Svengoolie’s MeTV December Schedule Has Arrived to Add Some Fright to Your Holiday Season
Chestnuts may be roasting on an open fire, but Svengoolie is dreaming of a fright Christmas this December. And on his MeTV series Svengoolie Classic Horror & Sci-Fi Movie, he’ll be bringing you season’s screamings with airings of spooky favorites — including one double feature!
Read on to find out what he’ll be scaring up on the show this month, every Saturday night at 8pm EST!
Dec. 7: Comedy of Terrors
Everett Collection
Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone are the horror dream team anchoring this 1963 horror comedy, which was also directed by golden age horror auteur Jacques Tournuer and written by I Am Legend author and frequent Twilight Zone scribe Richard Matheson. In it, Price plays an evil funeral home owner out to kill, well, pretty much everybody, but especially his father-in-law (Karloff) and landlord (Rathbone). The film was intended as a follow-up to the similarly comedic The Raven, which had been released earlier in the year and also starred Price, Lorre and Karloff.
Dec. 14: Dinosaurus! and Saturday the 14th
Everett Collection
Get ready for a double bill that will leave you roaring for more! First up, at 8pm, check out 1960’s Dinosaurus! American engineers building on a Caribbean island accidentally wake up two dinos who have been frozen since the Ice Age (as well as one heroic caveman). When the T. Rex begins to unleash his wrath on the islanders, will the engineers (with an assist from a friendly Brontasaurus) be able to stop it? The role of the main engineer was originally written for Steve McQueen, but he passed so that he could make The Magnificent Seven instead (probably a good idea).
New World Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Then, get ready for a screening of Saturday the 14th, hosted by the Sven Squad! In this 1981 horror spoof, couple John and Mary Hyatt (played by real-life couple Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss) inherit a house in Eerie, Pennsylvania. It seems like exactly what their growing family needs … until their son finds a cursed book in the basement that brings evil, classic horror monsters to life! Well, every new house has its problems, right? The film features an early career performance by Jeffrey Tambor as a vampire trying to get his hands on the terrifying tome.
Dec. 21: Phantom of the Opera (1943)
Everett Collection
The second film adaptation of the classic novel stars Claude Rains as the disfigured piano man, who nurses a secret love for Paris Opera House singer Christine and goes to murderous lengths to support her career. This film reuses the original opera house set created for the 1925 Lon Chaney version of the film. One thing the film didn’t reuse — the Chaney family. Lon Chaney Jr. was supposedly unhappy that he was not considered to play the role made famous by his father.
Dec. 28: Blood of Dracula
Everett Collection
And finally, end the year on a bloody note with this 1957 film, which follows innocent teen Nancy, who just wants to start fresh at her new boarding school. But an evil chemistry teacher has other plans — plans that involve turning her into a remorseless bloodsucker! Film studio AIP intended this movie to be a follow-up to I Was a Teenage Werewolf, which had been a hit earlier in the year; it was released as a double feature with the similarly themed I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.
For up-to-date news, you can sign up for Svengoolie’s monthly newsletter here.
Each film airs at 8pm ET on MeTV. Which movie are you looking forward to the most?
Remind 
Frankenstein
October 2024
Frankenstein’s monster has haunted us onscreen for nearly 100 years. Celebrate the O.G. creature in the movies and culture.
Buy This Issue