This Week in Horror History | Scream VI, It Follows, Resident Evil & Children of the Corn (Mar 9–15)

0:01 This week, the calendar feels like it was rigged by a sadist with a video store membership. Of course, we have Killer Kids in the corn, Ghostface upgrading to Big City Slaughter, a curse that never stops walking, and a zombie video game blockbuster that helped drag survival horror into the multiplex and then tucked in the shadows. There's a deep cut that feels almost prophetic now, a scrappy little faux documentary about the Jersey Devil, desktop editing and digital paranoia that showed up just before the Blair Witch Project made the whole world start side eyeing camcorder footage. So tonight we're heading from Nebraska backroads to New York bodegas, from suburban sex panic to the hive beneath Raccoon City and into the pine barrens where the signal gets fuzzy and the story starts mutating. This is one of those weeks where horror history is not just about monsters. It's about format. It's about transmission. It's about what happens when the camera shows you something terrible then dares you to believe it. Welcome back to this week in horror History.

1:37 I'm your host, Enrique Kuto, and this is the show where we dig through the graveyard of release calendars and pull out the horror movies, shows, books, and games that hit during this exact stretch of the year. This episode covers March ninth through fifteenth on Deck Tonight. A Stephen King Cornfield nightmare that turns a tiny budget into a franchise, a Ghostface sequel that absolutely cleaned up at the box office, a modern classic that made sex itself feel like a stalking mechanism, and a slick Resident Evil adaptation that proved video game horror could print money. Then, right before we get out of here, a weekly recommendation if you want to stay in that fake documentary reality is fraying headspace just a little longer. March ninth, nineteen eighty four, Children of the Corn hits theaters. This is one of those eighties titles that people remember instantly from the premise alone, dead adults, zealous children, rural isolation, and that unforgettable phrase, he who walks behind the Rose of the Corn was made on a reported budget of about three million dollars and grossed roughly fourteen point six million worldwide, which made

3:10 it a bonafide hit if for its scale alone, and kicked off a long and truly weird franchise. It's not the slickest Stephen King adaptation, but it absolutely lodged itself in the culture. The image of a quiet little town run by murderous kids is still doing work forty plus years later, and every time I revisit the original Children of the Corn, I remember just how great it is and why it spawned such a fascinating franchise. Really, Children of the Corn and hell Raiser and Critters, they all have a very interesting trajectory. And Leprechaun as well, I'll throw that in there too. They have a very odd trajectory where the sequels get really out of hand really fast, which in my opinion, is a recipe for fun. But in my opinion, all of the Children of the Corn sequels, by the way, are pretty fun until you get to six six six, which is the one where they try to make all of the film's previous make sense, and in my opinion, that, ironically enough was when they lost the plot. But if you want to, and if you want to revisit or check out Children of the Corn for the first time, it is readily available to watch on Amazon Prime Video with subscription or at two b TV, the Roku channel and Plex free to watch with ads, and of course you can rent or buy it wherever you rent or buy your movies. On March tenth, twenty

4:47 twenty three, Scream six opens in theaters. Taking Ghostface out of Woodsboro and dropping that chaos into New York was the exact kind of franchise shape up the series probably needed. Scream six opened big, stayed loud, and finished with about one hundred and sixty nine million dollars worldwide against a budget reported to be around thirty three to thirty five million dollars. That's not just healthy horror business. That is proof that a legacy slasher can still feel alive if you let it mutate just a little. Although we'll see what happens with the current Scream seven, which kind of went back to basics in a lot of ways and seems to be cleaning up decently in the theater. But where I really have to hand it to Scream six is the Subway imagery, the Bodega sequence, the meaner energy.

5:46 It all helped to give this one a sharper and nastier pulse that makes it stand out and makes you want to revisit it. I've been debating a revisit myself, So if you want to take your own bloody trip to New York City with Scream six, you can check it out at Paramount Plus with your subscription or free on Pluto TV. March thirteenth, two thy fifteen. It Follows begins its United States theatrical run. Ten years later. This one still feels like a transmission from a different frequency. It Follows took a relatively small budget of around one point three million dollars and turned it into roughly twenty three point three million worldwide. But the bigger story is the afterlife. The music, the dream logic, suburbs that don't really feel real, the half familiar technology, the shape that keeps coming no matter how calmly it walks. This thing hit like an instant modern classic. I saw it twice in the theater and then once at the drive in, and everyone I sho showed it to was very surprised how much they liked it, even though it was off putting in several ways. A lot of movies get called elevated horror after the fact, It Follows just earned its place by simply being nasty and unforgettable as well. I'm

7:17 still shocked there hasn't been a sequel because of how well it did at the box office and how much it joined the zeitgeist. But who knows, There's always time. I suppose I really have always loved It Follows, and to me, the late night car trip energy of the debate of how you would get away from the It Follows creature makes the film super memorable because it's passed through intercourse, So what would you do other than pass it along to someone else to try to escape. I think that kind of stuff is great because it plays with your imagination and if you want to revisit or watch It Follows for the first time, which would be wild to me. It's available to stream free with ads at Fandango, at Home, or on Plaux. You can also catch it with subscription with your Filo membership, check it out on Canopy with your library card, or rented at the usual Suspects. It Follows is a great fun time, but maybe not the best for a first date. March fifteenth, two thousand and two. Resident Evil in Facts Theaters, Paul ws Anderson's Resident Evil is one of those movies that critics sneered at and audiences kept showing up anyway. It went on to pull in about one hundred and three point eight million dollars worldwide on a thirty three million dollar budget at the time. That made it a serious hit.

8:51 But more importantly, it gave video game horror a viable theatrical template. Slick action, industrial production design, monsters used like pressure valves, and a star vehicle built around pure momentum. Whether you love it, hate it, tolerate it, or just enjoy the laser hallway, it matters. This movie helped prove that video game based horror could become a durable screen franchise, especially in the realm of horror. And if you want to give it a watch right now, it's available on Prime Video with your subscription or on Hulu also with your subscription. They always try to get us with those monthly charges.

9:41 Make sure to join us right here tomorrow. On the weekly Spooky Feed for a story about what starts as a drunken mistake and turns into a nightmare. In the middle of nowhere, a man wakes up freezing in a dark field, surrounded by cows covered in dirt with no idea how he got there. The last thing he remembers is a party, a glass pipe, and way too much whiskey. But that missing stretch of the night, that's where things get ugly, real ugly, because somewhere out on those back roads, past the farm, past the broken down car, past the point where anybody's coming to help, there's something waiting, something that walks on all fours. But isn't any animal you've ever heard of, Hairless, clawed, hungry, and once it finds you, it does not let go.

10:45 So if you like your horror filthy, frantic, and soaked in bad decisions, do not miss tomorrow's story, The back Roads, Crypted by Bruce Haney, dropping tomorrow Wednesday on the weekly Spooky Feet. Trust me, you do not want to miss this one. It'll make you think twice about the next time you're on some lonely road at night and hear something moving out in the field. When we return, we're heading into the pine barrens for a deep cut that costs less than some people spend on a used laptop and still helped point horror toward the digital future, a film that proves all you need is a great story, a Great.

11:35 Cast and a Devil. Welcome back, my spooky is Let's get weird. This is one of my personal favorites when it cuts comes to lesser known gems. On March ninth, nineteen ninety eight, the Last Broadcast premieres in Pennsylvania. This is the kind of title that horror history nerds like me love to bring up, but it's for a very good reason. The Last Broadcast is a faux documentary about a public access cable crew heading into the New Jersey Pine barrens in search of the Jersey Devil. Only one man returns alive. From there, the film becomes an investigation, a media object, and a quiet little dare to the audience just how much of what you're watching feels true simply because the format tells you it is. And here is the wild part. This film was made for an estimated nine hundred dollars, not nine hundred thousand, nine hundred American dollars, even when you

13:05 adjust for inflation, which would make it roughly seventeen hundred dollars or eighteen hundred dollars. When you consider the fact that technology in nineteen ninety eight was far more expensive than it is today, I mean, finding a five hundred dollars computer was very difficult in nineteen ninety eight, but now it's common. That really tells you a lot about how hard they worked to make this film happen no matter what. It is also widely credited as the first feature shot and edited entirely on consumer level digital equipment, and later became the first feature theatrically distributed by satellite. Now I don't know about first feature film shot and edited entirely on consumer level digital equipment, because there were a lot of people all over America and the world doing that at the time, many of them I've become friendly with over the years, so I can't say that one is for sure. But the satellite thing that sounds that sounds legit. Even with the Blair Witch Project coming about around the same time and becoming a huge cultural earthquake, the Last Broadcast is one of the little tremors underneath it.

14:18 And in fact I found out about the Last Broadcast because it was written about in Fangoria magazine as a film like the Blair Witch Project that was made at around the same time. I rented it at Hollywood Video. I really loved the Last Broadcast, even though I'm not crazy about the ending, but hey, that's life in the Big City. As a film, it is icy and awkward in a way that actually feeds the story. The public access texture, the pseudo true crime framing, the analog to digital unease, it all makes the film feel like something you stumbled upon instead of something you were sold. Financially, the theatrical gross was tiny, but reports around the film credit it with worldwide profit that reached well into the millions, which is astonishing considering the budget was basically pocket lint determination and of course a Jersey devil. As far as where to watch this film, if you've never watched last broadcast, I'm seriously, seriously telling you you should check it out, because if you listen to the show, you give a crap about horror history. This film is a major footnote in horror history. And the reason I love it even more so is because it's a major footnote that was made by some passionate people in Pennsylvania for nine hundred dollars and we're still talking about it to this day.

15:49 That alone makes it required viewing, and luckily it's easy to get your hands on because it's available to watch free with your pro I'm video subscription or totally free with ads on tub and of course you can rent or buy it digitally at any of the usual suspects. Stop what you're doing, check this one out. It's not that it's a perfect film, but it is so important. You can feel horror learning a new language in real time, and it really does bring some cool, bizarre and creepy moments. I just really love the last broadcast. I always have and I probably always will, even if, like I said, the last minute and a half kind of took me out of it, the rest of it absolutely worth the ride. Now, let's take a moment to wish some happy birthdays to folks who are born in this week in horror history.

16:53 On March ninth, nineteen eighty six, Britney Snow, who gave Ty West's ex some serious Neon lit charisma and also survived one of the more memorable Studio era remakes with Prom Night in two thousand and eight. She's also in Would You Rather, which if you've never seen that one, you really need to check that out. I love Would You Rather? Happy Birthday, Brittany Snow On March thirteenth, nineteen eighty five, Emil Hirsch was born. He'll forever be tied to one of the best modern Morgue chillers thanks to the autopsy of Jane Doe, and of course has had an incredible and expansive career in Hollywood for as long as I can remember, which makes sense because he's a year older than me. Well, especially now. Happy birthday, Emil Hirsh.

17:47 March fourteenth, nineteen thirty three brings us the birth of the one and only Michael Caine, who is not usually filed under horror first, at least not in most households, but in this house he is known for, among other things, Jaws the Revenge. That's right, baby. He was also in The Hand, which I've always had a soft spot for. But in this house, under this roof, Jaws the Revenge is Michael Kine's ultimate accomplishment. And a very happy birthday to you, Michael Cain, and thank you for playing our HOGI in our beloved The Revenge. And on March fifteenth, nineteen seventy nine, Pollyanna Mackintosh was born one of modern horror's fiercest presents, and I don't think anyone can deny that, I mean from her performances in The Woman, to Let Us Pray, to Darlin, to Tales of Halloween. She has been in so many awesome, fun horror films and some really unfun and brutal horror films as well. She's always left her mark, and she's left her mark on horror history as well. So Happy Birthday, Pollyanna Macintosh. For this week's Then and Now, Then, low budget genre filmmakers were trying to convince audiences that grainy footage might actually be

19:21 legitimate evidence. Now we live in a world where everybody carries a camera all the time, every rumor gets clipped into a vertical video, and horror built around found media, analog decay, screen life and fake documentary logic feels less like a gimmick and more like a mirror, or maybe more so, a front facing camera. The tools change, but the dread just gets better at hiding in plain sight. So think about that one while you're dozing off to bed.

20:03 And finally, for our weekly recommendation, a film, I hope you haven't slept on, but if you have, I'm filling you in right now, The Invitation. Karen Kusama's The Invitation premiered on March thirteenth, twenty fifteen, and it's one of the best modern examples of slow burn horror done shockingly right. What starts as an uncomfortable dinner party among old friends turns into something far more sinister, with every strange glance and awkward silence loaded with something else, the conversation constantly tightening the screws more and more. It's a film built on grief, paranoia, and that creeping sense that you're trapped in a room where everyone knows more than you do.

20:58 No flashy gimmicks, no over explaining, just a steady, elegant descent into dread. If you want a companion watch for this week that leaves you tense, uneasy, and quietly rattled. The Invitation is a strong pick, and you can watch it right now on two b TV for free streaming with ads, as well as on the Roku channel free with ads, or on Filo, Peacock or Amazon Prime with your subscription, And of course you can rent or buy it on the usual suspects, Fandango at Home, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime. Well my Spookyes, that'll do it for this week in Horror History for March ninth through fifteenth.

21:45 But if you want more horror, of. Course, come back here tomorrow for our brand new cryptid horror story right here on Weekly Spooky. And on Friday we'll be back with cutting deep into horror, talking all about the notorious serial killer true crime ish film Henry Portrait of a serial Killer. You're not gonna want to miss it. And on Saturday we have a brand new compilation of horror stories. All about the Odds of March. So make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcasting app and while you're at it, maybe leave us a five star rating. It really does make a difference, especially on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Until next week, keep one eye on the release calendar and the other on the tree line, because horror history is never really passed. It's just waiting for the right week to come back. And remember our days are numbered, because that's how we tell them apart.

22:47 See you next week.