Feb. 17, 2026

This Week in Horror History | Freaks, House on Haunted Hill and Army of Darkness (Feb 16–22)

This Week in Horror History | Freaks, House on Haunted Hill and Army of Darkness (Feb 16–22)
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This Week in Horror History (Feb 16–22) is your weekly horror movie release-date rundown—with where to watch (U.S.), a deep-cut spotlight, and a weekly recommendation built for long winter nights. This week we’ve got haunted-house showmanship, toy-factory dread, medieval deadites, and vampire rock-star chaos—plus a studio-era Deep-Cut that still feels like a dare.

Inside this episode

Horror releases from Feb 16–22

Feb 17, 1959 — House on Haunted Hill
William Castle + Vincent Price turn a party invite into a deathtrap: five strangers, one spooky mansion, and $10,000 if you can survive the night—until greed makes everyone reckless.
Where to watch: TubiTV (free w/ ads), The Roku Channel (free w/ ads), YouTube; or rent on Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Apple TV

Feb 18, 2026 — Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5
More toy-factory nightmare fuel—puzzles, chases, and that creeping feeling you’re being watched as the mystery tightens around the Prototype.
Where to play: Steam (PC); consoles coming later

Feb 19, 1993 — Army of Darkness
The Evil Dead series goes full splatter-fantasy: Ash gets tossed into 1300 AD, turns the Necronomicon into a medieval weapon, and the deadites get gloriously chaotic.
Where to watch: rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango at Home

Feb 22, 2002 — Queen of the Damned
Peak early-2000s vampire goth energy—Lestat goes rockstar, the vampire world panics, and Akasha wakes up ready to rewrite the rules.
Where to watch: rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango at Home

🎬 Deep-Cut Spotlight
Feb 20, 1932 — Freaks
Tod Browning’s infamous studio-era shocker: MGM horror that feels like it shouldn’t exist—darkly human, cruel, and controversial enough to become legend.Where to watch: rent on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Apple TV

🎂 Horror birthdays in this window
Feb 16, 1930 — Ricou Browning (Creature from the Black Lagoon)
Feb 16, 1964 — Christopher Eccleston (28 Days Later, The Others)
Feb 22, 1969 — Thomas Jane (The Mist, Deep Blue Sea)
Feb 22, 1975 — Drew Barrymore (Firestarter, Poison Ivy, Scream)

Weekly Recommendation
Feb 22, 1986 — The HitcherAn open-road nightmare that tightens its grip until the highway itself feels cursed—cold, tense, and the kind of thriller that sticks to your ribs.
Where to watch: streaming with a Cinemax subscription via channels like Hulu and Amazon Prime; or rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Apple TV

🎧 LISTEN NOW and subscribe for spine-tingling horror stories every week!

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📬 Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!


🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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Have you ever noticed how horror doesn't just come out,

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It arrives like a date on a calendar you can't

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tear off fast enough. Some nights, the genre doesn't knock,

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It just shows up, chainsaw, revving coffin, creaking neon cross

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glowing in the rain. This week, we've got a perfect

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little sampler of the horror spectrum. A haunted house party

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where the real gimmick is human greed, a medieval Dadite

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war that plays like a splatter fantasy fever dream, a

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rock star vampire era that's pure early two thousand's goth adrenaline,

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And a plastic toy factory nightmare that turns childhood nostalgia

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into teeth. So, if you've ever wondered why February always

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feels a little cursed, congrats you're right back open this

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week and see what crawls out. Welcome to this week

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in Horror History. I'm your host, Enrique Kuto. This is

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the show where we time travel by release date and

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celebrate the genre's best and sometimes weirdest anniversaries. This is

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our week in horror History for February sixteenth through twenty second.

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This week, we have a haunted house party, that weaponizes money,

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a chainsaw handed hero getting dropped into the Middle Ages,

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a vampire rock star waking, an ancient queen, and a

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bright plastic nightmare where childhood smiles hide teeth. And when

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we come back from the break, our deep cut Spotlight

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is going all the way back to nineteen thirty two

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for one of the most infamous studio horror films ever

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released February seventeenth, nineteen fifty nine, House on Haunted Hill

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hits United States theaters. William Castle and Vincent Price basically

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bottled the entire Haunted attraction experience and sell it as

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a movie ticket. Five strangers, one mansion, ten thousand dollars

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if you can make it through the night with inflation,

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by the way, that would be roughly one hundred and

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eleven thousand dollars in today's money. And the genius part

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it isn't just about ghosts. It's the psychology, the way

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money makes people brave, reckless, paranoid and cruel. I just

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revisited this one because Joe Bob Briggs showed it on

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the last drive in over on Shutter a week or

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two ago, and it still holds up. It's got great performances,

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excellent atmosphere, and a few scares that they'll get you

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if you let them. As far as where to watch

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this classic film, well, it's basically everywhere due to being

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public domains, so you can find it on to BTV,

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the Roku channel, anywhere you watch movies free with ads, YouTube,

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or you can rent it on Amazon Prime Video, Fandango

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at Home, or Apple TV. It's worth a visit because

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there will be food and drink and ghosts and perhaps

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even a few murders. You're all invited. February eighteenth, twoenty

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twenty six. That's right, going a little ways into the future.

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Depending on when you listen to this. Poppy Playtime Chapter

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five drops on PC. If you like your horror with

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puzzle box tension and toy factory dread well, this one

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is for you. Poppy Playtime's fifth chapter pushes deeper into

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Playtime Co's nightmare machinery, more shadows, more chases, more don't

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look behind You moments as the mystery titans around the prototype.

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It's a very modern kind of horror history, a franchise

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that grew online, evolved chapter by chapter, and turned a

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children's mascot into a full lawn Boogeyman. The game can

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be found on Steam or just about anywhere you buy

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digital games on PC, with consoles coming later. February nineteenth,

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nineteen ninety three, Army of Darkness storms into theaters. The

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third Evil Dead film goes full splatter fantasy. Ash gets

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flung back to thirteen hundred AD, straps a chainsaw back

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to his arm, and accidentally turns the Necronomicon into a

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medieval weapon of mass destruction. It's not so much a

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cabin in the Woods terror filled film as it is

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Looney Tunes meets Well Jason and the Argonauts. Honestly, if

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you've never seen it, I would be shocked. The Dead

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Heights are still nasty, and the Sam Raimi camera is

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still possessed. If you've ever wondered why people quote this

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film like it's scripture, it's because Ramie and Bruce Campbell

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found that sweet spot a hero who's both the badass

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and the punchline. And this was a film that was

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massive when I was growing up because, unlike Evil Dead

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one and two, Army of Darkness could play on USA

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on a Saturday morning or a Sunday afternoon without causing

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a lot of angry letters to be written, so it

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played ad nauseum. I actually saw Army of Darkness before

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I saw the other Evil Dead films because it was

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so proliferated on television. As far as box office goes,

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it didn't really set the world on fire. It made

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about twenty one point five million dollars worldwide on an

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eleven million dollar budget, but it did become a long

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term cult win. A lot of people think it's probably

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because of Universal Studio's brilliant decision to not include the

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title Evil Dead. You know, the title from the super

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successful other two films in the title of this one.

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I guess they were ashamed to be involved, but well,

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that shame cost them a lot of money. As far

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as where to watch Army of Darkness, if you haven't

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seen it in a while, it is worth a revisit.

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And I can't imagine you've never seen it at all,

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but stranger things have happened. You can find it rentable

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or for purchase on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and

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Fandango at Home. February twenty second. In two thousand and two,

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Queen of the Damned arrives. You can almost hear the

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early two thousand soundtracks start the second this movie boots up,

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Lestat goes Rockstar, the Vampire Underground panics, and Akasha wakes

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up ready to rewrite the entire rule set. It was

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panned at release and never quite found its footing as

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an adaptation, but as a product of its time, Oh

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it can't be beat. It's basically a time capsule of

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that goth MTV era, and a Leah's presence is the

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gravitational center. The film plays like the genre colliding with

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music video esthetics, slick, loud and drenched in attitude. Even

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if it isn't the book, it's still kind of a

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vibe in and of itself. As far as the box

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office goes forty five point million dollars worldwide on a

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thirty five five million dollar budget, So it was a

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commercial disappointment, but it's found a lot of audience ever since,

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and I do think it's worth watching. It's been a

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while since I revisited it, but I remember not loving

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it when I was younger, and then really appreciating it

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in the last ten years or so. You can rent

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or buy it on Amazon, Prime Video, Apple TV, and

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Fandango at home tomorrow right here on the Weekly Spooky Feed.

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We're cracking open road trip from the case files of

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Caroline Quinn. Caroline's not running from a monster. She's running

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from herself, heartbreak, guilt, and the one sentence she couldn't

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say out loud. She points the car west, chases bad

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weather and bad decisions, and ends up in a nowhere

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Michigan town with one bar, one traffic light, and a

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whole lot of eyes that don't feel human. She wanted

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to disappear, but something else wants to keep her. Check

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that out tomorrow right here on the Weekly Spooky Feed

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and enjoy a scary story to get through your hump day.

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All right, we're gonna take a quick breather here, spookies,

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and when we come back, we're going deep cut all

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the way to February twentieth, nineteen thirty two, a studio

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horror film so controversial it basically got pushed into the

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margins for decades. You won't want to miss it when

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we come back. Okay, my spookies, we are back, and

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for our deep cut spotlight, we're heading to February twentieth,

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nineteen thirty two, when Todd Browning Things Freaks hits theaters

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and changes horror history forever. Todd Browning's Freaks isn't just

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a pre code horror film. It's a studio era nightmare

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that feels like it shouldn't exist MGM of all places,

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putting a spotlight on a sideshow world and building a

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story around betrayal, exploitation, and revenge. Here's what makes Freaks

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still click with audiences today, even with all the context

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and discomfort that comes with the nineteen thirty two production.

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It's relatively short, sharp and mean. It wastes no time

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letting you know who is using whom. The horror is

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not just the freaks. The horror is the so called

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normal people who see human beings as paychecks. And then

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when the movie flips, it flips hard. Now, on paper,

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it didn't win. In nineteen thirty two, Freaks ran straight

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into moral panic and pressure campaigns, and the industry was

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already sliding toward stricter control that would soon become what

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was known as the production code era, basically a type

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of censorship for feature films, especially in the major studio system.

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This film was described very often as a shocker that

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the mainstream was simply not ready for. Directed by the

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man who brought the world Bela Lagosi's Dracula. The guy

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had serious studio panache behind him and a fat box

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office to go with it, but unfortunately that did not

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translate to freaks. Financially, it's nearly a stalemate. The reported

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budget was around three hundred and ten thousand dollars with

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a gross of around three hundred and forty one thousand.

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A triumph but not a crater either, just enough to

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maybe survive, and in nineteen thirty two, three hundred and

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ten thousand dollars was the equivalent of seven point thirty

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three million dollars in today's money. But the film had

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no problem haunting the margins until the cult reputation it

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gained did what the original release couldn't, and that is

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the real horror history lesson here. Sometimes the genre's most

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influential titles don't arrive as hits. They arrive as problems.

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They arrive as controversies, and then years later we're still

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talking about them, which is wild to think with a

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film that's nearly one hundred years old. As far as

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where to watch it, you can rent it at all

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the usual suspects like YouTube, Amazon, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Apple, TV,

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et cetera, and I do really recommend you check out

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Todd Browning's Freaks. It will leave an impression on you. Now,

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let's light some creepy candles for our birthdays. On February sixteenth,

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nineteen thirty, Ricou Browning was born, the underwater gill man,

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performer in the legendary Creature from the Black Lagoon, plus

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a key figure in basically all the underwater cinematic moments

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you've come to know and love from that era. Happy

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birthday to Ricau Browning. February sixteenth, nineteen sixty four. Christopher

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eccleston is born. He brought the Raw Dread to twenty

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eight days later and haunted House, Chill to the others,

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and a whole lot of other great genre work besides

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those two, which is saying something because those two are

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pretty big, heavy hitters. So we want to wish a

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very happy birthday to Christopher eccleston. February twenty second, nineteen

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sixty nine. Thomas Jane is born Fog Shrouded, Terror in

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the midst, Shark Chaos, and Deep Blue Sea. The guy's

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got a long streak of genre grit and he's still

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making memorable films to this very day. Happy Birthday, Thomas

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Jane and born on February twenty second, nineteen seventy five,

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Drew Barrymore in many ways horror's Forever Kid, with Firestarter

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and Poison Ivy, just to name a few, and then

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of course her shocking role as the first victim in

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the original Scream by Wes Craven. Happy Birthday, Drew Barrymore.

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We'll make sure when we light the candles, we try

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and use our minds first for our then and now

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this week. Then, in the early nineteen thirties, a studio

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horror film could be made, released and then socially quarantined

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by outrage and censorship pressure. Now, controversy travels faster than ever,

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and so does rediscovery. A movie can be buried on

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Friday and become a cult phenomenon by Monday, thanks in

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part to streaming, social media and the horror community's favorite pastime,

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which is of course rescuing and appreciating weird stuff. As

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much as I miss the movie rental store, this really

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is a golden era for watching lost gems and sharing

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them with the world, and for our weekly recommendation. If

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you want something that lands dead center in this week's

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time frame and feels like an open road turning into

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a nightmare. I cannot recommend enough this film. Released on

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February twenty second, nineteen eighty six, The Hitcher. Rudger Hower

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plays a walking void of menace, and the film keeps

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tightening its grip until it feels like the highway itself

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is hunting you. It wasn't a box office winner at

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the time, about five point eight million dollars in gross

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on a reported seven point nine million dollar budget, but

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it's been reappraised as a full on cult classic, and

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it totally earns that status. It is a wild and

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wacky ride, but it's also scary. It's also unsettling, and

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Rudger Hower is great in literally anything you put him in.

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But when you add c. Thomas Howell to the film

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as the protagonist, well you are in for, pardon the pun,

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a very fun ride, a film that manages to keep

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you on the edge of your seat while also weirding

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you out and confusing you a little along the way.

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There's nothing quite like The Hitcher in my opinion, and

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I love the hell as far as where to watch it.

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If you've never seen it. You need to make this

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a priority, and if you've already seen it, well, the

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revisit is a good idea. It's currently streaming with a

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Cinemax subscription on multiple channels like Hulu and Amazon Prime,

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or of course, you can buy or rent it digitally

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on Amazon Prime, Fandango at Home, or Apple TV. You

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can also grab phenomenal physical media releases which took a

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very long time to come and I'm so glad to

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have mine on my shelf. Well, my spookies, that's your

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week February sixteenth through twenty second, packed with Haunted House, Hustle,

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Demon noir, Medieval Dead, Heites, and vampire rock opera. Just

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to spice things up. If you're listening on Tuesday, the

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day this comes out, tomorrow, make sure you come back

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for Weekly Spooky's brand new story all about a road

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trip that goes for a be wrong and a vampire

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hunter just trying to get by. And on Friday, well

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there'll be a little surprise waiting for you, so make

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sure you check it out. And of course next Monday,

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we'll have a brand new episode of Monthly Spooky where

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we talk about all the strange news and funny moments

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on the scarier side of life. Until next time, keep

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your lights low, your door's locked, and remember our days

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are number because that's how we tell them apart