Virginia Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominion

Quite possibly the love-child of Robin Williams and Foghorn Leghorn, the multi-talented and perpetually disoriented Dr. Sarcofiguy began hosting the terrors of the public domain on The Spooky Movie on channel 12 in Fairfax, VA in 1995. Swinging from open disgust to knowing collusion to mocking laughter in seconds, Dr. Sarcofiguy is a persona personified . . . if that makes sense.

Dr. Sarcofiguy, played by author and entertainer John Dimes, is less the traditional mad experimenter and instead a "mental health professional." He cares for the sick and twisted ranging from run of the mill lunatics to high profile nut jobs like Anne Rice (Mark R. Blackmon) . On occasion, he has been aided by a plastic surgeon, Dr. Bombay (Blackmon) and most notoriously Maya Angelou (Dimes), former poet laureate, has shared a boarding house with the good doctor and apparently had a crush on him. The doctor also has a family, of sorts. His ex-wife, Clorenda, and daughter, Rashashanna are referenced but regrettably do not make appearances.

The show was co-created with director/producer C. W. Prather, who met Dimes back in 1989 and began doing a show called, "Tales to make you say, 'Goodness!'" which eventually morphed into the Spooky Movie program. Prather, like Dimes, grew up watching the immortal Count Gore De Vol and so perhaps a horror host show was inevitable.

Dr. Sarcofiguy appearing in the documentary, American Scary. (Go buy it).

The Spooky Movie show in its first incarnation, ran from 1995-2006 and recently it has been announced that it will return to the airwaves with a new format focusing on short films by independent film makers.

And just where do such short films come from? The Spooky Movie Film Festival, of course, which will celebrate its fourth year in October of 2009 and appear at various venues. The film festival features shorts and features from around the world, many of which are of exceptional quality and are often as good--or better than--films coming out of Hollywood. The following is taken directly from their website, www.thespookymovie.com:


Spooky Movie: The Washington, D.C. International Horror Film Festival is as open as open can be. We accept shorts to features - slasher, monster, zombies, ghosts, ghouls, terror, chiller, suspense, comedy - music videos, cartoons, documentaries, experimental, foreign language, trailers - fat, skinny, tall or short - we want to present a festival that is as diverse as Washington, D.C. itself.

With the exception of the brand new DarkHart Screenplay Award, we are remain a non-competitive festival committed to the mission of celebrating all filmmakers. We will work to get your short or feature seen by the public - even after the October festival - and even if your film isn't in the October festival.

Some of the best of the best can be seen in the DVDs released from the festival (above) and can be purchased from the Spooky Movie website, www.thespookymovie.com.

Dr. Sarcofiguy, naturally makes appearances at these events, but you are also just as likely to see him on Creature Feature, the Weekly Web Program with Count Gore De Vol as a guest or as a film critic. Or even more frequently on Monster Madhouse, where he has been elected the first African American President of Monsterland. As you can see from the shot below, he has taken his position as president in these difficult times with a sense of grave responsibility.

Feed your Need . . .

Why should you have to go one more weekend without your favorite ghoul? You don't live in Communist China! (And if you do, then all the more reason to get the film!)

Order your copy of Virginia Creepers for just $20!

Get VA Creepers AND the groovy lobby card shown at the right for just $25