![]() Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland (1958-1983), played off and fostered not just one resurrection but successive "horror booms," insuring that Boris Karloff's image, stamped on a generation of baby boomers, would remain not only Universal's but the universally recognized monster, the archetype. Shock and its descendants, along with fanzines such as Forrest J. ![]() But among the schlocky sequels were the classics. Introduced by creepily outlandish horror hosts, Shock Theater mocked and celebrated old horror movies as camp. Propelled by this resurrection, along with rock 'n roll and that unique blend of innocence and rebellion that characterized the first so-designated "teenagers," the second horror "boom" became a mild protest against the complacency of the 1950s. ![]() Shock's package of pre-1948 Universal Studios horror films, released for television syndication in October 1957, gave birth to the "midnight TV" phenomenon. ![]() My first and truest cinematic epiphany occurred, like that of many preteens and adolescents of the boomer generation, at a Friday night sleepover watching the 1931 Frankenstein on Shock Theater with a friend who had late-night television privileges on weekends. ![]()
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