More Repugnant Repeats than Psychological Thrills or Chills?
More Repugnant Repeats than Psychological Thrills or Chills? by Roxanne McDonald
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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.
Because it has been over thirty-five years since the first episodes, the re-run factor is not an issue…and Chiller is not re-running any one particular episode, but bringing us, late at night (or early in the dark morning) each of the early 1970-71; 1971-72; and 1972-73 vignettes—such as “A Fear of Spiders;” “Junior”; “Marmalade Wine;” and “The Academy,” all in one creepy hour.
Granted, there is some justification for re-running shows on a station. One, the network might only own a select few movie titles (though I doubt this). Two, re-runs on different days give audiences a chance to catch what they might miss the first run through. And three, some demographics may be as consumed by repeats of
Children of the Damned as I am with, say, watching Seinfeld three times a day for ten years without EVER getting sick of the same material. But again, I find it a far-fetched possibility that someone or a group of someones has or have assigned classic status to an old black and white take-off or original of some very white authority figures responding to the rebellious mental maniacs that are the possessed brats of a community in East Bumf—k, Anywhere, USA. And you have to repeat, try running through programs you do have, then rep-run a show—maybe once a year?
Bring on different psychological thrillers and suspense—The Stepfather, The Usual Suspects, and Seven, even–instead. Bring on Bad Influence. Bring back Dennis Weaver and Duel. Hell, bring on more Hitchcock and Serling and Steven King.
Anything other than those damned kids again.
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