American Scary is a 2006 documentary film about the history and legacy of classic television horror host

Horror host

Horror hosts are a particular type of television presenter, often tasked with presenting low-grade films to television audiences. This tradition is primarily American, though there have been a few international hosts over the years.-Film Packages:...

s, written and directed by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 independent filmmakers John E. Hudgens

John E. Hudgens

John E. Hudgens is an independent director, producer, and editor noted for his short Star Wars fan films and for many Babylon 5 promotional videos....

 and Sandy Clark.

The film features nearly 60 horror hosts, including interviews with and vintage clips of many of the genre's stars, such as Washington, DC's Count Gore De Vol

Count Gore de Vol

Count Gore De Vol is a television horror host who originally appeared on Washington, DC's WDCA from 1973 to 1987.Originally named M. T. Graves, the character was played by announcer Dick Dyszel, and originated on the WDCA's version of the Bozo the Clown program. When the character got a positive...

, New York City's Zacherley

John Zacherle

John Zacherle is an American television host, radio personality and voice actor known for his long career as a television horror host broadcasting horror movies in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. Best known for his character "Roland/Zacherley," he also did voice work for...

, Los Angeles' Vampira

Maila Nurmi

Maila Nurmi was a Finnish-American actress who created the campy 1950s characterVampira. She portrayed Vampira as TV's first horror host and in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space...

, Cleveland's Ghoulardi

Ghoulardi

Ghoulardi was a fictional character invented and portrayed by disc jockey, voice announcer, and actor Ernie Anderson as the horror host of late night Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8, in Cleveland, Ohio from January 13, 1963 through December 16, 1966....

, and Chicago's Svengoolie

Svengoolie

Svengoolie is the name of a character from a long-running series of locally-produced television programs in the Chicago, Illinois metropolitan area...

, among others. Non-host celebrities such as Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

, Tim Conway

Tim Conway

Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway is an American comedian and actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms, films and television. Conway is best known for his role as the inept second-in-command officer, Ensign Charles Parker, to Lt...

, Forrest J Ackerman

Forrest J Ackerman

Forrest J Ackerman was an American collector of science fiction books and movie memorabilia and a science fiction fan...

, Tom Savini

Tom Savini

Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...

, Leonard Maltin

Leonard Maltin

Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...

, Joel Hodgson

Joel Hodgson

Joel Gordon Hodgson is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating Mystery Science Theater 3000 and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. In 2007 MST3K was listed as "one of the top 100 television shows of all time" by Time.com...

, and Bob Burns appear to reminisce about the influence of horror hosts on their careers and/or lives, as well as many modern hosts who keep the tradition alive in modern shows on public-access television

Public-access television

Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...

 cable TV or the internet.

The film premiered in October 2006 at the Hollywood Film Festival, and was released on DVD in February 2009. In April 2010, it won the award for Best Independent Production of 2009 at the 8th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards

Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award is an award presented annually by the Classic Horror Film Board to honor the top works in horror in film, television, home video, and publishing.-The award:...

.