Nightmare Theatre
As a child, KTVX Channel 4 had a television show on every Friday night at 11:20 pm. It was called Nightmare Theatre. I stayed up late to watch it every weekend. My dad had been a scary movie fan, so I was allowed to stay up as late as I could.
I usually fell asleep fifteen minutes into the program.
We had a host, but I remember NOTHING about him or her. I literally can’t remember if the host was male or female. All I remember is the scary movies. It seems that I was missing out.
The other channels had hosts with charisma who loved the movies or hated the movies. They dressed up in costume. Their exploits are going to be the focus of this new documentary called American Scary.
After watching the footage from their trailers, I said to myself, “Man, I was missing out!”
If you ever watched a television show like Nightmare Theatre as a child, then you probably had a horror host that you loved. Me? I was just trying to stay awake past the first commercial break.
I grew up watching Son of Svengoolie out of Channel 48 on Saturday afternoons. He was the best!
Comment by Eh... not so much — 10/14/2006 @ 8:21 am
fireman frank i remenber the spooky laugh
Comment by lee — 4/9/2010 @ 7:14 pm
I remember Ron Ross (fireman frank) doing the background voice to the intro of ‘Nightmare Theater’, which played late on channel 4 – on a Friday night. Not only was his haunting enuciation of nightmare theater being scary, but the creepy music with the model haunted house added to the atmosphere. I don’t think there was a actual host, the music, the haunted house background and frank’s moaning seemed to be the signal of a commercial break from the program. I’m still trying to find if that TV intro still exists.
Comment by Joe — 1/19/2011 @ 12:50 am
I remember Nightmare from when I lived in Montana;we got the station on cable.I don’t remember SEEING THE HOST,just the voice.Seems to me they showed TWO movies and I’d stay up for both.I think I first saw “Little Shop of Horrors” on Nightmare.I found THIS site searching for a site that listed the movies shown on Nightmare;anybody know of a list?I haven’t found one yet.
Comment by Chris Bryant — 3/7/2011 @ 3:12 pm
If you are talking about the Nightmare Theater open where the ghost comes out of the window of the haunted house, then I’m the “spooky laugh” guy. Myself and a couple of people (who worked at KTVX at the time) made that open. There was no budget for it so we all just chipped in our spare time
Comment by Rick Phillips — 1/17/2014 @ 9:11 pm
P.S. There was no host for the show. I was the on-air T.D. (Technical Director: basically the guy rolling the film and popping in commercials) for the final 4 or 5 years that KTVX ran Nightmare Theater.
All the movies were terrible, low budget B flicks. But that was PERFECT for Nightmare Theater. :)
Comment by Rick Phillips — 1/17/2014 @ 9:36 pm
Hey all, Ron Ross was the host of Nightmare and he’ll still do the creepy laugh on request. He’s my dad.
Comment by Heather Ross — 11/24/2014 @ 10:52 pm