Ben's Creepy Guy, Pt. 2 - Beyond Kiss Meets the Phantom
The Creepy Guy Becomes an Enigma and Part of Family Lore
In part one of our story, we examined briefly the fiasco that was KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, a made-for-TV movie that reared its head in 1978 on NBC. The less said about this film, the better.
However, I will likely write a much more detailed account of the film and its aftermath in the near future. It’s unavoidable.
Oh, and a podcast, too. Why not?
Quoth Peter Criss: “Yes, I was stoned all the time. So was Ace.”
This film was so bad, by the way, that for many years the members of KISS forbad any of their staff or employees from mentioning it in their presence.
The film enjoys an afterlife with my son, Ben, and I. He still plays sections of it and rocks along with KISS or the robot KISS (you gotta watch the movie to make sense of that).
Also, we’d grown fond of a “Creepy guy” prop that seemed to turn up over and over onscreen. Little did we know he would become a fixture in our lives when, on a whim, I decided to suggest to Ben that he watch an episode of The Incredible Hulk closely. It had “Wax Museum” in the title, I reasoned, so maybe if he looked closely he would see some of the “monsters” we saw in the KISS movie.
I had no idea what I had unwittingly anticipated and set loose upon our family lore.
Behold: The Return of The Creepy Guy:
John -- love this! I have vague memories of watching this bizarro flick at age 7. I remember that there were a lot of rumors going around back then that some of it was filmed at our local Kings Dominion theme park outside Richmond but I don't think that was actually true. Either way, this is making me hope there's a Rifftrax of this thing. Awesome that Ben found his creepy guy in a Hulk show!