineup. Today, as I did my morning TV schedule, my eyes happened upon the one word show title that always catches my eye, “Hitchcock”. Then, right before two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“Revenge” and “Premonition”—older and less played episodes, at that) were two listings for episodes of Tales from the Crypt—making for a morning line-up any television-obsessed, SF/Psychological Thriller-fixated person would be, well, thrilled to find.

I am not so embarrassed now, knowing the launch date for the Chiller channel is March 1st, 2007. In fact, I am THRILLED I found it on its day of glorious debut.

Congratulations Chiller, and may you not resort to replaying Enemy Mine four million times, regardless of how cultish or compelling a storyline and performances by Gosset, Jr. and Quaid…especially when there is so much Hitchcock, King, and that skeleton host to be had!