May 26, 2026

This Week in Horror History | Alien, Stranger Things & Modern Horror Icons — May 25–31

This Week in Horror History | Alien, Stranger Things & Modern Horror Icons — May 25–31
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Explore horror history from May 25-31, revisiting iconic films like Alien and Stranger Things 4, alongside chilling tales from Drag Me to Hell, Wrong Turn, and Ma. This episode delves into sci-fi terror, supernatural scares, and survival horrors, all tied together by the theme of voluntary traps.

Key Takeaways

  • Discover major horror releases and anniversaries between May 25th and 31st, including classics and modern hits.
  • Analyze the groundbreaking impact of Alien on sci-fi horror and its lasting influence.
  • Understand why Stranger Things 4 became a significant horror event, deepening its supernatural elements.
  • Explore the blend of humor and terror in Drag Me to Hell and the primal fears in Wrong Turn.
  • Examine how Ma utilizes social horror and creates a uniquely disturbing villain.
  • Uncover the common thread of 'voluntary traps' linking this week's horror milestones.
Alien, Stranger Things 4, Drag Me to Hell, Wrong Turn, and Ma all collide in one packed week of horror history as we travel through May 25–31 and revisit the movies and TV moments that made space terrifying, curses disgusting, backwoods roads deadly, and basement parties deeply unsafe.

Inside this episode:
Alien opens in U.S. theaters — May 25, 1979
Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece turns deep space into a haunted house, giving us the Nostromo, the xenomorph, the chestburster, the facehugger, and one of horror’s greatest final girls in Ellen Ripley. With its grimy industrial design, corporate paranoia, and unforgettable creature work, Alien remains one of the most influential horror films ever made.
Where to watch: Streaming on HBO Max and HBO Max Amazon Channel; rent/buy on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
Stranger Things 4, Volume 1 premieres on Netflix — May 27, 2022
Hawkins gets darker, scarier, and more traumatic as Vecna drags the Netflix hit fully into supernatural horror. Haunted memories, cursed visions, floating bodies, and the pop-culture resurrection of Kate Bush helped make Stranger Things 4a massive streaming horror event.
Where to watch: Streaming on Netflix.
Drag Me to Hell opens in the U.S. — May 29, 2009
Sam Raimi returns to horror with a wickedly funny, gross, and vicious curse story starring Alison Lohman as a loan officer who makes one cruel choice and pays for it in demonic consequences. Drag Me to Hell proves PG-13 horror can still be wild, disgusting, scary, and unforgettable.
Where to watch: Free with ads on YouTube; rent/buy on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
Wrong Turn opens in the U.S. — May 30, 2003
A bad detour, a car accident, and a nightmare waiting in the woods helped turn Wrong Turn into a durable 2000s survival horror staple. This backwoods cannibal thriller taps into the primal fear of being lost, hunted, and far beyond help.
Where to watch: Streaming on Prime Video and Prime Video with Ads; rent/buy on Amazon Video and Apple TV.

Deep-Cut Spotlight: Ma opens in U.S. theaters — May 31, 2019
Blumhouse turns a basement hangout into a trap with a smile as Octavia Spencer gives Ma its creepy, uncomfortable power. What starts as teenage partying curdles into obsession, captivity, and social horror, making Sue Ann one of Blumhouse’s strangest modern villains.
Where to watch: Rent/buy on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

Plus, we celebrate horror birthdays for Peter Cushing, Helena Bonham Carter, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee, then look at how this week’s horror anniversaries all circle the same chilling idea: sometimes the scariest place is the trap you willingly walk into.

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🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
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Frequently Asked Questions

What horror movies and shows are featured in this week's episode (May 25-31)?

This episode covers Alien (1979), Stranger Things 4, Volume 1 (2022), Drag Me to Hell (2009), Wrong Turn (2003), and Ma (2019), alongside horror birthdays.

How did Alien influence the horror genre?

Alien revolutionized sci-fi horror by transforming deep space into a terrifying haunted house, introducing iconic elements like the xenomorph and Ellen Ripley, and featuring influential design and creature work.

What made Stranger Things 4 a notable horror event?

Stranger Things 4 embraced supernatural horror with the villain Vecna, explored darker themes, featured unsettling imagery, and saw a pop-culture resurgence with Kate Bush's music.

What is the central theme connecting these horror anniversaries?

The recurring chilling idea is that the scariest place is often a trap that individuals willingly walk into.

WEBVTT

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Some weeks on the horror calendar feel like they were

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engineered in a lab, dark corridors, bad weather, abandoned roads,

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and one terrible decision after another. This one begins in

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deep space where a distress signal should have been ignored,

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and ends in a basement where a lonely woman keeps

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smiling long after everyone should have run. Tonight, we have

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the movie that made space feel wet, industrial, and hungry,

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a Netflix season that dragged nineteen eighties nostalgia into full

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blown supernatural war, a Sam Raimi curse machine with teeth,

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and a Backwood's wrong turn that helped define early two

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thousand survival horror. Then, after the break, our deep cut

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Spotlight opens the door for a Blumhouse thriller where the

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party house becomes the trap. So check the vents, don't

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touch the cursed envelope, and if a stranger offers you

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a shortcut through the woods, take the long way. Welcome

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back to this week in horror History, your weekly time

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machine through the creepiest anniversaries in film, TV, books, games,

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and beyond. I'm your host, Enrique Kuto, and tonight we're

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talking about May twenty fifth through thirty first coming up.

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Ridley Scott turns the Haunted House into a spaceship. Hawkins,

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Indiana goes bigger, darker, and meaner. Sam Raimi drags one

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unlucky loan officer straight toward damn Nation, and a stretch

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of West Virginia Road becomes a cannibal nightmare. Then, right

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after the break, our deep cut spotlight leads to Ma's house,

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where the drinks are cold, the rules are simple, and

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the host is absolutely not okay. May twenty fifth, nineteen

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seventy nine, Alien opens in the US, and science fiction

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horror changes forever. Ridley Scott takes the bones of a

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Haunted House movie and bolts them to the Nostromo, dark hallways,

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locked rooms, bad air, and a monster that feels less

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like an animal and more like a biological weapon with

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bad intentions. The genius of the film is how grimy

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it all feels. Space isn't shiny here, spaces work, spaces

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in industrial, corporate. It's a place where someone can decide

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your life is worth less than a specimen. On a

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budget of around eleven million dollars, Alien became a major

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hit and turned in space No one can hear You

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Scream into one of horror's great promises. It also gave

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us Ripley, the chest Burster, the face hugger, and a

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creature design that still looks like something your nightmare mind

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should not be able to invent. I mean, it's a classic.

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There's very little you can say about Alien that hasn't

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been said before. So if you want to revisit it

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or shockingly see it for the first time, I do

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recommend that very much. And it's currently streaming with your

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subscription on HBO Max and you can rent or buy

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it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

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May twenty seventh, two Thy twenty two Stranger Things four

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Volume one lands on Netflix and Hawkins goes from spooky

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adventure to full horror opera. This is the season that

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gives us Vekna haunted memories, visions that are cursed, floating bodies,

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and that metal as exorcism image of a song pulling

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someone back from the edge. The show had always shown

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love for horror, but season four leans hard into nightmares, trauma,

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and supernatural body horror two. It also became a streaming event,

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with seven episodes dropping at once, with massive run times

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and a pop culture Aftershock big enough to shove Kate

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Bush back into the mainstream. Horror history is not only

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theatrical anymore. Sometimes it arrives in your queue and it

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eats up a whole weekend. This was one of the

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most fun drops that I think Stranger Things had. It

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was a one of the more fun seasons as the

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show was getting so epic and massive. I definitely have

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a big soft spot for this one. I mean, it

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gave us Eddie Munson and that's worth celebrating. And I

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think whether you believe Stranger Things was great from beginning

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to end or the ending left some things to be desired,

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most of us can agree that the first few seasons

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of Stranger Things were truly special, and I think Part

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four had a lot to love. And of course it's

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available to watch right now on Shockingly Netflix. May twenty ninth,

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two thousand and nine, Drag Me to Hell opens and

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Sam Raimie reminds everyone that PG. Thirteen horror can still

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be disgusting, funny, mean, and gloriously unhinged. Alison Lohman plays

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Christine Brown, a loan officer who makes one cruel professional

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choice and gets cursed for it. From there, Raymie turns

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moral panic into carnival horror, projectile gross outs nightmare shadows

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violent slapstick and a demon goat that somehow makes perfect

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sense in the moment. It cost about thirty million dollars

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engrossed around ninety point eight worldwide, so not a superhero

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movie number, but a strong reminder that Raymie's horror instincts

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are still relevant. It's a fun and nasty little movie

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that I do recommend you see if you somehow missed it.

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I wasn't a huge fan of it the first time

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I watched it, but it grew on me like the

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disgusting fung that it is. And it's free to watch

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with ads on YouTube and not some secret sneaky link.

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It's legitimate, and of course it's available to buy or

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

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May thirtieth, two thousand and three, Wrong Turn opens and

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the Backwoods Survival Nightmare gets a very two thousands code

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of grime. The setup is truly a beautiful piece of simplicity.

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A car accident followed by a bad detour, a group

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of young people stranded in the woods, and something waiting

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deeper in the trees. It is not subtle, but it

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does exactly what it promises. It takes the fear of

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being lost, watched, hunted, and outmatched and strips away cell service,

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help and good choices. The film made about twenty eight

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point seven million dollars worldwide on a reported budget of

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twelve point six million. That may not sound like a lot,

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but in two thousand and three, home video and cable

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were massive, massive sources of income, especially for a film

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like this, which was never considered a prestige vehicle, but

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it became durable with sequels, reboots, cable replays, and a

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whole generation of viewers who learned to distrust shortcuts. To

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say the least, Wrong Turn was a film that came

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about at the exact right moment, a moment when horror

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films were still finding a footing and it was mostly

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remakes and reimaginings at the time. But Wrong Turn came

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about and said, you know what, we're gonna do our

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own franchise, and we're gonna do it the old fashioned,

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with hillbilly cannibals and grossouts. So I can't say I

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don't appreciate that it still holds up to this day,

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and the sequels are while they vary a lot, there

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are a lot of things to love in them. Some

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of them are silly, some of them are even meaner,

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and some of them barely make a lick of sense.

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But what I'll tell you they all do very well

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is entertain So if you want to take a West

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Virginia road trip with a very very special detour, it's

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available to watch free with your Prime subscription or on

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the Howdy app with your subscription, and of course you

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can rent it on Prime Video, Fandango at Home, and

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Apple TV. Who's Hungry Tomorrow on weekly Spooky, two teenage

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boys sneak into the winter woods after dark, chasing a

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little privacy, danger, and a tunnel they were never supposed

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to enter. At first, it's just an abandoned railroad line,

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a place to hide, a place to smoke, a place

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where no one will bother them. But deep inside that

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concrete tunnel, past the dark, past the rusted rail cars,

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something is moving, something that watches from the shadows, something

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that lives where the trucks end, something that's been feeding

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in the dark for a long long time. And when

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the flashlight hits the floor, when the footsteps start overhead,

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when the tunnel behind them becomes the only way out.

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One boy is going to learn that some monsters don't

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chase you because they're hung They chase you because you

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came home tomorrow. Step into the dark with the Thing

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that lurks in the tunnel by Bruce Haney on Weekly Spooky.

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Just remember if you hear something moving inside the tunnel,

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don't look back. All right, spookies, quick breather. When we

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come back. We're going to a party house that feels

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safe right up until it doesn't. A basement, a friendly adult,

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a few simple rules, and Octavia Spencer proving that the

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scariest smile in the room might belong to the person

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offering you a drink. Welcome back, Let's go downstairs, but

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under no circumstances should you go upstairs? May thirty first,

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twenty nineteen, Ma opens and Blumhouse turns a basement hangout

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into a trap with a big old smile on its face.

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On paper, the setup sounds almost like a dark teen thriller.

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A lonely woman named Sue Anne buys booze for a

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group of teenagers, lets them party in her basement, and

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becomes the strange adult in their lives. Who seems a

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little too eager to be included. But the reason Ma

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belongs in horror history goes to Octavia Spencer. She plays

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Sue Anne with warmth and awkwardness and rage. She brings

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a kind of social terror that makes every friendly gesture

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feel unstable. The movie knows the house is the monster,

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the basement is the welcome Matt upstairs is the forbidden zone.

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Every time the teens return, the rules feel less like

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boundaries and more like bait. Plus, we got this absolute

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gem of a moment that no one will ever forget.

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Don't make me drink alone. Don't make me drink alone.

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Don't make me drink alone. This is one that if

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you haven't seen it, you really do need to. It's

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a solid example of a more modern post internet horror

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film that doesn't really feel cringey or like it was

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written by people out of touch, except when it's featuring

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the character that's meant to be cringe and out of touch.

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And Octavia Spencer being such a renowned and incredibly talented

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actress ties it all together so well. Financially, this was

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Blumhouse doing what Blumhouse does best, a lean, five million

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dollar production that grossed about sixty one point two million

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dollars worldwide. Critically, people argued about whether the movie used

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Spencer well enough. But critically people argue all the time,

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and let them. We can be over here enjoying our

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popcorn and our lives while they debate or whatever it

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is they do, sit in a closet and smell their

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own flattus. That means farts. But as a horror object,

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Ma has a weird afterlife because the central image is

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so it's so hard to shake. It's a nice lady

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who has a locked door, who throws a party that

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curdles into captivity. There has been a promise of a

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Ma sequel, and why on earth wouldn't there be, but

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so far nothing has surfaced other than a whole lot

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of talk. But hopefully that'll change really soon. So if

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you want to go to Ma's house for a fun evening,

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whether it's a return visit although or your first time,

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it's available to rent or buy on Amazon Video, Apple TV,

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and Fandango at home. All right, get out the party hats.

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It's time to celebrate some horror related birthdays, and we're

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starting off with a true legend born May twenty sixth,

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nineteen thirteen. Peter Cushing Hammer horror royalty, although he feels

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damn near like royalty, just in general, forever tied to

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the character of Van Helsing, Dracula's number one enemy, Frank Skenstein,

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the doctor not the Monster, and that unmistakable mix of

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elegance and menace. A very happy Birthday to Peter Cushing.

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Born on May twenty sixth, nineteen sixty six. Helena Bonhom

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Carter Gothic, strange, funny, tragic, and right at home in

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everything from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Sweeney Todd. A very

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happy Birthday to Helena Bontom Carter born on May twenty seventh,

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nineteen eleven. Another heavy hitter in the world of horror

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and cinema as a whole. Vincent Price, the Voice, the Eyebrow,

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the Velvet Menace, one of horror's great ambassadors of theatrical wickedness.

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A man who brought many people into horror and keeps

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bringing them in over the decades. Happy birthday, Vincent Price,

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and Wow talk about going for three for three. Born

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on May twenty seventh, nineteen twenty two. Christopher Lee, famous

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for Dracula, Lord Sumerile in The Wickerman, saw Ruman in

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Lord of the Rings, and one of the most commanding

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presences genre cinema has ever had. Happy Birthday, Christopher Lee

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and I cannot believe three of the biggest names in

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classic horror. We're all born in the same week. That's

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why we do the show, because sometimes time is more

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complex and interesting than we realize. This week shows horror

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moving through different kinds of traps. In nineteen seventy nine,

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the trap is a spaceship run by people who value

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cargo over crewe. In two thousand and three, it's the

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wrong road. In two thousand and nine, it's a curse

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you can't lawyer your way out of. In twenty nineteen,

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it's a basement party with rules that keep changing, And

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in twenty twenty two, it's memory itself, the past, reaching up,

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grabbing hold, and refusing to let go. I don't do

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this very often, but our weekly recommendation this time around

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is Alien, released on May twenty fifth, nineteen seventy nine.

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This is one of those calendar anchors that deserves the

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extra push. It's not just a great sci fi horror movie,

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it's a perfect lesson in patience. The movie lets the

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ship breathe, it lets the crew feel tired, ordinary and real.

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Then it introduces one impossible organism and allows every hallway, vent,

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meal and monitor to become a threat. So watch it

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for the creature, absolutely, but also watch it for the silence,

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for the production design, the corporate coldness, and the way

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Sigourney weavers Ripley slowly becomes the person most capable of

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surviving the nightmare. As we mentioned before, it's available to

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watch with your HBO Max subscription and to rent or

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

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my Spookyes, that's your trip through May twenty fifth to

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thirty first in horror history is coming right up, so

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make sure you're subscribed. And speaking of Tomorrow Wednesday, we

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have our brand new horror story waiting just for you

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at Weekly Spooky, so don't miss it. On Thursday Thrills,

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we'll take a deep dive into everything bizarre about the

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back rooms, whether it's the feature film, the creepy pasta,

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or the market's left on horror on the Internet. And

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then Friday, on cutting deep into horror, Rachel and I

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will be talking about paranormal activity a film that, whether

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you love it or hate it, you have to admit

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it had some good scares and started a revolution in

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cinema when it comes to found footage. So make sure

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you're subscribed on your favorite podcast app. There's always something

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spooky right here for you to enjoy. And of course

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we'll be back here next Tuesday with even more horror history.

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So until then, remember our days are numbered, because that's

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how we tell them apart. See you next week.