This Week in Horror History | Godzilla, The Craft & Found Footage Horror History (April 27 — May 3)

0:00 Spring is doing that little trick where it looks gentle from a distance. The flowers are out, the trees are waking up, the sun is hanging around a little longer, and Horror being Horror looks at all that fresh life and says, perfect, let's contaminate it. This week, we've got a monster born from the Bomb, a vampire movie dressed like a perfume ad and behaving like a death sentence, a comic book sequel where the lake itself wants a snack, a coven of teenage witches turning pain into power, and a found footage nightmare that feels less like a movie and more like evidence you were never meant to see.

1:01 Welcome back to this Week in Horror History, your weekly time machine through the creepiest anniversaries in film, TV, books, and video games. I'm your host, Enrique Kuto, and tonight, we're covering April twenty seventh through May third. Coming up, the American cut that helped turn Godzilla into a worldwide movie Monster, a high style vampire film where immortality comes with a terrible little footnote. A Stephen King and George Romero anthology sequel with oil slicks, and roadside Ghosts and the teen Witch cult classic that made an entire generation whisper we are the weirdos, mister. Then after the break, our deep cut Spotlight, a fake true crime documentary that premiered, vanished, leaked, and built its reputation like a cursed cape. Past hand to Hand. April twenty seventh, nineteen fifty six, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, releases in the United States and the world's most famous radioactive reptile begins his second life. See what I did there. This is not simply Gojira with subtitles or a simple dub. It is the recut American

2:34 version built around new footage with Raymond Burr as reporter Steve Martin. Reshaping is shiro Honda's postwar nuclear nightmare into something United States audiences could enter more easily. For many viewers, this was the doorway a city crushed under a walking mushroom cloud, a monster made of trauma and spectacle, A film that affected me so greatly as a kid. Godzilla was about my favorite thing in the world in my early life. In fact, Godzilla versus the Sea Monster still sticks out in my head often in any day, even when there's no giant reptile anywhere nearby. If you want to catch up with your favorite fire breathing friend, you can find it streaming on the Criterion Channel and Cinemax, with rental and purchase options on Apple TV, Fandango at Home, and Amazon Prime. Any Godzilla movie is worth a revisit, even the ones where he does the silly dances. Actually those are my favorite ones too, or rewatch again and again.

3:48 April twenty ninth, nineteen eighty three, The Hunger slides into theaters wearing sunglasses indoors and Vampire Cinema gets a blast of perfume, smoke, silk, and decay. Tony Scott's feature debut gives us Catherine Daneuve as an ancient vampire, David Bowie as her doomed companion, and Susan Sarandon as the doctor pulled into their gorgeous little death machine. The horror is not that you'll die. The horror is that someone promised you forever, then forgot to mention that forever does not necessarily mean young. It grossed about twelve point three million dollars worldwide, and its afterlife has been enormous, especially in goth queer and style obsessed horror circles. If you want to take a walk on the thirsty side. You can give the film a watch free with ads on two B TV or free with a library card on Hoopla, And of course you can rent or purchase it digitally on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. Oh man, now we're tapping into a real sweet spot in my childhood horror viewing. On May one, nineteen eighty seven, Creep

5:20 Show two lurches into theaters, carrying the ec comics torch with three nasty little campfire burns. There's old Chief Woodenhead, who I have a massive soft spot for, where a wooden statue comes to life for revenge, the raft which turns a peaceful lake into a floating panic attack, and the one that induced the most nightmares in my childhood, The Hitchhiker, where the worst person on the road discovers some victims do not stay down just because you drove away. Thanks for the ride, lady, Thanks for the ride. It is a bit leaner than the original Creep Show, but the comic panel nastiness is still there. And I think this one is massively, massively underrated. It did not have a screenplay from Stephen King This Go Around, and it wasn't directed by George A. Romero, but it was written by George Romero based on short stories by Stephen King, which, honestly, if that's not good enough for you, I don't know what is. And it was directed by long time George Romero cinematographer Michael Gornick, who, in my opinion, did a more than serviceable job of making the film look great and having lots and lots of atmosphere to spare, making that creep show vibe pop whenever necessary to accentuate the

6:54 madness and horror. I really do love this movie. It scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. I saw it on cable, and then years later I revisited it, and every time I watch it, I just go goddamn. Creep Show two is a hoot. At the box office, it didn't do terrible. It made about fourteen million dollars on a reported budget of roughly four million. If you want to give it a watch, whether it's for the first time or as a much needed revisit, It's streaming on Prime Video, Prime Video with ads, the Sheut Factory channel on Amazon as well as free with ads on Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and Prime Video Free with ads. You can also, of course rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. I really do recommend, if you're into physical media, the four K release from Aero Video. It's a proud piece on my collection shelf. This next one pairs perfectly with The Hunger, which spoke to the goth scene, especially on home video in the nineties. On May third, nineteen ninety six, The Craft opens in US theaters and Teen Horror gets a black lipstick spellbook all its own. Robin Tunney, Feruza, Bulk, Nev Campbell, and Rachel True play four girls who find each other through pain, anger, loneliness, and inevitably power. What

8:26 makes it last is that it's not just teen witches doing spooky things, although they do a lot of that, and it is a really good time. It's about wounded people being handed power before they're healed enough to understand how to wield it. And it really was a massive, massive influence on my entire generation, that's for sure. I had a sister who was a few years older than me who was obsessed with the Craft, and I enjoyed watching it too, and not just because I was developing a pensiont for goth girls, although I'm sure that played a bit of a role. It was also a surprise hit at the box office fifty five point six million dollars worldwide on a fifteen million dollar budget, quickly becoming a cult classic on home video that never really left the sleepover rotation for high school and middle school girls.

9:26 If you want to give the craft a revisit or see it for the first time, it's available to rent or buy at the usual suspects, Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. There are some doors you should never open. Tomorrow, on Weekly Spooky, We're heading into an old house with a basement that feels all wrong from the moment the light switch clicks on. Curtis Tucker is just a kid trying to be brave. He hates the base, the cold concrete, the flickering bulb, and the damp smell, plus the feeling that something could be hiding just out of sight. But when his father tells him the strange wooden shed in the corner was once connected to hidden tunnels beneath the house, curiosity starts digging its hooks in.

10:23 But late one rainy night, Curtis decides to face his fear. He goes downstairs, he opens the shed, he finds the latter, and then he crawls into the dark. What he discovers on the other side isn't a ghost story. It isn't a childhood nightmare. It's something worse. Because sometimes the scariest thing about an old tunnel isn't what might crawl into your house. It's where you might end up when you crawl out. That's right here on Weekly Spooky Don't miss Come On In by Morgan Moore, a chilling story of fear, curiosity, hidden passages, and the terrible things waiting beneath ordinary homes.

11:15 So lock the basement door, my spookies, and make sure you're subscribed. All right, spookies, quick breather. But when we come back, we're going into our deep cut Spotlight from April twenty seventh, two thousand and seven. It's a horror movie that practically became an urban legend because so many people heard about it before they could actually see it. And once you do, you understand why it felt like something that escaped. Welcome back the creepy calendar is waiting.

12:08 On April twenty seventh, two thousand and seven, The Poughkeepsie Tapes premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and then began one of the stranger released sagas in modern found footage horror. The premise is almost cruelly simple. Investigators raid a house in Poughkeepsie, New York and discover hundreds of videotapes documenting years of abduction, torture, murder, and psychological destruction. The movie presents itself like a true crime documentary, complete with interviews, forensic language, and tape excerpts that feel like evidence in a case you should not be allowed to watch alone.

12:53 The Poughkeepsie Tapes is not scary because it looks slick and atmospheric. It's scary because it looks wrong, awkward, clinical, degraded, like a training video that got locked in a cabinet because everyone who watched it needed well a minute afterwards. It was scheduled for a two thousand and eight theatrical release through MGM, but then it was pulled. A rough cut circulated online. A brief VOD appearance came and went years, passed by by the time Screen Factory finally released it on Blu ray and DVD in twenty seventeen. The film's distribution Limbo had become part of the ever growing legend that has a serious effect Because found footage thrives on uncertainty.

13:46 The best entries make you feel like the screen is almost contaminated, that by watching it you are somehow participating. This one gives you shelves, labels, interviews, and people trying to understand what evil left behind after it walked out the door. So if you want to see what the hype is all about, it's streaming right now with your subscription on Prime Video. It's free with ads on two BTV and the Roku channel, and of course you can rent it on Apple TV, Fandango at Home and Prime Video. Give it a watch in the dark. You might be glad you did, or you might really not be. Now, let's light a candle for some spooky birthdays. First up, a personal favorite of mine. Born on April twenty seventh, nineteen sixty four, Lisa Wilcox, most famous for being Alice Johnson in a Nightmare on Elm Street four and five, one of the franchise's most memorable final girl figures. And the only final girl to show up in two con executive Nightmare on Elm Street Films to fight the man himself, Freddy Krueger. I've always loved Freddy Krueger movies immensely. I did an entire podcast for over a year about the Freddy's Nightmares TV series. This is just ultimate horror comfort

15:16 food for me, and Alice was one of my favorite heroines. So Happy Birthday, Lisa Wilcox born on April twenty eighth, nineteen thirty. Carolyn Jones the immortal Mortitia Adams, bringing elegance, dead pan comedy, and a gothic glamour to TV horror history. She'll never be forgotten. Many have come close, but nothing can beat the original. Happy Birthday, Carolyn Jones born on April twenty ninth, nineteen fifty eight. Michelle Pfeiffer genre adjacent darkness, from the Witches of Eastwick to What Lies Beneath and Dark Shadows. Michelle Pfeiffer has had a major influence on pretty much all of cinema and horror is no exception.

16:10 A very Happy Birthday, Michelle Pfeifer. And finally, on April thirtieth, nineteen eighty two, Kirsten Dunst is born. She's unforgettable as Cloudia in Interview with the Vampire, turning childhood tragedy into one of nineties gothic horror's most haunting performances. And let's not even get into Melancholia woolf Happy Birthday, Kirsten Dunst. This week for our then and Now bite, where changing costumes without changing appetite Nineteen fifty six gives us the Atomic Monster Exported and Unleashed on a Wider World. Nineteen eighty three gives us the Vampire as high a fashion rot, nineteen eighty seven gives us comic book morality, nineteen ninety six gives us teen Witchcraft as Identity, Rebellion and Revenge fantasy, And in two thousand and seven we get horror as evidence the thing you find in a box that makes you wish you had never pressed play. And now for our weekly recommendation. If you want something pulpy, apocalyptic and perfectly matched to this week's Spring Gone Wrong energy, queue up the film Day of the Triffids, released in US

17:41 theaters around late April and early May in nineteen sixty three. It turns a meteor shower into the beginning of the end. Most of humanity wakes up blind and then the plants start moving. That's the absolute horror joy of it. It takes something harmless, greenery, gardens, the natural world waking up and makes it truly predatory. So if you want to check out what happens when vegetarian delicacies bite back, you can head over to Tube, Roku, channel and Plex to watch the Day of the Triffids free with ads and that My Spookies is your trip through April twenty seventh to May third in horror history. Don't forget Tomorrow Wednesday, there's a fresh horror story waiting just for you on the Weekly Spooky Feed. On Friday, we'll be coming back with cutting deep into horror, talking all about one of my favorite more recent horror films, One Cut of the Dead.

18:54 Then on Monday, another terrifying and true story we'll be waiting just for you to get at a little fear with your education, So make sure you subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. There's a little bit of Halloween to celebrate nearly every day of the week here at Weekly Spooky. Until next time, stay creepy, my Spooky, and remember our days are numbered because that's how we tell them apart see you next week.