Work From Home Couple

My 9-year-old son and I have a Saturday tradition: At 9 p.m. sharp, we flip on Channel 26 here in Chicago to watch the Svengoolie show.

If you’re not fortunate enough to live near Chicago, I’ll fill you in: Svengoolie is a vampire of some sort who hosts late-night horror movies from a rather cheap-looking set. He’s the kind of horror host who will butt in during the worst of the films he shows to make a wisecrack. He’ll insert goofy sound effects in the middle of a black-and-white clunker’s most inane dialogue. And his show always ends with stage hands tossing rubber chickens at him as he slams his coffin shut.

Anyway, it’s a great way to end a Saturday. And nine times out of 10, Svengoolie’s movies are harmless enough for my 9-year-old son. After all, most of the time, the show broadcasts classics such as Bride of Frankenstein, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Son of Dracula. Frightening for their time, these movies have long since lost their ability to instill nightmares.

But a couple of weeks ago, Svengoolie played a film called I Know What you Did. Let’s just say the film — about some young girls who end up targeted by a killer thanks to some prank phone calls they made — isn’t an appropriate one for 9-year-old eyes. I was fooled: It was in black and white. Usually, when Svengoolie plays a black-and-white movie, it’s harmless.

So … I wasn’t exactly paying attention to the movie’s beginning scenes (I was reading and not watching the screen. Honest.) until I heard some screeching music on the soundtrack. I looked up just in time to see a young woman getting stabbed to death in the shower.

Ooops!

Yes, I jumped up and shut the TV off. And, yes, I did have to contend with my son’s nightmares that evening. I also learned a lesson: Don’t ever take your eyes off that TV. You never know what’s going to show up on it. (Especially when you’re watching a late-night horror show …)

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