Great pumpkin of the universe misses Australian TV again
October 31st, 2007
After taking the trip down memory lane I checked out my post from this time last year and it was in regards to the lack of horror films showing on Halloween here on Australian free to air television.
The scariest thing on that night was a Power Rangers show that I mistook when reading the TV guide to be a movie but it turned out to be just an episode.
So today is Halloween and once again I’m taking a look at the TV guide to see what clever programming the good people at Australian television have for us. Before I go on and I believe I made a similar statement back then but I’m not hoping for Australia to adopt the Halloween tradition. It’s an American thing and should probably remain so, from what I can tell it’s hugely commercial and promotes binge candy eating in children. It does however appear to a whole lot of fun and has themes that I’m interested in. Sometimes you just have to let commercialism be.
So flipping through the guide I discover that all the commercial networks have once again decided to forget about clever programming and show, well… nothing.
No Elm Street.
No Halloween (duh)
No Friday the 13th
Lame much?
There is however a shining light amongst the mucky muck. That is SBS which is our cultural diversity programmer who shows programs from overseas and movies with subtitles etc. They are showing tonight Ringu which I must admit I have never seen and more than likely never will, despite my fascination with horror as a younger man I have developed quite the weak constitution for it over the past couple of years.
I have seen most of the western remake “The Ring” and found that one bit of terrifying film. I have since heard that the original Japanese version is better and scarier. Hence my avoidance of it. I will just assume everything I have heard is true and it is as good as people say. I’m more of a universal pictures monster movie kind of guy nowadays (”I never drink… wine”).
So congratulations SBS for actually thinking about your programming and I hope some people will watch it and huddle behind the couch.
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Categories: Television | Tags: australia, halloween, horror, horror films, Movies, Power Rangers, Television
That movie is brill- Watch it!
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They did let little kids cut out pumpkins overhere (NL)..
On tv tonight: The Texas chainsaw massacre. And ‘the making of Halloween’.
But we practically assimilate everything that even smells like American television
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I can’t cope with horror movies at all. I can only just manage the scarier bits of Dr Who
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The original Japanese version of The Ring is actually creepy in a suggestive sort of way for much of the film. The main creepy SFX bit at the end of the movie will already be familiar to you from watching the US remake… but the creepy dialogue has the sort of skin-crawling effect you expect from a good ghost story
(a bit like that line in “The Fog” about “what kind of fog moves against the wind?”)
Here in the UK, they have actually decided to show Halloween tonight… and I watched “Big Trouble…” again last night. It was so cool, I was almost tempted to post about it, but I couldn’t think what to post, and I never write faster than I can see
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Peemil - I have no doubts of the brilliance of Ringu which is part of the reason that I don’t really want to put myself through it - the inferior western one was creepy enough.
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Arjan I’m surprised, I figured European countries wouldn’t suck up that much American stuff, certainly some but then I’ve never been to a European country and was just making an assumption.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre! The original or the remake?
I’m quite impressed either way because I don’t think it has ever appeared on Australian tv - I may be wrong on that and am happy to be corrected.
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Dan - don’t belittle the scary bits in Dr Who - never has a man in a scarf walking down a corridor been so scary and tense!!!
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John - it’s irrational but I’m sitting here jealous of your watching BTILC. I’ve got the DVD in storage and of course have seen it a million times but I wish I’d watched it last night LOL.
A confession and I am ashamed, wildly ashamed - I have yet to watch the Fog…
I know, I know I make John Carpenter cry.
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checked it, first of all it was the remake..
second, it was on Belgian television which I can receive on cable here hehe.
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Yeah I don’t think the original gets out on TV that often, which is a shame really for splatter film fans.
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