Chiller Theatre (New York)

Chiller Theatre was a Saturday night show on Channel 11 WPIX in New York City that showed classic horror movies.

Chiller Theater actually began on WPIX during 1961 (with the montage of clips discussed post 1965) and in 1963 included Zacherley ("The Cool Ghoul") as the on-air host. However, by 1965, Zacherley left the show, but the show maintained its "Classic Montage Opening" that used a montage of clips from various 1950s sci-fi films. This montage of clips started with the classic scene from Plan 9 from Outer Space with Vampira coming out of the woods. Then, the clip from The Cyclops, showing Actress Gloria Talbot just inside a cave looking at the Cyclops. Various other clips continued throughout the montage, concluding with the classic "goof" from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, with the giant alien from outer space, picking up one brand of car and then shown throwing a completely different brand of car into a ditch. The entire montage was permeated by a frightening library music track ("Horror Upon Horror" by veteran British composer, Wilfred Josephs). Many "Baby Boomers" from this era growing up in the Tri-State Area, have said that this opening provided many nightmares and sleepless nights, forcing some to change the channel when this opening began.

The montage opening served until the late 1960s when another introduction was produced, featuring the word "Chiller" rendered in white paint on a black board, then lifted up, the gooey white paint slowly running down the board like blood while creepy chamber music played in the background. The bumper to this version simply showed the painted "Chiller" as a title card. To get an idea of what this might have looked like, one can view the logo The Chiller Theatre Convention created for its shows that are shown semi-annually in New Jersey. It is not known if this opening was the original, dating from the show's inception or if it was created out of necessity; it has been suggested that the montage opening was dropped in favor of this version since by the late 1960s film studios began to charge television stations royalties for film clips. For some reason, few fans of the show recall this opening, and it is hoped someone can provide more description here.

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