This Week in Horror History | IT Chapter Two, Suspiria, Outlast & Pontypool - Aug 31-Sep 6

September arrives with one hand on summer and the other already reaching for Halloween. The air changes, dance studios empty after dark, yard sale boxes wait for somebody curious. An asylum glows green through a camcorder beneath a church. A radio host learns the most dangerous thing in town might be a word. This week gives us a supposedly haunted box, a new Suspiria survival by night Vision, and the Losers Club returning to dairy as adults. Then our deep cut spotlight traps us in a radio station while violence spreads through the snow and language sounds infected. So check what you brought home, stretch before rehearsal, and if the caller keeps repeating the same word, just take them off the air.

Now, welcome back to this Week in Horror History, your weekly time machine through the creepiest anniversaries in film, TV, books, comics, and games. Tonight, we're talking about August thirty first through September sixth. Coming up. A yard sale purchase opens the door to a possession story, and a famous paranormal legend did not survive the fact checking Luca Guadagnino rebuilds a witchy dance academy in divided Berlin. Red Barrels sends one investigative journalist into an asylum with a camcorder and no exit, and the adult Losers Club returned to dry for the promise they made twenty seven years earlier, then right after the break for our Deep Cut Spotlight, a Canadian radio nightmare where talking may be spreading the infection.

August thirty first, twenty twelve, The Possession opens nationwide and a small wooden box becomes the worst yard sale bargain imaginable. Directed by Ole Bornadal and produced by Sam Raimi, the film follows a divorced father whose daughter M becomes fascinated by an antique box. Once opened, it changes her behavior and is identified as a prison for a dibbick. The movie was marketed as inspired by true events, drawing from a so called dibic box sold by Kevin Manus. That claim needs a pretty fat asterisk. In twenty twenty one, Manis publicly said he invented the name, backstory, carvings and supporting details as an interactive horror story.

The fabricated legend traveled through newspapers, paranormal culture, and Hollywood until it became larger than its cabinet. At the box office, the Possession opened at number one with seventeen point seven million dollars in the US and Canada and finished with eighty five point four million worldwide against a reported fourteen million dollar budget. A strong commercial result for a late summer supernatural release and one that kind of passed me by the first go. But I think it has a lot to enjoy. It's currently free to watch with ads on two BTV, Pluto and Roku channel, and of course you can rent or buy it on Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, and Apple TV.

September one, twoenty eighteen, Suspiria has its world premiere in competition at the Venice International Film Festival and a family Dance Academy returns in a radically different body. Luca Guaddanino does not reproduce the blazing colors and fairy tale logic of Dario Argento's nineteen seventy seven film. His Suspiria moves to a divided Berlin rendered in bruised grays and institutional concrete. Dakota Johnson plays Susie Banyon, an American dancer admitted to a company led by Tilda Swinton's Madame Blanc. The choreography is punishing, the teachers watchful, and the building seems to have its own central nervous system. Dance is not decoration.

Movement becomes ritual, discipline, control and consequence. Bodies bend because the choreography demands it, then keep bending after rehearsal has stopped this, Suspiria becomes its own severe nightmare, less a remake than an argument with the original, conducted through muscle memory and of course witchcraft. While I'm not the hugest booster of the Dario Argento original, I do think it's a solid film and very interesting, and I think the remake brought a lot of new ideas and concepts that keep it interesting even if you pine for the Technicolor original. So I think it's worth giving a watch. And it's streaming right now with your subscription on Prime Video, and you can of course buy or rent it through Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home.

September fourth, twenty thirteen, Outlast launches for PC on Steam and a camcorder's night vision screen becomes the only light you can trust. Developed by Red Barrel's Outlast follows journalist Miles Upshure into Mount Massive Asylum What a Name, An anonymous tip suggests the facility hides something terrible. Miles enters alone with the confidence of a man who has not seen the lobby yet. Outlast strips away the action game Power Fantasy. Miles survives by running, hiding, squeezing through gaps, and raising his camera when the darkness becomes absolute. Night vision gives the game its signature image, always glowing sickly green, while the battery indication slowly drops.

Seeing danger consumes the resource needed to avoid it, making every look a legitimate decision. Do you move blind or switch on the camera and discover what's breathing right beside you. This is a game that I have trouble finishing by myself in the dark, so if you like to scare yourself, the PC version is available through Steam and U Yeah, good luck getting out. September sixth, twenty nineteen, it chapter two opens in the United States and the Loser Club comes home to finish what Childhood started. Andy Mushieti's follow up jumps the story twenty seven years forward from the twenty seventeen film Most losers left Dairy, but Mike staid.

When killings begin again, Call activates their childhood promise. James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hayter, and Isaiah Mustafa lead the adult ensemble, with Bill Scarsgard returning as penny Wise. Of course, the most unsettling idea is not simply that the monster returned, leaving Dry allowed memory itself to blur and fade. The losers must recover what happened and decide whether an old promise still binds them. Pennywise feeds on Fear. It Chapter two asks what happens when fear has had twenty seven years to grow up with you. At the box office, It Chapter two opened to ninety one point one million dollars in the US and Canada and finished with four hundred and seventy three point one million worldwide.

That made it a major hit, even though it couldn't match the first film's record breaking one hundred and twenty three point four million dollar debut. I really enjoyed it Chapter two. I think that the big problem IT has is being cursed by an unbelievably powerful first film. When the first IT movie came out and people were kind of excited about it. They didn't expect it to be just so perfect, so much what they wanted. I remember being blown away in the theater and immediately wanting to go back with another friend and see it again. I ended up seeing it four times in the theater.

It chapter two it was never going to be able to be that lightning in a bottle because you can't just choose when you want to have lightning in a bottle. It kind of makes its own decision as to when lightning strikes. But I think Chapter two still has a lot to like in it, and I think it's a great double feature, of course, So if you want to revisit it Chapter two, it's streaming on HBO Max with your subscription, or you can buy or rent it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home Tomorrow on Weekly Spooky.

Sometimes the scariest message is the one that already knows you're listening. In I Do Not Know You by Tyler Belmont, Jerry Scott has always loved old technology, VHS tapes, walkman's film cameras, anything physical, anything analog, anything that feels more real than a screen. So when a mysterious package appears, in his electronics shop, containing an old tape recorder. He can't resist trying to make it work. At first, the voice on the cassette sounds calm, polite, almost comforting. Then it says Jerry's name, It knows where he works, it knows the name of his cat, It knows things about his childhood no stranger should ever know.

And then it tells him the date, the exact date he's listening, and one final piece of information. Jerry Scott is going to die in five minutes. A visitor is coming, something Jerry must never let inside, so he locks the doors, grabs a weapon, and waits. Then lightning flashes outside the shop. One long finger begins tapping against the glass, slowly, patiently, waiting to be invited in. I Do not Know You premieres tomorrow on Weekly Spooky, so make sure you're subscribed. You won't want to miss it, all right, my Spooky, Let's take a quick breather, But remember, if you're not the only one in your life who loves Halloween more than anything on earth, share this episode with a friend.

When we come back, we're heading to one radio studio a snowbound town. Frantic callers and an infection traveling through the very tool I'm using right now. All right, spookies, we're back, so let's dial in. On September sixth, the two thousand and eight, at eight o'clock in the evening, Hauntepool has its first scheduled public screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, and a small town radio station begins receiving reports that don't sound possible. Directed by Bruce MacDonald and written by Tony Burgess from his novel Pontypool Changes Everything. The film stars Stephen McCatty as Grant Mazzie, a confrontational radio host broadcasting from a church basement in Pontypool, Ontario.

A snowstorm narrows the world to the studio and voices coming through the phone. A traffic reporter describes something strange, witnesses call details conflict. Then the reports become violent. Pontypool understands that radio horror lives between what is heard and what is seen. Events arrive as broken descriptions, shouted warnings, dead air, and sounds that no one can verify. Then the infection may be embedded in language itself, certain words becoming dangerous to understand, repeat or broadcast that turns the station into shelter and the atomic bomb. Mazzi's voice could warm the town or carry the threat farther. Every microphone becomes a doorway, and his job makes silence impossible.

Pontipool is clever, claustrophobic, and darkly funny. One basement made to feel like the final room left on the planet. This is a film I really adore, and I've talked about it before. I'll talk about it again any chance I get. This film has everything you want. The only pet peeve I have is the microphones they're using in the radio station are not particularly standard, but that is just my audiophile nerdness talking. This is a really fun, creepy movie that really gets into your mind, makes you think, and then scares you from the thinking. Unfortunately, after all that big build up, it's been hard to stream at all in America for quite a while, So if you want to watch Pontypool, getting a DVD or Blu ray as one option, or you can head over to Filo the TV app and with a subscription you can give Pontypool a watch.

Now, let's bust out the black candles and celebrate some horror related birthdays starting September second, nineteen sixty four, when Keanu Reeves is born. Genre traveler whose horror credits include Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Devil's Advocate and Constantine. Keanu Reeves has always been a visitor of the horror genre that always brings something cool and believable to the table. Happy Birthday, Keanu Reeves. Born on September fifth, nineteen fifty one. Is Michael Keaton, the actor who made Beetlejuice both repulsive and irresistible, then returned to supernatural horror in a more direct way in White Noise, which is a very underrated film.

A very happy birthday to mister Michael Keaton. Born on September fifth, nineteen seventy three is Rose McGowan, a standout in Scream's original ensemble of characters, with later genreturns like The Unforgettable Planet Terror and Charmed of course, A very happy Birthday, Rose McGowan. And born on September sixth, nineteen seventy six is Naomi Harris, the actor who brought fierce survival instinct to Selena in twenty eight days later and helped redefine the modern outbreak Nightmare as we know it. A very happy birthday, Naomi Harris, and to all of our horror birthdays for our then and now this week, Horror turns communication into contamination.

Two thousand and eight gives us a radio signal that may spread the danger it's describing. Twenty twelve gives us a fabricated haunted object story amplified into a major motion picture. Twenty thirteen gives us the camcorder as witness lifeline and rapidly dying battery. Twenty eighteen gives us bodies communicating through dance and ritual, and twenty and nineteen brings old friends together because one phone call tells them the nightmare has returned. And finally, for our weekly recommendation, if you want a supernatural thriller with desert roads, theological dread, and Christopher Walkin treating Heaven like the scene of a very old crime, head back to September one, nineteen ninety five, when The Prophecy opens in US theaters, introducing a world where a second war is raging among the Angels.

Written and directed by Gregory Widen, the film follows Elias Cotias's Thomas Daggett, a former seminary student turned detective. A strange death produces impossible evidence, while the archangel Gabriel arrives on his own mission. Walkin's Gabriel is charming, exhausted, and very frightening. If you've never seen Christopher Walkin act scary WHOA, You're in for a treat. He plays an immortal who speaks to humans as troublesome animals occupying an unseen battlefield. The Prophecy treats religious imagery as cosmic noir. Its angels are ancient powers with grievances, factions, and no obligation to make mortals feel safe. It's compact supernatural horror, suggesting that Heaven has politics and Earth is where the argument gets bloody.

At the box office, the Prophecy opened to seven point five million dollars from one thousand, six hundred and sixty three theaters and finished with sixteen point one million dollars in the US and Canada. Modest Labor Day business for a supernatural thriller, but it wasn't in that many theaters per se This one highly highly underrated. I have the box set of all the Prophecy movies and they are a lot of fun and honestly, once you love the original Prophecy movie, you kind of feel like you have a hidden gem in your pocket. You know something that you like that maybe no one else does, and that's only because of ignorance.

So this is a great one to watch yourself for the first time, or share with a friend who'd never seen it if you're that deep of a horror nerd. It's available to watch free with ads on two BTV, or you can rent and or buy it through Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. Well, my spookies, that's your trip through August thirty first through September sixth in horror History. Tomorrow Wednesday, there's a brand new terror tale for you to enjoy that I assure you will help make sure your Halloween fields are turned up to eleven, if not beyond that, and we have something spooky for you to listen to every single day of the week, So make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcast app.

And while you're at it, leave us a five star rating so other spookies will see that and know for a fact they're in the right place. And of course I'll be back here next Tuesday with another trip through the creepy calendar of horror history. So until then, remember our days are numbered because that's how we tell them apart, see you next week.