Halloween on Australian TV - third times a charm?
October 31st, 2008
Well it’s that time of year again and since Quit Your Day Job has been running every year I’ve lamented what poor network programming we have for Halloween here in Australia. Yes Halloween is an American custom, yes Australia is not America (not that you would know it if our obsession over American politics is any indication) but marketeers have latched on to the idea of another day of the year in which they can sell chocolate and disposible skulls (you have to love that I suppose).
So once again I head off to the TV Guide to see what frightful fare the free to air television stations have to offer. Remember I’m excluding pay/cable TV - this is just free to air broadcast channels.
Now last year the only channel to offer up anything was SBS (which is like our international channel), they showed the original Ringu which I still have no intention of seeing because frankly just the ads give me the willies.
So lets go to SBS first: The only movie on tonight on SBS is From Subway with Love: The only horror here is that the daughter of some lady falls in love with an older man… yuck but certainly not spooky scary. Next channel please.
Channel Ten whom you may remember me ranting about not showing 90210 and Torchwood has Jerry Maguire on. It is way too obvious for me to make Tom Cruise jokes about that one, needless to say that whilst JM is a solid enjoyable film it is not quite Elm Street.
Channel Nine has two movies for us this evening and one of them nearly makes sense. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is on and whilst the argument about witches and wizards may hold some water I really don’t think it is a Halloween movie and besides they showed the first one last week so it isn’t exactly inspired programming it is simply following on from last week and will continue next week. The second film tonight is Austin Powers: Goldmember.
Channel Seven has gone with Sweet Home Alabama and the less said about that the better me thinks.
The ABC does not have any movies on.
The only potential Halloween movie is not actually on during Halloween, it’s on at 12.50 and is the 2001 film Valentine which has Angel (I’m not trying to spell his real name) and Denise Richards in it. Pop Matters has a great review of the film (the review is great, not the film):
In a roundabout way,Valentine‘s message is that women who overstep their bounds deserve physical, motional, and sexual abuse, because of how they perpetually victimize men. And so, what is actually scariest about Valentine is the film’s tacit attitude that these girls had it coming.
Read it all here
Actually whilst reading that review I realise that I have indeed seen this film and it is indeed lame. It is a very poor cousin to I know what you did last summer. (ouch - bitchy)
So maybe this year I might curl up and watch a DVD or do a spot of drawing… who am I kidding I’ll probably watch Harry Potter.
****UPDATE
Channel Ten is showing Terminator 2 instead of JM!!! That’s awesome.
Popularity: 3% [?]
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Categories: Television | Tags: australian television, halloween, halloween movie, harry potter and the chamber of secrets, horror, horror films, Television
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By Lee on November 1st, 2008 | Reply
At least they’re on topic for the evening
I say though crack out the Michael Myers films and make a theme of it!!
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Terminator 2 is one of my all time fav. movies. Almost makes me wish we had television still.
I’ve been loving the Sarah Connor Chronicles and had a happy dance moment during the last episode where the Shrink said Cameron had Aspergers.
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By Lee on November 1st, 2008 | Reply
Every time it is on TV I wind up watching it, I’m glad they show the directors cut/special edition on television too as I feel this is the better film.
Haven’t been able to get into the Sarah Connor Chronicles but am eagerly awaiting Terminator:Salvation
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You were lucky, in Tasmania we got the Ireland vs Australia in that sport that got made up game…nothing says Halloween like invented sport…
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By Lee on November 1st, 2008 | Reply
LOL Oh no, actually they may have shown that here too I just chose not to mention the non movie shows.
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