R.I.P. Monsters HD

I had heard the rumors, but was refusing to process them in my brain. Monsters HD, the greatest thing to happen to horror fans since the invention of television, was not long for this world.

And sure enough, I went over to my parents' place earlier this week, switched over to their HD lineup, only to discover that, indeed, Monsters HD was no more.

Apparently, in light of the imminent full-switch to HD, all of Optimum/Cablevision's HD-original channels, provided by Optimum's Voom subsidiary, have been buried for good. The channel, which broadcast all kinds of uncut horror and sci-fi flicks since 2003, went away forever as of last Monday night.

A sad development if ever there was one. I had really grown to love that channel, as had my monster-crazy son. I'm still puzzled as to why they would pull these HD channels in the first place, since it was in no way interfering with the introduction of the new HD lineup of regular channels, but what do I know?

Monsters HD and its brethren channels had already been dropped by Dish Network, its other major carrier, nearly a year ago.

Although some complained about what they saw as annoying repetition in Monsters HD's lineup, there was enough variety among the selections to keep me in perpetual horror bliss. I was impressed by the breadth of content available on their channel, and really, how can anyone complain about a 24-hour commercial-free TV channel that featured everything from classic Universal, to Hammer, to '50s giant bugs, to direct-to-video '90s schlock and everything in between? They showed all the frickin' Blind Dead movies, for crying out loud!

Oh, well. For the time being, I suppose I'll have to settle for Chiller, which is a piss-poor substitute for sure. I'm hoping Optimum might pick up FEARnet, but even that doesn't hold a candle to the glory that was MonstersHD.