Practiced on

Throught the year but especially during the Halloween Season 

Country of Origin 

Los Angeles, California, United States - 1954

Key Points / Halloween Connection

-  Hosts a low budget horror film on tv or the internet usually under the guise of a horror persona and provides facts and trivia about the movie while also providing entertaining skits laced throughout the broadcast

Rink Fact: Mr. Rink and his wife are HUGE Joe Bob Briggs and the Last Drive In fans

Brief Bio

A horror host is a host or presenter of a program where horror films and low-budget B movies are shown on television or the Internet. Usually the host assumes a horror-themed persona, often a campy or humorous one. Generally there are breaks in the film where the host comments on various aspects of the movie. Many horror host shows also include skits involving the hosts themselves, sometimes with a sidekick or other supporting characters.

The first (proto) television horror hostess was Vampira (Maila Nurmi). The Vampira Show featured mostly low budget suspense films, as few horror films had yet been released for television broadcast. It ran from 1954-1955 only in the Los Angeles market, but Nurmi's persona (based on cartoonist Charles Addams's "Morticia" character) would gain fame in magazines, TV, and film. 

In 1957, John Zacherle of Philadelphia's WCAU (and later in other markets) set the standard format for horror hosts with his "Roland" character for the station's Shock Theater. This was made possible due to RKO Pictures' new ownership licensing out the rights to its vast B-movie horror film library. Zacherle's set, style, film commentary, and special effects (such as interjecting his image into the film) were quickly emulated at local stations around the world, and as an homage today by hosts such as the nationally syndicated Svengoolie (Rich Koz).

Each station had its own host and style. Some hosts did regular commercials, while others presented fictional ads for bottled witches' blood. Hosts were often plucked from the ranks of the station staff. In the days of live television, it was not uncommon for the weather man or booth announcer to finish a nightly news broadcast and race madly to another part of the soundstage for a quick costume change to present the evening's monster tale.

While a few early hosts like Roland and Vampira became the icons of this nationwide movement, most hosts were locals. The impact of these friendly revenants on their young fans cannot be underestimated. The earliest hosts are still remembered with great affection today.

Recently there has been a horror host rennessaonce due to a rise of nostalgia for older horror movies stemming from the lack of appeal for many of modern films and the isolation caused by the 2020 pandemic shutdowns where online "group watchings" became social events for many fans of the genre. This "group watch" movement intially centered around horror host Joe Bob Briggs but now come to include other hosts as well as the group viewing of movies where no host is even present.