RTE Friday Night Horror

Shapey Fiend

Anybody remember when RTE used to screen horror movies back in the 90's? I used to stay up late with my Dad watching them and the one other kid in 3rd class used do the same with his dad we'd be chatting about it every Monday. I was about 9 or 10 so we're talking '92 or' 93. Think they showed The Fly, and the sequels. There were a lot of bad bad sequels I'm thinking that's why I fell out of the habit or why the series died off. It was a staple like the midweek movie for a while though.

Arghus

I do remember something like this. I can't recall exactly if the had a specific Friday Night Horror programme or if it was a series they ran as part of The Last Picture Show. Which was a classic movie they would usually show after The Late Late with an introduction. The introduction was usually a guy(I think his name may have been Brian Reddin) standing in an empty cinema explaining the significance and background to whatever movie they were going to show immediately afterwords. That was a big influence on me as a kid as I would have read about these films but that was my only chance to see them most of the time. I do distinctly remember there being ads on RTE for them showing the original version of The Fly and my childhood brain being utterly terrified by the idea.
Too bad that like most good RTE ideas it had to stop eventually. I'd still probably watch something like it if they bothered to show it on a Friday night and a bit of extra info added to the experience.

losthorizon

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

Anybody remember when RTE used to screen horror movies back in the 90's? I used to stay up late with my Dad watching them and the one other kid in 3rd class used do the same with his dad we'd be chatting about it every Monday. I was about 9 or 10 so we're talking '92 or' 93. Think they showed The Fly, and the sequels. There were a lot of bad bad sequels I'm thinking that's why I fell out of the habit or why the series died off. It was a staple like the midweek movie for a while though.

BBC used to have an absolute brilliant series of Horror films on Saturday nights as did ITV.

They mainly focused on Hammer and earlier films which were brilliant and created my love for these films. BBC often show a season of season of older horror films at christmas. They didnt last year but they did the year before did.

Kim Newmans love for horror films was started by these seasons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Newman

Shapey Fiend

I always read Kim Newman's horror column but I rarely get around to seeing the movies he recommends. Is there a somewhere online where all the Dungeon Breakouts are mentioned? I've stacks of Empire but I'm too lazy to go leafing through each copy individually (first world problem).

eamonmcguilty

Arghus wrote: »

Too bad that like most good RTE ideas it had to stop eventually.

Like most RTÉ ideas it was a copy a similar BBC show. Presented by Alex Cox it was called Moviedrome.

mike65

RTE had a film strand back in the 70s called After Dark on a Saturday night - it was the place for your Hammer type fix. I remember seeing The Earth Dies Screaming in that slot among others.

Shapey Fiend

Since I may have drawn a few horror movie nerds does anybody remember a black and white british horror movie about genetically modified gorillas? Looked like it was set in the isle of man or something. Mad scientist dude was experimenting on them. Gorillas escape and break through all the fencing and smash the guard dogs to pieces. I think I one of them was on the top of the lead actors car and he was going to go over a cliff. I turned it off at that point cause I was about 9 years old and it scared the crap out of me. I'm pretty sure it was screened on Bravo.

mike65

Konga? Which was in colour but you might have had a b/w telly then!

JohnMearsheimer

Arghus wrote: »

I do remember something like this. I can't recall exactly if the had a specific Friday Night Horror programme or if it was a series they ran as part of The Last Picture Show. Which was a classic movie they would usually show after The Late Late with an introduction. The introduction was usually a guy(I think his name may have been Brian Reddin) standing in an empty cinema explaining the significance and background to whatever movie they were going to show immediately afterwords. That was a big influence on me as a kid as I would have read about these films but that was my only chance to see them most of the time. I do distinctly remember there being ads on RTE for them showing the original version of The Fly and my childhood brain being utterly terrified by the idea.
Too bad that like most good RTE ideas it had to stop eventually. I'd still probably watch something like it if they bothered to show it on a Friday night and a bit of extra info added to the experience.

I remember this as well. I wish RTE still did it. I seem to remember Brian Reddin sitting in an empty cinema screen talking about the uocoming movie that night.

Chris_Heilong

I remember channel 4 used to show all the Universal Horror movies, Dracula, the wolf man, Frankenstein and the rest, it was in the 80's but was my first introduction to horror, it was a treat to stay up late to watch them, I must have been 5 or 6.

Wolfemeister

Yeah i remember this. The Fall of the house of Usher was the first film they showed. They also showed the original "The Fly". Vincent Price was in a lot of the films on it I seem to remember. It was around 1993 and i don't think it lasted more than a year. The a few years later (95/96) they had the last picture show where Brian Reddin presented an intro to classic movies. It was great.

darkdubh

I remember going back to the late 80's RTE had a movie slot directly following the LLS. I used to stay up late in the hope that you'd hear the continuity announcer saying "this film has some scenes of an adult nature". Some of the films I remember seeing around this time on that slot include Women In Love, The Pawnbroker, An American Werewolf In London, Southern Comfort, Midnight Cowboy etc. The Last Picture Show with Brian Reddin which started circa 1995 was in the same slot and a continuation in ways but a lot of the films shown on that would have been more "cult".

buried

I honestly don't understand how RTE have lost the ability to showcase some of these films in the current program listings. 'The Fall of the House of Usher', 'The Fly', 'Salem's Lot', 'An American Werewolf in London', 'Hellraiser', 'The Exorcist' 'The Wicker Man'. All great tack. I remember as a kid all of those things being on. All the time. Nowaday's they show none of them. What's the problem? What's going on? You look at the film listings on around Halloween up on there, your more than likely to see f**king 'Bridesmaids' and 'While you were f**king Sleeping' be on that night for Christ sakes

Shapey Fiend

They've had a habit of sticking romantic comedies on TV for halloween night for the last 20 years. Presume their justification is advertisers and ratings but to me that's very short sighted.

TG4 tend to have very smart film selections they could always screen a few late night movies on there for the month on a channel we all have access to without distrupting the viewing habits of normies.

Beechwoodspark

I wonder have sky bought up the rights to a lot of these classics? They have whole channels dedicated to genres like horror and sci fi so maybe they buy up the rights of anything they can get to fill out their schedules? It's a pity though.

buried

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

I wonder have sky bought up the rights to a lot of these classics? They have whole channels dedicated to genres like horror and sci fi so maybe they buy up the rights of anything they can get to fill out their schedules? It's a pity though.

Yeah, you could be right there actually. I never thought of that, I honestly don't see any other logical reason why this would be happening. Are RTE too involved with deals with the likes of Sky where this could be the reason? If that is the case, RTE should get out of whatever deal they are in with that shower.

esposito

When was the last time there was a good horror classic on RTE 1 ?!

Even RTE2 there's hardly any good horrors shown anymore

darkdubh

esposito wrote: »

When was the last time there was a good horror classic on RTE 1 ?!

Even RTE2 there's hardly any good horrors shown anymore

There's harldly any good movies period.

Ash.J.Williams

Hammer films had boobies

limerickpat

I remember the horrors and the last picture show. I think there was a schedule on friday and saturday nights on network 2 called The End and that would have had some cult and horror films. this may have been 96ish after they stopped showing them on rte 1