This Week in Horror History | The Blair Witch Goes Viral (July 13–19)

Mid July is when summers starts getting strange. The heat is up, the woods are thick, the water looks darker than it should, And somewhere in a lab or a cave, or a cursed corner of the Internet, something is changing shape. This week Horror History gives us experiments that should never have happened, Animals that refuse to stay harmless, bodies that turn against themselves, vampires treated like an outbreak, and one little movie that convinced audiences a few missing kids might actually be real. So keep the flashlight steady, don't follow the strange noise in the trees, and if a scientist tells you everything is perfectly under control, run.

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, Henrique Couto, and tonight we're talking about July thirteenth through nineteenth. Coming up. Bert Lancaster turns an island into a laboratory of nightmares. Stephen Graham Jones delivers one of modern horror literature's sharpest supernatural reckonings. A killer whale decides revenge is not just for people anymore. And one of the great sci fi horror classics, reminds us that one tiny little fly can ruin everything. Then, right after the break for our deep cut Spotlight, Guermo del Toro has a vampire series where the monster isn't romantic at all, It's biological.

July thirteenth, nineteen seventy seven, The Island of Doctor Moreau opens in US theaters and H. G. Wells's nightmare of science without Conscience gets a sweaty, albeit pulpy, seventies makeover. Bert Lancaster plays Moreau, the kind of doctor who looks at nature and decides it would be better if he personally rearranged it. His island is full of creatures, caught between animal and human, between instinct and obedience, between being alive and being a failed experiment. That's what still gives the story its bite. It's not the monster made. It's the horror of authority with no morality, of a man so convinced he's improving life that he never notices he's become the monster at the center of the island.

That makes The Island of Doctor Moreau worth revisiting in its film version or giving it a quick read as a nineties, kid, I have to admit that the nineteen seventy seven The Island of Doctor Moreau was one of the first quote unquote old movies that actually kind of got under my skin and made me creeped out. So it's always had a special place in my horror heart, so to speak. And if you want to give it a watch or check it out for the first time ever, it is streaming on Amazon Prime Video with your subscription or MGM Plus with your subscription, as well as free on two BTV or to rener by at the usual suspects like Apple TV and Fandango at Home.

July fourteenth, twenty twenty, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones is published and modern horror literature gets a story that feels like a curse tightening one breath at a time. The novel follows four Blackfeet men haunted by something they did years earlier, an act of violence that refuses to stay buried. What returns is not just guilt. It has memory, purpose, and antlers in the dark. What makes this book stand out is the way it blends supernatural revenge with identity, grief, tradition, masculinity, and the terror of consequence is arriving long after you thought you would escape them.

It's available in print, ebook, and audiobook editions through all major booksellers, library apps, and audiobook platforms. So give it a listen and get creeped out. July fifteenth, nineteen seventy seven, Orca opens in New York, and the post Jaws creature feature wave gets stranger, angrier, and weirdly tragic. This is not just a killer whale movie. It's a revenge movie where the whale has the clearest emotional motivation of the entire cast. A human hunter does something unforgivable and nature answers back with intelligence, patience, and a very personal grudge. Orca is bizarre, but in the best kind of drive in movie way.

It's part ocean thriller, part eco horror, then part operatic revenge tragedy. It asks what happens when the animal you underestimate is not just dangerous, it has a memory, especially for human faces. I have long been a huge, huge celebrator of Orca. I think it's a surprisingly scary Jaws knockoff, and this is another one that as a nineties kid, it creeped me out a lot. The Orca attacking people, knocking their homes into the water, causing a gas explosion. It's as freaky and fun as it is ridiculous and means spirited. I don't know if I've ever given a film a bigger thumbs up to give it a watch, but I've always loved Orca.

It's available to rent or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. Or if you're like me and you're very obsessive, you already have the four k UHD. If you've never seen Orca, give it a watch. And if it's been a while and you remember not liking it, check your mouth and give it another watch. You can email me at Weeklyspooky at gmail dot com and tell me if you're new viewing ruined your day, and I'll gladly apologize, but maybe with my fingers crossed behind my back. July sixteenth, nineteen fifty eight, The Fly releases in the United States, and science fiction horror finds one of its cleanest but cruelest Ideas a scientist builds a teleportation machine, a fly enters at the at the wrong moment, let's say, and suddenly the dream of human progress becomes a nightmare of mixed bodies and identities, all from one terrible little mistake that can never be undone.

The Fly works because the horror is simple and it's devastating at the same time. It's not about a madman trying to become God. It's about a brilliant man who reaches too far then realizes the universe has answered him with I guess kind of a joke that is so awful it becomes a tragedy. I've always loved The Fly, whether we're talking about the original or the incredible Cronenberg remake from the eighties, as well as that sequel. I'm a big Fly lover, and if you are not a Fly lover, well that's your problem. But if you want to give it a watch for the first time or a review, it is streaming on YouTube TV, or you can rent and buy it at Prime Video, Apple TV and of course Fandango at Home.

Tomorrow on Weekly Spooky. Some nightmares fade when you wake up. Others are warnings. In Tomorrow's story by Michael Kelso, an ordinary delivery driver wakes up from a horrifying dream in which a massive, demonic creature tears him away from his truck and drags him screaming into the woods. It feels real, the road, the bridge, the monster's teeth. But morning comes, his family is safe, and the nightmare begins to fade away, until, of course, his next late delivery run comes up. As the truck carries toward that same stretch of highway, every mile feels familiar, every shadow between the trees feels wrong, and his eight year old daughter keeps begging him not to go.

She knows someone is waiting for him. She knows when he passes the bridge, and somehow she knows what he sees watching from the woods. Now, a father desperate to get home must drive directly toward the place where his nightmare ends, while something huge, hungry and impossibly patient waits beside the road for its second chance. Driving a truck can be a nightmare. Literally by Michael Kelso Premier's Tomorrow right here at Weekly Spooky. So make sure you're subscribed, keep your eyes on the road, and don't stop near that bridge. Trust me, all right, my Spookies, make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcast staff because that's the story tomorrow, and I know you'll enjoy it.

Now it's time for a quick breather, but we're going to July thirteenth, twenty fourteen, a plane lands, the passengers are dead. The CDC gets called in, and what looks like an outbreak is actually something much older, hungrier, and harder to kill. All right, we're back, let's get into it. On July thirteenth, twenty and fourteen, the Strain premieres on Fax and vampires get dragged out of the Velvet Cape and into the quarantine zone created by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The series begins with an instantly creepy hook. A passenger lands at JFK with the lights off, the shades down, and almost everyone on board dead.

That opening gives the show its best flavor. This is vampire horror treated like a public health emergency. The monster isn't mysterious because it sparkles or seduces. It's terrifying because it spreads, It infects bodies, It turns a city into a feeding ground. While officials argue, deny and react too late. The Strain is at its best when it leans into that collision between ancient evil and modern systems. You have CDC language emergency proto calls news, spin, old World, vampire lore, and Del Toro terrorizing you with his creature designs. All of that mashes together to make quite a fun ride.

And the vampires themselves are nasty. They are not romantic predators. They're biological nightmares, parasitic, pale, hungry things that make the neck bite feel almost quaint. This is some fun horror goodness. And actually, as I've been talking about it, I'm realizing I really want to revisit The Strain No, no foolan, I kind of want to watch that. Maybe show it to Rachel if you want to give it a first time watch, or binge it yet again, it's pretty easy to do so it's streaming on Hulu or Disney plus, AMC plus Shutter or of course, you can rent or buy the seasons on Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at home.

Now it's time to light a black candle for some horror related birthdays. First born on July thirteenth, nineteen forty, it's Patrick Stewart. Now, I am a lifelong Star Trek fan, but the guy is genre royalty, with horror and thriller films in the ouvre, including Toby Hooper's Life Force Yeah. Patrick Stewart's in Life Force, the one about the naked space vampire woman, and also Green Room, which that film holds up great makes you feel sick to your stomach and scared all at once. I love me some Green Room and Patrick Stewart playing the leader of the Skinhead Nazi gang was brilliant casting and way outside of type.

He brings gravitas even when everything around him is going feral and maybe is silly at the same time. So a very happy birthday to Patrick Stewart. Born on July fifteenth, nineteen thirty six. Is Larry Cohen, in my opinion, one of the most underrated creatives in all of cinema, not just horror films. The guy had a wild, independent mind which brought us It's Alive, Q, The Stuff, and some of horror's strangest, big ideas on small budgets. The guy was a scriptwriting machine. He also wrote the screenplay for Uncle Sam. He wrote the screenplay for Ambulance. He wrote the screenplay for Phone Booth.

The guy deserves to be a legend, and I believe in many's eyes he is. So A very happy birthday Larry Cohen born on July sixteenth, nineteen seventy one. It's Corey Feldman, that's right, one of the Coreys, a childhood face of eighties genre chaos. Really, from Friday the Thirteenth, the Final Chapter, to The Lost Boys to Two Yeah Gremlins. It's easy to forget Corey was in a lot of horror films when he was a young kid, and I don't know, it's hard sometimes to connect that face to the Michael Jackson dancing guy that he became in the nineties, etcetera, etcetera.

Corey Feldman has. There's a lot to say about the guy, but he is certainly horror royalty and deserves to be on this list. So happy birthday, Corey Feldman. And finally, born on July eighteenth, nineteen forty, James Brolin forever tied to Haunted House cinema through his starring role in one of the quintessential Haunted House films, The Amityville Horror. I mean, if that doesn't make you horror royalty, nothing would. So a very happy birthday James Brolin and all of our horror history birthdays this week for our then in now this week, Horror is Evolution in Fast Forward nineteen seventy seven gives us science without Mercy on Doctor Moreau's Island.

Then Nature striking Back in Orca nineteen fifty eight gives us the body as a failed experiment in The Fly, twenty twenty gives us guilt as a living curse in The Only Good Indians, and twenty fourteen gives us vampires as an outbreak, something ancient wearing the language of modern panic. Different monsters, same warning. Once something changes, it may not change back. And for our weekly recommendation, we're heading back to July fourteenth, nineteen ninety nine, when The blair Witch Project opened in its limited release. If you want one movie to queue a for this week, I gotta tell you it would be The blair Witch Project.

It opened in a limited release on July fourteenth, and horror marketing was really never the same again. The genius of The blair Witch is how small it feels. Three student filmmakers, a camera, the woods, a local legend, no big monster reveal, no clean answer, just dread piling up in little pieces until the audience starts doing all the scary heavy lifting themselves, and that allows it to still hold up very well to this day. It also understood the Internet before most movies even knew how to use it. It blurred fiction and reality so effortlessly that the story didn't just live on screen.

It spread through message boards, rumors, fake missing persons, materials, and of course word of mouth. It's such a great film, such a fun film, such as a great blueprint for modern found footage horror, and every time I revisit it, I like it more. Just make sure you also give a rewatch to the documentary or I guess mockumentary The Curse of the blair Witch first, because it really primes you to be spooked out. I love that blair Witch project. It's available to watch right now on HBO Max with your subscription, or to rent or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV.

And did you hear that who's out there in the dark? Oh, it's just Fandango at home? Well, my spookys. That was your trip through July thirteenth to nineteenth in horror history. Make sure you stop back by tomorrow Wednesday for a brand new horror story from Michael Kelso, all about nightmares coming to life and taking a bite. Subscribe on your favorite podcasting app because there's something spooky every single day of the week right here at Weekly Spooky, and we sure are happy to have you. And I'll be right back here next week with another dive into horror history.

So until then, remember our days are numbered, because that's how we tell them apart, see you next week.