This song isn't about watching movies. It's simply about watching the news. Unfortunately, it's still relevant.

The twist at the end with the 6.30 news is very true, especially these days. Song still holds up really well nearly 50 years later. The Living in the 70's album was released in 1974 which this was on. Next Skyhooks track has to be "All my friends are getting married", but Million dollar Riff, Ego is not a dirty word or Women in Uniform are also good choices.

Thanks for giving this a spin (yes, I'm that old, I remember spinning records!!). As others have said, the punch line is that the real horrors in this world is on the news. RIP, Shirl, the singer, who died in a helicopter crash. He was a carpenter by trade, and was on a weekly home and garden type show, building stuff and giving tips.

Thanks guys. I was in the audience for this one. It was my first ever in-studio of Countdown episode in late 1974/early 1975. I was 9 years old and Skyhooks were my favourite band of that year. Let's just say that it was safe to be a Skyhooks fan when you're a girl in Melbourne. Being the opposite of a Skyhooks fan meant you were a Sherbet fan, and that could get you hurt. This song is about the 6:30 News and it got to # 1 in Australia. Cheers, Hayley

Its so true and still so relevant today, real life is far more scarier than any movie ever could be.

Daddy Cool's Ross WIlson produced this and their first couple of albums. Then they kicked Daddy Cool out of the zeitgeist and became the biggest band in Australia in the mid 70's. The singer, Graeme (Shirley) Strachan, went on to host TV shows before he crashed on the north-east slope of Mount Archer in 2001. RIP Shirl The Curl.

In 1974 when this was released we had been watching the Vietnam war in vivid colour on the news. I am now 65 and still remember vividly pictures I saw on TV of that war. Especially a couple where a prisoner was executed with a bullet to the temple on camera on a show called Four Corners. Also the report of the village napalmed by friendly fire and the naked child running down the road with burns. Maybe we should see war uncensored and it may change all few attitudes.

Context is everything when it comes to a band like Skyhooks. Maybe they're not the most sophisticated and complex rock band of that time, but they offered something new, which was desperately needed at the time. As somebody else has put it.. You had to be an Aussie living in the 70's to really understand Skyhooks. We were a subsidiary of England, living in the post Menzies years, excited to have Whitlam as our new leader, and Skyhooks were simply documenting these events through song. We had no idea that our Whitlam was going to be fired by our Queen and the CIA, and it seems interesting that Skyhooks pacified their lyrics not long after the firing of Whitlam. Again, context is everything...

The 6:30 news in 74. Vietnam and Cambodia. A Horror Movie Right There On Your TV. Thanks I love it. It took me back to a 9 year old.

Skyhooks were a great pub act. It wasn’t high art, but they focused on guitar riffs as their main hook source for their songs. They had a good sense of humour, pretty mischievous as you know from their other song you reacted to. Some of their biggest hits are songs I wouldn’t necessarily say are essential listening; my suggestions would be Ego Is Not A Dirty Word, Million Dollar Riff, Jukebox In Siberia, and for a high energy belter Women In Uniform. Their tongue in cheek attitude actually just made me think of another Aussie band called Painters And Dockers (named after a union) with their song Nude School which is again not high art but the song and the video clip are fun and funny.

This song from their debut , Living in the 70’s …. Half the album got banned from Radio play at the time, so the fans couldn’t hear them on the radio had to actually go out and purchase the LP to listen to it, the Album sold a truck load of vinyl….. Living in the 70’s became a smash….. and their career was off and running.

Great band of the 80s saw them live back in late 80s ..in Melbourne..

I had a skyhooks t-shirt when i was about 6 or 7. And the intro to this freaked me out.

love that they think it's about actual horror movies - it was the Vietnam War on the evening news every night with real death in living colour for the first time.

That was the point of the song, the news is like watching a horror movie, so switch it off and you will be better for it

Spooky. I was literally watching this same video on the same channel last night. There are still a few great songs for you to check out. Ego Is Not A Dirty Word, Women In Uniform, All My Friends Are Getting Married. They reformed in 1990 and Jukebox In Siberia was their big comeback hit.

Mental As Anything - Spirit Got Lost (1983) Friday night in the video room I enjoyed Skyhooks and their hits, but they were a tad before my time. I think I was just too young to be a fan. I remember one girl on Countdown making threats of suicide if they didn't look at her. After her third exclamation, the Hooks turned to her with their eyes wide open. It made all of us laugh at her and that caused her to cry. She's probably dead now.

These guys were on top of the Australian rockpile heap when I first came to the country in 1976. Their big moment wasn't long lasting, which is a shame, because there were a lot of good songs and great ideas coming out of the band. Greg Macainsh was an interesting and intelligent songwriter.

I first heard this on the first-ever "New Wave" compilation (Vertigo Records UK 1977). On that LP Skyhooks were rubbing shoulders with the Ramones, Dead Boys, the Damned, Flaimin' Groovies, New York Dolls, Runnaways, Talking Heads, Boomtown Rats, Richard Hell... and, even though Skyhooks didn't qualify as New Wave this song was NOT out-of-place on that album...

I’ve been listening to this for decades and I only just noticed what it was talking about

Horror movie . . . it's the 6:30 News!

At the time the news was at 630 pm so the song is about the news

I still like it

This song's called ''Horror Movie'', yet comments on this page read like a script for a Soap Opera

yes, the 6.30 news was worse than any horror movie. and props to a bunch of aussie blokes wearing makeup and glamming up in the early 70/s

In the 70s us blokes liked Skyhooks and the girls liked Sherbet . Girls could like Skyhooks ,but blokes who liked Sherbet were seen as suspicious or even as Feminine.

Cant wait for my Robert palmer Mercy mercy me music video request

This is lovely. Red would disagree.

Way before my time. Like Daddy Cool, being before my time didn't mean I could get away from them.

Would have heard this as a little kid on radio but never seen the video clip. Really does highlight what the period looked like then. I think because colour tv was still a relative new thing, groups like Skyhooks went overboard on how to look very colourful for tv. I seen some old clip, maybe on here of AC/DC looking similar. Thankfully they ditched that look soon after and the concentrated on their hard rock sound. I reckon when I was a kid the news on tv was around 6-30 pm so yeah, the horror movie about that was clearly part of this song. Now the news shows can be anytime from 4pm to 7pm. It is horrendous. Thankfully with the internet, the tv is not the only source to watch something.

Skyhooks - Love's Not Good Enough

I liked Skyhooks.. but I was a Sherbet girl.

The singer looks like Steve Guttenberg.

A bit of a slow burn for me. I remember it being played ad nauseam and still not quite liking the song until years after it was off the charts. I still like the rest of the Living In The 70's album. I think you had to live in Australia in the 70's to really understand Skyhooks.

Shirley gone too soon.

Haha found Yas i can see and hear you now I've found dinner BRAIN'S BRAIN'S YUMMY DELICIOUS BRAIN'S

He sounds like Geddy Lee. Good song though 👌

lol How about we just do some unassuming Bob Segar songs instead

I'll stick wi the real Sweet, ta.

The perfect example of completly missing the point...........