Chiller TV rant, what could have been the most promising channel for horror ever.
"Sigh..." I've been saving this post for some time now. In fact if it wasn't for me grasping at ideas to post for the rest of this month I wouldn't have even done it, but I feel venting my anger towards this network might help me with the winter time blues. Sure many may say, "It's just a channel, who cares?" Well guess what.
I do.
Chiller was a channel that came to direct TV in spring of 2007. I was a senior in high school that year and will never forget coming home from my after school job and finding Friday the 13th on the guide. Right away I was shocked. They NEVER show the original Friday the 13th in the middle of the afternoon on cable television! In fact the only times I've seen any of those movies play is either very late at night or around Halloween. Excited to sit back and watch this camp classic, I was instantly confused when I noticed that Camp Crystal lake was no where in sight. In fact...it was an antique shop. Right away everything clicked and I knew it was the TV series that ran for a brief time in the late 1980's that had NOTHING to do with Jason or his summer camp. I had only read a few minor things about the show on the internet before, and knew it was about two cousins that search for cursed antiques, besides that I was coming into this blind.
Well it was a happy accident indeed. Because after viewing the very first episode, I was hooked on Friday the 13th the series. This new station Chiller was playing re-runs, which allowed me to catch up on the 3 season run of this show and fall completely in love with it. In fact, I would like to call myself one of the biggest fans around for Friday the 13th the series, and I have to thank Chiller for being the station to open my eyes to this highly underated show!
Right away I was wondering what this new magical station was. Now I've never really been a huge TV nut. In fact I mostly watch movies, or old reruns of shows I've seen before. Just lately I've started getting into new shows as a way to unwind at the end of the day. Back in high school I couldn't care less. Chiller TV seemed to be a hand delivered gift just for me. Since it was brand new, and didn't have many backers, the station only had the rights to three movies...
Far From Home
The Legacy
and Creepshow 2
Over and over these movies would play for the first month. Early in the morning and late afternoon they would air re-runs of classic horror shows such as...
Tales From The Crypt
Tales From The Darkside
Freddy's Nightmares
Monsters
and Friday the 13th the series
In-between these shows and movies they would play awesome infomercials, and pretty cool TV spots for the channel that keep repeating "Dare to watch."
Some spring, they gained more rights with other movies like...
Daddy's Girl
The Trigger Effect
Nightbreed
The Terminal Man
It was pretty awesome, with these shows playing over and over again, plus all the amazing shows, I was in heaven. As summer came, they began doing a summer camp horror theme, and more movies began to play. Around that time they did a contest called America's Next Top Monster, where 31 people would be picked for their best get up as a monster or a zombie and the winner's photo would air on Halloween right. I can't explain the utter susprise when I saw my photo on TV.
Time went on and I began to notice tiny little annoying things, such as the two girls who were supposed to talk horror, and how I watched their web series and few times and gave up since it was beyond stupid. 99% of the time they never spoke horror, instead they just fussed back and forth looking like idiots.
They also did the short film contest the following fall. I entered based off a short story my mother used to tell me about my house when I was younger. This was border line Ed Wood trash. I had never directed before, and I hired this kid I used to work with to edit it. My sister was in it, and played a gay carnival worker...it was a mess. Safe to say I didn't win...
I still did get a backpack from Chiller along with a stack of notecards for entering. Hey at least that's something!
Around the holidays I noticed they changed their ads to a killer snowman, cute. They also aired the two Jack Frost movies, but I started to notice less and less effort was being put forth. It really killed me since I made a lot of good memories watching shows with my family on this station, and entered two of their contests.
Chiller got more rights to more shows, and that's when I slowly began to notice the slow fall of the station. They were showing the re-runs of the shows less and less. Since they had more backers the station was packed with comercials, and then the shitty made for TV movies began to happen...
I'm not even talking Sci-Fi movies that are so bad it's good...I'm talking complete and utter pieces of shit.
Instead of getting rights to older classics, they simply began packing the line ups with shitty low budget new movies that were pretty much unwatchable. Then they started doing count downs such as the creepiest kids in horror, ect. As did their shitty own shows such as "Would you survive a horror movie?". Less classic movies were shown, and more and more shitty shows and movies began to air.
It wasn't long before those ghost hunting shows began to air and I called to quits. I cancled having the station and moved on. Every once in a while I cruise by on my guide to see if anything interesting to playing on that station and 99% of the time...there isn't.
Such a shame, the show held promise for sure but I have to say Fear Net knocks it out of the park for sure.
"Sigh..."
Anyways, if horror fans are seeking stations that air horror films I would try Showtime Beyond, where I watched The Innkeepers for the first time last night, or Fear Net, which was a station I was watching while staying over a friend's house and saw Waxwork back in 2011 for the first time in years!
So yeah pretty much forget Chiller, it was a promising station, that's slowly begun to rot. And boy...does it stink!
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