This Week in Horror History | The Lost Boys, Jason Lives & Fright Night (July 27–August 2)

As July comes to a close. This is when summer starts to feel a little suspicious. The sun is still blazing, the nights are still warm, the boardwalk is still open, the woods are still calling, and every road trip still feels like it could turn into a memory you'll laugh about later. But horror knows better, because this week, familiar things start wearing strange faces. A missing husband comes home wrong, A quiet village hides something in the trees. A beach town turns into a vampire playground, a dead slasher gets back up with lightning in his bones, and somewhere in a booby trapped house, survival stops being a plan and becomes amaze.

Welcome back to this Week in Horror History, your weekly time machine through the creepiest anniversaries in film, TV, books, and games. This week, we're talking about July twenty seventh through August second. Coming up, a modern folklore novel where love curdles into something ancient and hungry, a secretive village where fear is treated like a community rule, the vampire movie that made the Undead look like the coolest bad influence in town. And the moment Jason Vorhees becomes fully a supernatural horror icon. Then right after the Break, our Deep Cut Spotlight, a late two thousand's trap horror nightmare where the house itself feels like it wants you dead.

July twenty eighth, twenty twenty, Empire of Wild receives its US publication from William Morrow, bringing Shari Demaline's folklore soaked horror thriller to wider American audiences. At the center is Joan, a woman searching for her missing husband. Then she finds someone who looks just like him, sounds almost like him, and stands in front of people as a charismatic preacher. But he insists he is not the man she lost, and that's the hook, not just grief for gaslighting, but the terror of seeing a beloved's face being used by something else. The novel draws on Matisse folklore and the figure of Rouguro, turning old hunger into modern dread.

It's definitely a book you want to kick back with on a cold and lonely night. It's available in print, ebook, and audiobook through all major booksellers, and you can even check your local library or their apps and give it or read. July thirtieth, two thousand and four. The Village releases in the US and m Night Shyamalan takes horror into a community built on rules, ritual, and carefully managed fear. The setup of this is beautiful in its simplicity. A small, isolated village surrounded by woods. The people know not to enter those woods. They know not to wear the wrong color.

They know the creatures beyond the back boundary are real, or at least they've been taught to live as if they are. The Village works best when you treat it less like a monster movie and more like a nightmare about control. What happens when fear becomes the foundation of a society. What happens when safety depends on everyone believing the same story. This is one that, depending on the circles you hang in, is either overrated or underrated. Eileen underrated personally, but that's just me. So maybe take a trip to the village and take a look at the real estate.

It's available to rent or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. On July thirty first, nineteen eighty seven, The Lost Boys releases in the United States and Vampires Get Leather Jacket, Its Motorcycles, Beach fog and one of the most aggressively eighties atmospheres horror has ever given us. And I still believe Santa Carla is all neon and boardwalk noise on the surface, but underneath it's a feeding ground. The vampires aren't dusty old aristocrats. They're young, beautiful, dangerous and having the time of their air quote lives. And that's what makes The Lost Boys really stand out.

They understand the seduction of horror. Monsters don't just threaten you, they invite you to stay out late, break the rules, and become something your family can't recognize. This was the ultimate movie when I was a young kid, when I was like eight nine years old, I watched The Lost Boys to the point where the VHS tape wore out and broke. So it's a classic. I've always loved it. I've loved the sense of humor in it, the style of it, how damn eighties it is. Everything about The Lost Boys is great. If you've never seen The Lost Boys, I'm very very confused, but also very concerned.

It's free with ads on two b or you can rent or buy it on Prime Video, Apple TV and you guessed it. Fandango at home, and on August first, nineteen eighty six, Friday the Thirteenth Part seven Jason Lives releases in the US, and Jason Vorhees stops being merely hard to kill. This is the film with the Lightning Bolt resurrection. It features a grown up Tommy Jarvis who's haunted and desperate, so he digs up Jason's body to make sure the nightmare is truly over and gain some closure. Instead, he accidentally gives the Friend one of its most impressive images, Jason reanimated by a storm rising from the grave as something bigger than a man with all the gothic fun of Frankenstein.

Jason Lives is where the series does get sharper and more self aware with its humor, but it doesn't lose the slasher engine that powers the locomotive, as there's plenty of slashing to go around. It may be ridiculous, but it's powerful nonetheless, and Friday the Thirteenth Part six is one of the very well loved Friday movies, and I do love Part six. Its tongue in cheek attitude toward itself just kind of takes me out a tiny bit, but that doesn't mean it's not a blast, especially if you love all the other ones, because that's what it's riffing on.

But I also want to mention that when I was in high school, during the brief time that I was in high school, I actually wrote a report involving Friday the Thirteenth Part six where I explained how Jason Vorhees had went from a kind of woods dwelling redneck he man who is hard to kill to a full blown zombie because of the resurrection scene in Friday the Thirteenth Part six. So I've always been this way, kids, It wasn't some head trauma that happened later in life. But if you want to give Friday the Thirteenth Part six a watch, it is a perfect summertime watch.

It's available with your subscription on Paramount Plus, and of course you can rent or buy it through any of the major platforms like Amazon, Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at All Tomorrow right here on Weekly Spooky. Some relationships end with heartbreak, Others refuse to die in the ties that bind. By Rob Fields, Buster Crane has always been lucky in the ways of love, but maybe too lucky. His first love, Talia Mirn, vanished from his life when they were children. Years later, he found something deeper with romy Gillian, a beautiful, mysterious young woman who lived beside a graveyard, never ate in front of him, and kept every mirror out of her house.

Then Buster discovered the truth Romy was a vampire. Terrified, he ran, but you can't outrun someone who can hear your heart beating. Now Buster is beginning college, and fate has brought Talia back into his life, older, wilder and determined never to lose him again. For the first time in years, Buster thinks he may have escaped romy Shadow, until she follows him into a crowded nightclub, locks the door behind them, and his former lover makes it clear that four years of passion simply cannot be forgotten. So make sure you're subscribed to weekly Spooky and come back tomorrow because the person who loves you may also refuse to let you remain human.

All right, Spookies, let's take a quick breather, But when we come back, we're stepping in to a house full of traps, a thief in the wrong place, a masked killer who doesn't just hunt people, he arranges them, and once the doors close, escape becomes another part of the design and we're back, so let's get into it. On July thirty first, two thousand and nine, The Collector is released in the United States, and late two thousand's Horror gets one of its nastiest little puzzle boxes hell Raiser films. Notwithstanding the premise, starts like a crime thriller. A desperate man breaks into a wealthy family's home, hoping to steal enough to solve his problems.

But someone else is already inside, someone who's turned the house into a machine of wire blades, locked rooms, and human panic. What makes The Collector special is the shift the burglar becomes the rescuer, the home comes hostile architecture, and the masked killer feels less like a random intruder than a curator, someone preserving fear, pain and helplessness, Like specimens behind glass. This is not cozy horror. It's sharp, mean, and mechanical. That's why it's a perfect deep cut spotlight. It earns its place, capturing a very specific era, host saw home invasion, and the fear that every safe room may already have been prepared by someone far worse than you.

The Collector I think very underrated. I actually discovered The Collector because its sequel, The Collection was released wide in theaters and I went to see it on a lark. I loved it and ran home and rented The Collector right away. This is a pered Saw era horror film that delivers in every way, not just the torture porn elements, but really keeps the scares going and keeps you wondering what contraption will they think of next and what will it do to human flesh. So if you want to find out if the film belongs in your collection, it's available free with ads on two B, Pluto TV, and Plex, and of course you can rent or buy it through Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home.

Now, let's light a creepy candle for some horror birthdays starting on July twenty ninth, nineteen forty one, when David Warner is born Unforgettable in the omen Let Alone, Waxwork, and countless other genre roles where his presence made everything feel more doomed but also more classy. David Warner can be put in just about any type of film and bring a level of authority that makes it all the more real. A very happy birthday to David Warner, I remember him from Secret of the Owse. On July thirtieth, nineteen forty seven, Arnold Schwarzenegger was born. I know, I know, not a strict horror dynasty member, but being inn Predator alone earns him a place in the Creature feature Survival Hall of Fame, right.

Plus, don't get me started on Maggie, which I really enjoyed, and a lot of his later action fair in the late nineties was very horror adjacent. Lots of stuff like End of Days, although I'm not saying that was a great film, but Arnold Schwarzenegger is a great actor and we're claiming him. Sorry not sorry. A very happy birthday, Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'll have a cigar or five to honor you. And born on July thirty first, nineteen fifty six is Michael Bean. What a coincidence because I didn't mention how Terminator was clearly a horror film as well, just a kind of sci fi time travel slasher.

But Michael Bean, who played the weary soldier Kyle Reese and The Terminator. He also has highly memorable roles in Aliens and of course Planet Terror from the Grindhouse series, so Michael Bean is definitely in the realm of our horror heroes. A very happy birthday, Michael Bean. And finally, this is a Biggie Born on August second, nineteen thirty nine. Is Wes Craven, one of horror's defining architects. From the Last House on the Left to the Hills Have Eyes, to a Nightmare on Elm Street to Scream the guy redefined the genre multiple times in one lifetime. He's a fascinating artist and one of the most talented, in my opinion, underrated directors to ever live.

I miss him and I wish he was still making movies and still offering up his opinions and insights into the world. He's very missed. A very happy birthday, Wes Craven, and to all of our horror birthdays. For our then and now, Bite this week draws a strange little map of horror's favorite trick. Making the familiar unsafe Empire of Wild gives us a loved one who comes back wrong. The village gives us a home built on fear. The Lost Boys turns the beachtown cool kid into a predator. By night, Jason lives turns a slasher into a thunderstruck legend, and the collector reminds us that even a beautiful house can be a trap if someone has already been inside it for long enough.

Different decades, different monsters, same awful question. What happens when the place you trusted starts obeying someone else's rules? And for our weekly recommendation, we head to August second, nineteen eighty five, when Fright Night released in the United States and gave us one of the great vampire next door setups. Charlie Brewster is convinced his charming new neighbor is a bloodsucker. The problem is nobody believes him, so he turns to Peter Vincent, a washed up TV horror host who made a career pretending to battle monsters on screen. And that's where the movie becomes magic. A horror fan, a horror host, and a real vampire forcing make believe bravery to become actual courage.

It's funny and spooky, it's stylish and deeply lovable. It's the kind of vampire movie that understands both the fear and the fun of the folklore. I've always loved Fright Night. It's one of my absolute favorite horror movies to watch over and over and over again. I love the character of Charlie Brewster. I love the relationship he has with his mother. I love the Vampire next door, all the vampire lore, and of course Peter Vincent being one of the best examples of a reluctant hero in horror cinema, and second maybe only to Ash Williams from Evil Dead.

It's a great, great film. If you haven't seen it in a while, you need to watch it. If you've never seen it, you should just stop what you're doing right now and check it out because it's available with AMC Plus if you have a subscription, or of course you can rent or buy it on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. I really can't recommend this one enough. All right, spookys, that's your trip through July twenty seventh through August second in horror history. Tomorrow Wednesday, we have that brand new horror story waiting for you right here on the Weekly Spooky Feed, so don't miss it.

And of course there's something scary for you to enjoy every single day of the week right here at the Weekly Spooky Feed, So make sure you're subscribed, and while you're at it, tell a Halloween loving, horror loving friend of yours to give the show a listen to. I'd appreciate it, And of course I'll be right back here to take you through another dive into the horror calendar in no time flat. But until then, remember our days are numbered, because that's how we tell them. Apart see you next week, we must