How Svengoolie picks movies: C2E2 panel recap
At C2E2 2025, Svengoolie shared how he chooses his classic horror films— from licensing issues to fan favorites. Get the inside scoop on his process.
2025's C2E2 once again saw Svengoolie hailed by fans as the broadcast legend that he is. Autograph lines and photo ops were jam-packed with horror hounds hoping to rub elbows with the top-hatted cadaver with the goatee and the rubber chickens. When it comes to cult horror hosts, nobody makes more time for their fans than Sven.
As tens of thousands of fiends and fanatics filled Chicago's McCormick Center, all were welcomed for a panel unlike any other as comic book and pop culture expert John Siuntres sat down for a tell-all interview with Svengoolie!
What Svengoolie Fans Want: The Role of Audience Feedback
While Siuentes proved again to be a perfect co-host for Svengoolie's panel, plenty of time was yielded for the fans in attendance. More than half of the panel's time was devoted to taking questions from the audience, and the attendees absolutely delivered.
From fond recollections to detailed questions, each fan on the mic had a turn to speak their mind, ask their question, and hear a thoughtful response from their favorite horror host.
While Sven clearly values each fan's feedback, he also took some time to answer a few of his most frequently asked questions.
The Svengoolie Selection process: Licensing, classics, and camp
As it usually does when Sven opens it up for questions, the topic soon turned to the movies he shows. Specifically, people always want to know how he picks his flicks and whether he'll get to a particular favorite.
The tricky part, of course, is licensing. Different studios distribute different movies. If left to his own devices, Sven would pick from the top tier of horror's history. And while he always selects something worthwhile and entertaining, he is limited by what's available.
So, let's take a look at the Svengoole movie licensing process. Who controls these movies, anyhow?
"Actually, a lot of them have been absorbed by the main networks," said Sven.
"The Deadly Mantis is under the Universal umbrella. They've got a lot of stuff. Other distributors have kind of inherited them from those other companies. That's how we get a lot of that stuff. You have maybe five different distributors that make their movies available to us. What happens is, they send us a list of what they have, we ask for movies, and we can't always get them."
Behind the Coffin: Why you might not see your favorite horror pick
Unfortunately, those companies really value their intellectual property and work diligently to ensure those movies aren't used by just anyone.
"A lot of them are under exclusive contract elsewhere or are not available during the period of time where we want to run them," Svengoolie explained.
"So, we have to fight for every movie we get. When people ask about some of the movies, like 'How come you never show...?' I have to explain it to them. I can't take too much time to explain the entire way the business works to everybody. But I try to at least give them an idea of why we can't always get the movies."
A great example of a movie sven can't use
"We actually were trying to get The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra," Svengoolie announced to rapturous applause (okay, it was two guys clapping tepidly.)
"Don't applaud too much. The people that had the rights to it said they had to demand to edit it and 'Okay' the material that we do."
So, Svengoolie instead opted not to show the 2001 independent low-budget sci-fi parody. Their loss! While The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra may not be included in the MeTV horror lineup anytime soon, rest assured that Svengoolie will always be your home for classic monster movies.
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