I don’t know if this was meant to be a joke or real. I suppose there are people who got traumatized by just about anything you can imagine when young.
The S From Hell from Rodney Ascher.
THE S FROM HELL is a short documentary-cum-horror film about the scariest corporate symbol in history – The 1964 Screen Gems logo, aka ‘The S From Hell.’ Built around interviews with survivors still traumatized from their childhood exposure to the logo after shows like Bewitched or The Monkees, the film brings their stories to life with animation, found footage, and dramatic reenactments.
Not an exhaustive historical documentary, THE S FROM HELL is a subjective film whose aim is make the audience feel the same fear and confusion as the children who were first confronted by the vexing, unfolding sights and mournful, dissonant sounds that hid in the cracks between their favorite TV shows. THE S FROM HELL premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and went on to menace audiences from LA to Austin, Florida to London and beyond.
Visit the film’s website at www.thesfromhell.com
Gasbag 20 – When did fuck become a 5 letter word?
At first I thought “film school project” but it is too well done.
So, I Googled. Here is the site:http://thesfromhell.com
It’s a film festival short.. I suppose he wants to get he name out there to get tagged for a feature film. I can’t imagine there is any money in this sort of thing. (I really don’t know how that business works… just a guess.)
Very well-done but perhaps a bit too long for a one-joke gag.
This logo always felt to me that it had come from unimaginative minds. Anything called a “screen gem” would most likely be a turd.
The first part of the “music”, with the deeper horns, invokes an image of Jebus coming up over the horizon in a microbus to judge mankind’s sins and start his 1000 year reign. The second part invokes in my mind an image of Freddie Mercury in drag. I can’t say why. The whole thing does seem subtly disturbing.
I’m guessing these kids had something traumatic happen to them in their homes, they escaped to their favorite tv show and this logo snapped the memory back to them.
The “WB” shield that would roar up through the tunnel at the beginning of the classic Looney Tunes cartoons used to scare me when I was a kid.
The MGM Lion scares the shit out of me. Especially at 3 am.
I didn’t understand why they had the picture of the roll of toilet paper show up. Scared? No.
#17 soundwash – “The S From Hell” clip uses footage from “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”, one of my favorite “genre” films of the disposable type. What you described is the basic plot of that film. The credits state that footage was used from the public domain. I wouldn’t think that film would be in the public domain. It’s from the early ’80s.
Thankfully I don’t remember this particular Screen Gems logo, or any of its others. But I always felt the VIACOM loop was about the most soulless (or soul sucking) thing any media corporation could have come up with. And that was long before they ever started having things pulled from Youtube, that they owned. They’re like the Hearst Corporation, policing the world from having any Betty Boop imagery for free. Is that really that much of a money maker, that they’ve come to depend on to survive? That, and any of the other King Features properties they managed to buy up. No free Felix the Cat or Popeye either, I suppose. Darn!
But anyway. The VIACOM “logo” or rather the monotone announcer voice saying, “this is Viacom”, in a dictatorial like way. Anyway left me with a sense of dread, for having watched whatever it was they owned.
To this day I still remember (and prefer) Donna Douglas saying, “This has been a Filmways Presentation”, in her Elly May voice. Nowadays it seems to be all, “Bad Robot” and a shark jumping a bike over an anvil. What’s up with that?
I know, that’s got a weird ring to it too….
I know! Elly Mae saying that kinda freaked me out too. Anyone remember the old cartoon advert stills from the mid 60′s? I remember being like 3 or 4, & saw an innocent TV still of “Casper the Friendly Ghost” & because I was used to seeing Casper moving & laughing; & cause it was STILL, I thought Casper was dead, Heheehh.
Well I guess he was all along, but I just remember going around in circles crying & running from the room, hehh
Robin in SF CA
I think the Google Chrome icon, like the one you might have on your win7 taskbar, reminds me of the Screen Gems logo.
You know which Screen Gems logo freaked me out as a kid? That one with the colorful dancing straws. Does anybody remember that one? Ohh, if anybody finds it let me know
Robin in SF
holy shit, r u serisous? What the flying hairless monkey fairy fuck?
ok, my spelling is terrible that should have said “serious” wonder if I actually do have brain damage from watching that flying hairless monkey fairy fuck
I was terrified at the Screen Gems logo when I was five years old, and that still lingers on and on. I don’t know why I was scared, but I had weak nerves.