FRIGHTMARE THEATER (2015-2022)

FRIGHTMARE THEATER (2015-2022) – Over the years, Balladeer’s Blog has examined plenty of Movie Host Shows, old and new. Frightmare Theater is another hostess-themed film show created, written and directed by Joel Stephens, just like Dark Jungle Theater, previously reviewed here.

This effort from Stephens and his team is another of the countless programs saluting the tradition of late-night bad movie shows that presented – and often mocked – some of the worst or campiest horror films ever made. Remember ladies like Vampira, Moona Lisa, Crematia Mortem, Macabra, Elvira, and of course Stella! from Saturday Night Dead?

Frightmare Theater delivers an entire coven of hostesses, led by Mistress Scarlet (Scarlet Ryan), the red head who rises from her coffin to host the bad movie proceedings. Some of her assistants are Original Cyn (Cyn Renteria), Sister Jane (Jane Victoria Colley) and Sister Monalisa (Monalisa Davinci). Stephens himself appeared as Boris the Butler for a while.

As regular readers know, I’m a sucker for just about any Movie Host Show dedicated to laughing at Psychotronic classics from any decade, but for viewers who may not give all such programs a free pass, I feel obligated to point out a few downsides to Frightmare Theater:

Like Joel Stephens’ other Movie Host Shows, the production values are often stuck at the level of the countless Public Access Cable programs which were tributes to late night horror movie hosts and hostesses of the past. The same applies to the comedy writing and to the varying levels of performances the cast members deliver.

But that aside, let’s take a general look at the show’s 7 Seasons thus far. The overwhelming majority of the movies presented on Frightmare Theater are the ones that were staples of virtually every Bad Movie Show in history. Such Golden Turkeys are like rock or blues standards that every band likes to do their own interpretation of. 

Among those, Mistress Scarlet and the Sisters served up plenty of black & white American schlockers like Attack of the Giant Leeches, The Brain that Wouldn’t Die, The Horror of Party Beach, Beginning of the End, Attack of the Crab Monsters and so many others.

Also on the slate of perennial So Bad They’re Good offerings were several American schlockers IN COLOR, like Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter, The Thing with Two Heads, Queen of Outer Space, Track of the Moon Beast, Dracula vs Frankenstein and many more.

Foreign schlock films that were mainstays of old Movie Host Shows got their turn, too, like The Day of the Triffids, Devil Girl from Mars, Fangs of the Living Dead, Lady Frankenstein, Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory and so on.

And let me assure my fellow Paul “Jacinto Molina” Naschy fans that Frightmare Theater also found room in its 83 episodes for The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman and Count Dracula’s Great Love.  

If this valentine to Movie Host Shows and Movie Hostesses is indeed over for good, they had a respectable run and did the tradition proud. 

*** I know my fellow obsessive detail dorks won’t be satisfied without a season-by-season breakdown of episodes.

SEASON ONE

Ep. 1 Creature of Destruction (1968)   Ep. 2 The Curse of the Swamp Monster (1968)   Ep. 3 The Giant Behemoth (1959)   Ep. 4 Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955) Ep. 5 Zontar, the Thing from Venus (1967)   Ep. 6 A Bucket of Blood (1959)   Ep. 7 The She-Beast (1966)   Ep. 8 The Thing with Two Heads (1972)   Ep. 9 Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966)   Ep. 10 The Tingler (1959)   Ep. 11 The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman (1971)   Ep. 12 Lady Frankenstein (1971)   Ep. 13 Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory (1961)

SEASON TWO

Ep. 1 Devil Girl from Mars (1954)   Ep. 2 It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)   Ep. 3 The Monster That Challenged the World (1957)   Ep. 4 The Wasp Woman (1959)   Ep. 5 Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)   Ep. 6 Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956)   Ep. 7 Queen of Outer Space (1958)   Ep. 8 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)   Ep. 9 Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968)   Ep. 10 Track of the Moon Beast (1976)   Ep. 11 The House That Screamed (1969)   Ep. 12 The Screaming Skull (1958)   Ep. 13 The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)     

SEASON THREE

Ep. 1 The Crawling Eye (1958)   Ep. 2 Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)   Ep. 3 The Alligator People (1959)   Ep. 4 The Slime People (1963)   Ep. 5 The Horror of Party Beach (1964)   Ep. 6 Beginning of the End (1957)   Ep. 7 The Atomic Brain (1963)   Ep. 8 The Black Scorpion (1957)   Ep. 9 I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)   Ep. 10 Fangs of the Living Dead (1969)   Ep. 11 Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958)   Ep. 12 Cat Women of the Moon (1953)   Ep. 13 The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) 

SEASON FOUR

Ep. 1 Teenage Zombies (1959)   Ep. 2 Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)   Ep. 3 The Return of Dracula (1958)   Ep. 4 The Eye Creatures (1967)   Ep. 5 Bloodtide (1982)   Ep. 6 The Playgirls and the Vampire (1960)   Ep. 7 Night of the Ghouls (1959)   Ep. 8 Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956)   Ep. 9 The Devil’s Partner (1960)   Ep. 10 Count Dracula’s Great Love (1973)   Ep. 11 The Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)   Ep. 12 Tormented (1960)   Ep. 13 Die, Monster, Die (1965) 

SEASON FIVE

Ep. 1 Vampyres (1974)   Ep. 2 Grave of the Vampire (1972)   Ep. 3 Sisters of Death (1977)   Ep. 4 The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965)   Ep. 5 The Crawling Hand (1963)   Ep. 6 The Thirsty Dead (1974)   Ep. 7 The Ghost Galleon (1974)   Ep. 8 Atom Age Vampire (1960)   Ep. 9 The Blancheville Monster (1963)   Ep. 10 Blood Mania (1970)   Ep. 11 Castle of the Living Dead (1964)   Ep. 12 Dracula vs Frankenstein (1971)   Ep. 13 The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

SEASON SIX

Ep. 1 The Brides of Dracula (1960)   Ep. 2 The Day of the Triffids (1963)   Ep. 3 Nightmare Castle (1965)   Ep. 4 Bride of the Monster (1955)   Ep. 5 House on Haunted Hill (1959)   Ep. 6 House of Usher (1960)   Ep. 7 Moon of the Wolf (1972)   Ep. 8 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)   Ep. 9 The Bat (1959)   Ep. 10 Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)   

SEASON SEVEN

Ep. 1 Little Shop of Horrors (1960)   Ep. 2 Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)   Ep. 3 Mesa of Lost Women (1953)   Ep. 4 House of Wax (1953)   Ep. 5 Hands of a Stranger (1962)   Ep. 6 I Eat Your Skin (1971)   Ep. 7 The Devil’s Hand (1961)   Ep. 8 Night of the Living Dead (1968)     

FOR MY EXAMINATION OF LARAINE NEWMAN’S CANNED FILM FESTIVAL CLICK HERE.