This Week in Horror History | Nosferatu, Angel Heart, The Mangler, Zodiac & Pontypool (Mar 2–8)

0:00 Winter is still hanging on, but the calendar is already inching towards spring. And that's when horror can get sneaky, because March isn't just a new month. It's a reset, a fresh set of rules, new habits, new routines. And if there's one thing horror loves, it's watching you get comfortable in your new normal and then proving how fragile it is. This week, we're dealing with monsters that don't just chase you. They infect you. They seduce you. They convince you to doubt your own senses or to obsess until your life collapses into a single unsolved question. So lock the door, keep your volume up, and if you hear a voice telling you a new word, well maybe don't repeat it. Welcome back to this Week in Horror History, your weekly time machine through the creepiest anniversaries in film, TV, books, and games. I'm your host, Enrique Kuto, and tonight we're talking about March second through eighth. Coming up, the original

1:31 plague vampire that turned silent cinema into a nightmare, a neo noir descent into the occult, where every clue feels like a curse. A Stephen King adaptation where the monster is literally industrial machinery, albeit with a taste for blood, and a true crime obsession that eats years of your life one cipher at a time. Then right after the break, our Deep Cut spot Light, a Canadian outbreak movie where the virus isn't in the bite, it's actually in the language. March fourth, nineteen twenty two, No. S Farratu premieres in Berlin, and this time around the vampires not so romantic. This is count Orlock, a living corpse in a doorway, a plague riding into town on a ship, a silhouette that looks like it was cut out of a nightmare and pasted onto your wall, and the wild part. Even a century later, it still works because it's not just about fangs.

2:43 It's about dread, about sickness, about the idea that evil can travel quietly, and by the time you notice, it's already unpacked. No. Sperratu also became infamous in its time of release for violating the copyright of Bram Stoker's estate. Mary Stoker, his wife, not only won the lawsuit but then demanded that every copy of the film No. S Feratu be destroyed. That is a bit of an overreaction, but luckily some prints remained, which is why you can watch the film pretty easily today. And it does keep a creep factor that I've always been impressed by. And it's been remade twice, once in the nineties and once recently.

3:32 I like both of the remakes fine, and the original is creepy and it really is a classic. If you haven't seen it, in a way, you're kind of missing out on a major part of vampire lore. And it's basically available anywhere you watch movies, whether with a subscription or not. You can watch it on Amazon Prime Video with a subscription. You can watch it on AMC Plus and Shutter with a subscription or for free with ads on two be Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, Fandango at home Plex, and probably more. I'm forgetting. So if you've never seen this film, when you're in the mood for some silent, creepy, black and white vampire hell, you know the film to check out. And a big middle finger to Florence Stoker. March sixth, nineteen eighty seven, Angel Heart hits wide release and it's still one of the nastiest, sweatiest marriages of detective noir and supernatural horror that I've ever I've ever been through. Mickey Rourke plays a private eye chasing a missing singer. Robert de Niro is the client, with money manners and a smile that never seems to warm up, and the investigation keeps leading deeper into blood, rituals and a truth that feels less like a reveal and more like a well, like a trapdoor snapping shut.

5:04 Financially speaking, it's definitely a cult film. It made about seventeen point two million dollars domestically on an eighteen million dollar budget. It's one of those lost gem type films. Without a doubt, this one definitely deserves your attention, especially if you've never seen it before. But if you need to revisit it, I don't think that's too terrible either. It's available to watch free with ads on Pluto TV, and of course you can rent it on Fandango, at Home Prime Video and of course Apple TV. March third, nineteen ninety five, The Mangler lands in theaters and asks the most important horror question of all, what if the monster was the laundry press? The Mangler, Yes. It is a Stephen King adaptation likely from before he cleaned up if you know what I mean. And yes, it is directed by the legendary Toby Hooper of Texas Chainsaw massacre infamy and in a way, even deeper infamy when you bring up Poltergeist. And yes, this thing is a big, industrial, blood fed machine that turns corrupt business practices into a literal demon. Unfortunately, it didn't exactly crush the box office,

6:37 about one point eight million dollars domestically, and the budget was never really officially reported, but many have claimed around ten million dollars. I have always had a soft spot for The Mangler, and I hope you do too. If you've never seen it before because it sounded ridiculous or cheesy or silly or dumb. I mean, you're not wrong in some of those most of those statements, but the Mangler deserves a little love. Come on, we're all horror fans here. Let's not pretend we're better than The Mangler. And you can rent or buy it digitally on Amazon, Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. So make yourself a date with the Mangler. It has a crush on you. Now for something very very different. On March second, two, thousand and seven, Zodiac is released in the United States and helped prove you don't need jump scares to feel hunted.

7:49 David Fincher turns true crime obsession into a slow poison. The more you learn, the less you sleep, the more you chase the answer, the more the case starts owning you. This one is an absolute classic and a bit more high brow for those of you into that sort of thing, and highly enjoyable on every rewatch I've ever given it. It made about eighty four point seven million dollars worldwide on a reported sixty five to eighty five million dollar budget. Gotta love that little wiggle room there, you know, we all like to have about twenty million dollars to play with just in case. Right. It was an underperformer theatrically, but it grew into the modern classic it is today through reputation and rewatchability, and I do recommend you give it another viewing or a first viewing, depending on who you are. You can watch it today on Paramount Plus with your subscription, or check it out free with ads at Pluto TV, and of course you can rent it at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home.

9:04 Tomorrow here on the Weekly Spooky Feed, we head back to Strickfield, Ohio, where Maddie finds out something awful. The monster from December didn't die, It evolved. It all starts in a parking lot, broad daylight, and there she is, that giant vampire woman, walking straight toward Maddie like the sun can't touch her. And when she smiles and calls Maddie baby, it doesn't feel like a pet name. It feels like a claim. Then it's panic, with Mom screaming, tires squealing, and Maddie doing the one thing a thirteen year old should never have to do, drive like her life depends on it, because it does. And here's the mortifying twist. This thing isn't just a vampire. It's Frankenstein's creation, stitch together, wrong, impossible to control, and back for revenge with Maddie in the center of it. It's Lady Frankenstein.

10:15 Returns tomorrow on Weekly Spooky. Make sure you're subscribed, and if you hear her call you baby, well it's probably already too late. Alright, my spookies, let's take a quick breather, but when we come back, we're going into our deep cut spotlight for a film I really really love. It's a horror film where the infection doesn't spread through blood, it spreads through words, and once you hear the wrong phrase, you can't unhear it. We dive into Pontypool right after this.

11:14 All right, we're back, so let's get into it for our deep cut spotlight. We had to. March sixth two thousand and nine, Pontypool releases theatrically in Canada, and it delivers one of the best small room big apocalypse premises in modern horror. We're not following soldiers, We're not watching a city fall from the perspective of a helicopter. We are in a radio station, snowed in, half broken, trying to get through a normal mourning. Then the reports start.

11:55 People in town are acting strange. Speech is breaking, language is turning violent, and the idea is so nasty it feels like a curse. The infection isn't in the bite, it's in the words themselves, certain sounds, certain phrases, like a virus hiding inside conversation. Pontypool is tense because it weaponizes what we all do without thinking, at least speaking for me, we talk, We repeat, we quote, we echo, and the movie's big question isn't can we kill it?

12:41 It's can we stop ourselves from spreading it? Pontypool is an imaginative wild ride, a new take on the zombie genre that I think needs even more appreciation than it already has. It's got a phenomenal leading man whose voice is perfect for the role. And my only gripe is the microphones they use in the studio, So that tells you pretty damn good, pretty damn solid. I really recommend if you've never seen Pontypool, put it on as soon as possible, especially if you're getting a little bit of snow right now, because it'll feed that vibe very well. Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to get your hands on right now.

13:25 You can buy a DVD, of course, which I recommend. I think there's even a Blu ray out there. If there is, I really should own it. It's apparently available with a subscription via the Filo service and not available to rent or purchase on our usual suspects, but it is worth hunting down. God, I love Pontypool. Now let's dive into something even more infectious. Birthday wishes starting on March second in nineteen forty three, when Peter Straub is born, master of literary Dread and author of ghost Story as well as the co author of The Talisman. I've always found it hard to escape the mindset his writing puts me in, so Happy birthday, Peter Strab, thanks for the Nightmares.

14:22 Born on March second, nineteen eighty Ingrid bolso Berdal, I'm sure I'm saying that right, the slasher final girl, force of Cold Prey and a genre favorite who always brings steel. Whether it's blue steel or a machete, that's up to you. But Cold Prey really great film, and Ingrid owns it. So. Happy birthday, Ingrid, and sorry about how I said your name. March fourth, nineteen seventy three. Len Wiseman is born. Many consider him the architect of Underworld's leather slick creature feature cool kind of the birth of that two thousand's horror action hybrid that was so so cool back then and doesn't seem to really click when they try to make modern versions of it today. Happy birthday, Lenn Wiseman. And finally, on March seventh, nineteen forty six, John Hurd is born a phenomenal example of wait, he was in that he's a character actor, or as some people like to refer, the guy who's in that thing with genre films like Cat People and Chud, among many many other credits. I mean, come on, he was in Casino and he was the dad in Home Alone and Home Alone Too, Lost in New York. A very happy birthday to John Heard. Now

15:57 it's time for our weekly recommendation, and this fits pretty well with Last Weeks, another of the Amicis Studio's famous British anthology horror films. Because on March eighth, nineteen seventy two, Tales from the Crypt premieres in North America. It's pure Amicus ec comic style anthology goodness, with five strangers lost in fog, wandering into a crypt, and meeting a host who doesn't just tell spooky stories, he shows you your future like it's already happened. Each segment is a different flavor of nightmare. Revenge that doesn't stop when the heart does, greed that turns the home into a prison, a prank that curdles into something monstrous, and that classic anthology punch the moment you realize the twist wasn't the ending at all.

16:57 This one has a perfect tone and it's creepy, it's funny, it's mean, and it's very very cozy, like a campfire story for your soul with murder, death and well and a lot of revenge, a lot of revenge. If you've never seen the original Tales from the Crypt film, which predates the TV series by around twenty years, you really want to check this one out. And it's available to watch totally free with ads at two BTV, the Roku Channel Plex, and of course you can rent it at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. And if you enjoy the hell out of it and need more hell, make sure to check out the sequel Vault of Horror. It's a lot of fun too. Well, my spookys, that's your trip through March second to March eighth and horror History. Don't forget to stick around Tomorrow Wednesday, when there's a brand new horror story waiting for you on the weekly Spooky Feed as Lady Frankenstein returns, and we'll have a spooky surprise for you on Friday Saturday, we'll have a brand new compilation of scary stories to keep you busy while you do chores, drive, or work a long weekend shift. There's always something here at Weekly Spooky, so make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcasting app, and of course I'll be back here next Tuesday to

18:29 bring you another trip through horror history, so don't leave me hanging. You can also email me at Weeklyspooky at gmail dot com. I'd love to hear from you, and remember our days are numbered because that's how we tell them apart. See you next time.