Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park
Call me biased but Halloween in the 70’s was the best. A huge reason was “Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park”. This cinematic masterpiece premiered October 28th 1978 on NBC. The camp factor is high in this movie. Kiss uses their superpowers to battle an evil inventor who’s trying to destroy a California amusement park. To add to the cheese factor, Hanna-Barbara Productions produced the made for TV movie which was an obvious ploy to capitalize on Kiss’ popularity.
A lot of Kiss fans hated it. The acting was horrible and the script was hokey. Although 3 year old Aimee Brooks LOVED IT. Seriously, I lived for “Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park”. I watched it every year from 1978-1981 with my Peter Criss Catman plastic costume discarded on the floor next to a mountain of candy.
Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park attained cult film status. Everyone but Ace Frehley hated the film. It’s shocking that Ace liked the film! He initially only had one line, which was “Ack”. Ace was fine with it, but people who worked for the band were NOT to mention the movie in front of them.
The band hated it, but kids loved it. I remember being completely panicked one Halloween because I was missing it. I glanced inside a house to see it broadcast on their TV. Instant panic. I begged my mom to forget the candy. “Kiss is on!”
The film was even parodied on “Family Guy”. Peter was desperately trying to get home to watch “Kiss Saves Santa”.
This bumper absolutely rocked every kid’s world in 1978.
Kiss is no longer afraid to address the “Phantom” in the room. Recently Paul Stanley opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about the film. “I embrace it like an ugly child,” says Kiss co-founder Paul Stanley. “You have to realize that we were like these imbeciles who got to take over the school. We knew nothing about acting, nothing about filmmaking. We were sold the idea of the film in a sentence that was virtually, ‘A Hard Day’s Night meets Star Wars.’ Well, it was far from either.” If anything, it ended up closer to The Star Wars Holiday Special, which debuted a month later on CBS: an embarrassment that grew into a fan favorite over time.
It may be incredibly dated, and poorly acted, but I will still check it out this year. I’ll be camped out in front of the TV watching “Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park”, next to my pile of candy and discarded Peter Criss Catman costume.
BONUS for your Halloween viewing. Scooby Doo Meets Kiss Halloween Special
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