#TBT TV: The Scare Factor III: Scare Factor Lives! (2002)

Scare Factor III

This Throwback Thursday transports us to October 2002, when we celebrated Halloween with our annual Scare Factor series of tributes to the best in horror and sci-fi films and TV shows. Scare Factor III was my personal favorite, as our staff picked our favorite genre characters and wrote little epitaphs for them.

From the October 2002 edition of Channel Guide Magazine:

Scare Factor III
It just won’t die! Our annual homage to horror shakes off the rigor mortis for its third edition, this time celebrating our favorite characters who really make for big-scream TV. Our office asylum put their severed heads together and picked 13 of our all-time funny and frightening faves from beyond the grave.

Contributing writers: Ryan A. Berenz, Mike Frey, Scott Hegerty, Lori Lundquist, Barb Oates, Karl J. Paloucek, Jeff Pfeiffer

Here Lies
Godzilla
Tour De Force: Gojira (1954)
Worst Career Move: Godzilla (1998)
Home: Monster Island, the bottom of the sea
Distinguishing Characteristics: Spikes down his back, ear-piercing roar, a couple hundred feet tall — can’t miss him
Modus Operandi: City-smashing, battling other monsters
Favorite Victims: The greater Tokyo metropolitan area, Mothra, King Ghidorah
Weapon Of Choice: Radioactive breath
Weaknesses: Oxygen destroyer, Roland Emmerich & Dean Devlin

Here Lies
Jason Voorhees
Tour De Force: Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Distinguishing Characteristics: Hideously deformed, undead, totally insane
Fashion Sense: Outdated ice hockey equipment
Modus Operandi: Goes from place to place (even space!) on wild killing sprees
Favorite Victims: Horny teenagers, Arnold Horshack
Weapon Of Choice: If it stabs, slashes or spears, it’s all good with J.V.
Weakness: Not knowing when to quit making sequels

Here Lies
The Great Pumpkin
Tour De Force: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Distinguishing Characteristics: He’s inviiiiisible
Fashion Sense: He’s inviiiiisible
Modus Operandi: Rises out of a sincere pumpkin patch on Halloween night supposedly to dispense toys for all the good little children in the world. But I don’t buy it.
Favorite Victims: Linus Van Pelt, Lori Lundquist
Weapon Of Choice: Psychological warfare
Weakness: Well, I imagine he’s no match for pavement

Here Lies
Damien Thorn
Tour De Force: The Omen
Distinguishing Characteristics: A 5-year-old Antichrist
Fashion Sense: 666 — the birthmark beneath his moppy ’do
Modus Operandi: Catastrophic falls, a hanging, a beheading — all freak accidents? Not a chance. The brat’s behind it all.
Favorite Victims: The Thorns and the rest of the Christian world. It’s been reported that a sinister curse befell several of the actual film crew.
Weapons Of Choice: It’s all in the mind, followed by his sinister smile
Weaknesses: Baboons, churches and knives to the heart

Here Lies
112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York
Tour De Force: The Amityville Horror
Distinguishing Characteristics: Carnivorous flies, ominous whispers, ghastly odors
Most Notable Occupants: George & Kathleen Lutz
Fashion Sense: George’s gray sweatshirt — ghosts or no ghosts, after 18 days you’d think he could change out of it
Modus Operandi: Illusions, hysteria, night sweats and an insatiable desire to chop wood
Words Of Caution: If you awake at 3:15am, whatever you do, DO NOT get out of your bed!
Weakness: Rumors that it’s all a hoax

Here Lies
Danny Glick
Tour De Force: Salem’s Lot (which was too !@#$! scary for a TV movie if you ask me)
Distinguishing Characteristics: Takes direction from his father very, very well
Fashion Sense: Marilyn Manson stole his makeup kit
Modus Operandi: He came in through the bedroom window
Favorite Victims: Um, Mark? Don’t open the window.
Weapons Of Choice: Creepy mist-shrouded window-tapping and a nasty set of canines (the teeth, not the critters)
Weakness: Crosses. Duh.

Here Lies
The Gill-Man
Tour De Force: Creature From The Black Lagoon
Home: Remote backwaters of the Amazon
Distinguishing Characteristics: He has gills … and he’s a man!
Modus Operandi: Sneaks out of water onto boats and claws people (or grabs them and brings them to his cave if they are attractive women)
Favorite Victims: Sexy girls in bathing suits, lesser supporting cast members and movie extras
Weaknesses: Sexy girls in bathing suits, bullets, being on land too long

Here Lies
Slimer
Tour De Force: Ghostbusters
Home: The Sedgewick Hotel
Distinguishing Characteristics: Bad breath, spud-like shape and a healthy green glow
Fashion Sense: He’s an au naturel class-five full-roaming vapor
Modus Operandi: Eating, drinking, sliming
Favorite Victim: Dr. Peter Venkman
Weapon Of Choice: Ectoplasm
Weaknesses: Proton accelerators and the refreshing taste of Hi-C Ecto Cooler

Here Lies
Pinhead
Tour De Force: Hellraiser
Home: Hell
Distinguishing Characteristics: Um … he’s got pins in his head
Fashion Sense: Looks like a long-lost member of Slipknot
Modus Operandi: As the leader of the Cenobites, he puts the “S” in S&M
Favorite Victims: Kirsty & Frank Cotton
Weapon Of Choice: The weaknesses of mankind
Weakness: The puzzle box that controls the gates of hell

Here Lies
Kang*
Tour De Force: The Simpsons “Treehouse Of Horror”
Distinguishing Characteristics: Cycloptic eye, tentacles, overactive salivary glands, unquenchable thirst for conquest of Earth
Modus Operandi: Abductions, rectal probings, doing commercials for Old Navy
Favorite Victims: Jerry Springer, Bob Dole and Bill Clinton
Weapon Of Choice: Artificial insemination ray gun
Weakness: A board with a nail in it

(*Don’t blame Mike Frey. He voted for Kodos.)

Here Lies
Freddy Krueger
Tour De Force: A Nightmare On Elm Street
Distinguishing Characteristics: Sick sense of humor, some kind of skin condition
Fashion Sense: Red and green striped sweater, stylish yet functional gloves
Modus Operandi: Controls the dreamscape, where he kills people in quite clever ways
Favorite Victims: Sleep tight, kiddies!
Weapon Of Choice: Those gloves aren’t meant for back-scratching
Weaknesses: Caffeine, “Nightmare On My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

Here Lies
Ash
Tour De Force: Evil Dead II
Distinguishing Characteristics: A chainsaw attached where his right hand used to be, overacted one-liners
Special Skills: One-handed shotgun firing, ability to construct a Deathcoaster out of a Delta ’88 Olds
Favorite Victims: The possessed, Deadites, his evil clone(s)
Weapon Of Choice: S-Mart’s top-of-the-line “Boomstick”
Weakness: Tendency to release evil spirits by fudging the pronunciation of magic spells

Here Lies
Boo Berry
Tour De Force: Commercials advertising his and other “monster” cereals
Home: A box … on your breakfast table
Distinguishing Characteristics: Ghostly, bluish hue; hypnotic, sleepy eyes; dopey hat and red bowtie
Modus Operandi: Possesses little children in grocery stores, makes them scream until a parent places the box of cereal in the cart to take home — where the mayhem begins …
Favorite Victims: Teeth of said children, nerves of said parents
Weakness: None — you put milk on, and he’ll just turn it an unholy blue

About Ryan Berenz 2166 Articles
Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.