Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
American Movie Classics (AMC)'s 1999 MonsterFest was the third such annual marathon. Called "The Biggest Scare Ever!", it also had been the biggest to date, with two-and-a-half days of consecutive monster movie programming; Roger Corman as host and producer of a brand new monster movie for the marathon; a contest to ride in a "She-Creature" hot air balloon; and probably much more I've forgotten.
The 2000 followup, dubbed "The Classics Come Alive," featured the return to AMC of Universal's classic monster films of the '30s and '40s. Universal Studios Hollywood, where many of these films had been shot, also played host to the marathon's interstitial segments. Following Tim Burton ('98) and Corman ('99) as hosts were... Whoopi Goldberg and Linda Blair? Sure, Blair was in "The Exorcist," but neither actress struck me then or now as diehard horror fans. At least the Universal backlot (and King Kong ride interior) helped set the appropriate mood.
Universal also sponsored a tie-in promotion to win tickets to the premiere of 2001's "The Mummy Returns," and AMC also gave away 100 DVD players to the winners of online trivia games. Unfortunately, most of the material between the movies consists of the same few commercials for these contests, plugs for AMC's website and increasingly more advertising... (AMC wasn't yet showing ads during movies, but that would change very soon.) The 1999 MonsterFest had Corman present information about the film before and after each movie, but here, Goldberg and Blair were scarcely seen after the films, and then almost only to remind the audience to check out the AMC website. So while the package of films _may_ have been the best yet (your mileage may vary), the overall presentation didn't quite live up to the previous years, at least in this viewer's opinion.
MonsterFest 2000: The Classics Come Alive ran on AMC from 8 pm October 27 until past sunup on November 1. "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" was the 38th of a whopping 72 movies broadcast during that span!
Originally recorded October 29, 2000 at 2:35 am am EST on EP-mode VHS; transferred in 2025 over S-video from a Mitsubishi HS-U746 VCR to DVD-R on Panasonic DMR-ES15.
American Movie Classics (AMC)'s 1999 MonsterFest was the third such annual marathon. Called "The Biggest Scare Ever!", it also had been the biggest to date, with two-and-a-half days of consecutive monster movie programming; Roger Corman as host and producer of a brand new monster movie for the marathon; a contest to ride in a "She-Creature" hot air balloon; and probably much more I've forgotten.
The 2000 followup, dubbed "The Classics Come Alive," featured the return to AMC of Universal's classic monster films of the '30s and '40s. Universal Studios Hollywood, where many of these films had been shot, also played host to the marathon's interstitial segments. Following Tim Burton ('98) and Corman ('99) as hosts were... Whoopi Goldberg and Linda Blair? Sure, Blair was in "The Exorcist," but neither actress struck me then or now as diehard horror fans. At least the Universal backlot (and King Kong ride interior) helped set the appropriate mood.
Universal also sponsored a tie-in promotion to win tickets to the premiere of 2001's "The Mummy Returns," and AMC also gave away 100 DVD players to the winners of online trivia games. Unfortunately, most of the material between the movies consists of the same few commercials for these contests, plugs for AMC's website and increasingly more advertising... (AMC wasn't yet showing ads during movies, but that would change very soon.) The 1999 MonsterFest had Corman present information about the film before and after each movie, but here, Goldberg and Blair were scarcely seen after the films, and then almost only to remind the audience to check out the AMC website. So while the package of films _may_ have been the best yet (your mileage may vary), the overall presentation didn't quite live up to the previous years, at least in this viewer's opinion.
MonsterFest 2000: The Classics Come Alive ran on AMC from 8 pm October 27 until past sunup on November 1. "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" was the 38th of a whopping 72 movies broadcast during that span!
Originally recorded October 29, 2000 at 2:35 am am EST on EP-mode VHS; transferred in 2025 over S-video from a Mitsubishi HS-U746 VCR to DVD-R on Panasonic DMR-ES15.
