"Aren't We All Brothers Under The Makeup?"
(originally published on www.countgore.com)

He's the OTHER horror host who wears a red jacket, crazy hat, and evil smirk. We are so alike in so many ways that it has often been observed that we could well be long-lost brothers separated at birth.

At a convention we are the two most likely two be spotted with a vodka bottle in one hand and a Black & Mild in the other. I speak, of course, of New Jersey's one-and-only horror host, Halloween Jack. 

I first met my Brother Jack, as so many of these stories start, through the auspices of Count Gore's grand Horrorhosts Mailing List. Back then he was known --and is still known to many list veterans-- as Eerie Evan. Along with Professor Griffin and Michael Monahan ( later to become Doktor Goulfinger) they made up the core of the self- appointed "historians" of the group. 

The arcane knowledge possessed by any one of these fellows never failed to leave me astounded. The list was young, and even the topic of Night of the Living Dead was still fresh fodder. Opinion and nostalgia abounded in those days, not so long ago. We were all wide-eyed kids-at-heart just discovering that there were others out the LIKE us! 

Eerie Evan and I had spoken casually on the list a few times, when I posted a question about the Jeff Lieberman film Blue Sunshine. Several folks jumped in answering questions and sharing their personal memories of the movie, then a letter popped up in my personal email box from Evan offering to send me a copy of Blue Sunshine still in the original packaging--for free! 

Just one horror fan helping out another. I was blown away by the kindness of this gesture, and even though another dear listmember had already supplied me with a duped copy of the film, I snatched it up in a heartbeat. It is still a prize in my personal vault of favorites. While this was going on, there was quite a swell of interest on the list about starting a "new wave" of hosts. 

Ideas flew back and forth as Mike Ensley transformed into Baron Von Doren, Monahan became the stately Dok Goulfinger, and Eerie Evan borrowed a line from a David Bowie tune to take on the moniker Halloween Jack. Jack, along with co-hosts The Ghastley One (not the GhastlEE One, mind you) and Vanessa Von Helsing created the Eerie Late Night Horror Show. 

It was an interesting project in more ways than one. Since one of the lead characters lived several states away from the other two, much of the interaction between them was done through clever video techniques. I was running our live all-night movies here in Dayton then, and had put out a call for any-and-all hosts interested to send a video greeting or two that we could run in between films. 

The ELNHS was the first to respond, sending me the very FIRST footage to be seen of Jack and the gang anywhere. It was not only a honor to debut the first in this wonderful new crop of hosts, but also a pleasure to be in the theater to bask in the second-hand glow of the crowd's reaction. The greetings they sent, one from each host, tied together with a creepy logo bumper, were all a big hit with the audience. 

The Ghastley Ones' truly dark and scary delivery; Vanessa's seductive vamping; but the standout response was when Halloween Jack hit the screen. From a shadowy hideaway somewhere in the far-off land of New Jersey, here was a fellow that everyone in attendance agreed was cut from the same crimson cloth as your ol' pal Ghastlee. 

While trying oh-so-hard to be scary, he just couldn't resist slipping in the off- color joke or physical gag -- like gagging on a hard-boiled egg/ eyeball and sending chunks of it cascading across his set like a scene from a Roman vomitorium. 

That's my Bro! 

By the next all-night movie excursion, I'd already recieved a couple of ELNHS episodes in the mail to anxiously view and share with my viewers here in the Vast Outback of the Sierra Umphweephwee region of Southwestern Ohio. The footage the gang sent to be used as inserts in our screening of Ray Dennis Steckler's Rat-Phink a Boo-Boo was a sheer work of genius in parody and hosting. Vanessa's life becomes a paranoid living- renactment of the film as The Ghastley One stalks from afar, and Halloween Jack is locked out of the house and left scratching at the window. 

This also marks the first screen appearance, I believe, by Del Amor (aka: Bago Bones!) as a psycho-sidekick. 

Moron that guy in a minute... 

Sadly, this was to be the last we saw of The Eerie Late Night Horror Show. Arising from it's ashes though, or maybe more like a drunk waking up in a puddle of his own sick, was Eerie Evan's Haunted Theater. 

The name was sort of an inside joke, and didn't stick for long (unlike the stench from that recycled MD 20/20 ), and after a couple of episodes was in short-order shortened to simply THE HAUNTED THEATRE. 

With a new crew and cast of characters including Aaron Schwindt as the Mercurial spirit "Silly", Nick Drake as the everyguy who looks vaguely like Marilyn Manson sans makeup, and Del Amor as producer, pizza guy, The Beaver, and the infamous Bago Bones--a miniature skeleton in a top-hat and cape who is the scourge of Halloween Jack, hosts, and freshly-shorn poodles everywhere. 

The creative juices had finally congealed and formed a solid layer of crust. Like the prom-night stain you left on the backseat of your father's Oldsmobile, this show wasn't going away. July, 2001. 

Our last all-night movie adventure at The Neon Movies venue in Dayton. The place had been bought by out-of-towners who thought that a bunch of freaks who love movies and frequent the concession stand were a "bad element". The call went out that if you were ever going to make it to one of these things, the time was now. The night turned out to be a glorious swansong for our all-night schlockathons, and the beginning of a whole new era that was to become the Horror Host Underground. 

Attending the event were, by then regulars, and fellow Ohioans Robin Hershey and her best friend, my ol' pal, Victor; Son of Ghoul crewmember and friend from Gore's list Bob Ferguson made the trip from up North, and my Dayton horror host bretheren Dr. Creep and Dr. Freak made the scene, as always. Making the night a real flashpoint in history though, was the fact that Doctor Gangrene and Chiller Theater associate Chuck Angel drove up from Nashville; Spooky Movie producer (and HHU webmaster-to- be) C. W. Prather made the the long drive here from Northern Virginia; and Halloween Jack and Del/Bago Bones made the even longer drive down from Jersey. 

The founding fathers of the HHU were together in one place for the first time. It was a wild night with friend that is felt like I'd known forever, and by the end we all knew that we had to come up with a way to all work together. We made plans to meet again at the Horrorfind 2001 convention in Baltimore, and in the nearby cemetary where Edgar Allen Poe sleeps the big sleep, the HHU plan officially hatched. 

We would network together, showing each other's programs in our individual areas and opening our markets up to our fellow hosts. We could work together without being in the same place at the same time, similar to what the ELNHS had been doing. Looked like we had ourselves a scheme for world domination-- or at least shameless self-promotion! 

As Producerman Prather kicked into full-blown, think-tank overdrive, Brother Jack and I drank and smoked on the deal. The stage was set for a relationship that would find 'ol C.W. filling dual roles as Webmeister and official den-mother for the HHU. We no doubt smoked and drank to that too--but my memories of that fateful day are a little fuzzy for some reason. 

The Haunted Theatre leaves it's mark on the HHU Dayton audience at least once a month with a new episode, and I still have a stack of 'em that haven't hit our cablewaves yet. Not for lack of trying to air them all, it's just that these guys are so creatively prolific that I can't run 'em quick enough to keep up! Some bits that have really stood out in what's left of my mind have been: 

--The Last Man on Earth episode, inwhich Jack single-handedly hosts, directs, runs camera, gaffs this, grips that, and does a quite frightening impression of Tom Cruise's underwear dance from Risky Business. Aside from the hosting-segs though, this is a reverant screening of the Vincent Price classic, free from those pesky audio/ video drop-in's many of us are prone to use to "enhance" lesser films. 

-- The one I call The Home Invasion Episode. Halloween Jack and Bago Bones show up in a total stranger's bedroom in the middle of the night, interrupting and unsuspecting couple in what may or may not have been an intimate moment. They proceed to plop down on the bed and explain that they don't have a film to show, so they are going to go downstairs and," See what these losers have in their vcr...". Surprise ! The besieged pair have been watching Mario Bava's Black Sabbath! 

-- The Killer Shrews. Jack and Bago Bones are holed up in their "compound", surrounded by suppossed killer shrews. Unlike the film though, these giant rodents look a lot more like stuffed animals than german shepards in rat suits--which could be considered a step-up from the original effects. This episode is a complete riot; great drop- in's as always, and Bago Bones gets thrown to the shrews! 

Of course, they throw him back.

Every installment of The Haunted Theatre offers something just a little different than the last. Running storylines continue to build the characters and fuel their disfunctional interaction, while creative energy is constantly sparking the situations into new directions. The basic driving force though is that the fun these guys have doing their show shines through in every frame. 

It's always a hoot to watch, and an honor to call these guys my friends. Well, after writing this, I feel like callin' Brother Jack and talkin' a little bool-sheet. 

'Til next we swing here on The Gallows, don't let your feet or your bool-sheets flap in the breeze, and check out Halloween Jack and The Haunted Theatre on the "Hosts" page at www.tvhorrorhosts.com ! 

Your ol' pal,

Ghastlee