Alucard's Bat-tastic Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku..... - Day #18 - SHOCKING SUNDAY SURPRISE (Scare Three)

Welcome back, Boils & Ghouls...

... to 'Day Eighteen' of "Alucard's Bat-tastic Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku"  and to the third instalment of my "Shocking Sunday Surprise" in which I aim to share a random selection of things, all somehow connected to Hallowe'en, and that can be used with the Roku streaming media player !!

As I mentioned previously, these offerings could vary from film suggestions to details of Roku channels (both public and private) or any number of other Hallowe'en / Horror-themed goodies to get you into the "spirit" of things. The general idea is that, unlike the other "themed" days featured in this blogathon, you never know quite what you're going to get as your "Shocking Sunday Surprise" each week, so be sure to visit this blog EVERY SUNDAY between now and October 31st for some spooktacular treats to put even more on-screen scares into your Roku player(s) as you gear up for Hallowe'en !!

For my third "Shocking Sunday Surprise", rather than share another movie, I'm going to suggest a Hallowe'en / Horror-related ROKU PRIVATE CHANNEL that I first shared last year. The brains behind this channel is none other than Charlie Fleming, who runs the 'Screamzine.us' website:-

Aside from being both "awesome" and "stupid" (their words, not mine) they adopted the guerilla spirit of pioneering director, George A. Romero, and came up with a way of promoting more horror on Roku by creating their own channel with which to share horror movie trailers, etc. Best of all, they have made the "Screamzine.us" private channel for Roku FREE-TO-ADD as well as FREE-TO-VIEW so all you have to do to enjoy the content on offer is to add "Screamzine.us" to the channel selection on your Roku player(s) by following a few simple steps...

For those of you that are not yet familiar with the concept of a PRIVATE CHANNEL on Roku, they are (essentially) ones which you will not find in the Roku Channel Store on your Roku player but are (instead) added via your online Roku account, using an ACCESS CODE (sometimes referred to as an INVITATION CODE or VANITY CODE, though all amount to the same thing) that allows you to add them via the Roku website (as opposed to doing it on your streaming media player, itself). This is done by first logging into your Roku account, VIA THE WEBSITE, at the usual address. After you "Sign In" to your account, you simply scroll down the page a little, until you come to the section headed "Manage Account", beneath which there is an option to "Add a Private Channel" with the link (enabling you to do so) highlighted in "BLUE" lettering (n.b. this is not a signal for bad language... but simply a reference to the colour!). When you CLICK THE LINK to "Add a Private Channel", you will be redirected to another page on the Roku website, headed "Add Channel", where you will find a text entry field into which you must enter the ACCESS CODE for the "Screamzine.us" private channel on Roku, as outlined below:-

ACCESS CODE: screamzine

This is done by using your mouse cursor to "click" within the text entry field so that you may then type the access code, "screamzine", before clicking on the 'Add Channel' button below it. Once you have entered the access code and clicked on the 'Add Channel' button, you will be taken to a confirmation screen, asking if you wish to "Add Screamzine.us to your Roku account?" whereupon you must decide whether to click, "Yes, Add Channel", to add the "Screamzine.us" private channel to your Roku account, or else "Cancel" to return to the "Manage Account" section of the Roku site. Here is an (partial) screenshot, albeit an somewhat out-of-date one, taken when  I first added the channel (last year) so that you can see more clearly that to which I am referring:-

Anyway... despite Roku having changed the look of their website since the above screenshot was taken, the "new look" private channel "add" screen remains fairly similar to that shown above and, assuming you selected "Yes, Add Channel", you should see a "success" message. After that, if you "View Your Purchase History" under the "Manage Account" section, you will see that the "Screamzine.us" private channel has (indeed) been added to your Roku account. Then, all that remains is for you to log out of your online Roku account and, next time you access your Roku player(s), you will see the following image displayed amongst the channel icons under "Home":-

When you load the channel to access the content, you will find assorted horror movies, shorts and film trailers for you to view. Here's a few examples of the type of thing found on "Screamzine.us", when I first added the details for this private channel to my blog:-

"Cannibal Aneurysm"...............by Charlie Fleming - now where have I heard that name?!!

"Marty Jenkins and the Vampire Bitches"...............by Henrique Couto

"Mongrel" and "Something After Midnight"...............by Sam Qualiana

"Twisted Fate"...............by Tim Novotny

"Happy Hour Holocaust" (film trailer)...............by Jim Roberts

"Tonight You Die" (film trailer)...............by Jim Roberts

"Jorge Loves Charlie" (film trailer)

"Slashed Dreams" [aka "Sunburst"]...............by James Polakof

It's worth noting that the last of those, "Slashed Dreams", is a 1975 film starring 'Robert Englund' before he became a household name as the terrifying boogeyman, "Fred 'Freddy' Krueger", in one of the biggest horror franchises of all time... "A Nightmare On Elm Street" !!

Anyway, to round-off this third "Shocking Sunday Surprise", on 'Day Eighteen' of the ever-popular 'Countdown To Halloween', I thought I'd best provide you with a link to the "Screamzine.us" website, FOUND HERE, where you can keep up with all the latest news, as well as the weekly film trailers and movie posters, plus other horror-related tidbits posted there on a regular basis. Meanwhile, if you have any comments or suggestions for the main man, Charlie Fleming, you can always 'tweet' your thoughts to his Twitter Feed: @CharlieHFleming where I'm sure he'll be happy to hear from you !!

Still, that's about all for today... but remember to visit us again in 24-hours for 'Day Nineteen' and more Horror / Hallowe'en-themed content, in "Alucard's Bat-tastic Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku", when I reveal the next Hallowe'en / Horror-related classic to feature in "Macabre Movie Monday", and then to come back (again) the same time next week for another "Shocking Sunday Surprise" as we continue our month-long blogathon in the "Countdown To Hallowe'en" 2015...

Fangs (as always) for reading !!