This Week in Horror History | Halloween, 30 Days of Night & Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Oct 19–25)

0:00 Late October has a talent for making every ordinary thing look guilty. A quiet street becomes a hunting ground. A cornfield starts keeping secrets. And that scarecrow you bought for the porch is now facing toward the house. Interesting decorating choice, but not yours, apparently. This week, vampires find the perfect calendar. An old Xbox game makes looking at the monster a terrible idea, and a cheap white mask turns babysitting into hazardous work. Then Guillermo del Toro opens a cabinet nobody should have brought home, and after the break, a scarecrow waits in a field where some guilty men would prefer it did not. So keep the pumpkins lit, check the shutters, and maybe... photograph your decorations before bed, just for comparison's sake.

1:13 Welcome back to This Week in Horror History, your weekly time machine through the creepiest anniversaries in films, TV, books, comics, and games. I'm your host Enrique Couto, and tonight... We're talking about October 19th through October 25th. Coming up, 30 Days of Night takes Sunrise off the rescue plan. Call of Cthulhu sends a detective into a town that would rather keep its secrets. Halloween brings Michael Myers home. And Cabinet of Curiosities makes every drawer a potential mistake. Then for our deep cut spotlight, Dark Knight of the Scarecrow.

1:57 Forty-five years later, burlap and straw still make excellent nightmare material. October 19th, 2007. Thirty Days of Night opens in U.S. theaters, and vampires finally book a vacation around their dietary requirements. David Slade adapts the comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith in the movies Barrow, Alaska and A Month Without Sunrise traps residents with visitors who didn't really come for the scenery. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George play the local officers trying to keep people alive. Danny Huston leads a vampire pack that seems genuinely offended by the idea of leaving anything or anyone uneaten. These creatures hunt together, move fast, and turn the snow into a terrible place to hide.

2:58 An overhead view of the attack makes the town look more like a feeding ground. The usual vampire escape clause is null and void. Survive until morning, yeah, that's an excellent plan, but you're going to have to define mourning. It opened at number one with about sixteen million dollars at the box office. and reportedly made about $ 39. 6 million domestically and $ 75. 5 million worldwide against a reported $ 30 million production budget. I've always enjoyed this film. I revisited it about seven years ago and was shocked how scary it was and how much I wish it had been in my normal rotation. This is a great flick for October because while it doesn't have those fall vibes for you to vibe with, it does get you ready for a dark and terrifying winter. And if you want to revisit 30 Days of Night for yourself, it's available free with ads on ZumoPlay or to rent and or buy through Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. October 24th, 2005.

4:15 Bethesda and 2K announce that Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth has shipped to North American stores for the original Xbox. Headfirst Productions puts you in the shoes of private investigator Jack Walters. In 1922, his trip to Innsmouth draws on H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Call of Cthulhu tabletop tradition. The locals are unwelcoming. And that turns out to be their most pleasant quality. There is no ordinary health bar or ammunition counter hovering over the action. Injuries and terror announce themselves through what Jack sees and how he moves. Stare at something impossible for too long and the screen starts sharing his distress.

5:10 Most games want you to admire the design of the monster, but this one It seems to prefer you looking somewhere else. Investigation gives way to stealth, desperate escapes, and heavier combat. Its vulnerable beginning, though, makes Innsmouth feel like a place you entered without even reading a single review. As far as where to play this game, well, the later Windows edition is sold on GOG and Steam, so check compatibility with your computer before buying. so you can book your one-way trip to the Elder Gods. October 25th, 1978. Halloween opens in Los Angeles, and the quietest person on the street becomes the reason nobody should walk home alone. And while we're on the subject, make sure to keep your eyes peeled right here on the Weekly Spooky Feed for a very special cutting deep into horror all about the 1978 classic Halloween for all of my thoughts, opinions, and takes.

6:19 John Carpenter directs, scores, and co-writes with producer Debra Hill. Jamie Lee Curtis makes her feature film debut as Laurie Strode, a babysitter whose Halloween plans do not include becoming the neighborhood's last line of defense. Dean Cundy's widescreen photography lets Michael occupy the edge of the picture. while everyday life continues all around him. You spot him, but Laurie doesn't. Now you're looking at every hedge like you work for a very nervous landscaping company. Halloween did not necessarily invent the slasher genre, but it made this particular combination devastating and financially lucrative. An ordinary street, a patient killer, a young woman fighting back, and a score that makes walking down a sidewalk feel very risky. Halloween reached $ 47. 3 million domestically and $ 70. 3 million worldwide against its reported $ 325, 000 budget, a tiny production that became a very large reason to check behind the shower curtain before you use the bathroom.

7:36 And of course Halloween is a classic and this is the time of year to give it a revisit, and you know that I'm right, so make sure to check it out. It's streaming free right now with your subscription on Shudder or AMC +, and you can catch it free with ads on Plex and Zumo Play, and of course you can buy or rent it on Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, and Apple TV. So make it a night that he came home. October 25th, 2022, Netflix opens Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, releasing two episodes a day across four days. Almost like an advent calendar, except every compartment has a need to take something from you instead of giving you something. Del Toro creates and hosts this anthology, which was an interesting choice, then hands each nightmare to a different director. His name is on the cabinet.

8:36 The directors, they bring their own flavor of horror. The opening pair sets the mood. Guillermo Navarro directs Lot 36, written by Regina Corrado from a Del Toro story about a storage unit purchased with a dreadful hidden cost. This is one of my favorites of the whole season, honestly. Vincenzo Natale adapts Henry Cutter's Graveyard Rats. where grave robbing becomes a spectacularly bad career choice if you're not a fan of rodents and your own demise. Across eight tales, we get impossible creatures, haunted art, beauty nightmares, and gothic grief.

9:16 The directors bring distinct styles, while practical creature work gives the horrors a real texture you can almost smell. Or maybe that's just my scented candles in the room. Two stories a day made the original rollout a little Halloween ritual. Open the cabinet, regret opening the cabinet, and repeat tomorrow. A lot of fun, and as with any anthology series, some are going to hit with you better than others, but in my opinion, they're all a lot of fun and totally worth binge-watching while you're handing out Halloween candy or keeping most of it for yourself, although you will get your comeuppance. Of course, it's very easy to get a hold of with your Netflix subscription... All eight episodes are there waiting for you to unlock the cabinet door.

10:09 Tomorrow on Weekly Spooky, it's Devil's Night. Clement and Miller put on Halloween masks and head for an isolated house. They think the old woman inside will be easy money. They bring a gun. Felicia Fields brings a smile. She can smell them coming. She knows what they've done, and once they reach her porch, she decides it's time for a lesson. Now the tricks belong to her, and getting out alive may cost more than either boy can afford to pay. Trickster in Training, a brand new Halloween horror story by Charles Campbell, premieres tomorrow, right here on Weekly Spooky, so don't miss it. Choose your friends carefully, and choose your victims even more carefully. All right, my spookies, quick breather, but when we come back, October 24th, 1981 brings one of the most terrifying made-for-TV horror films to ever traumatize its audience, and the cornfield may never be the same.

11:41 We're back, my spookies. Keep an eye on the field. No, the other field. That is exactly the problem we're dealing with here. We're heading back to October 24th, 1981, when Dark Knight of the Scarecrow premieres as the CBS Saturday Night Movie. Tonight on the CBS Saturday Night Movie. This one requires no theater ticket, just a television and the unfortunate assumption that network horror could not really get... under your skin. Larry Drake plays Bubba Ritter, an intellectually disabled man who saves young Mary Lee from a dog attack, but local postman Otis Hazelrig, played by Charles Durning, assumes Bubba hurt her and leads three men after him for some vigilante justice. Bubba hides inside a scarecrow. They find him and kill him before discovering he had indeed saved the girl. The men escape legal punishment, but something begins appearing in the fields. Something made of burlap and straw.

12:53 The film takes Bubba's innocence very seriously. The fear comes from watching the men who destroyed him discover that their version of events may not be the last word. Director Frank DiFalita, working from J.D. Feigelson's screenplay, makes ordinary farm machinery threatening through sound, suggestion, and what he leaves purposefully off-screen. The scarecrow doesn't need to sprint down a hallway. Its presence is enough to make these men start checking over their shoulders. There is a nice kind of handmade detail behind that figure. Feigelson recalled sketching the scarecrow while planning an independent feature. Art director Bill Griffin developed the design and essentially the same Scarecrow carried over into the CBS production with minor changes. The monster made the jump from movie plans to television, which was kind of a new frontier for made-for-TV horror, but there were many memorable entries, this being one of them. 45 years on, this is still a strong late-October watch. Sympathy for the Victim. Dread for the guilty and a field that never really looks empty again. And of course, it being set in the fall definitely doesn't hurt. It's available free with ads on Tubi TV, Pluto TV, and the Roku channel. And of course, you can rent or buy it on Amazon Prime Video,

14:25 Fandango at home, and you guessed it, Apple TV. Let's bust out the creepy cake for some horror-related birthdays. Starting with October 20th, 1882, when Bela Lugosi was born. The defining 1931 Dracula. He has the stare, the cape, the voice. A masterclass in making an introduction sound like a very clear and present threat. A very happy birthday to the man who invented Dracula almost as much as Bram Stoker, Bela Lugosi. Born on October 22nd, 1952, is Jeff Goldblum.

15:13 From Invasion of the Body Snatchers to The Fly, he's an excellent reminder to distrust your neighbors and also to distrust your laboratory. A very happy birthday to Jeff Goldblum. Born on October 23rd, 1959, is Sam Raimi, famous for The Evil Dead and some for Drag Me to Hell, as well as films like Darkman, of course, the Evil Dead sequels like Army of Darkness and Evil Dead 2, as well as the recent Send Help, which I enjoyed quite a bit. He's a filmmaker who can make the camera seem possessed, and in that way, the filmmaker becomes almost the monster themselves. I love that. Very happy birthday, Sam Raimi. And finally, born on October 25th, 1993, is Mia Goff. Famous now for X, Pearl, and Maxine, her resume has gained a lot of steam in the horror world, making her a very modern scream queen and a hauntingly beautiful reason to sleep with the lights on. Happy birthday, Mia Goff, and all of our horror birthdays. Tonight, for our then and now, compare Michael Myers with those vampires.

16:39 Halloween lets you search the frame for one silent figure. Thirty Days of Night shows you the attack and removes the sunrise that might end it. One makes you ask where the danger is. The other makes you ask how long anyone can possibly last. Dark Knight of the Scarecrow Finds a third option. Show you something standing perfectly still. Then let the guilty characters supply the panic. Different budgets. Different decades. Same result. You checking your window. And now for our weekly recommendation. This one is a personal favorite of mine for a long time. For a shorter stop on the Halloween watch list, let's head back to October 25th, 1990, when the first Treehouse of Horror episode, which is Season 2, Episode 3, of The Simpsons was released. Bart and Lisa trade three stories in their treehouse. Bad Dreamhouse sends the family into a home with bleeding walls, a dimensional vortex, and serious reservations about its new occupants. Haunted Real Estate finally meets tenants who just might be worse. Hungry Are the Damned introduces Kang and Kodos, whose generous dinner invitation comes with an extremely suspicious bit of reading material. Then

18:14 James Earl Jones narrates Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, with Homer brooding and Bart turning a literary nightmare into a family grievance. The jokes work because the episode loves the material it's teasing, Haunted House Dread, Alien Hospitality, and Poe's Mournful Rhythm all survive the trip through Springfield. They just have to share the screen with Homer. And what began as one Halloween special became an annual tradition. Start with these 22 minutes. Your watchlist can pretend that that was the plan all along. As you dive deeper and deeper, these I looked forward to every year as a kid because they really were four horror nerds. And boy was I one. I still am one, but I was one as well. It's available to watch on Disney Plus under Simpsons Season 2, Episode 3, or you can just search Treehouse of Terror, and they have a little collection for you.

19:14 That's with your Disney Plus membership. Not sponsored. Not at all. Well, my spookies, that's your trip through October 19th to October 25th in horror history. Make sure you check the hedges, count the scarecrows, and don't let vampires choose any vacation dates. Just trust me on that one. Tomorrow, Wednesday, is Trickster in Training by Charles Campbell. Arriving right here at Weekly Spooky, two masked thieves that pick the wrong house on Halloween. I know you'll enjoy it, and please do enjoy these final weeks of the Halloween season, but no, Weekly Spooky is going nowhere. We always have something scary every day of the week for you to enjoy because Halloween isn't just on the calendar, it's in our hearts. And I really, really mean that. But now it's time for me to get back to work because there's a lot more to do before the big 3-1. So make sure you're subscribed and make sure to check back tomorrow for something scary.

20:20 And of course, I'll be back next week with even more horror history. Until next time, remember, our days are numbered because that's how we tell them apart. See you next week.