Svengoolie

This nightmare theater is fun. I enjoy everything about that this show. Every part of it is pure entertainment! Reminds me of the fun Friday nights watching Nightmare Theater in the 1970's when I was a kid!

Whether it's a horror classic or a bad one, Svengoolie provides great Saturday night entertainment. The show is full of humor and movie trivia! Go Sven!

At one time I wasn't as crazy in love as I am now about the Svengoolie show but times have changed and in case you haven't notice it, there are not many Horror Hosts left on cable TV! I can tell you where to find many though on the internet and that's at OSI 74 (my favorite of those is Cinema Insomnia with HH, Mr. Lobo). If you compare them all Svengoolie has the biggest budget, the best budget films (his show can afford to pay for the airing rights vs. Public domain movies), and the best writers, he's at the top of the Horror Host game in 2022. BTW, I usually prefer shows like MST3K and Rifftrax but those are not (IMO) Horror Hosts, they are talking DURING the film making jokes (which I love), where as a Horror Host talks and does skits preceding the film and the commercial breaks, not during the film. Plus a horror host usually gives out some trivia which I also love, riffing shows generally do not. There are ALWAYS people on IMdb who rate shows with a host a 1 because all they want to do is watch the film. Case in point, there are many 1 star reviews for MeTVs morning cartoon show, "Tune In With Me", which has a humorous host and cast (I rate it a 10 as well!). Just filter those cranky crazies out and enjoy Svengoolie because once this show is done there isn't much left in the way of horror host shows to watch other then the riffing shows. 10 out of 10!

I was really surprised at the # of negative comments. Is this a great show that shows shows - no but I give it a 10 anyway because it's the kinda of thing I like.

At its core, it's not much different than TCM intro'ing and closing out a movie or MS3K which I also enjoy, but it's uniqueness is what is special.

Are the jokes generally bad - yes, but so bad they're good for those that like that kind of humor. I'd prefer it to have more guests as it's guests are generally really interesting.

So will this appeal to everyone, definitely not. One thing that I think I can safely say is just try and watch one. If you like it, then you'll be generally hooked on the show, but if you don't like it don't try and watch more because you'll not like any others any better.

I'm surprised there aren't more comments here, since probably every horror fan in the suburbs of Chicago grew up aware of Svengoolie. Host Richard Koz employs every trick in the horror host book (and invents a few along the way) to assault the viewer's comic sensibilities between commercial breaks. The humor is terrible and falls along the lines of bad puns, corny song parodies, and rubber chickens catapulted by mysterious off-screen forces. Like all horror hosts worth their salt, Svengoolie seems more satisfied to elicit groans than laughs, but if you're watching movies like Attack of the Puppet People or House of Dracula, you probably don't have enough discretion or self-respect to care anyway. By which I mean, it's all part of the campy charm.

I'm not much a fan of so-bad-they're-good movies, so I tend to watch Svengoolie in thirty-minute increments before losing patience and changing the channel, or leave it on as background ambiance while doing other things, but every so often I get caught up in a film and wind up watching the whole thing. You'd be surprised how good some bad movies actually are, and the movies chosen for the show tend to fall into the category of "misguided" rather than "incompetently made."

My only real complaint about Svengoolie's approach is his extensive use of sound effects (usually audio clips from shows like Animaniacs or The Simpsons) during the film. I find them distracting rather than funny, especially in cases where it takes a moment to determine that they aren't actually part of the film itself. Sometimes the sound effects are kept to a minimum (or not used at all) while in other episodes they splash across the audio landscape with irritating frequency.

But that's a minor complaint. Svengoolie is an interesting Chicagoland curio that keeps alive the schlocky spirit of TV hosts past. Fans of B-grade horror thrills will want to keep an eye on this one.