JERICHO, NY, August 26, 2003 – To celebrate Halloween day, AMC will air an all day movie marathon of HALLOWEEN II-V, featuring the masked madman Michael Myers, during its seventh annual MonsterFest, October 26-31. The network will also premiere the original half-hour special, Short Screamers, hosted by director/author Clive Barker (HELLRAISER, CANDYMAN). Short Screamers is a collection of short horror movies, approximately one minute in length, made by amateur filmmakers especially for this year's MonsterFest. The movie marathon begins at 7:15 am on Halloween day, Friday, October 31, with Backstory: Halloween, AMC's original special about the movie that spawned the popular franchise. Air times are listed below:
HALLOWEEN II (1981): filled with gory helpings of stalk-and-slash, the film's director John Carpenter brings Myers (Donald Pleasance), the homicidal maniac of HALLOWEEN (1978), back into the picture, this time to strew corpses around the hospital where the heroine, Jamie Lee Curtis returning to the role, is receiving treatment. Curtis once again survives, having at last learned that the killer is her little brother who killed their elder sister. Airs at 12:05 pm and 8 pm.
HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1983): in this rendition, Carpenter introduces a new maniac obsessed with All Hallow's Eve. In this film, a mad Irish toy maker (Dan O'Herlihy) intends to restore Halloween to its witch-cult origin by creating deadly destructive toy masks that children clamor for at Halloween. His diabolical revenge on the crass commercialization of Halloween offers high chills and mega screams. Airs at 2:05 pm and 11:30 pm.
HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988): returning to the plot of the original two films in the franchise, psychotic Michael (George P. Wilbur) emerges from a ten-year coma and returns to his killing spree, beginning with his niece (Danielle Harris). In the end, his un-hinged niece takes over, adding a new twist to an old theme. Airs at 8:15 am, 4:05 pm and 1:30 am.
HALLOWEEN 5 (1989): bearing the sub-title The Revenge of Michael Myers, the film opens by revealing that Michael's 9-year-old niece, again played by Danielle Harris, has not followed in his footsteps and killed her stepmother as implied at the end of HALLOWEEN 4. Harris has psychic flashes whenever Michael (Donald Pleasence) is about to kill – and inevitably his masked eye turns to her, with the murderer unsuccessfully trying to carve up his niece. Filled with the mandatory slaughter, make-out and practical joke scenes, HALLOWEEN 5 again is a guarantee to keep you on the edge of your seat. Airs at 10:05 am, 6 pm and 3:30 am.
Short Screamers will premiere at 10 pm. At 10:30 pm, AMC will air the original special, Fang vs. Fiction: The Real Underworld of Vampires and Werewolves, which investigates the reality of vampires and werewolves as seen in the feature film, UNDERWORLD. The show features interviews with historians, paranormal investigators, scientists, eyewitnesses and self- proclaimed vampires and werewolves, and uncovers truths behind the myths and legends of these creatures.
About AMC
AMC is a 24-hour, movie-based network, dedicated to the American movie fan. The network, which reaches over 84,000,000 homes, offers a comprehensive library of popular movies and an increasingly visible, critically- acclaimed, slate of original programming that is a diverse, movie-based mix of original series, documentaries and specials. Over the past three years AMC has garnered many of the industry's highest honors, including eight Emmy awards. AMC is "TV for movie people."
About Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc.
A leader in sports, news and entertainment programming, Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc. is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC). Rainbow owns and manages national networks: AMC, IFC (The Independent Film Channel), WE: Women's Entertainment and Fuse, as well as Mag Rack, a collection of on-demand video magazines. Rainbow's other businesses include its regional programming services — MetroChannels, News 12 Networks and Rainbow Sports Networks — as well as the Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation and Rainbow Network Communications. Rainbow is a 50 percent partner in Fox Sports Net.
*All times Eastern/Pacific.