Yuku free message boards

When I was eight or nine, cable television arrived in my town--but not in my neighborhood, which was sparsely populated and outside the city limits.  In those days, the selling point of cable was improved and consistent reception, not extra channels.  However, the first package offered here did include two channels that we could not get with our antennae.  One was an NBC affiliate from Columbus, GA, perhaps a hundred miles from our town, and the other was an independent Atlanta station, WTCG (soon to be acquired by Ted Turner and turned into TBS).  One always longs for the things one cannot have, and I was sure I was missing something special.  Of course, the Columbus station mostly ran the same stuff our local NBC channel did, but it did have a late night horror movie on Saturdays, "Night Howl Suspense Theater," and WTCG ran "Spider-Man" and "Speed Racer" on weekday afternoons, and "Ultra Man" on Saturday mornings--and my friends made sure to let me know how wonderful these were.

So:  The barbershop to which my mother took me had a television set that was always on.  If we went on a weekday afternoon, there would be some soap opera on, presumably chosen by the manicurist.  If we went on a Saturday morning, however, the set would be turned to whatever movie was on WTCG (we went too late for "Ultra Man").

One day that movie was DR. BLOOD'S COFFIN.  The title, to my young mind, promised thrills and gore galore.  The segment that I was able to see included a long scene of characters discussing medical procedures while standing over a mouldering corpse--a scene that seemed to guarantee something gruesome ahead.  I left the barber shop reluctantly, convinced that I was missing the greatest horror movie ever!

25 years later, I finally saw the whole film.  And, well, it was not exactly worth the wait.  What the others have written is a fair description.  Despite that, I cannot help but think fondly of it when I remember the thrill it once gave me.  Of course, that is not a reason for anyone else to subject himself to it.