This Week in Horror History | Final Destination, Dawn of the Dead, Us & The Hearse (Mar 16–22)

0:00 March in horror History has a nasty little habit of springing traps just when you think winter is loosening its grip. This week, Fate sketches out a passenger list and dares a group of teenagers to step off the plane. A suburban shopping mall becomes the last bright box in a country gone ravenous. Damien Thorn strides into the boardroom like the Antichrist just got a promotion, And somewhere on a quiet family vacation, a driveway fills with people who look just like you. This week is packed with horror that feels like a warning studio horror, sequel, horror, prestige, horror, cult, oddity horror, all of it circling the same idea. Danger is already in the room, and it may already know your name. Tonight, we're talking death with a schedule, zombies with momentum, doppelgangers with purpose, and one deeply strange, haunted car gem that deserves a little more love. So flip open the calendar and then hope you survive. Welcome back

1:34 to this week in Horror History, your fast fun walk through the horror releases that tied the calendar week of March sixteenth through March twenty second. We hit the dates, the context, the box office story when it matters, and the very practical question every listener asks right after I remember that, where can I watch this tonight? And of course I'm your host. Enrique Kuto coming up. The movie that turned everyday accidents into franchise grade paranoia. Zack Snyder sprinting into the zombie apocalypse, Sam Neil giving end Time's Menace a power tie. Jordan Peel splitting America in half with mirrors and scissors, and a deep cut detour into a creepy little regional shocker where a black hearse keeps gliding back into frame like Death Missed and Appointment. On March seventeenth, two thousand, Final Destination hits theaters and right on time. The genius of Final Destination is how clean the hook is. No mask killer, no haunted house, no cursed videotape, just the awful idea that Death noticed you slipped the net and has started correcting the paperwork. James Wong's film turned airline, dread, household objects, and random bad

3:09 timing into an eerie subgenre of cause and effect panic. It made horror fans, including yours, truly stare at ceiling fans, buses, bathroom cords, and kitchen knives with a fresh suspicion. On a twenty three million dollar budget, it pulled in one hundred and twelve point nine million dollars worldwide, which is exactly the kind of hit that tells a studio, yes, please keep finding new ways to murder us with architecture. I've often heard Final Destination described as a slasher film where God is Jason Vorhees, and I think it's pretty apt.

3:51 The other great thing about Final Destination is it truly is the gift that keeps on giving because it has so many sequels, include one that came out just a year or so ago, and they're all worth a watch, if at the very least just for the opening insanity of that premonition of a big disaster that then is avoided, well for a little while at least, So if you need an immediate reminder of what Fate has in store for all of us, you can watch it right now with your HBO Max subscription, or of course, buy or rent it digitally at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, or even YouTube. Don't be late, because it'll find you. On March nineteenth, two thousand and four, Dawn of the Dead came out running literally fast. Zombies were still a point of debate for horror fans, and this remake basically kicked open the door and yelled keep up.

5:02 James Gunn's script gives the movie a mean little pulse, but what really sells it is the velocity panic in suburbia, a hard sprint to the mall, and the ugly realization that even consumer paradise becomes a coffin once the parking lot fills up. Now full disclosure, the original George A. Romero Dawn of the Dead from the nineteen seventies is easily my favorite film. Not my favorite horror film. That's probably Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but my favorite film, right up there with Terminator two and Eddie Presley. I adore the original Dawn of the Dead, and when Zack Snyder's remake hit theaters in two thousand and four, I was sixteen or seventeen years old, and I was pretty resistant, but I have to admit, years later, watching it again, it wasn't bad. It had a lot to like, some great performances, and I just think it's actually pretty solid and deserve some love. It made one hundred and two point three million dollars worldwide on a twenty six million dollar budget, so it was a genuine studio horror win and it still plays like an energy drink spiked with with dread.

6:24 I still remember one of the big marketing moves they did for the film was they showed the first I think it was ten minutes of the film on the USA network, just straight through ten minutes of the film, and it did get me a bit excited, even though again I was very edge lord skeptical about them remaking my favorite movie and the perfect zombie film. But I do recommend you give it a rewatch, especially if, much like myself, you had preconceived notions about the film when you first saw it. And right now is a great time because it's available to watch with your Netflix subscription, and of course you can rent it on Amazon TV.

7:07 Well that's Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Apple TV. I'm just gonna mix them up now because we all know what they are. March twentieth, nineteen eighty one gives us the Omen Part three, The Final Conflict, and this one has a special little horror history thrill because Sam Neil, famous for Jurassic Park and some other genre films I'll talk about in a minute, steps into the role of adult Damien Thorn aka the Antichrist and somehow makes apocalyptic evil look polished, ambitious and ready for a shareholder meeting. The movie is not necessarily the crown jewel of the Omen series, but it has real end times pageantry, Mary Goldsmith on the score to make it all really come together, and the sheer novelty of watching Damien as a fully functional public figure instead of just a spooky child with a very very bad record of babysitters.

8:16 I've always had a soft spot for the Omen series because when I was a young man, probably really young, maybe even eight or nine years old, the OMEN films, especially Parts two, three and the HBO made for TV Part four, which I think is highly, highly underrated, they were always airing on HBO, and I remember watching bits and pieces of all of the Omen movies on HBO in the middle of the night, being way way too young, And to this day I'll still occasionally break into kind of doing the music cues because I think something sounds demonic those o oh those, oh those you know it's something I it's just a part of my DNA now.

9:05 It earned about twenty point five million dollars against a five to six million dollar budget, So not a flop, not a monster hit, but certainly a profitable doomsday memo. And as far as where to watch it, because I do recommend you give it a revisit, It's available to rent at the usual suspects like Amazon, Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home, And if you just love the omen movies, grab the box set. I Love Mine. On March twenty second, twenty nineteen, we get Jordan Peels Us in theaters, the weekending reminder that mainstream horror can still arrive as an event. Jordan Peel followed Get Out with Something Bigger, Stranger, and more dreamlike Doubles Tunnels, class Terror Hands across America, and one of the great modern horror images, A Family Standing in the Dark Driveway Waiting to be Acknowledged.

10:16 US made roughly two hundred and fifty six point one million dollars worldwide on a twenty million dollar budget, which is blockbuster money by most standards, but especially horror standards. The more impressive thing, though, is that it felt like a real original film becoming a communal obsession. For a few weeks there, everybody was doing the voice. Everybody was suddenly uncomfortable around scissors. I saw it three times in the theater, No regrets. It's available to stream right now with your Hulu subscription, and of course you can rent it from Amazon, Apple TV and Fendango at home, and really I think you should. If you've never seen it, it'll give you the creeps. And if you're revisiting it, well, it'll give you the creeps. Tomorrow Wednesday, on the weekly Spooky Feed. It begins in the most ordinary, pathetic, little moment imaginable, a bored man in a bathroom stall, staring at graffiti, finding a phone number so small it almost seems like it was waiting for him. He calls it and on the other end there isn't laughter, There isn't breathing.

11:42 There isn't even a person, not really, just a voice that says code in from there, everything curdles. His phone starts answering thoughts. He never speaks aloud. It shows him a stranger's face, a life history, and one final instruction Terminate and the worst part. The phone doesn't just threaten him, It tempts him with a ruined bank account, a fortune waiting on the other side of a terrible decision, a gun and a locker, a van out back, a mansion at the end of the road, and a man inside who may be every bit as monstrous as he appears.

12:34 But this is not a story about an ordinary murder. It's a story about manipulation, greed, and curiosity turning rotten, About what happens when you answer something that should have been left alone and realize far too late that you are never in control. This Wednesday, Weekly Spooky brings you Boredom can be Deadly by Michael Kelso, a mean little nightmare about surveillance, temptation, and the kind of evil that doesn't chase you down dark alleys. It waits quietly in plain sight until somebody is bored enough to make the call.

13:17 So make sure you're subscribed and join us right back here at Weekly Spooky Tomorrow for a brand new scare. After the break, we're taking the scenic route into the deep cut Spotlight, a nineteen eighties odd ball where grief, devil, worship, rumors and one very ominous vehicle rolled together into a regional supernatural chiller that feels like it wandered in from a late night UHF station and never quite left your head.

14:07 Welcome back. Let's pull off the main road for this week's deep cut spotlight. This week we're talking about The Hearse, which opened in Kansas City, Missouri SOKC MO not k c K on March twenty first, nineteen eighty before expanding to further reaches of the nation. That alone gives it the right flavor for the show. It wasn't a giant nationwide event, not a title everybody had circled in red, but a weird, little theatrical ghost drifting into the market one city at a time. Directed by George Bowers and starring Trish Van Deveray and Joseph Cotton, the movie takes a very basic setup. A woman retreats to a small town after personal trauma and coats it in cults, suspicion, and repeated visions of a black hearse that keeps turning up like a bad penny. What I enjoy about The Hearse is that it feels adjacent to bigger, prestige supernatural movies of the era without ever having their polish, and that's not a dig. That texture is the appeal. It's the kind of movie you discover because a label rescues it, a late night programmer loves it, or a friend who enjoys horror says no, no, trust me. This one is

15:39 better than you'd expect. Regional horror films from this era all have this gritty, grainy, fun, creepy vibe. It's hard to fully nail down too many adjectives. It brought in about two point eight million dollars, so while not a breakout sensation, the budget was likely pretty low and it probably did pretty well for its investors. But that is exactly why it belongs in a segment like this. Horror history is not just the giants. It's the strange side roads, the regional openings, and the films that survive because somebody somewhere refused to let them vanish. So if you want to check out the hearse, it's pretty easy to get your hands on. You can watch it free with ads on Amazon, Prime Video or Plex. So why not treat yourself to a little nasty regional horror tonight. Now, let's talk about some horror adjacent birthdays on March sixteenth, nineteen seventy five. Sienna Gilroy was born forever locked into genre memory for playing Jill Valentine in the Resident Evil films.

17:02 She's had a great career, but there are worse things to be remembered for than Resident Evil. So Happy Birthday, Sienna. Born on March eighteenth, nineteen fifty Brad Durref the voice of Chucky and one of the great patron saints of beautifully unhinged menace. Brad Durreff is one of the most underrated actors there is. Not only did he do the voice of Chucky, He's been a character actor in so many shows. His character in Deadwood, he played the doctor, was incredible, and I think one of his most unforgettable roles was as the psychotic betazoid in episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Really good stuff. A very happy birthday to Brad Durreff. On March twentieth, nineteen sixty two, Stephen Summers is born a man who breathed new life into monster spectacle with films like Deep Rising, The Mummy, and Van Helsing actiony horror films, but in my opinion, they do a body good. Happy Birthday Steven Summers, and finally, born on March twenty second, nineteen ninety one, Dominique Fishback, whose work in Swarm proved modern psychological horror, can still feel sweaty, intimate, and uncomfortably funny. So have a happy birthday, Dominique Fishback

18:39 are then and now. This week really shows how studio horror has changed without giving up its favorite obsession. In nineteen eighty one, the Omen three The Final Conflict was still selling Biblical apocalypse with polished studio gravitas. By two thousand, Final Destination made invisible design itself The Monster. By twenty nineteen, US could package social horror, surreal imagery, and art film unease as a major multiplex event, different decades, different styles, same core pleasure horror, taking ordinary systems, family, travel, suburbia, status, national identity, and revealing the unease hidden deep inside. And finally, my weekly recommendation is Shutter, released March twenty first, two thousand and eight. No, it's not the strongest remake of that whole americanized Asian horror cycle, but it's very enjoyable, very ghostly, and exactly the kind of title that fits this show's mission to look back in time for this week and find something scary you can throw on right now to have a good time with unearthing picks you may have never made on your own. The photo spirit

20:09 gimmick is still effective. The Tokyo setting gives it a slightly dislocated feeling, and the shoulder pain reveal remains a nasty little crowd pleaser. It made about forty eight million dollars worldwide on an eight million dollar budget, which tells you audiences absolutely showed up for Cursed Image dread in that moment. And I want to mention I was working in film marketing at the time that Shutter came out, and I remember being at conventions at my booth and seeing the Shutter table. They were taking photos of people and quickly doing a manipulation to add a ghost to that photo and then printing it out to hand it to you as a little keepsake for promotion, and it was pretty cool. If I could find mine, I would share it with you guys, But I'm sure it's probably lost to time. But if you want to check out Shutter, whether it's a revisit or for the first time, it's not that hard to do. It's available to watch with your subscription on Hulu or Amazon Prime Video. You can also watch it free with ads on Plex or rent it at Apple TV and Fandango at home. Well, my Spookyes, that was your week in horror history for March sixteenth through twenty second. If you want a clean little marathon out of this one, go from final Destination into Dawn of the Dead, then swing weird with the hearse and

21:40 finish big with us. That's a very healthy evening if your idea of health includes doom, gore doubles and at least one vehicle that seems spiritually malicious. And don't forget to come back by tomorrow for a brand new scary story here at Weekly Spooky. It's a fresh dose of horror fiction just for you. And on Friday, who knows what might be waiting, so don't miss that either. Until next time, keep one eye on the rear view mirror, one eye on the family driveway, and try not to trust any machine that seems a little too interested in your fate. I'll be here next week to bring you another dose of horror history. So until then, remember our days are numbered, because that's how we tell them. Apart, see you next time,