The lame Horror Hall of Fame

Horror is a tree of niche that only occasionally grows branches long enough to reach the rest of the forest, so it's no surprise that "The Horror Hall of Fame," an award and tribute show for that topsy turvy genre debuted in the '90s and died in the '90s. Still, the fact that a horror awards show hit broadcast television at all is an achievement. Best describing its annual airing as a sort of Oscars for the horror community, the shows were crudely produced, kind of cheesy and kind of trembling into the "wow, this is really stupid" category. And that's why we loved them.

EDIT: I feel like I should take back that niche tree and branch business. What drugs was I on?

A reader donated this tape to me last year -- it's The Horror Hall of Fame III, which aired in 1991. I don't know that that year's show definitely did, but at least one of the Hall of Fame events aired on Halloween night. That's so cool. People went out, got candy, broke a few eggs and returned home with smeared facepaint to settle in with three pounds of fun-sized Almond Joys and a horror-themed awards show. Toss in a thunderstorm after dusk, and we're talking about the perfect Halloween.

The Horror Hall of Fame III was shot at the Universal Studios theme park in California, and apparently made good use of passerby vacationers to fill its audience space. No A-listers in that crowd, and from the looks of 'em during the many camera pans, there was just no way that these people were hardcore horror fans. I guess, even if it's a two hour tribute to horror movies, people still always go for the ride with the shortest line.

Even now, watching the show excites me. It's full of tremendous retrospectives on various classic and neo-classic (then, at least) horror movies, most featuring behind-the-scenes movie footage and exclusive cast interviews. Listening to Veronica Cartwright wax disgusting about the chestburster scene in Alien holds up just fine even today. Though most of the awards were of the "lifetime achievement" brand (they didn't even bother having people accept...they'd just show a prerecorded featurette and tack a graphic of a grim reaper-shaped trophy on the end), we at least got a legit "best horror movie of the year" category with a real acceptance speech and everything. Of course, I wouldn't be writing about the special if that's all it had; no, The Horror Hall of Fame III packed enough head-scratching moments for your scalp to blister, pop and expose your bloodied brain. See? I'm in the spirit.

Go here for hilarious lengthy summary: http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0959/