This Week in Horror History | Haunted Hotels & Body Horror Satire — June 8–14

0:01 Summer is here. The days are longer, the nights are warmer, the kids are out of school, the movies get bigger, and horror starts doing what it does best, sneaking into places that are supposed to feel fun. A small town Christmas gift becomes a monster outbreak. A haunted hotel opens its doors a little wider. A skyscraper turns into a mirror maze for the dead. A suburban haunting becomes a blockbuster nightmare, And tucked in the fridge, something sweet and smiling waits to prove that the scariest thing in the house might be the snack everyone keeps on eating. So keep your pets dry, stay away from reflective surfaces, do not trust mysterious dessert. And if the hotel tells you it's always been there, maybe try and believe it. Welcome back to this week in horror History. I'm your host, Enrique Kuto, and this is your weekly time machine through the creepiest anniversaries in film, TV, books, and games. Tonight

1:33 we're talking about June eighth through the fourteenth. Coming up, the little monster movie that helped push Hollywood toward the PG thirteen rating. A Stanley Kubrick Nightmare expanding from limited release into full blown cultural immortality, a modern Haunted House sequel that proved the Warrens could still pack theaters as long as you avoid the truth. And a comedy about exterminating ghosts that somehow became one of the biggest supernatural franchises ever made. Then after the break, our deep cut spotlight on a haunted high rise sequel where the scariest thing in the building might just be your own reflection, and stick around for this week's recommendation, because June fourteenth gave us a cult classic where America's newest dessert craze may be eating the customers Back June eighth, nineteen eighty four, Gremlins hits theaters and gives America one of the nastiest Christmas presents in movie history in the dead center of summer.

2:50 It starts cute with a fuzzy little magua named Gizmo, voiced oddly enough by comedian Howie Mandel. But the magua comes with three simple rules and a small town that looks like it could have wandered in from a greeting card. Then the rules are broken. Water multiplies the problem midnight feeding turns cute into chaos suddenly. The film is a creature feature riot, full of kitchen carnage, barroom mayhem, and tiny little monsters laughing while they tear normal life apart.

3:31 And of course it was a hit too. Box Office Mojo lists about one hundred and sixty five point four million dollars worldwide on a budget of eleven million, and with its is this really PG kind of edge? Gremlins became part of the conversation that helped lead to the PG thirteen rating. A lot of people don't realize this, but there was no PG thirteen rating at the beginning. You had g PG and R, which is why films like Tourist Trap, one of my favorite slasher movies from the seventies, is rated PG, and why Texas Chainsaw Massacre came very close to having a PG rating of its own. No, I'm not kidding. Gremlins is a film that has everything going for it, and most people, I'm sure, including many listening, have a nostalgic love for it. So if you haven't seen it in a while, or by some strange fate, have never seen it at all. It's available to rent or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.

4:45 June thirteenth, nineteen eighty. The Shining expands wider into US theaters after opening in limited release in May. The Shining expands wider, and the Outlook Hotel keeps pulling people in. This is horror as slow possession, not just ghosts, not just madness, but the feeling that a building can look at a family and decide who to break first. The Shining obviously is a classic. You either love it or hate it, but I do find it interesting that the film's concept of slow trudging possession seem to expand even to its theatrical life. That's some poetry in motion. Jack Nicholson gives an iconic performance with a grin and an axe.

5:39 Shelley Duval gives it terror that feels human and exhausted in a way only a mother can experience. Danny Lloyd gives it that strange child's eye view of evil, where the scariest thing in the room is realizing the adults all around you can't protect you at all. The movie did about fifty million dollars worldwide on a reported nineteen million dollar budget, so not a modern blockbuster, but it's more than enough. To become one of Horror's permanent landmarks. I know I've talked about it before, but I like The Shining, but I do find it a little slow.

6:21 It's the kind of film you want to watch when you're wide awake after a nice cold shower and a hot cup of coffee or something like that. I don't know. I don't really drink coffee that often. Caffeine messes with me, but of course not quite like Jack gets messed with in The Shining. So if you want to revisit The Shining, or give it a watch for the first time, or you need to watch it to get your horror history education up to stuff, it's available to rent or buy digitally on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. June tenth, two thy sixteen, The Conjuring two opens and James Wand proves the first film was not a fluke.

7:11 This time, Ed and Lorraine Warren, or a very attractive Hollywood facsimile of them, head to England for the Enfield case. Knocks on the walls well coming from the inside, a young girl under siege, a house full of witnesses, and a demon nun image that basically walks out of this movie and then immediately builds its own franchise. The Conjuring Two is bigger than the first film, but the trick is that it still knows when to get quiet. A dark hallway, a child's room, a shape at the end of the frame. It scared up roughly three hundred and twenty million dollars worldwide on a forty million dollar budget, making it a major horror hit. I never understand when people decide to kind of raise a snobby nose at the Conjuring series. I mean, the Conjuring and any kind of big Hollywood popcorn horror movie is a lot like pizza.

8:22 When it's good, it's great, and when it's bad, it's still pretty good. So if you haven't seen The Conjuring Two or any of the films in the Conjuring series, luckily for you, they're all streaming on HBO Max with your subscription. If you're like me, I'm an AT and T customer, so my HBO Max is included, which makes the price point sting a little bit less. But of course you can also rent or buy them on Prime Video, Apple TV, and you guessed it. Fandango at Home, also released on June eighth, nineteen eighty four. Ghostbusters opens the same day as Gremlins, which feels kind of absurd, doesn't it?

9:10 One day, one single day on the calendar gave audiences mischievous monsters and professional paranormal exterminators. Ghostbusters is a comedy first, of course, but it's built around haunted libraries, demonic possession, apocalyptic prophecies, a rooftop temple, and one of the great horror comedy questions, what happens when blue collar guys treat the supernatural like a messy service call. And of course it became a phenomenon, earning around two hundred and eighty two million dollars worldwide in its initial theatrical run, with later releases pushing that total even higher. And I want to mention and I went to see Ghostbusters in the theater when they were doing a special legacy show, and having not seen the film for like fifteen years. If you haven't seen Ghostbusters since you were a kid, teenager or in your early twenties, that film is infinitely funnier through the lens of a thirty something or forty something because there are just so many jokes about academics and taxes, and interest rates. It's really pretty amusing and a great way to laugh as you realize, Man, my back kind of hurts. So if you want Bustin to make you feel good, head to Netflix to watch the film, or

10:42 rent or buy it on the Usual Suspects, Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. Last week, Summer of the Demon kicked off with football camp, old nightmares and the return of a monster in a double zero jersey. Eddie Peewee Richter thought the Demon died on the field last fall. He was wrong. Now Camp Redfeather has become a hunting ground. The Demon is back. Greg Branlake's grave is empty, and the cursed jersey that turned a high school quarterback into a seven foot tall nightmare may be the key to everything. But in part two of our summer mini series, the mystery gets deeper. Pee Wee breaks into Greg's past and finds journals full of obsession, rage, and one name that keeps coming back like a warning, Mick the Demon Night. Greg's own family knows something terrible was inside that jersey, and now Greg's sister has come to Camp looking for answers of a own. The problem is, the Demon isn't waiting in the shadows anymore, he's walking in the daylight, killing Peewee's teammates one by one. And when blood spills at the pool, when the football field

12:14 becomes a slaughterhouse, and when the people Peewee cares about are trapped in the Demon's path, running stops being an option. This is Summer of the Demon, Part two, the next brutal chapter in our Summer horror mini series from rob Fields. It's here tomorrow on Weekly Spooky, so make sure you're subscribed. All right, spookies, Time for a quick breather. When we come back, we're headed to Chicago into a glass tower full of reflections, cold hallways and unfinished franchise business because this time last year, Carol Ann went out of the suburbs and got trapped in a haunted high rise. And we're back, Spooky, so let's get into it. On June tenth, nineteen eighty eight, Poltergeist three arrives in theaters and the franchise makes a strange, chilly left turn. Instead of yet another haunted house, this time we're treated to a Chicago skyscraper instead of suburban closets and swimming pools full of skeletons.

13:50 We get elevators, parking garages, endless glass and mirrors that seem to have learned how to tell A lie is living with her aunt and uncle, now trying to get away from everything that happened before. But horror never lets kids just move on. Reverend Kane is still coming, the dead are still reaching, and every reflective surface becomes a doorway. The movie has always had a sad cloud over it because Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne, passed away before the film's release at only twelve years old. That makes the whole thing feel haunted in a way no studio would ever hope for. Financially, it underperformed about fourteen point one million dollars domestic against a nine point five million dollar budget, But as a weird late eighties artifact, it has a specific flavor, being cold and glossy, an urban, and full of awesome mirror tricks that make the high rise feel like a trap stacked forty floors tall. One of the excellent elements of this film that people don't really give enough credit is the sheer amount of gags and special effects, all done in person, no computers, no CGI.

15:22 It's just magic, and I don't mean magic like just movie magic. I mean magic tricks like David Copperfield and Penn and Teller. They used magic tricks to accomplish many of the awesome feats of ghostly terror in the Poltergeist three film. So, if you've slept on Poltergeist three, or maybe you're one of those folks who watched it way back when and don't remember much about it, you saw it on cable, or you rented it on a Friday night with friends and got pizza, and you remember the fun time with your friends more than the film itself. It's available to watch free with ads on two B TV, Pluto TV, and the Roku channel. And you can also watch it if you have an MGM Plus subscription, or of course rent or buy it on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. All right, my spookies, let's light up a black candle for our horror related birthdays, starting with June ninth, nineteen sixty three, when Johnny Depp was born a nightmare on Elm Street's Doomed Glenn Nancy Thompson, the final Girl's boyfriend who succumbed to a bed related death that I doubt anyone could ever forget. I wonder if he had much of a career after that. I'm really not sure. Happy Birthday, Johnny Depp on June ninth,

16:53 nineteen eighty one. Natalie Portman is born with genre adjacent and horror adjacent turns from Black Swan to Annihilation where the uncanny gets under your skin. She's definitely one of the biggest talents in modern movies, and whenever she kisses our genre, she really brings it. So Happy Birthday, Natalie Portman. Born on June tenth, nineteen forty one. Jurgen proch Now genre stops include In the Mouth of Madness, The Keep, and House of the Dead, just to name a few. Jurgen became one of the ultimate foreign guy characters in films, whether he was playing a villain or an innocent bystander, He's been in so many great films. He was in Judge Dread, he was in The Seventh Sign Dos Boot The Consequence. The guy's had a massive and awesome career, but his stops in horror were pretty memorable. So a very happy birthday, Jurgen proch Now and on June eleventh, nineteen forty five, Adrian Barbeau is born or Barbourn. That was a bad joke, featured in The Fog, creep Show, Swamp Thing, Escape from New York, and so many others.

18:18 She's easily one of horror's great voices in the dark. In fact, as a voice in the dark myself, I adore her character in The Fog, where she's a small sleepy fishing community town's voice on the radio. A very happy birthday to Adrian Barbou for our then and now. This week is a kind of summer movie. Pressure Cooker nineteen eighty gives us the Shining where horror gets slow, icy, and psychological. Nineteen eighty four gives us Gremlins and ghost Busters on the same day, So monsters as chaos, ghosts as business, and horror sneaking into the blockbuster movie machine.

19:12 Nineteen eighty eight gives us Poltergeist three, a franchise ghost story reflected through glass and grief, And twenty sixteen gives us the conjuring two modern glossy studio horror, proving the Haunted House movie still had serious box office muscle. Then nineteen eighty five sneaks in our recommendation for tonight the Stuff, where consumer culture, food advertising, body horror, and alien goo all get blended into one sweet little warning label. Different decades, different monsters, same lesson. When Horror finds the right doorway or the right container in your refrigerator, it does not need to knock twice. And as I just mentioned our weekly recommendation on June fourteenth, nineteen eighty five, the Stuff opens in limited theaters in the United States. If this week has you in the mood for something weird, funny, gross, and sharp as attack, dig into Larry Cohen's The Stuff.

20:28 He's a very underrated filmmaker in my opinion. The Stuff is basically consumer satire body horror, but it's served cold and sweet. A mysterious white dessert starts bubbling out of the earth, gets packaged, marketed, and sold to America as the next great snack craze. I mean, it's low in sugar, no fat, no calories, except the delicious goo is alive, addictive, and very bad for anyone who keeps spooning it into their mouths. It pairs beautifully with the other films mentioned tonight because it has monsters sneaking into friendly places like Christmas gifts, family hotels, corporate towers, suburban hauntings, and even blockbuster comedy. The Stuff takes that same idea and puts it right in the grocery aisle. The danger isn't hiding in a castle somewhere off in the distance. It's looking at you from the container with a jingling commercial and asking one of horror's great nasty little questions, are you eating it? Or is it eating you? The Stuff is as underrated as Larry Cohen himself, a guy who always made interesting films with interesting screenplays. I mean, the guy has done so much. If I started listing it, it

22:00 would make the show run way too long. But I love the film and Michael Moriarty plays the main character. And that's a guy who was kind of relegated to being a character actor and small side roles. But in the Stuff he's the lead and he plays it weird and fun. It's highly memorable. If you want to check out the Stuff for yourself, because you can't get enough of the Stuff, it's streaming free with ads on two B, Pluto TV, and Plex. You can also watch it with your Prime Video subscription, and of course rent or buy it on Apple TV and fandango at home. Well, my spookies, that's your trip through June eighth to fourteenth in horror history.

22:46 Tomorrow Wednesday, don't forget to tune in for part two of our summer mini series, Summer of the Demon. And if you missed last week's just head over to the feed and go back to last week. You don't want to miss it. It's a great summer scare, which is exactly what you're craving, and don't forget. On Monday, we have a brand new terrifying and true ready for you. On Friday, we have a very special p reading. I haven't done one of those in a while, so I'm excited about it. And on Thursday, we'll have our fourth episode of the brand new Thursday Thrills TV series. Look, I did those in a really weird order, and that's because I did them off the top of my head, so sue me. But anyway, my spookies, please stay safe out there, and I look forward to seeing you here next Tuesday for another dive into horror history. So until then, remember our days are numbered because that's how we tell them apart, see you next week