GamerTab That was an excellent one.

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Michael_Elliott American Scary (2006) *** (out of 4) Good documentary covering the history of horror hosts in America. Through interviews and clips, we see how this phenomenon started off in just one city and before long they were popping up all over the country. Among the people interviewed are Mike Price (Baron Daemen), Joseph Fotinos (Professor Anton Griffin), Leonard Maltin, Joe Bob Briggs, Jeff Thompson, Donald F. Glut, Maila Nurmi (Vampira), Bob Burns, Forrest J. Ackerman, Tom Savini and John Zacherle. Dozens of other hosts from various cities are also interviewed so more than likely you're going to see your favorite if you grew up with these sort of hosts. I grew up with a couple horror hosts in the late 80s but I think most people my age were just familiar with Joe Bob Briggs and his days on TNT. Those older are the ones that this documentary is really going to hit a core with because they discuss how studios were just starting to open their vaults to TV so these hosts had a whole slew of horror movies to show people. The hosts each talk about what they wanted to do with their cheap sets and what they did or didn't want to do with the movies. A lot of people look at these hosts (and stuff like Mystery Science Theater) as insults to the movies because they cut the films up and sometimes super-imposed themselves into the film. Maltin talks about being a film buff and looking back at some of this stuff and being horrified at what they were doing but he admits that as a kid he loved it. Fans of these hosts are going to love hearing from them after all of these years and if you never got a chance to see them then you're in luck because the documentary is full of clips showing some of their highlights.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- 2006, American Scary, A documentary exploring the horror host TV shows. The TV show subjects covered were primarily from the eastern beltway cities and does not cover the subject well. *Special stars- John Hudgens is the film's director (yawn). *Theme- Horror host can bring back B-movies. *Based on- low cost documentary schlock*Trivia/location/goofs- The director of this documentary is a Star Wars fan video maker for many years. It shows here. Hollywood's Vampira was highlighted.*Emotion- American Scary is so extremely limited or myopic in covering the vast, interesting subject of horror TV hosts. After viewing this documentary, I was left unsatisfied and frustrated. Mr. Hudgen's job of director, editor, and camera person is responsible for this film's terribly slow pacing as to be boring and sleep inducing. Also, there are many more unexplored influential Californian horror hosts of the same time period like: JEEPERS KEEPER- Fred Stuthman, OTTOLA NESMITH, SEYMOUR, aka SINISTER SEYMOUR- Larry Vincent,ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK-Cassandra Peterson, ASMODEUS- Frank Sheridan, GHOULITA- Lietta Harvey,BUTCH PATRICK and IVONNA CADAVER-Butch Patrick and Natalie Popovich, SHRIMPENSTEIN and DR. VON SHTICK- Puppet character worked by Gene Moss as "Dr. Von Shtick". The coverage of this subject matter was shallow and very pedestrian. A much better & more complete documentary is about the horror hosts in Virgina called, "Virgina Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominon", 2009.IMDb LINK: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1524050/combined

FilmEdgeNet I got a chance to see American SCARY at Comic-Con 2007 and was thoroughly impressed and entertained by the film. John Hudgens and Sandy Clark have collected a most impressive treasure of interviews and archival footage of the most notable (and notorious) horror host personalities spanning the decades of the horror host phenomenon.The documentary is a great treat for horror fans who may have been born in the wrong time or the wrong city to have seen classic hosts like Zacherley, Vampira, Ghoulardi of the 1950s and 60s to more contemporary hosts like Elvira, Son of Ghoul and Count Gore De Vol. Unless you're an avid bootleg collector, the video clips and old kinescope transfers may be the first footage you'll see of these monster mavens in action. Even based so much on archival material, the production quality remains excellent throughout.Horror host interviews are well balanced with comments and recollections from many prominent filmmakers, critics and fans including genre historians Forrest J. Ackerman and Bob Burns, makeup artist Tom Savini (the Romero DEAD films), TV host Joel Hodgson (MST3K), Leonard Maltin and many more.With the recent passing of Maila Nurmi (Vampira), this fondly crafted tribute to television horror hosts deserves to be seen and enjoyed by fans everywhere. I hope the filmmakers will release it on DVD soon so its value and quality can be appreciated by all.

pastorZ Many, many years later my childhood memories of Milwaukee horror movie hosts Dr. Cadaverino, Shirley the tarantula and Tolous NoNeck often rivals my memory of the movies themselves.Though none of my childhood horror hosts were included in John Hudgens shockumentary (no surprise considering the hundreds of hours of footage squeezed into this precious 90-minute film), American Scary still brought back a cavalcade of warm memories from my childhood in Milwaukee to watching Son of Svengoolie with my wife and my own children in Chicago.All-in-all, American Scary is a very entertaining and inspiring look at a uniquely American phenomenon: the late-night horror movie hosted by the big kid who never grew up and seems to have forgotten that Halloween only comes but once a year. The inspiration of my local horror hosts has never left me and apparently neither has it left all the others who, inspired by their own local childhood horror hosts, continue to host those same low-budget, z-grade sci-fi and horror movies on cable access TV and on the web; carrying the torch to a new generation.