Hello everyone... Nina here to present another installment of "Across the Pond," Dominique Taylor's semi-regular column focusing on the UK entertainment scene. This week, Dominique has a seasonal rant about the lack of quality Halloween programming, a subject near and dear to my heart...
Like Halloween Never Happened
By Dominique Taylor
Halloween may have come and gone, but that does not remove the bitter taste in my mouth left from the sad excuse that was Halloween TV in the UK. Does anyone else remember the days of an entire weekend dedicated to witches, vampires and anything that went bump in the night? Does it not create a warm glow in your stomach when you think back to afternoons at home with your pumpkin watching family-friendly films like Hocus Pocus? Do you not fondly remember the fear as a child that you might just watch the telly a little too late on October the 31st and be traumatised for life by the image of a blood-drenched creature of the night?
It’s not that the films have to be good, they just need to be there. You know things aren’t right when no one is even showing Halloween! My idea is simply show the first instalment of any horror franchise and you cannot go wrong, just with Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Poltergeist and the aforementioned, you’ve made up around 8 hours. Throw in some classics: Beetlejuice, Witches of Eastwick; mix in some kiddies films: Harry Potter, The Curse of the Were Rabbit; and then season with chillers like Psycho and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and you’ve got a gorgeous goo of bottled terror. And even then I know I’ve missed loads!
So just for fun, or maybe even to post to some TV execs for next year, I’d love to hear everyone’s most beloved Horror movies if you had control of the Halloween schedule from midday till 2. I know it’s gone, but I’m way too angry to let this go.
