By YASMINA KETITA
Do you miss the ‘70s and ’80s era of hosted horror movie programs such as Al “Grampa” Lewis‘ Super Scary Saturday, Moona Lisa’s Midnight Madness and Elvira’s Movie Macabre? Then LUTHER’S MID-FRIGHT SNACK is the show you need in your life to satisfy your nostalgic horror-host cravings. Creator and artist Hayden Hall, who does all the editing, animation, writing and directing, hosts as Luther Vangross in this YouTube web series. Filmed in front of a dead studio audience, LUTHER’S MID-FRIGHT SNACK is shot on video using VHS camcorders (including Hall’s personal favourite, the Panasonic OmniMovie,) and features claymation, cheap props, schlocky 1980s B movie-style gore and musical guests – all produced inside Hall’s’s Sick Slice Studios in Philadelphia. Luther Vangross is accompanied by his sidekicks, Gorezo, (played by John Hayes), who resembles Lord Humungus from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior but with acid-washed elastic pants and a clown sweater, and Mondo the Mailman, a two-headed monstrous ape who struggles through the door to deliver Luther’s fan mail.
In the first couple of episodes, Luther Vangross introduces the horror films Panic (1982) and The Demon (1981). (Thanks for featuring a film that has Cameron Mitchell!) The show interjects the movies with messages to the viewers, sketches, interviews, commercials for Crazy Bill’s Used Car Rodeo, Satanic birthday greetings and intermissions with performances by live musical guests Spiter and Luther & The Leftovers. Other characters and segments include weapons expert Spike Cutlus (played by Ben Mazzochetti), “Trimming the Fat with Truman” (played by Johnny Dickie) and many more, all played by Hall’s family and friends.
The special “Valentine’s Day Love” episode is a half-hour devoted to finding Luther Vangross a date. It features an adorable homemade robot called Turbo Lover (which also happens to be a great Judas Priest album if you ask me). Using ‘80s video dating shows as inspiration for this episode was a fantastic idea. The Monster Dating Show, hosted by Dick Fondell (played by Hayden Hall’s brother, Ethan Hall, who also wears Mondo’s suit), pays homage to television programs like The Dating Game and Love Connection but with a Tim & Eric-esque spin and, of course, blood and gore.
“Troglodyte Nite” is another special half-hour episode filled with sloppy sketches to sate your hunger for schlock. In this installment, we meet Hot Dog Man, who regurgitates weiners as we watch the epic Big Bigfoot Big Footlong Hotdog eating contest. We’re also graced with a campy song during the end credits called “Buns,” written by Mazzochetti and J. Basmajian, who also wrote “Somebody Out There” for the love episode as well as other themes for the show. This episode features musical guest Dipygus.
Luther Vangross dedicates the show to ‘50s Japanese Godzilla films in the “Kaiju Chaos” episode in which we see a 50-foot monster battle; the hand puppet bat, Guano; anime; tattoo removal by samurai seppuku sword and special guest, Ame Akuma, the Kanji Candyman from Japan. We also get a bonus music video performance by Oxygen Destroyer. (I’d like to take this moment to applaud our lizard-people overlords.)
The “Holiday Special” is another great episode (unlike another ‘70s holiday special that shall forever remain nameless). We meet a Yuletide Demon who despises Christmas cheer, wants to destroy Jesus and speaks in rhyme. (That’s a demon I wouldn’t mind worshipping!) This episode is narrated by a drunkenly morose Jim E. Brown (who’s also the musical guest) and features wonderful claymation. This episode also features a hilarious montage shot on the streets of Philadelphia in which an evil snowman searches for the Nazarene. The reactions from the public are glorious.
On October 23, 2022, LUTHER’S MID-FRIGHT SNACK shot a live show at the Mahoning Drive-In Theatre in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. The event showcased a double-feature of Drive-In Massacre (1976) and The Driller Killer (1979) and provided a behind-the-scenes look at the show. Mondo the Mailman delivers grim news that an escaped mental patient from the Mahoning Valley Sanitarium is on the loose, threatening the show’s live audience. Much like the killer in Drive-In Massacre, attendees start getting decapitated, even while Luther interviews them in their cars.
Every aspect of this show is what I live for – bad tracking, low resolution, fresh gunshot wounds, bands wearing Halloween masks, severed heads, and I genuinely adore the audience of corpses whose wrists are strung up to the ceiling when applause is needed. It’s evident how much work, love and creativity Hall and his crew put into LUTHER’S MID-FRIGHT SNACK. Hayden Hall is also an incredible artist who has been commissioned to do artwork for bands, podcasts, Blu-ray releases, posters and t-shirts. He also shoots music videos.
Unable to afford a large rent increase in September 2023, Hall and his team were forced to vacate their studio space. A GoFundMe was created to help cover the costs for the following three months to complete the first season. Since Hall said goodbye to the studio in December 2023, he has been working on a feature-length, shot-on-VHS film titled Pizza Party Massacre, which tells the story of Petey Monahan (aka “Pizza Face”), a quiet, acne-prone boy working at his father’s pizzeria, Pizza World. Petey gets trapped in a burning pizza delivery car and is left for dead after a childish prank goes awry. – or everyone believes. Pizza Party Massacre premieres at the Mahoning Drive-In Theatre on September 13, with a Q&A to follow. Bring your pizza cutter, and see you there!
Keep up with Hayden Hall and his gruesome shot-on-video hijinks at Sick Slice Studios.
