Zone Horror Channel

Maniacal · Post by **Maniacal** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:48 pm

Does anyone find this channel to be some what lackluster? Don't get me wrong i love the replays of Tales From The Crypt, Freddy's Nightmares and Friday The 13th. But i find the movies played the majority of the time, 90%, to be terrible B movies and with only a few A type horror films ever being shown.

Your thoughts?

DavieT · Post by **DavieT** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:52 pm

Yes I find it patchy. I quite enjoy a lot of those so-awfully-inept-that-theyre good B-movies but there does appear to be a large amount of just plain terrible ...Bubba's chilli type ... movies

sherbetbizarre · Post by **sherbetbizarre** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:01 pm

You've just noticed? lol

We could list loads of stuff they should be showing. I remembered yesterday I hadn't seen Bernard Rose's Paperhouse for years as there appears to be no DVD release.

This is exactly the sort of movie they should be showing, as its British, has a following, and currently lapsed into obscurity.

Is the ZH playlist a lack of effort or imagination on their part? Or are they doing their best with the money and availabilty?

Saying that, they've been showing Hardware during it's pre-DVD release, and occasionally I tune into the odd movie. As for the picture quality, well... that's something else too, they do manage to make most movies look ugly.

Maniacal · Post by **Maniacal** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:58 pm

I suppose in general i should be grateful we get a dedicated to horror...some what.

Laymonite · Post by **Laymonite** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:23 am

I absolutely love Zone Horror. They probably don't show much A list stuff because they probably can't afford it. But I think that's a good thing. I've seen so many films on that channel that I would never have seen otherwise, or would have had to have paid to rent or buy.

And I'm actually surprised by the (relative) quality of a lot of the films. The worst crime a film on that channel , or indeed any horror in general, can commit is to be boring. And I've very rarely been bored by a film I've watched on Zone Horror. Even most of the crap stuff is entertaining in ways.

I've seen some real gems on that channel that I might never have seen otherwise such as
Body Count starring David Hess
All the Charles Band films from the last few years
All HG Lewis classics
Penny Dreadful
Big Bad Wolf
Beast of Bray Road
Loads more that I can't remember

I hope Zone Horror stays on the air for ever and ever.

ghouldrool · Post by **ghouldrool** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:13 pm

Zone Horror is frankly the only means to see some films at all in the current market.

It fills a hole and serves a purpose and i couldnt be without the channel now. Sure its done me wrong on several occasions (Slaughterhouse massacre, bloody mary, the caretaker and above all Bone Sickness), but theres a lot of fun to be had within its programming.

The A list goes on sky movies or regular channels anyway and is all stuff we will have seen by the time it hits TV. And clearly zone horror doesnt have these peoples budgets and i agree their image compression is annoying.

They have just finished airing the entire first season of Freddys Nightmares which is a very hard to come by show. So label me Pro Zone Horror

krispyg · Post by **krispyg** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:36 pm

I can't really criticise them as they are all for Horror and i'm sure they do there best. What i'd love to see are some shows which look at horror film reviews or maybe shows that look at a certain franchise say the F13 story or the Hellraiser story where various people from those films are invited in to discuss what they think.

Who knows, maybe even FF could do a tie in with ZH perhaps?

I have watched some good films on there but it is a case of wading thru the not so good to find the odd brilliant gem - Gingerdead Man or May for example.

I can't be too harsh as i'm sure they do the best with what they have got. And looking at Sky Movies Sci Fi/Horror does not fill me with optimism.

A lot of good horror of late has been turning up on ITV4 of all places.

cyberschizoid · Post by **cyberschizoid** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:44 pm

I think I pretty much agree with everyone here.

I do love Zone Horror but it could be so much better. I'm presuming that's down to two reasons, money and availability of the channel.

I've met people who didn't even know Zone Horror existed. Only two of the weekly tv listings magazines actually include Zone Horror on their listings pages.

It's not available on Freeview and is hard to get hold of on the other digital, cable and satellite platforms unless you pay extra.

I think it would be productive to help promote the channel in general and also to try and contact them/email them to put forward suggestions on what we would like to see screened.

Personally I would love to see lots of the old black & white classics, Val Lewton movies, Hammer horror and old 60's and 70's cheap monster and exploitation films.

Perhaps we could email all of the TV Listings magazines and ask them to start including Zone Horror? It's a start...

sherbetbizarre · Post by **sherbetbizarre** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:56 pm

krispyg wrote:A lot of good horror of late has been turning up on ITV4 of all places.

Can't say it's "good", but this Saturday night ITV4 have a new film I've not seen:

Day of the Dead

ITV4 12:30am to 2:00am

Remake of George A Romero's gruesome classic. A small American town is sealed off by the military to contain a flu-like epidemic - but things go from bad to worse when those who are sick turn into zombies,

orlovsky · Post by **orlovsky** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:39 pm

sherbetbizarre wrote:
krispyg wrote:A lot of good horror of late has been turning up on ITV4 of all places.
Can't say it's "good", but this Saturday night ITV4 have a new film I've not seen:

Day of the Dead

ITV4 12:30am to 2:00am

Remake of George A Romero's gruesome classic. A small American town is sealed off by the military to contain a flu-like epidemic - but things go from bad to worse when those who are sick turn into zombies,

You're better off leaving that unseen. that which has been seen, cannot be unseen..

soulmining · Post by **soulmining** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:51 am

Agreed... I watched it on DVD last week and it is truly awful, one of the worst remakes I've ever seen... and it's a 'remake' in the very loosest sense of the word in that a) it has zombies, b) it has some soldiers, and c) it has a zombie character called Bud who is supposed to be sympathetic.

Don't go there, you'll only regret it later, trust us...

kitkat · Post by **kitkat** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:33 pm

The remake of Day of the Dead is truly appalling- I struggled to watch it all the way through. And speaking of watching films all the way through, that is pretty much how I take Zone Horror. True many of the films are not good but occasionally a little gem will appear like Hardware and Dust Devil that make it all worthwhile. I tend to tape some of the films and give them around 30 mins by which time you can tell if they are watchable or not. Let us not forget Zone Horror is the only channel to screen Troll and Troll 2. Troll 2 alone is worth the subscription to Sky.

krispyg · Post by **krispyg** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:57 pm

God yeah there is some truly appaling stuff on there but sometimes the odd gem appears.

If only we had a FF Tv channel

feggie · Post by **feggie** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:49 pm

Dunno if this interests anyone but i just set this for a wee record for next friday/early hours of saturday morning.

Maniac Nurses Find Ecstacy - Masochistic nurses, wearing lingerie and heavy eyeliner, inflict terror upon male patients with an arsenal of knives, whips, shotguns and booby-traps.

Sometimes you do need to watch a really bad horror film to appreciate how good the good ones actually are.