This Week in Horror History | Silent Hill, Stephen King, George Romero, Cult Horror & More (April 20–26)

0:00 A very specific kind of dread belongs to late April. The weather says spring, the calendar says we're closing in on summer, and horror says absolutely not. This is the part of the year where the genre likes to play dirty, roadside panic, fog soaked nightmare towns, severed entities, body part madness, and one more reminder that even modern studio horror still loves a good death trap. So tonight we're walking straight into one of those beautifully unhinged weeks where the genre keeps changing masks without ever losing the grin underneath. Welcome back to this week in horror history. I'm your host, Enrique Kuto, and tonight we're talking about April twentieth through twenty six, a seven day stretch that gave us stripped down Motel Terror, one of the best looking video game horror adaptations of the two thousands, a gloriously odd Oliver Stone Nightmare, a brand new game adaptation trying to turn a choice based classic into a blood soaked crowd pleaser,

1:34 and a George Romero deep cut about a writer literally being consumed by his darker self in a vicious story about authorship, anger and the monster that steps out when the safe persona dies. April twentieth, two thousand and seven, Vacancy hits theaters. This is lean, mean, no nonsense motel horror, and that is exactly why it still works and it's something people can identify with. In fact, I'm gonna finish recording this and pack up to head to a hotel myself.

2:19 Oh boy. Nimrod Antal takes a simple setup a couple stranded in the wrong roadside dump and turns it into a pressure cooker about surveillance, cruelty, and the feeling that the walls themselves are against you. Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson play it straight, which it really does help because the movie doesn't need irony. The premise is already nasty enough. The premise of the premises, I suppose. Commercially, it did solid business about thirty five point four million dollars worldwide on a nineteen million dollar budget, which may not be blockbuster money, but it's more than respectable for a grim little thriller. This Nasty and the sequel is a hell of a lot of fun too. I do recommend that one.

3:17 Although it's a lot of fun It's great for totally different reasons. And if you want to watch what might possibly be the most shameless horror movie knockoff ever made outside of maybe The Last Shark, which a federal court ruled to be a ripoff of Jaws, you can also check out Terror Trap with Michael Madsen Jeff Fayhee. It's a lot of fun. It is a total a shameless ripoff of Vacancy, but with a few more explosions and goofiness. I'm getting sidetracked, though, If you want to give Vacancy a watch or a revisit, they're accepting reservations right now now.

4:00 You can watch it free with ads on Pluto TV or rented on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. On April twenty first, two thousand and six, Silent Hill opens wide for a lot of horror fans. This was the moment a game adaptation finally understood that atmosphere was half the battle. Christoph Ganz did not just borrow monster designs. He went after the suffocating mood, the industrial howl, the sense that grief and guilt have physically stained the town. Whatever you may think of the script, the imagery has held on for twenty years, and it also connected with audiences roughly one hundred point six million dollars worldwide on a fifty million dollar budget. That's pretty respectable and a real theatrical footprint for a weird, ash covered nightmare pilgrimage movie. So if you want to take a trip to the eerie world of Silent Hill, you can do so free with ads on Pluto TV or rented on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and of course Fandango at Home. April twenty fourth, nineteen eighty one, The

5:33 Hand arrives Oliver Stone directing a psychological horror movie about a severed hand going on a murder spree, with Michael Caine looking increasingly wrecked as reality comes apart around him. Is exactly the sort of sentence that makes this show worth doing. The Hand is not a mainstream classic, but it is a wonderfully peculiar artifact, part paranoid character study, part killer limb shocker, part early eighties studio oddity. That's almost an understatement. Financially, it never got close to escape velocity, bringing in about two point four five million dollars in the US against an estimated six point five million in Canadian dollars, but as a relic of a period when major talent would occasionally wander into extremely strange horror side streets, it's pure catnip. If you want to take a walk on the weird, I do highly recommend the hand. You can watch it right now free with ads on two BTV or rent slash By on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at home April twenty fifth, two Thy twenty five until Dawn opens in the United States. Turning a choice

7:04 driven horror game into a movie is a tough job because half the fun of the original is feeling responsible for who lives and who dies. The film version swerved by leaning into a time loop setup, giving the material a different engine while still chasing that same all night survival feeling. Whether you loved it or not, it absolutely earned a place in the conversation. I saw it opening night. I enjoyed it, but as a massive and longtime fan of the original Until Dawn game, there were some disappointments here and there, but I will say I had a good time with it, and there were lots of until Dawn Easter eggs to enjoy. But they committed one massive faux pas there was no Larry Fesden in it, and that that ain't cool kids. At the box office, it earned about fifty four point one million dollars worldwide on a fifteen million dollar budget, a pretty strong result for a grim studio horror title in a crowded modern marketplace.

8:16 If you want to dive in and give it a watch or give it a review because it's been a year, head to Netflix and watch it with your subscription, or rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at home tomorrow right here on the weekly Spooky Feed. Love Gets Ugly, a late night obsession, a chemistry lab, a girl who should have said no one last time, and a mistake that turns desire into something ravenous in chemically imbalanced, a sort of love story by Rob Field's.

8:58 What starts as a lust soaked campus desperation curdles into panic, blood, and the kind of romance that doesn't end with flowers or apologies. It ends with screaming in the dark, something pounding at the glass, and a girl with blood in her eyes who suddenly wants you more than ever. But not all love stories are sweet, Some are feverish, some are twisted, and some want to tear your throat out before they kiss you. So when Wednesday comes, don't miss weekly Spooky. This one is savage, sticky, funny, mean, and deeply, deeply wrong in the best of ways. So make sure you're subscribed, tune in tomorrow and fall in love at your own risk. We come back. We're heading into our deep cut spotlight with George Romero, Stephen King, a murderous pen name, and a film that feels like a nasty little warning about what happens when the ugly side of a writer stops staying on the page. Welcome back, Let's

10:36 get a little meaner. On April twenty third, nineteen ninety three, the Dark Half opens in theaters. This is our spotlight because it lands right at the intersection of three things horror people love, arguing about underrated Stephen King adaptations, Late Era O'Ryan film's weirdness, and George A. Romero doing something nastier and sadder than his zombie reputation sometimes gets credit for The setup is Irresistible. A writer who buried a violent pseudonym decides to publicly kill it off, only for that darker identity to step out into the world and start murdering people. Timothy Hutton gets the fun of playing both Thad Beaumont and George Stark, and the movie lives or dies on that split. Romero does not frame Stark like some glamorous demon. He's petulant, vulgar, and mean in a way that makes the whole thing feel less like Gothic fantasy and more like a self loathing panic attack turned corporeal. That's why the film has lasted. It's not just about a monster double. It's about the fear that the ugliest thing you make might actually be the truest

12:09 thing inside of you. Commercially, it underperformed about ten point six million dollars domestically against a reported fifteen million dollar budget, but that is exactly why it belongs in this very segment. It's a studio release that feels too bitter, too internal, and too odd to have ever become a broad crowd pleaser as a Romero deep cut, though it freaking rules, man, and it's available to watch very easily, whether it's on Prime Video with subscription, MGM plus with subscription, Prime Video with ads, or free with ads on YouTube as well, and of course it's rentable on Apple TV and fandango at home. So go ahead, spend a little quality time with your dark half. And now it's time for some horror birthdays for faces tied to this exact week on the calendar. First up born on April twentieth, nineteen forty nine, Veronica Cartwright, between alien invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Witches of Eastwick, and just her overall ability to look genuinely wrecked by supernatural or sci fi chaos, She's one of the great panic energy performers in genre history. She's

13:42 also a fascinating person. I highly recommend listening to her interview on Party Nerds popcast over on YouTube or wherever you are listening to this. Happy Birthday, Veronica Cartwright April twenty first, nineteen seventy nine. James McAvoy is born Horror fans don't need a long explanation here. Split alone locks him in, and he brought the same unnerving edge to Speak No Evil a decade or so later. Really talented actor, whether it's horror or any genre he tackles. Happy Birthday, James McAvoy on April twenty second, nineteen sixty six. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is born He's now horror TV royalty thanks to The Walking Dead, and he has that rare quality where even when he's charming, he still feels like he could become a well, a problem at any second. Happy Birthday, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and finally born on April twenty six, nineteen ninety seven, Amber mid Thunder Pray was one of the best franchise revivals in years, and she carried it with the exact kind of grit and presence. A great survival horror lead requires a very happy birthday to Amber

15:13 mid Thunder For are then and now then, this one week in April gave horror a filthy roadside snuff film thriller, a prestige looking video game nightmare, a strange psychological studio misfire courtesy of Oliver Stone, a Romero adaptation about a killer alter ego, and a modern game movie built around repeated deaths and dwindling chances. Now that spread feels incredibly current. Horror is still bouncing between stripped down survival stories, adaptation experiments, cult rediscoveries, and movies about identity splitting apart under pressure.

16:00 The tools change, but the fear seldom does, and for our Weekly Recommendation released on April twenty six, twenty nineteen, on video on demand as well as US theaters. I Trap the Devil. This is a small, ugly, anxious, little holiday horror film that plays like a family nightmare wrapped around one impossible question, what if your paranoid relative is actually right? It's tense, claustrophobic, and it really is mean in the best way. I highly recommend it, especially around the holidays. But it came out in April, so here we are if you want to give it a watch.

16:50 It's available to stream with your AMC Plus or Shutter subscription, and its rentable of course on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and fandom Ango at Home. Well, my Spookyes, that's it for this week in horror history. If you love horror with dates attached, come back next Tuesday and we'll do it all again with another cursed little bit from the calendar. Tomorrow on Weekly Spooky, make sure you don't miss the brand new Strickfield story Chemically Imbalanced, a sort of love story. It's a lot of fun and just the kind of thing you need to keep the spooky rolling in your weekly.

17:34 We'll have something surprising for you on Friday, and of course a compilation of some of the scariest stories from the weekly Spooky Vault on Saturday and on Sunday. I really don't know what the unknown broadcast is, but it's always there. So until next time, my friends, remember our days are numbered, because that's how we tell them apart, see you next week.