Does anyone remember the music to WOR TV's Super Natural Theater? It was electronic music by Kid Baltan and Tom Dissvelt of the Netherlands, called the "Moon Maid" (US release) or the European release called "Drifting". The music can be sampled or MP3's purchased on Amazon. This music scared me when I was alone getting ready to watch whatever ch 9 had in store for me on a particular Saturday night. I would ask my Mom to buy TV guide just so I could check out the scary movies for the week.
I hated this promo spot when I was a kid. Every commercial break I to change the channel for 20 seconds. Funny, the movie never scared me but this promo spot did.
Glad to see they're doing Chiller Theatre again every year around Halloween. That and Odd Couple on late Friday/early Saturday at 3am. Wish they didn't pull Honeymooners on Sunday nights.
My boyfriend just told me the hand had six fingers, i had to check. I NEVER knew that! The hand WAS scarier than the movies. I remember covering my eyes with my hands during the intro, the movies never scared me as much. So glad I found it!
Well, I remember one Saturday night in the South Bronx I was watching Chiller Theater (don't remember the episode, & SHOTS RANG OUT ON THE SAME FLOOR THAT I LIVED ON ( TENEMENT BLDG.) NOW THAT'S SCARY !!!!!!!!!!
This part was scarier then the movies. I downloaded this to scare my kids. Some things should never be lost. I also love the six fingers , I told my big sister that the thing had six fingers when we were kids and she said " SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP " Hey Kim F#%K YOU I was right..and I'm gonna scare your kids with this...LMAO
@g17y5wb- The NYC blackout was in 1977, I remember it well- everyone in my apartment building went outside and hung out, getting to know one another. What else could we do? lol
@SuperJingo1, did you live in NYC during any of those big power blackouts? My dad did; I don't know for sure which one, but I think it was around 1976.
hey remember when we as kids use to open the fire hydrants in the summer at nite,and wait for the soft ice cream truck to show up, and hang out on the fireescape and watch or listen to chiller movies,trying to stay cool on those real humid nyc nites, remember the long lines to see Jaws or the exorcist or the towering inferno.what a timne.
Man I used to get nitemares with this Mom would only let us watch this once in a blue moon. this and creature feature wow,those were the days huh.what a difference compared to today.
Yeah, the hand has six fingers. Count em all :) I'm from Florida, but apparently Jiffy Pop is big in the northeast, especially in advertising. I've seen another show out of New York that was sponsored by Jiffy Pop.
LOVE this program! I never forgot the hand and old tree and how it picked up multiple lettera at once. I still watch those old movies. Would be cool if they ran this again.
freeky scary as a child of the 1970's watching this on wpix 11 alive from fairfield county, connecticut in bridgeport. we recieved the signal from nyc back in the day. our pre cable days with rabbit ears attennas.lol.
The freakin hand & sound effects were always SO much scarier than the movies. Gave me nightmares as a kid in Bklyn. Funny to watch now though! Thanks for posting.
Today's television is complete modern dad reality tv shit. Channels like Syfy and Chiller became nothing more that channels who play shitty television shows that aren't even scary. If they would play more Scary and Classic movies than shows, the rating would improve overnight. This mostly goes to Chiller.
@johnissoevil They did bring it back, but it was a mix of Chiller Theater and Shocktober. They showed 4 movies over 2 nights the 30th and 31st. WPIX has been doing this since 2008 with the celebration of it's 60th anniversary. I think 2010 was the best year so far. Hopefully the network will air it weekly someday instead of once a year.
@coolwafferman Sweet. I just recently regained access to WPIX via the Dish Network Superstations package 3 years after moving from NJ to northwest PA. Looking forward to seeing it this year.
Thanks for posting this! Brings back memories. Whenever I think of New York I think of John Moran and his neighbor Saori, creepiest thing I 've ever seen there
I just remember being a little girl...me & my brother used to hide behind the couch cushions hoping the hand wouldn't pick us up & eat us like it did the letters LOL :)
@raivenneny Oh yeah, those were the days weren't they? Chiller, Jiffy Pop popcorn, Coke and Pepsi in glass bottles, and Saturday night monster movies.
By any chance, did you also get to watch "Creature Features" on WNEW 5? That was another mainstay of the Saturday night horror buffet we youngsters got to enjoy :-)
I lived right outside Allentown PA in the mid 70s when I was a young child, but nonetheless we still got New York's channel 11 WPIX and channel 9 WWOR, and I recall how seeing this spot scared me something fierce....
I love it! I, too, grew up in New York during the 70's and remember this intro on Saturday nights. Movies like 'The Killer Shrews', 'The Giant Claw', 'I was a Teenage Frankenstein', 'The Tingler', and many, many others were presented on Chiller. But I remember making sure I was at the tv for it's opening! That hand! It wasn't the same if you missed the opening!
I remember this opening when i was a kid back in the 1970's on WPIX Channel 11 New York city. This was very scary segmeant but it showed good classic movies. Thanks for the memories.
uh duh,just watched this video and realized in the hand had 6 fingers.Wow !!! 40 years and just realized.I'm madder than a one legged waitress working at the ihop.
As a kid this use to scared the crap out of me, and the funny thing is I had a dream about this damm thing last night, and when I woke up I had to see if it was on "You Tube". Wow to think 35 years ago something as simple as a hand coming up eating letters and going back in the ground would scare so many of us. The power of suggestion!
That was LAME. Check out the intro for Creature Double Feature in Boston, then tell me which one is better. At least we had old school monsters and Japanese kaiju in our intro. lol
@boofdfast I've seen that opening, it's pretty neat, although the announcer could have been a bit more creative, as well as some of the music. Pretty good though, and fits in with the style of the times.
Chiller never had daikaiju in their openings, but it did show movies like "War Of The Gargantuas" and the AIP American versions of the Godzilla movies. All in all we were lucky that we had TV monsters at all, now matter what the openings looked like. They were the best days!
@Shawnster65 Yea, is it me or was programming more enjoyable, back in the day? We had old school kaiju movies and kickass kung fu flicks back then. Nowadays, all we have are GAYASS reality shows. Aww well. lol
oh man. i remembered this golden oldy classic intro in my childhood 1970's. brings back memories. back then it was 11 alive. showing new york yankees baseball also.
@terrondt Yeah baby! I was in NJ at the time and we used to get NY programming all the time. Do you remember WNEW 5's "Creature Features"? That was Chiller's main competitor.
I miss these days like I miss no other. Aurora monster kits, Mego action figures, Jiffy Pop, and having my family around me to watch monster movies with. Times change, as well as the people\relatives that vome and go in your life, but the memories burn as bright as if they were just yesterday.
@Shawnster65 yeah. remember monster week on channel 7 new york. 4:30pm movie. after school i get to see godzilla flicks ect.... them were the days. now im 40 and seeing these clips are great.
@terrondt Oh yeah, Monster Week on ABC's 4:30 Movie. It was there that I first got to see one of my fave Japanese movies, "Frankenstein Conquers The World." As well, I got to see it's sequel "War Of The Gargantuas" on Chiller Theatre. And as always, some great times unlike no other.
@jb68025 Yeah this thing still gives me butterflies in my stomach !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm 44 !!!!!! Scared the crap out of me when I was a kid, my father used to laugh his ass off watching me run for the fucking hills !!!!!!!!!!!
@smczack1 I never got scared by the Hand, actually I was fascinated by it.
What DID scare me, was at that time in movie history, WPIX would use the commercial breaks to show TV spots for some of the horror movies that were floating around at that time, like "Beyond The Door" which scared me badly as
a kid.
Less scarier (and even cooler) TV spots were for Romero's "Dawn Of The Dead" and Fulci's "Zombie" aka Zombi 2. But all in all, those were great days.
@smczack1 Yeah, Beyond The Door scares me to this day...I have chiils going down my spine right now..there was something truly evil in it's feeling. Of the many Exorcist ripoffs, this one was the one that took the cake. A bit slow in some parts, but that's Italian horror for you, it makes up in the end for what it lacks during the whole movie, and if you blink once, you miss just about everything (including tall he nude women Italian movies had to offer, LOL)
Amazing! This damn thing still manages to connect to my brain after all of these years! It's like I'm not a grown man when I watch and hear this intro, I'm a kid all over again.
Like the rest of you, my father ALSO enjoyed watching my reactions to the opening! LOL! His voice was so deep and powerful, so replicating the intro voice was no problem for him at all.
If anyone touched me while this thing was going on you have watched me launch from the chair I was sitting in like a rocket!
Still creepy to this day for me! I miss the old days...scared or not, TV was worth watching. I could watch whatever movie that was showing, but I could never watch this intro.
My dad used to scare the shit out of me when he sneaked into my room, creep up on the floor along the side of my bed, then raise his hand just like the into while saying "CHILLER"! Could never get back to sleep..LOL!
lol drshagstein we told my cousin that the hand on Chiller would come out of the toilet.He got petrified and was peeing and pooping out the window.He got caught and told on us.I was gounded for a month.
@wannabenj Now THAT'S a Chiller memory, LOL I bet you look back one with a laugh or two. As well, takes a lot to come forward with a story like that, hehehe. Good one.
Even better, is that we had Chiller and creature Features at all. Truly, if I had a time machine, this would be the time I would go back to (as well as the 80's ;-) )
Shawnster, 1st....need you to take me off FriendBlock so I can post longer missives to you directly.
2nd....I was another guy who didn't know the hand was reddish until 1976 or so. We only had B&W TV's until the October '76 World Series.
3rd...yes, those of us in NY-NJ-CT took for granted the great site-lines and strong reception. 7 channels in the NY area...went to college in Upstate NY in 1980.....2-3 channels during the day, 1 an old staticky UHF. And 1 channel after 11:00 PM !
where did you go to school in upstate? I lived in Plattsburgh and watched Chiller theater when I was about 6. Seriously F'ed me up and made my nightmares worse :).
Buitoni toaster pizzas ? GIVE THAT MAN A PRIZE !! Man, whatever happened to them....in fact, what the heck ever happened to Buitoni !!?? Seems like a name that you wonder if it ever existed...like BOHACK grocery stores in NYC that my grandmother used to walk to with that stroller-carrier to carry the bags back home.
Yep, this NJ boy remembers seeing the commercials for Bohack on channel 5.
"Bohack-The Meat People" was their slogan. And yes, whatever DID happen to Buitoni and their toaster pizzas?
With us it was Celentano pizza in the box, but we also had our share of Buitoni toaster pizzas too.
I thank God for having great reception in NJ as well as the rotary antenna that let us home in on NY programming. It was clear as a bell. I'd have never seen Chiller OR Creature Features!
Another guy who never knew the hand had 6 fingers...I think someone told me in the 1990's !!!!! I watched the show all the time in the 1960's/1970's and never noticed it had 6 fingers. Was too scared and making sure the lights were on during the intro to count 'em !!
zl1vette427 - funny thing is that until I just saw it here NOW, never knew the hand was in color. DUH, we were lucky 2 have a TV period, let alone "what" color. I knew it had 6 fingers cause I always tried counting them b4 the hand sunk & I would almost poop my pants at the sound of that "voice/music". Dang, life was sweet back then! I would've never remembered Buitoni, but dang, I'm totally traumatized by those fk'n dinky metal carriers. 8:23 pm Feb.13 2010
There's some other sound FX thrown in there too if I remember right, like some sort of pulsating, whistling sound as the hand goes back into the blood.
This was a great part of my upbringing for sure..as was Jiffy Pop, Celentano pizza, and Coke and Pepsi in old style glass bottles as they served it back in the day.
I also had my Aurora monster kits, the old pulps like Weird and Tales From The Tomb, and WNEW 5 Creature Features that we used to wind up turning to during commercials!
I am SOOOO glad I wasn't the only wuss that was scared to death of this!! I always tell my kids about it and I don't think they ever believed me. Now I can show them!!
@nancybl you're so right... I used to wonder what was wrong with that hand, but it scared me so much I never had the nerve to look at it long enough to figure it out! LOL
Strange, I don't remember it being so red and I thought the tree was on the other side. But the sound is what really creeped me out. That speeding up thing. I not only had to close my eyes but I had to plug my ears at the end of every commercial.
wow! this part was what kept you watching some of the crappy movies they would show! Thanks for posting this awesome intro, and they would play it after commercials also to keep you interested at 2 am when your eyes were telling you you needed to sleep!
My sister would freak when this came on- so much so that me and my other sister would get scared too and we'd all run out of the room. Great memories!
This opening was used into the mid- eightys. I rember sitting w/my horror movie fan older brother missing the Emergancy reruns & being forced to watch the bad movies the showed..lol.
I was born in '74 & remember this! So if it started in teh 60s it definitely went to at LEAST the mid to late 70s (that I was old enough to remember).
My mom still remembers this opening...she always says "chillerrrrrr" when she remembers it...I HAVE to show her this! Thanks for posting!!!
I was drawn to this clip because it was in the film "Idle Hands". Anton is watching TV while wrestling with his posessed hand and this clip is part of the montage. Very creepy indeed and thanks for posting. BTW Plese go to my profile and check out my own TV show "Countrockula's Theater for the Insane!" I have started it up again and just put together a new opening montage
......yeah, and channel 9 had Supernatural Theatre on Saturday nights at 7:30--Chiller came on at 8---only a handful of channels but some tough choices..........
You speak of a true dilemma, MajorSecord..we had the same problem.
What were we gonna' watch and how long would it hold our attention span when other monsters were on the attack at other TV stations? Was it gonna' be Creature Features, or Chiller?
And later on in the 70's we had WOR 9's Fright Night that we'd try to work in between the All Nighter that Creatures Features had from 12-6 before it went off the air.
9 also had Science Fiction Theatre @ 4:30 pm Monday-Friday and 11:30 am on Sundays. I remember they used to show the Universal and RKO flicks that Creature Features left over. I remember they showed Dead Man's Eyes with Lon Chaney, Jr., but except for the acid in the eyes scene it was more of a murder mystery.
I only recall "Science Fiction Theater" on Saturday afternoons during the early '70s, jb20092009. I remember "4 D Man" and "The Blob" as two of the titles that they aired. Are you thinking of "Thriller Theater" (early '70s) instead or did WOR air a "Science Fiction Theater" during the '60s, too?
Nope, 9 did air SFT from, as far as I remember, 1967-1974, the last 2 years being shown on Saturday afternoons. Before that, it used to rival The 4:30 Movie on Channel 7; in fact, on that particular day DME rivaled Elvis' Love Me Tender. I mean, go figure!!!!
I didn't realize SFT was on during the late '60s weekdays or that it actually had fine ratings. Thanks for that tidbit, jb.
As for weekdays during the '70s, "Thriller Theater" was on at 4:30 PM for 1971-72. "Blockbuster Movie" followed that until around '75, when "The 4 O'Clock Movie" began it's long run.
LOL! Believe me, Pauly, you weren't alone. I can't tell you how many times as a kid I took this frickin' hand to bed with me - how I'd be afraid to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night because I kept imagining this hand grabbing me by the ankles from underneath my bed as soon as my feet hit the floor.
U n' Pauly ain't the only 1's that were scared. I wuz,2 scared of that hand wit' six fingerz ev'ry Saturday nite n' the whole 9. were u 2 also scared of the Creature Feature intr by the way it sounded?
@drshagstein ZOMFG! ^This. This is the first time in over 35 years that I've seen this, and I just got exactly the same hair-crawling-off-my-scalp feeling that I got as a child... early impressions are indeed hard to erase! :p I used to fret over what happened to the letters it grabbed... did it - EAT THEM?!?! Certainly more impactful than Sesame Street.
I LOVED Celentano pizza...Remember the Buitoni toaster pizzas? Anyway..Chiller was THE show, especially if you wanted to sleep with the lights on as a kid.
I looked for this on youtube 2 years ago and didn't find it. Finally it's up. Thanks for posting. I've been wanting to show my kids what i used to watch when I was a kid growing up in Queens.
Does anyone remember the music to WOR TV's Super Natural Theater? It was electronic music by Kid Baltan and Tom Dissvelt of the Netherlands, called the "Moon Maid" (US release) or the European release called "Drifting". The music can be sampled or MP3's purchased on Amazon. This music scared me when I was alone getting ready to watch whatever ch 9 had in store for me on a particular Saturday night. I would ask my Mom to buy TV guide just so I could check out the scary movies for the week.
kdegru 12 hours ago
Was this opening animation done with claymation? Did Art Clockey (Gumby and Davey & Goliath fame) do it by any chance?
kdegru 13 hours ago
I hated this promo spot when I was a kid. Every commercial break I to change the channel for 20 seconds. Funny, the movie never scared me but this promo spot did.
jcisgod98 5 days ago
I remember this!! Wow, it brings back memories.
nanceenurse 3 weeks ago
when did they show this?
MrCraigblaze 1 month ago
Is this still the intro for Chiller Theater? Does it even *run* anymore? LOL
tall32guy 1 month ago
My mother used to talk about this.
Quamlen 2 months ago
Sounds like Hommer.
damselnlace44 2 months ago
Glad to see they're doing Chiller Theatre again every year around Halloween. That and Odd Couple on late Friday/early Saturday at 3am. Wish they didn't pull Honeymooners on Sunday nights.
johnissoevil 3 months ago
OK, it has six fingers. I have vague memories of this, and that it scared me a LOT when I was a kidling.
megarouge2001 3 months ago
My boyfriend just told me the hand had six fingers, i had to check. I NEVER knew that! The hand WAS scarier than the movies. I remember covering my eyes with my hands during the intro, the movies never scared me as much. So glad I found it!
SabrinaD18 4 months ago 4
WPIX kicked ass growing up. Chiller, Odd Couple, Crazy Eddie commercials, Welcome Back Kotter, Yule Log, PIX video game, etc.
718alterego 5 months ago 2
@718alterego
I TOTALLY forgot about the Yule Log until you brought it up. LMAO Yes!!!
cephusjones 1 month ago
Well, I remember one Saturday night in the South Bronx I was watching Chiller Theater (don't remember the episode, & SHOTS RANG OUT ON THE SAME FLOOR THAT I LIVED ON ( TENEMENT BLDG.) NOW THAT'S SCARY !!!!!!!!!!
BlackIce20201 5 months ago
This part was scarier then the movies. I downloaded this to scare my kids. Some things should never be lost. I also love the six fingers , I told my big sister that the thing had six fingers when we were kids and she said " SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP " Hey Kim F#%K YOU I was right..and I'm gonna scare your kids with this...LMAO
WillClyde 5 months ago
This scared me so much when I was 10 or 11, I didn't notice until years later that the hand had 6 fingers. Thanks for posting.
sanfrancisco89 6 months ago
@sanfrancisco89 me too
muggledon1 3 months ago
I want this theme song played at my wake. When the music starts I want a pnuematic pump to sit me up in the casket. Good for a few chuckles.
Spartacus217 6 months ago
I remember being scared as hell watching this before the movie. Thanks for the memories!!
TVJ41262 6 months ago
@g17y5wb- The NYC blackout was in 1977, I remember it well- everyone in my apartment building went outside and hung out, getting to know one another. What else could we do? lol
jackmioff100 6 months ago
Remember this scaring the crap out of me when I was a young kid back then.
mrceebees14 6 months ago
@SuperJingo1, did you live in NYC during any of those big power blackouts? My dad did; I don't know for sure which one, but I think it was around 1976.
g17y5wb 7 months ago
hey remember when we as kids use to open the fire hydrants in the summer at nite,and wait for the soft ice cream truck to show up, and hang out on the fireescape and watch or listen to chiller movies,trying to stay cool on those real humid nyc nites, remember the long lines to see Jaws or the exorcist or the towering inferno.what a timne.
SuperJingo1 7 months ago
@SuperJingo1 it was wonderful time. Grow up in Woodside/Jackson Heights Queens in 1977, the most important year in my life.
zilch77 5 months ago
Man I used to get nitemares with this Mom would only let us watch this once in a blue moon. this and creature feature wow,those were the days huh.what a difference compared to today.
SuperJingo1 7 months ago
I remember this well. From NYC also. Kid of the 70's.
kzfive 7 months ago
Yeah, the hand has six fingers. Count em all :) I'm from Florida, but apparently Jiffy Pop is big in the northeast, especially in advertising. I've seen another show out of New York that was sponsored by Jiffy Pop.
70SixtyTen 7 months ago
Very creepy. Was that six fingers on the hand?
RavenHouseMystery 8 months ago
Wow I thought I was the only one that was scared of this intro when I was a kid lol! Thanks guys for sharing the nostalgia lol!
TheMediaAnarchist 8 months ago
Brings back memories! But in all the times I saw this as a kid, I just NOW noticed that the hand has six fingers!
Lymehouse 8 months ago
memories
simonpheenix 9 months ago
LOVE this program! I never forgot the hand and old tree and how it picked up multiple lettera at once. I still watch those old movies. Would be cool if they ran this again.
Seagull1469 9 months ago
freeky scary as a child of the 1970's watching this on wpix 11 alive from fairfield county, connecticut in bridgeport. we recieved the signal from nyc back in the day. our pre cable days with rabbit ears attennas.lol.
terrondt 9 months ago
This Chiller intro freaked me out back in the 70's as a kid and still does!But ya gotta love it!LOL
WOLF10307 9 months ago
My childhood has been re-born! Kathy Pellegrino Valley Stream New York....
kathypell 10 months ago
Also there was Dr. Witty on one of the Syracuse station
KestrelDrums1 10 months ago
OUTSTANDING! I COULD NEVER GET ENOUGH EVERY SAT NIGHTS 11.PM
DUNGEONMASTERSEXPO 11 months ago
The freakin hand & sound effects were always SO much scarier than the movies. Gave me nightmares as a kid in Bklyn. Funny to watch now though! Thanks for posting.
bhallmark 11 months ago
wow, brings back great memories!
cheezomlet 11 months ago
Today's television is complete modern dad reality tv shit. Channels like Syfy and Chiller became nothing more that channels who play shitty television shows that aren't even scary. If they would play more Scary and Classic movies than shows, the rating would improve overnight. This mostly goes to Chiller.
MrHorrorking13 11 months ago
Didn't they bring back Chiller theater for one night when they changed the branding back from "CW 11" to "PIX 11?"
johnissoevil 1 year ago
@johnissoevil They did bring it back, but it was a mix of Chiller Theater and Shocktober. They showed 4 movies over 2 nights the 30th and 31st. WPIX has been doing this since 2008 with the celebration of it's 60th anniversary. I think 2010 was the best year so far. Hopefully the network will air it weekly someday instead of once a year.
coolwafferman 9 months ago
@coolwafferman Sweet. I just recently regained access to WPIX via the Dish Network Superstations package 3 years after moving from NJ to northwest PA. Looking forward to seeing it this year.
johnissoevil 9 months ago
OMG this is great. I remember this as a kid. LOVE IT. GREAT post.
bronxman4u2000 1 year ago
Thanks for posting. Just as i remembered it! Reminds me of staying up late just to watch this.
nerdy989898 1 year ago
The 4 dislikes are scurred!
Kingrob30 1 year ago
It still creeps me out 30 years later.
AstroMayan 1 year ago
This Chiller Intro use to scare the hell out of me growing up.Thanks for posting it
WOLF10307 1 year ago
Thanks for posting this! Brings back memories. Whenever I think of New York I think of John Moran and his neighbor Saori, creepiest thing I 've ever seen there
MrMrhenry1000 1 year ago
hell im 53...and it still scares the do.do...out of me...lol
darrylhaynes 1 year ago
AMC and Monster TV bring you back Chiller Theatre
Anonx82 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
this is great
Anonx82 1 year ago
this is great
Anonx82 1 year ago
I just remember being a little girl...me & my brother used to hide behind the couch cushions hoping the hand wouldn't pick us up & eat us like it did the letters LOL :)
raivenneny 1 year ago
@raivenneny Oh yeah, those were the days weren't they? Chiller, Jiffy Pop popcorn, Coke and Pepsi in glass bottles, and Saturday night monster movies.
By any chance, did you also get to watch "Creature Features" on WNEW 5? That was another mainstay of the Saturday night horror buffet we youngsters got to enjoy :-)
Shawnster65 1 year ago
This is just awesome! I wish WPIX would air it often. For the older fans! We would watch the station more often!
MZVIRB 1 year ago
The Wikipedia article says this opening was scarier than the movies WPIX chose to air. For the most part that's exactly right. Good stuff!
darrell31316 1 year ago
does anyone remember the skeleton lady commercial??????? scariest commercial of all time
daniellechristian7 1 year ago
I lived right outside Allentown PA in the mid 70s when I was a young child, but nonetheless we still got New York's channel 11 WPIX and channel 9 WWOR, and I recall how seeing this spot scared me something fierce....
HemmHon 1 year ago
I love it! I, too, grew up in New York during the 70's and remember this intro on Saturday nights. Movies like 'The Killer Shrews', 'The Giant Claw', 'I was a Teenage Frankenstein', 'The Tingler', and many, many others were presented on Chiller. But I remember making sure I was at the tv for it's opening! That hand! It wasn't the same if you missed the opening!
hairyhand 1 year ago
Yes, yes, yes. I loved this New York WPIX midnight then a scary ass movie. Ah being a kid in NY was great...
DirkNader 1 year ago
It reminds me of the work of Bruce Bickford who worked with Frank Zappa on the Baby Snakes movie doing clay animation.
thatmuse76 1 year ago
sounds like Ralph Lowenstein - old WPIX announcer - saying "CHILLERRR"
pjgraves1975 1 year ago
I remember this opening when i was a kid back in the 1970's on WPIX Channel 11 New York city. This was very scary segmeant but it showed good classic movies. Thanks for the memories.
alijn7 1 year ago
@alijn7 I think this one was actually from the 80's. It was pretty creepy!
TargetRender 1 year ago
WWWWOWWWWWWWWWWWW................yo i was like freakin what 8 years old???
demonkai76 1 year ago
I have chills up my spine right now as I just finished watching this! This freaked me out as a kid - just the OPENING part!!
This and the commercial for Suspiria. "Roses are red...etc." when the girl brushing her beautiful hair turns around & has a skull face.
Amazing what you remember as a kid - it must've had quite an affect on me - and a lot of other folks too, judging from the comments. I am chilly.
guitarbrad 1 year ago
this creeps me out to this day. No matter how bad the movie was, as a kid, it was all about the hand.
tncinoc 1 year ago
uh duh,just watched this video and realized in the hand had 6 fingers.Wow !!! 40 years and just realized.I'm madder than a one legged waitress working at the ihop.
I wish they would bring that back.
wannabenj 1 year ago
God does this bring back memories, saturday morning where my favorite back then
I loved it.
readynow12345 1 year ago
not here in L.A...
darrylhaynes 1 year ago
OMG I remember this it used to scare the sh** outta me !!
lwaaaaaa1229 1 year ago
Can you imagine seeing that on acid?
Monkeyhead1986 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
As a kid this use to scared the crap out of me, and the funny thing is I had a dream about this damm thing last night, and when I woke up I had to see if it was on "You Tube". Wow to think 35 years ago something as simple as a hand coming up eating letters and going back in the ground would scare so many of us. The power of suggestion!
alquattlebaum 1 year ago
That was LAME. Check out the intro for Creature Double Feature in Boston, then tell me which one is better. At least we had old school monsters and Japanese kaiju in our intro. lol
boofdfast 1 year ago
@boofdfast I've seen that opening, it's pretty neat, although the announcer could have been a bit more creative, as well as some of the music. Pretty good though, and fits in with the style of the times.
Chiller never had daikaiju in their openings, but it did show movies like "War Of The Gargantuas" and the AIP American versions of the Godzilla movies. All in all we were lucky that we had TV monsters at all, now matter what the openings looked like. They were the best days!
Shawnster65 1 year ago
@Shawnster65 Yea, is it me or was programming more enjoyable, back in the day? We had old school kaiju movies and kickass kung fu flicks back then. Nowadays, all we have are GAYASS reality shows. Aww well. lol
boofdfast 1 year ago
oh man. i remembered this golden oldy classic intro in my childhood 1970's. brings back memories. back then it was 11 alive. showing new york yankees baseball also.
terrondt 1 year ago
@terrondt Yeah baby! I was in NJ at the time and we used to get NY programming all the time. Do you remember WNEW 5's "Creature Features"? That was Chiller's main competitor.
I miss these days like I miss no other. Aurora monster kits, Mego action figures, Jiffy Pop, and having my family around me to watch monster movies with. Times change, as well as the people\relatives that vome and go in your life, but the memories burn as bright as if they were just yesterday.
Shawnster65 1 year ago
@Shawnster65 yeah. remember monster week on channel 7 new york. 4:30pm movie. after school i get to see godzilla flicks ect.... them were the days. now im 40 and seeing these clips are great.
terrondt 1 year ago
@terrondt Oh yeah, Monster Week on ABC's 4:30 Movie. It was there that I first got to see one of my fave Japanese movies, "Frankenstein Conquers The World." As well, I got to see it's sequel "War Of The Gargantuas" on Chiller Theatre. And as always, some great times unlike no other.
Shawnster65 1 year ago
@Shawnster65 i love you
Pixiegirl6 1 year ago
@Pixiegirl6 I love you too, but you ain't gettin' my Bud Light, because I don't drink, LOL
Shawnster65 1 year ago
it's funny now, but this hand scared the crap out of me when i was a kid...
XxValentine95Xx 1 year ago
this is actually really funny, and I'm still a kid, how is the hand eating the letters?
wearefictional 1 year ago
Takes me back to Saturday night!!!!
TheChiwhiz 1 year ago
i would haul ass outta the room when this came on. scared the shit outta me.
jb68025 1 year ago
@jb68025 Yeah this thing still gives me butterflies in my stomach !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm 44 !!!!!! Scared the crap out of me when I was a kid, my father used to laugh his ass off watching me run for the fucking hills !!!!!!!!!!!
smczack1 1 year ago
@smczack1 I never got scared by the Hand, actually I was fascinated by it.
What DID scare me, was at that time in movie history, WPIX would use the commercial breaks to show TV spots for some of the horror movies that were floating around at that time, like "Beyond The Door" which scared me badly as
a kid.
Less scarier (and even cooler) TV spots were for Romero's "Dawn Of The Dead" and Fulci's "Zombie" aka Zombi 2. But all in all, those were great days.
Shawnster65 1 year ago
@Shawnster65 Great times indeed. I forgot about the friggin' Beyond the Door movie, scared the hell out of me too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
smczack1 1 year ago
@smczack1 Yeah, Beyond The Door scares me to this day...I have chiils going down my spine right now..there was something truly evil in it's feeling. Of the many Exorcist ripoffs, this one was the one that took the cake. A bit slow in some parts, but that's Italian horror for you, it makes up in the end for what it lacks during the whole movie, and if you blink once, you miss just about everything (including tall he nude women Italian movies had to offer, LOL)
Shawnster65 1 year ago
@Shawnster65 I just watched the trailer for Beyond the Door on you tube, It still gives me the F' in creeps !!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing
smczack1 1 year ago
Amazing! This damn thing still manages to connect to my brain after all of these years! It's like I'm not a grown man when I watch and hear this intro, I'm a kid all over again.
Like the rest of you, my father ALSO enjoyed watching my reactions to the opening! LOL! His voice was so deep and powerful, so replicating the intro voice was no problem for him at all.
If anyone touched me while this thing was going on you have watched me launch from the chair I was sitting in like a rocket!
VRmission38 1 year ago
Still creepy to this day for me! I miss the old days...scared or not, TV was worth watching. I could watch whatever movie that was showing, but I could never watch this intro.
My dad used to scare the shit out of me when he sneaked into my room, creep up on the floor along the side of my bed, then raise his hand just like the into while saying "CHILLER"! Could never get back to sleep..LOL!
EDDSMITTY1 1 year ago
That wuz the most scariest shit I have ever seen. A hand wit' six fuckin' fingerz comin' out a swamp devourin' all seven letterz? Shit,man.
oldschoolbx1970 1 year ago
...when did this air,..what year?
njersey75devil 1 year ago
wow! tI still can't get that view or sound out of my head.
MsGloww 1 year ago 3
This brings back.......Some Good old memories...
Davofl 1 year ago
Oh man I remember this scaring me every time it came on. I'm going to show this to my brother. He will get a kick out of remembering this.
Turdchute 1 year ago 2
lol drshagstein we told my cousin that the hand on Chiller would come out of the toilet.He got petrified and was peeing and pooping out the window.He got caught and told on us.I was gounded for a month.
wannabenj 1 year ago 2
@wannabenj Now THAT'S a Chiller memory, LOL I bet you look back one with a laugh or two. As well, takes a lot to come forward with a story like that, hehehe. Good one.
Even better, is that we had Chiller and creature Features at all. Truly, if I had a time machine, this would be the time I would go back to (as well as the 80's ;-) )
Shawnster65 1 year ago
i remember this scaring the crap out of me when I was a kid in NYC
LITEBRITE65 1 year ago 20
@LITEBRITE65 Lol I just posted the exact same statement on the other chiller video. Yeah this used to freak me out! lol
nemoism 1 year ago
@LITEBRITE65 HELL YEAH ME 2!!!
TonyChase 7 months ago
The opening for Chiller Theater was the best! Loved watching those scary movies growing up.
phyzzique 1 year ago 19
@phyzzique What about the Creature Feature opening from when it was on after Soul Train?
oldschoolbx1970 1 year ago
Chillout Music
/watch?v=EHDupXAm21Q
FANTAftCOLA 1 year ago
I believe Micheal Jackson got the idea for Thriller for this intro.
williewill037 1 year ago
Shawnster, 1st....need you to take me off FriendBlock so I can post longer missives to you directly.
2nd....I was another guy who didn't know the hand was reddish until 1976 or so. We only had B&W TV's until the October '76 World Series.
3rd...yes, those of us in NY-NJ-CT took for granted the great site-lines and strong reception. 7 channels in the NY area...went to college in Upstate NY in 1980.....2-3 channels during the day, 1 an old staticky UHF. And 1 channel after 11:00 PM !
zl1vette427 1 year ago
where did you go to school in upstate? I lived in Plattsburgh and watched Chiller theater when I was about 6. Seriously F'ed me up and made my nightmares worse :).
pavo6503 1 year ago
Buitoni toaster pizzas ? GIVE THAT MAN A PRIZE !! Man, whatever happened to them....in fact, what the heck ever happened to Buitoni !!?? Seems like a name that you wonder if it ever existed...like BOHACK grocery stores in NYC that my grandmother used to walk to with that stroller-carrier to carry the bags back home.
zl1vette427 1 year ago
Yep, this NJ boy remembers seeing the commercials for Bohack on channel 5.
"Bohack-The Meat People" was their slogan. And yes, whatever DID happen to Buitoni and their toaster pizzas?
With us it was Celentano pizza in the box, but we also had our share of Buitoni toaster pizzas too.
I thank God for having great reception in NJ as well as the rotary antenna that let us home in on NY programming. It was clear as a bell. I'd have never seen Chiller OR Creature Features!
Shawnster65 1 year ago
Another guy who never knew the hand had 6 fingers...I think someone told me in the 1990's !!!!! I watched the show all the time in the 1960's/1970's and never noticed it had 6 fingers. Was too scared and making sure the lights were on during the intro to count 'em !!
zl1vette427 1 year ago
zl1vette427 - funny thing is that until I just saw it here NOW, never knew the hand was in color. DUH, we were lucky 2 have a TV period, let alone "what" color. I knew it had 6 fingers cause I always tried counting them b4 the hand sunk & I would almost poop my pants at the sound of that "voice/music". Dang, life was sweet back then! I would've never remembered Buitoni, but dang, I'm totally traumatized by those fk'n dinky metal carriers. 8:23 pm Feb.13 2010
teedeeiss 1 year ago
Wow, that brings back memories.
davidrodgersNJ 2 years ago
wow i didn't remember six digits.
khemetu 2 years ago
What a shame that the very end of the sequence can't be viewed. It is perhaps the scariest part of all: the sound of a man screaming in the distance.
crankywanks5 2 years ago
There's some other sound FX thrown in there too if I remember right, like some sort of pulsating, whistling sound as the hand goes back into the blood.
This was a great part of my upbringing for sure..as was Jiffy Pop, Celentano pizza, and Coke and Pepsi in old style glass bottles as they served it back in the day.
I also had my Aurora monster kits, the old pulps like Weird and Tales From The Tomb, and WNEW 5 Creature Features that we used to wind up turning to during commercials!
Shawnster65 2 years ago
Sounds like Homer Simpson at the end
VoxBox2000 2 years ago
I am SOOOO glad I wasn't the only wuss that was scared to death of this!! I always tell my kids about it and I don't think they ever believed me. Now I can show them!!
srusso61287 2 years ago
Six fingers!
nancybl 2 years ago
@nancybl you're so right... I used to wonder what was wrong with that hand, but it scared me so much I never had the nerve to look at it long enough to figure it out! LOL
srusso61287 2 years ago
wait, was the opening in black and white??
moon2458 2 years ago
I remember it in Black and White, but that is because I did not have a colot TV back then
jehophus 2 years ago
Strange, I don't remember it being so red and I thought the tree was on the other side. But the sound is what really creeped me out. That speeding up thing. I not only had to close my eyes but I had to plug my ears at the end of every commercial.
beatweezl 2 years ago
This was the SCARIEST part of the program. the movie would be some lame piece of crap but THIS freaked me out. LOL
qqrk1372 2 years ago
wow! this part was what kept you watching some of the crappy movies they would show! Thanks for posting this awesome intro, and they would play it after commercials also to keep you interested at 2 am when your eyes were telling you you needed to sleep!
verbusen 2 years ago
Brings back memories lol...
tonyant36 2 years ago
Chiller is back for Halloween again this year...YESSS!!!! Check WPIX's interbutt site for details...
VoonSattha 2 years ago
used to send me screaming out of the room every single time I saw it.
bhols52 2 years ago
My sister would freak when this came on- so much so that me and my other sister would get scared too and we'd all run out of the room. Great memories!
shawnperine 2 years ago
this used to scare the fucken shit out of me when i was a kid back in the 70's
Fpockets 2 years ago 2
This opening was used into the mid- eightys. I rember sitting w/my horror movie fan older brother missing the Emergancy reruns & being forced to watch the bad movies the showed..lol.
scramyou 2 years ago
I was born in '74 & remember this! So if it started in teh 60s it definitely went to at LEAST the mid to late 70s (that I was old enough to remember).
My mom still remembers this opening...she always says "chillerrrrrr" when she remembers it...I HAVE to show her this! Thanks for posting!!!
freestylenut 2 years ago
i remember this growing up in paterson, nj. this had to be from the late 1960's to early 1970's? anyone have the dates that this opening aired?
sussexcounty 2 years ago
I was drawn to this clip because it was in the film "Idle Hands". Anton is watching TV while wrestling with his posessed hand and this clip is part of the montage. Very creepy indeed and thanks for posting. BTW Plese go to my profile and check out my own TV show "Countrockula's Theater for the Insane!" I have started it up again and just put together a new opening montage
Rockulaproductions 2 years ago
Now I have to go watch Evil Dead and make this mood complete
Attila709 2 years ago
ii use to scare me now im looking foward in October.
Babygirl1970able 2 years ago
it use to scare me as a kid it use to make me freeze now I am grown out of it
Babygirl1970able 2 years ago
It's baaack this October ... dunno the film.
Saturday8pm 2 years ago
This used to scare the crap out of me when i was a kid
rsinghny 2 years ago
Your not the only one, I was searching on you tube for this for a long long time.
IamMaiC 2 years ago
why are there six fingers on that hand?
eyehategumbo 2 years ago
Dead Man's Eyes was one of the Inner Sanctum mystery flicks. Universal recently released the box set.
MajorSecord 2 years ago
never forget the sleep overs with friends.
joeszabo1 2 years ago
THanks for the memories. I'd told my kids baouthis but now they can see it!
upst8 2 years ago
Miss these simpilar times
things were appreciated on a different level
it was more fun
glad i was around before computers
had to use my imagination a lot more
don't think some of us would be the interesting people we are today
if we had them
METALSTYGIAN 2 years ago
......yeah, and channel 9 had Supernatural Theatre on Saturday nights at 7:30--Chiller came on at 8---only a handful of channels but some tough choices..........
MajorSecord 2 years ago
You speak of a true dilemma, MajorSecord..we had the same problem.
What were we gonna' watch and how long would it hold our attention span when other monsters were on the attack at other TV stations? Was it gonna' be Creature Features, or Chiller?
And later on in the 70's we had WOR 9's Fright Night that we'd try to work in between the All Nighter that Creatures Features had from 12-6 before it went off the air.
Tough choices indeed, but great days! :-)
Shawnster65 2 years ago
9 also had Science Fiction Theatre @ 4:30 pm Monday-Friday and 11:30 am on Sundays. I remember they used to show the Universal and RKO flicks that Creature Features left over. I remember they showed Dead Man's Eyes with Lon Chaney, Jr., but except for the acid in the eyes scene it was more of a murder mystery.
jb20092009 2 years ago
I only recall "Science Fiction Theater" on Saturday afternoons during the early '70s, jb20092009. I remember "4 D Man" and "The Blob" as two of the titles that they aired. Are you thinking of "Thriller Theater" (early '70s) instead or did WOR air a "Science Fiction Theater" during the '60s, too?
EarlSnohomish 2 years ago
Nope, 9 did air SFT from, as far as I remember, 1967-1974, the last 2 years being shown on Saturday afternoons. Before that, it used to rival The 4:30 Movie on Channel 7; in fact, on that particular day DME rivaled Elvis' Love Me Tender. I mean, go figure!!!!
jb20092009 2 years ago
I didn't realize SFT was on during the late '60s weekdays or that it actually had fine ratings. Thanks for that tidbit, jb.
As for weekdays during the '70s, "Thriller Theater" was on at 4:30 PM for 1971-72. "Blockbuster Movie" followed that until around '75, when "The 4 O'Clock Movie" began it's long run.
EarlSnohomish 2 years ago
my dog would go bezerk every time this intro came on back in the seventies.
bjroberts65 2 years ago
I loved this! The six fingered hand!
testoboost 2 years ago
I couldn't even be in the same room when this stupid goddam thing was on.
paulybrooklyn 2 years ago 2
LOL! Believe me, Pauly, you weren't alone. I can't tell you how many times as a kid I took this frickin' hand to bed with me - how I'd be afraid to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night because I kept imagining this hand grabbing me by the ankles from underneath my bed as soon as my feet hit the floor.
drshagstein 2 years ago 12
Oh my goodness. That reminds me of how WPIX 11 was back in the 90's around Halloween time when they used to show nothing but horror movies.
coolwafferman 2 years ago
U n' Pauly ain't the only 1's that were scared. I wuz,2 scared of that hand wit' six fingerz ev'ry Saturday nite n' the whole 9. were u 2 also scared of the Creature Feature intr by the way it sounded?
oldschoolbx1970 1 year ago
@drshagstein ZOMFG! ^This. This is the first time in over 35 years that I've seen this, and I just got exactly the same hair-crawling-off-my-scalp feeling that I got as a child... early impressions are indeed hard to erase! :p I used to fret over what happened to the letters it grabbed... did it - EAT THEM?!?! Certainly more impactful than Sesame Street.
ghostofdeletekey 1 year ago
I have tons of great memories of that day..I started watching Chiller when I was 5 back in 1970.
And then there was WNEW 5's Creature Features, and later WOR 9 had Fright Night.
One great thing about back then..Saturday was monster movie night, and with so many to choose from, the sky was the limit.
I miss those days, a LOT. Chiller, family and friends, Celentano pizza from the box with Jiffy Pop popcorn, it was all good! :)
Shawnster65 2 years ago 3
Same here, Shawnster.
drshagstein 2 years ago
"Celentano pizza from the box"
Oh man, eating Celentano pizzas while watching tv. I remember those pizzas. Damn good. Unfortunately Celentano doesnt make it anymore.
classicphile 2 years ago
I LOVED Celentano pizza...Remember the Buitoni toaster pizzas? Anyway..Chiller was THE show, especially if you wanted to sleep with the lights on as a kid.
evilunixuser1 2 years ago
Comment removed
lovethestage 2 years ago
Don't it sound like Homer Simpson?.... "doughnuts" hehe
mambonumber9 2 years ago 2
Jeez, you mean someone else noticed that??!!! :0).I meant to post that, but you beat me to it.
Good times Mambonumber9 :0) Lmao!! It's the good stuff.
NUTLOAF2468 2 years ago
I looked for this on youtube 2 years ago and didn't find it. Finally it's up. Thanks for posting. I've been wanting to show my kids what i used to watch when I was a kid growing up in Queens.
Next up, a little Gamara, and five deadly venoms.
joshjimjoe 2 years ago
Here in the Pittsburgh area, we too had a Chiller Theatre. Mostly the same routine: low budget and very old horror films.
Plus a lot of locals doing campy horror bits.
To the young thing I was at the time, It Was Great!!!
keefek 2 years ago
My siblings and I would freeze with fear watching this opening ... yet we just HAD to watch it!
vincijuju 2 years ago 3
Does anybody remember "Children shouldn't play with dead things"?
rosesd123 2 years ago
I'm your man, baby! I got the DVD about 5 years ago at my local Suncoast video.
A nice little tale about some people who decided to "raise" a little hell in a deserted cemetery, and got more than they bargained for :)
It played on WOR 9 on "Fright Night" a lot.
Shawnster65 2 years ago
Comment removed
VoonSattha 2 years ago
that movie is on Youtube
TRKoneAD2 2 years ago
that fuckers got 6 fingers!
BillyBanana75 2 years ago 2
yeah!
"Simon's Sanctorum." Out of Boston. Anyone?
mambonumber9 2 years ago
Yep!! Scared the living daylights out
of me too.We lived 2 hrs. from Buffalo
and Cablevision brought in all those
cool NYC stations. Also remember
WNEW's CREATURE FEATURES too.
EEK!!!! :0
yockybunny 2 years ago
This was the scariest thing in the 70s wow i think i was p ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
dawnrexgurl 2 years ago