Halloween in Hollywood is a Barrel of Laughs: TCM You Suck

Horror has been a thoroughly flawed product in this country for a long time.

Part of the problem is our flawed educational system which resists true literature, imaginative thought and overall originality.

Part of the problem is Hollywood.

It was Hollywood that gave us Abbott and Costello Meet the... series and it was Hollywood that gave us Son of ..... series as well ______ meets _______All efforts to take the brands it established in the literary driven films and to bastardize the same for cash.

Cash because a growing population was already being less and less educated.

And yes, part of this problem is definitely us.

We don't demand more. We are lazy. We are trained in linear not layer thought. We also love building up something based on a serious literary work and tearing the same down because we are watch we watch and because we secretly loath intellectual talent.

We don't have a problem with physical talent; throwing a ball, kicking a ball or kneeling before a ball. But we all fear someone with an intellect. Egghead, College Boy, Poindexter, Smart Ass; all original and catchy terms to typify our loathing.

Case in point these annoying TCM Halloween promos with class C actors dressed as the Wolfman, Bride of Frankenstein and Blacula. These inane and insulting promos are demeaning.

These are not cute. These are stupid and also well deserved for a mass audience craving CGI and Animation for their children.

For us in the Horror community you should be incensed. But I know you are not. Our Horror community is over populated with over sexed and over slashed non-story telling hacks.

All as trained by Hollywood films.

The immortal Second City Television used to run a skit where some hicks gave glowing movie reviews to films with things 'blowed up'. It was a joke then. Today it is reality. Today it is Hollywood.

But then again for a society and industry that can't take Harvey Weinstein seriously and applauds Ben Affleck keeping their secrets for decades....

You all deserve each other.

First came the floods, then the censoring of Marilyn Monroe's dress?

I had a few days off from writing anything. My apologies. I was dealing with my real job and the fact my basement flooded from groundwater. Takes time to clean and at the end of it all, (if there is an end since there is more work to be had down there), yesterday, in between bouts of bleaching the floor and battling mold I sat and watched movies.

"Dog Day Afternoon" opened the day with Pacino and Cazale. This is one of my favorites and well, you don't want to know about my viewing habits do you? Really?

As the day trundled by and before I knew it I walked in on Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe in the middle of the "Seven Year Itch". When this movie was made, a lot was made over how Marilyn Monroe would be photographed specifically in her flowing white dress and specifically when she stood over that lucky heating grate.

But most certainly the powers that be, those a-moral people who preach morality and always know what is best for rest of society; who always look out for the peasants' best interests; those people who you later find out are as phony as.... well I could get in trouble this morning, so you know what I mean; those pillars of society who want to keep the rest of us pure from immoral thoughts wanted to keep Marilyn's thighs from our lusty view...

Here is my point and it is more pointed than TCM, or the Hayes code censoring an innocent movie shot; the point being, for whatever purpose, we have always been on the receivership of censorship; whether it is in presentation or the collection of content.

We have always sat as panting lap dogs waiting for someone else to entertain us and tell us what is good and bad for us to see, to read, to eat, drink, etc.

Shrug it off, look beyond their soapbox and understand them for what they are. Your best bet is always to vote your dollar.