June 16, 2026

This Week in Horror History | Legendary Terror & Cosmic Nightmares June 15–21

This Week in Horror History | Legendary Terror & Cosmic Nightmares June 15–21
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Horror history gets iconic, aquatic, gothic, apocalyptic, and completely unhinged this week as This Week in Horror History travels through June 15–21 with motel terror, shark sequels, dark superhero nightmares, zombie blockbuster chaos, and one wild space-vampire cult classic that brings cosmic horror crashing down on Earth.

This episode digs into a packed week of classic horror movies, cult horror, summer blockbusters, gothic comic-book horror, zombie disaster cinema, and 1980s Cannon Films madness, including the New York premiere of Psycho, the U.S. release of Jaws 2, the theatrical arrival of Batman Returns, the blockbuster zombie outbreak of World War Z, and the Deep-Cut Spotlight on Tobe Hooper’s bizarre 1985 space vampire epic Lifeforce.

Inside this episode:
• Psycho rewrites the rules of horror moviegoing, turns the Bates Motel into a nightmare landmark, and makes one ordinary shower one of the most famous crime scenes in cinema.
• Jaws 2 drags audiences back to Amity Island for more shark terror, seaside panic, and one of horror’s most frustrating “nobody believes the guy who is right” sequel setups.
• Batman Returns transforms Gotham into a twisted Christmas horror fairy tale full of sewer lairs, circus gangs, stitched leather, abandoned children, corporate monsters, Catwoman, and the Penguin.
• World War Z reimagines the zombie apocalypse as global disaster cinema, with the undead moving less like slow corpses and more like a rushing human flood.
• The Deep-Cut Spotlight goes to Lifeforce, Tobe Hooper’s strange, ambitious, and deeply excessive Cannon Films cult classic about Halley’s Comet, alien vampires, life-draining seduction, plague victims, and London falling apart under cosmic horror.

Plus: a horror birthday roll featuring Courteney Cox, Laurie Metcalf, John Carl Buechler, and Nicole Kidman, a creepy look at how horror became a massive summer marketing event, and a weekly recommendation for Hammer’s Dracula, also known as Horror of Dracula, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

From Norman Bates and shark-infested beaches to Gotham monsters, zombie swarms, Halley’s Comet, space vampires, Hammer horror, and Cannon Films insanity, this week proves horror history can be classic, blockbuster-sized, cult, strange, seductive, and absolutely impossible to ignore.

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🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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Horror knows exactly what to do with warm weather. It

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sends you to a motel where the shower isn't safe.

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It sends you back into the water when you should

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absolutely no better. It turns the biggest comic book sequel

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in the country into a gothic freak show. And then,

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just when you think the week can't get any stranger,

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it opens a spaceship near Haley's Comet and brings something

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hungry back to Earth. This week, we're talking about fear

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as a marketing event. Lines around the block, posters you

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Couldn't escape, summer releases that taught audiences to be nervous

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about bathrooms, beaches, villains and rubber masks, crowds that move

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like a wave of teeth, and beautiful strangers who might

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be draining the life out of life. So check the people,

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stay out of the ocean. And if a space mission

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brings back something too perfect to be human, maybe don't

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get close enough to find out. Welcome back to this

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Week in Horror History, your weekly time machine through the

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creepiest anniversaries in film, TV, books, and games. I'm your host,

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Enrique Kuto, and this week is June fifteenth through thirty

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first Coming Up, Hitchcock rewrites the rules of movie going

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and basically teaches America how to be afraid of a shower.

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A Shark sequel proves that Amity Island has the worst

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tourism board on Earth. Tim Burton drags a famous suit

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hero into a wintery carnival of trauma cats and penguins,

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and Brad Pitt runs from a zombie apocalypse that moves

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less like undead shufflers and more like a human flood. Then,

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after the break, our deep cut Spotlight takes us to

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June twenty first, nineteen eighty five, when Tobey Hooper canon

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films Haley's Comet and space Vampires collide in one of

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the wildest cult horror outings of the decade. June sixteenth,

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nineteen sixty. Psycho opens at the de Mille and Baronet

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Theaters in New York, and Alfred Hitchcock does something brilliant.

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He makes the audience part of the machine. No late

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ad missions, no spoilers, no sneaking in halfway through and

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asking your friend what you missed. That policy made Psycho

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feel like an event before people even knew what it

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really was, and once they did know the movie changed

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horror forever. It took the monster out of the castle

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and put him behind the front desk. It made a

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cheap motel feel mythic, and it turned one ordinary bathroom

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into the most famous crime scene in cinema history. And

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something a lot of people don't realize about Psycho and

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why their marketing campaign was so truly unique, is in

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the early days of cinema, it was very common for

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people to join a film already in progress, especially when

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it was one of the only public spaces where for

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a small fee you could experience air conditioning. That alone

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got a lot of people in the seats. But back

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in those days, it was very common to buy a ticket,

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go see movie, regardless of where in the run time

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the movie is, and if you liked what you saw,

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you would stay for the second show and watch what

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you missed. That's the way cinema was in the early

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days for many moviegoers. But Psycho saying no one would

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be admitted after the first ten minutes of Psycho or

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something like that, I'm paraphrasing that was a huge deal

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and the beginning of American audiences deciding that they wanted

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to see a film from beginning to end in the cinema.

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That's a big deal. Psycho cost roughly eight hundred and

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seven thousand dollars and became the most profitable film of

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Hitchcock's career, with about thirty two million dollars domestic and

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around fifty million in total gross, often cited across releases.

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I don't think I have to tell you what a

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classic Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho truly is, but if I do, well,

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you should definitely be watching it tonight, maybe with the

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lights on. Unless you think black and white movies won't

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scare you, because they will. It's available to rent or

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buy on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

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June sixteenth, nineteen seventy eight, Jaws two hits theaters and

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asks the immortal question after the last giant shark disaster,

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why is anyone still swimming near Amity Island? No Spielberg

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this time, and the magic is different, but the core

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anxiety is still nasty. The water looks normal until it's not.

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Roy Scheider's Brodie is trapped in the most frustrating horror

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movie position of all the guy who's right but sounds

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crazy because nobody wants the scary thing to be true.

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The sequel was huge for its moment. It cost about

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twenty to thirty million dollars depending on the source, and

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ultimately made around one hundred and eighty seven point nine

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million dollars worldwide, proving the Shark still had box office teeth.

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And I think Jaws two actually holds up very well.

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I think it's a nice change of pace from watching

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the first Jaws film every summer to get that summertime

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vibe of beach, sand, sun and well bloody water. So

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if you haven't seen Jaws two in a while and

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you need a revisit, or you've never went into the

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water again, it's available to watch with your Stars membership,

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or you can of course rent or buy on Prime Video,

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Apple TV and fan Dang Fandang Fandango Dango Dango Dango

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at home. Hey, what do you want me to do?

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I have to say it so often. June nineteenth, nineteen

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ninety two, Batman returns arrives, and if we're being honest,

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it is basically a Christmas horror fairy tale. Wearing a

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superhero cape for flavor, Tim Burton takes Gotham and turns

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it into a black snow, snow, globe sewer layers, circus gangs,

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stitched leather, abandoned children, corporate monsters, and a penguin who

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feels less like a villain and more like a nightmare

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somebody left in the basement a little too long. I

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know this one may be a little controversial, but of

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all of the Batman films, especially of that era, I

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think Batman Returns does bring the horror vibes the most,

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and it was a major hit, about two hundred and

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sixty six point eight million dollars worldwide on an eighty

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million dollar budget. But it was also a bit too

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strange and kinky and grotesque and sad for the toy

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isle version of Batman that most people were expecting, which

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of course is exactly why horror fans appreciated. And if

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you don't remember just how horror esque Batman Returns is

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or you've never seen it somehow, it is streaming currently

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on HBO Max with your subscription, and of course you

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can rent or buy it on Prime Video, Apple TV,

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and Fandango at home. June twenty first, twenty thirteen, World

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War Z hits theaters and The Zombie Outbreak gets Blockbuster speed.

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These are not shambling graveyard ghouls. These things climb and

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swarm and pour over walls like panic has become a

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weather system. The production story was famously messy with rewrites

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and reworked ending, but the finished movie did manage to

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connect with audiences. It made about five hundred and forty

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point five million dollars worldwide on a reported one hundred

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and ninety million dollar budget, becoming one of the biggest

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zombie films ever released. And while yes it has a

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lot more of the big budget sheen of a of

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a high end action movie and a big and a

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big star in Brad Pitt, at the end of the day,

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it's about zombies chomping guts, so it's still worth your time,

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especially if you've never seen it. It's currently streaming on

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Paramount Plus with your subscription, and of course to rent

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or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at

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home on weekly Spooky Our mini series Summer of the

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Demon has already turned Camp Redfeather into a nightmare of blood, football, revenge,

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and something wearing a cursed jersey. Eddie Peewee Richter already

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survived the Demon once, but now he's learning the truth

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maybe even worse than he imagined, because maybe the monsters

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stalking the camp isn't who he thought at all. Tomorrow,

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in part three, we start digging deeper into the mystery

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behind the jersey, the missing body, and the people who

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knew the Demon before he became a monster. Their search

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leads them back to Strickfield, to the empty room of

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the demon's ex girlfriend, and a hidden journal that changes everything.

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Who really stopped the Demon that night over a year ago,

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who took the jersey? And if the Demon isn't Greg,

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then what the hell is it? The answer comes with

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a body count. As the Demon is done waiting in

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the shadows, He's tearing through Camp red feather in the

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broad daylight. He's turning practice fields into killing grounds, and

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when a scrimmage becomes a slaughter, he re finds himself

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exactly where the Demon wanted him all along. Summer of

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the Demon Part three drops tomorrow on Weekly Spooky, So

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make sure you're subscribed, And if you've missed the previous parts,

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don't worry. They're waiting for you on the feed. So

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get ready for some summer scared with us, because the

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Demon is ready to finish the game. All right, my spookies,

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let's take a quick breather. When we return, we're leaving

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the beach behind and heading deep into space because on

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June twenty first, nineteen eighty five, a film opened in

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US theaters and asked one important question, what if the

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end of the world derived from space and looked impossible

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to resist? All right, we're back, so let's get into it.

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On June twenty first, nineteen eighty five, Life Force opens

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in US theaters, and somehow one movie manages to combine

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Haley's comment, alien vampires, naked cosmic seduction, zombie like plague victims,

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London destruction, and Canon Film's access into one absolutely unhinged

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and delightful cult movie. This is Toby Hooper after the

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Texas Chainsaw massacre and Poltergeist, working on a much bigger

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and stranger canvas, completely unleashed, and Life Force feels big,

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in fact, in some ways too big. This is part

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of the charm. Though It starts with a space mission

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investigating a massive alien craft hidden near Haley's comet. The

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astronauts find preserved humanoid bodies inside. Naturally, humanity does what

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humanity always does in horror, brings the impossible thing home

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and acts shocked when the impossible thing wakes up, and

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of course it's pretty hungry too. The central idea is

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wonderfully strange. I don't know how else to put it.

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These beings don't just drink blood, They drain life energy.

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They feed on the human force itself, leaving bodies empty, contagious,

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and desperate to take that energy from someone else. So

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the movie becomes a space vampire story, an outbreak movie,

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a disaster movie, and a very very sweaty nineteen eighties

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apocalypse all at once. And not to mention, the main

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monster of the film is a beautiful woman who wears

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no clothing for the majority of the time, which definitely

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makes it stand out. Life Force is not subtle or tidy.

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It's not one of those cult movies where you wonder

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why audiences missed out the first time. You can see

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exactly why people didn't know what to do with it.

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But that's also why it's lasted. It's simply too strange

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to disappear. The movie reportedly cost around twenty five million

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dollars and made only eleven point six million at the

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US box office, so as a commercial bet, it did

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not exactly Conquer the Summer, but as a deep cut

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it is fantastic, ambitious, ridiculous, eerie, horny, cosmic, and completely

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committed to its own madness and legend has it. The

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entire reason this film was made and allowed to go

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so far over budget and be so completely unhinged is

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because Canon Films was trying to keep Toby Hooper happy

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so that they could get the rights to and have

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him direct Texas Chainsaw Massacre two, which did eventually happen.

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So if you've never seen Life Force, you really do

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need to, and it's not hard to watch. It's available

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free with ads on to b and Roku channel, and

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you can watch it on MGM Plus with your subscription,

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and of course buy or rent on on Prime Video,

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Apple TV, Fandango at home, or anywhere else you rent

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your movies digitally. Now, let's light a creepy candle and

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celebrate some horror birthdays starting on June fifteenth, nineteen sixty four,

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when Courtney Cox is born. Gail weathers herself a Scream

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franchise anchor who turned ambition into survival instinct, no matter

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how many other mainstream films and TV shows She's done

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She'll always be gayl to US horror fans and most

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of the country at large if those box office numbers

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can be believed. So Happy Birthday, Courtney Cox and another

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Scream alumni. On June sixteenth, nineteen fifty five, Laurie metcalf

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Is born the Scream two Secret Weapon if you will,

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bringing sitcom warmth and full tilt genre chaos into one

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truly unforgettable turn. I remember this blowing my mind when

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I saw it as a kid. So Happy Birthday, Laurie Metcalf.

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Now for a legit member of Horror Royalty. Born on

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June eighteenth, nineteen fifty two, John Carl Beekler Makeup Affects,

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artist and director behind Friday the Thirteenth, Part seven, The

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New Blood Troll, and piles of practical monster work. The

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man worked on so many horror films. I guarantee you've

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seen more than four of them. He really has his

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fingerprints on such a remarkable amount of classic horror films,

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from Terror Vision, From Beyond Gooli's two Reanimator Trancers, Death Stalker,

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Mausoleum of Freddy's Dead, The Final Nightmare, Carnosaur one and

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two Project Metal Beast to personal favorite of mine, Halloween four,

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Halloween six, The Curse of Michael Myers. The man has

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done it all and he is worthy of legend status,

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and we lost him far too young. So a very

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happy birthday to John Carl Beekler. And for our final

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birthday this week, a mainstream name that went horror in

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a big way and was highly memorable. Born on June twentieth,

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nineteen sixty seven. Nicole Kidman, The Elegant Haunted Heart of

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the Others a film. If you haven't seen it, you

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desperately need to. It's one of the great modern ghost

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story performances I can think of. She really went all

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in and in my opinion, gained respect from genre audiences.

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So happy birthday, Nicole Kidman. For our then and now

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this week, it's horror learning how to sell fear at scale.

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Psycho turns suspense into a public ritual. Show up on time,

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Keep the Secret Scream together. Jaws two proves the Sharks

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still had teeth for a sequel even without the original

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Spielberg fairy dust, so to speak. Batman Returns proves a

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studio blockbuster can still be weird, wounded, and grotesque. World

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War Z shows the zombie Apocalypse as global disaster cinema,

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not one corpse at the door, but the whole world

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tipping over at once and hungering for flesh and of

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course life force is what happens when nineteen eighties blockbuster

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ambition gets possessed by pure cult horror, lunacy, space vampires, apocalypse,

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and the feeling that maybe humanity should stop bringing strange

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things back from space. Maybe, just maybe. And for our

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weekly recommendation, if you want some cl classic horror to

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go with your week, bust out Horror of Dracula in

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the United Kingdom. It arrived on June sixteenth, nineteen fifty eight,

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after its earlier US release, under the title most people

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now know it as, which is Horror of Dracula. It

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was released originally under the title Dracula Alone, but nobody

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wanted confusion, I guess later on, and then hammer Horror

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suddenly presented a sharper bite to audiences. Christopher Lee's Dracula

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is not just a cape and a castle. He's animal

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hunger in elegant clothes. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing is all speed,

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intelligence and a good dose of holy fury. It's short, colorful,

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and wonderfully direct. The kind of gothic horror that feels

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like it was painted in blood red and candlelight. Always

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worth another watch. I mean, Hammer Dracula movies, they're hard

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to go wrong with it, Lee East in the first

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two decades, and this one really kick them all off.

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You can check it out right now to rent or

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buy digitally on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home.

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Imagine that well, my Spookyes, that was your trip through

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June fifteenth to twenty first in horror history. Don't forget

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to come back by tomorrow for our third installment in

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the summer mini series, Summer of the Demon. We know

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you'll enjoy it, and on Thursday, we'll have a brand

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new Thursday Thrills to keep you informed on all the

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weirdness coming and going. There's something spooky for you really

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every single day of the week here on the Weekly

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Spooky Feed, so make sure you're subscribed on your favorite

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podcast app that way, the fear is always near. And

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I'll see you right back here next Tuesday for another

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dive into horror his story. So until then, remember our

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days are numbered because that's how we tell them apart,

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see you next week,