This Week in Horror History | Black Christmas, Young Frankenstein & Ghost Story (December 15–21) - Weekly Spooky: Horror Stories & Scary Tales

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Most people spend this week wrapping gifts and planning travel.
We're spending it remembering the night the calls came from
inside the house, the day a ghost came back to
collect on a fifty year debt, and the moment an

(00:21):
entire genre smirked and said, yes, this is a horror
movie and we know it. From snowy New England mansions
to dingy video stores and cursed YouTube uploads, this week
in horror History is loaded with cranky slashers, cozy ghost yarns,

(00:42):
and at least one Christmas tree that tells you to
commit murder. Now, pour something warm, double check the phone line,
and let's unwrap what's going down. You're listening to this

(01:06):
week in horror history On the weekly Spooky Feed, I'm
Enrique Cuto, your guide through the icy corridors of genres past.
This time we're digging into the week of December fifteenth
through twenty first, a stretch that gave us horror comedy royalty,

(01:26):
a foundational Christmas slasher, and one of the coziest ghost
movies ever filmed. Coming up, a mad scientist and his
monster prove horror and jokes can share the same laboratory.
A sorority house is terrorized by obscene calls and attic

(01:48):
shadows years before the slasher boom. A vengeful spirit stalks
old men through snow drifts and memory. Plus a loaf
bi Christmas massacre you can play, and an analog horror
sleep tape that wants into your dreams. Let's get to it.

(02:13):
On December fifteenth, nineteen seventy four, mel Brooks released Young Frankenstein,
his black and white love letter to the universal monster cycle,
with Gene Wilder as the twitchy Doctor Frankenstein and Peter
Boyle as the most lovable corpse in cinema. Shot in

(02:34):
a very classic kind of gothic style with lab gear
borrowed from the original Frankenstein films, It's packed with gags
horror fans still quote to this day. In fact, I
think I mentioned this a few weeks back when I
went to find It's Alive from the original Frankenstein movie.

(02:55):
The first five or six results for the sound were
from Young Friend Winkenstein. It's a film that's really left
a mark in horror history, even if it is a
parody and a comedy. Another thing I think is truly
hilarious about Young Frankenstein is It was put out in

(03:16):
the seventies in black and white, and at that time
black and white was extremely old fashioned and really just
relegated to super low budget movies and student films things
like that. Mel Brooks had to fight with the studio
to keep the film in black and white because he

(03:37):
felt like that was so necessary and I would have
to agree. So he sticks this little nugget into the trailer,
and it always always makes me laugh. Don't miss Young
Frankenstein personally directed by mel Blazing Saddles Brooks in Black
and White Elephants twentieth Century. Fock sincerely believed that the

(04:02):
film could be bombed simply by being in black and white.
An audience is not understanding that it's a parody and
not some old film being re released. Well, as is
often the case with studios, they were absolutely positively wrong
and basically every way. On a budget of around two

(04:24):
point eight million dollars, it earned roughly eighty six million worldwide.
I don't even think I have to do the in
today's money calculations for you to understand what a massive
boon that is, an absolute hit that showed horror fans
would be happy to attend an affectionate parody. Now, this

(04:47):
is something that as far as revisiting Young Frankenstein, it's
not currently on any major streaming service, not for rent,
not to watch free with ads, nothing, not a zip zilch.
So you're mostly looking at grabbing yourself a DVD or
Blu ray. And I do recommend you get it because

(05:07):
it's absolutely worth a revisit. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and
you'll learn to pronounce his damn name. Right now, here's
some horror perspective for you. Just five days later, on
December twentieth, nineteen seventy four, Bob Clark's Black Christmas hits theaters.

(05:29):
A sorority house is menaced by obscene phone calls while
a killer hides in the attic, watching from the shadows.
This film is a classic. If you haven't seen it,
you need to watch it. Yes, it's a little bit
of a slow burn. What do you expect. It's nineteen

(05:49):
seventy four. Man, It's directed by Bob Clark, who went
on to direct another classic Christmas film that people have
revisited for decades. But believe it or not, that one
is a Christmas story. Yeah. So first we had obscene
phone callers. Then we had Old Ralphie and all he

(06:12):
had to worry about was shooting his eye out. With
Olivia Hussey, Margo Kidder, and the man himself, John Saxon.
The film pioneered the concept of killer point of view shots,
although not including the many jallos made in Italy, but
that's a story for another day. It was also a

(06:33):
trendsetter for holiday horror, and of course, making the infamous
the call is coming from inside the House twist go
beyond being an urban legend whispered around to a concept
heard in theaters and talked about at water coolers and
slumber parties. This was also years before Halloween and Friday

(06:56):
the Thirteenth, both famous slasher movies that focus on a
day on the calendar. In many ways, Black Christmas is
the first slasher movie, though that's a very long debate
to get into and we're not going to do that today.
Made for roughly six hundred and eighty six thousand dollars,

(07:17):
it earned about four million dollars worldwide. It slowly snowballed
from a modest success to an absolute cult classic. And
I have the four k uhd by the way, that
came out from I believe it was screen Factory. The
movies never looked better, and it played in theaters last
year I got to see it on the big screen. Really,

(07:38):
it really sticks with you. And I'm going to resist
the urge to play segments from the obscene phone caller
in the film on this show, because oddly enough, this
show is kind of family friendly. But boy howdy, the
film is available, and I mean very available for you
to revisit this holiday season, so you have no excuse.

(08:02):
It's streaming on Prime Video, Peacock, AMC Plus, Shutter, the
Criterion Channel, and more, and you can also watch it
for free entirely with ads on the Roku channel, Pluto TV,
shout Factory, and several others. You can even find it
over on two B TV for free, as well as

(08:22):
the two thousand and six remake Black Christmas, or as
a lot of people like to call it, Black Xmas,
which in my opinion, has aged like fine wine. It's
an early two thousand slasher full of thrills, chills, and
the desire to toss your Christmas cookies because it is
a nasty one. They're both available to watch at twob

(08:45):
Get to work on those, because if you don't watch those,
I don't see how your Christmas will be holly and
or jolly. Let's go for something a little different. On
December seventeenth, twenty one, indie game developer Puppet Combo released

(09:05):
Christmas Massacre on PC. It's a PS one style slasher
where you play Larry, a disturbed man who's Christmas tree
whispers that he should make things right and we don't
know what that means. Tank controls, VHS style filters, and
mean spirited grindhouse kills make it a nasty little cult favorite.

(09:30):
It's short, brutal, and drenched in cheap holiday decor, basically
playing like a lost nineteen eighties video nasty if it
were fed through a PlayStation. I've not played the game myself,
but I've watched several YouTubers play it and it is
a lot of fun. It's very cheery. I'm not a
huge gamer. I don't have a PC or anything to

(09:52):
play it on, but this one is right up my
alley and if you want to check out Christmas Massacre.
It is available on p via Steam and other PC storefronts,
with console ports on platforms like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and
Xbox PlayStation. I wonder if you'll work on my PlayStation five.

(10:13):
It's just the kind of thing you need to make
your Yule Tide extra grim and to wrap things up.
On December nineteenth, twenty eighteen, analog horror channel Local fifty
eight dropped Real Sleep, a fake late night infomercial for

(10:36):
an experimental sleep program. This one is a lot of fun,
a lot of creepy fun, with a lot to dig
your way into. It starts out like a grainy, low
rent advertisement or infomercial with very public access production values,
then glitches into unsettling diagrams and corrupted instruction to quote

(11:01):
reject false shapes implying dreams are some kind of cosmic intrusion.
The short quickly became one of Local fifty eight's most
talked about uploads and a cornerstone of the analog horror boom.
I really do recommend you check this one out and
really just go to Local fifty eight on YouTube and

(11:23):
watch a lot of the stuff they have, But Real
Sleep that is the money, all right, and it's a
perfect after midnight viewing if you'd like to just absolutely
ruin naps for a minimum of a week, So put
it on late with the lights off, and then I
dare you to go straight to bed. This week's episode

(11:46):
is brought to you in part by the good folks
that Aspire Drinks. You know me, my spookies. I live
on late nights, horror movies, and way too much podcast editing.
Sometimes I still need a boost of energy, but I've
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(12:09):
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(12:31):
a gift to our spookies, if you had to Aspire
Drinks dot com and use promo code spooky to get
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dot Com promo code spooky. Thanks to Aspire Drinks for
their support. After the break, we're heading to a snowy
New England town where four old men discover that burying

(12:55):
a secret doesn't mean it won't knock on your door
fifty years later. Welcome back to this week in horror history.

(13:19):
Let's settle in for our deep cut spotlight. A wintry
ghost story that deserves a spot in your December rotation.
Released in the United States on December eighteenth, nineteen eighty one,
Ghost Story adapts Peter Straub's novel into a chilly tale
about the whimsically named Chowder Society, four elderly friends haunted

(13:46):
by what they did to a young woman a half
a century ago. Directed by John Irving and starring Fred Astaire,
Melvin Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Junior, John Houseman, and Alice Kreeg,
the film trades jump scares for atmosphere snow packed streets,
creaking mansions, and firelit storytelling sessions that feel like the

(14:10):
world's bleakest Christmas gathering. On a reported budget of thirteen
point five million dollars, it earned twenty three point four
million Domestically respectable but not a huge hit and not
a cable marathon staple. Over time, though, it became a
cult favorite among fans of slow literary style ghost stories,

(14:35):
which is many of you spookies who tune in. So
what makes it worth pulling off the shelf this week, Well,
there's plenty, so I'll just give you a few. Alice
Kreeg is quietly terrifying as the wronged woman who may
or may not have ever truly left the structure of

(14:56):
old men. Telling overlapping tales allows the film to between
haunted houses and guilt, and even a touch of body horror,
and most terrifying of all, at its core, it's a
film about regret, the idea that something you did in
your twenties can haunt you straight into your seventies. It's

(15:18):
a film that has such a thick atmosphere you will
not regret sitting down on a cold winter night and
watching it unless you're doing so alone. And even then,
if you're listening to this show, you'll probably enjoy that feeling.
As far as where to watch it, it's available to
stream on Amazon Prime Video, including free with ads, and

(15:43):
you can rent or buy it digitally on Amazon, Apple TV,
and Fandango at Home, and there are also several options
on DVD and a very very nice blu ray from
Shout Factory. So take it from me, your old uncle
Henny put it on. Let the imaginary snow pile up

(16:03):
at the windows and just see if you don't start
checking the glass for a pale face outside. Now, let's
raise a blood spattered glass of eggnog for a few
folks celebrating birthdays this week. First up, born on December sixteenth,

(16:25):
nineteen sixty seven, Miranda Otto from What Lies Beneath to
Annabelle Creation and Azzy Possession hit Talk to Me, which
I did enjoy quite a bit. She's quietly become modern
horror Royalty, and it's very very well deserved. So Happy Birthday, Miranda.

(16:47):
Born on December seventeenth, nineteen seventy seven is Catherine Winnick.
Before she start on vikings, she log time in video
store staples like Satan's Little Helper Amusement and Hell Raiser
Hell World, which, by the way, Satan's Little Helper is
one of my all time favorite Halloween picks. You don't

(17:09):
want to miss that one if you get a chance
to give it a watch. Happy birthday, Catherine. This next
one is a household name, but he has some very
strong ties to horror. Born on December eighteenth, nineteen sixty
three is Brad Pitt. His genre resume includes interview with
the Vampire, the serial killer Classic seven and the zombie

(17:33):
blockbuster World war Z. But I'll forever remember him for
starring in the Freddy's Nightmares episode Black Tickets. Yeah, he
was on the Freddy Krueger TV series from eighty nine
to ninety, which, if you want to learn a little
more about you can listen to an entire podcast myself
and my buddy Dave did running down every episode of

(17:55):
the often forgotten maligned series. Just search Welcome to prime
time on your favorite podcasting app. Happy Birthday, Brad Pitt.
And finally, another big name that owes a lot of
his stardom to genre films, born on December nineteenth, nineteen
eighty Jake Jillenhall. From Donnie Darko to the unnerving and

(18:19):
underrated Nightcrawler, He's brought an off kilter intensity that fits
right into horror's extended family. So Happy birthday, Jake Jillenhall.
And if any of those films are on your shelf,
this is the week to put them on in celebration
fur Aur then and now. On December twentieth, nineteen ninety six,

(18:43):
Wes Craven's Scream hit theaters and quietly rewired the Slasher
and I want to mention Wes Craven is one of
the few people to inarguably reinvent the horror genre twice
in one career and just over a day decade apart.
Nightmare on Elm Street was released in nineteen eighty four,

(19:05):
and since then all horror films that followed were different. Well, Similarly,
when Scream came to theaters, the horror market was never
quite the same. Wes has done something many filmmakers could
only dream of doing. He's one of my favorites, and
I think he's horribly underrated. On a budget of around

(19:25):
fourteen to fifteen million, it carved out roughly one hundred
and seventy three million dollars worldwide, reviving both Craven's career
and the idea that slashers could be bloody, smart, and
meta all at the same time. Ghostface's mask became a
Halloween staple. In fact, I was ghost faced three different

(19:47):
times during my young years and teenage years for Halloween.
The Drew Barrymore fake out opening became instantly iconic, and
suddenly the slasher wasn't dead, it just self aware. Give
it a rewatch. I assure you it's as good as
you remember it, and you can catch it for free

(20:07):
with ads on Pluto TV or rented on the usual
suspects like Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple TV, or
Fandango at Home Today. The franchise is a full on
legacy machine. Scream seven, directed by writer Kevin Williamson with
Nev Campbell's Sydney Back at the Center, is slated for

(20:28):
an early twenty twenty six release, proving this series has
a lot of phone calls left to make. Don't miss
that one in the theater. Now for our pick of
the week, Well, it's the aforementioned Black Christmas from nineteen
seventy four. It fits the calendar perfectly. December twentieth release,

(20:53):
Sorority House lights, snow outside the windows, and it feels
nasty and even a modern The obscene phone calls the
unseen killer in the attic and that bleak unresolved ending
that still gives me goosebumps to this day. They all
play just as hard now as they did in nineteen

(21:13):
seventy four. Historically, it is a key proto slasher. You
can trace a straight line from its killer point of view,
shots and holiday vibe all the way to Halloween Silent
Night deadly night and a whole wave of Christmas carnage.
But it's also just a great, mean, little winter chiller
with messy, believable characters and a killer whose motives stay

(21:37):
unsettingly opaque. As I mentioned earlier, you can watch it
on Prime Video, Peacock, AMC Plus, Criterion Channel, Shutter, as
well as many places free with ads like the Roku channel,
Pluto TV, Shop, Factory TV, and tuob with its remake
from the early two thousands. If you watch one home
for the holiday's horror movie this week, make it the

(21:59):
one that quietly taught us just how afraid to answer
the phone we should be. That's it for this week
in horror history for December fifteenth through twenty first, a
week of vengeful ghosts, cranky sorority killers, cursed cartridges, and
analog nightmares beamed straight into your sleeping brain. If you

(22:23):
want more spooky goodness, on the weekly Spooky Feed Tomorrow
we have a brand new holiday themed horror for you,
with the unsettling and misleading name of a Christmas Romance.
On Thursday, we come out with a brand new free
novella for you to listen to, called an Angel of Death. Christmas,
and on Friday, I'll be carving up the mind bending

(22:47):
holiday horror film dead End with Rachel on cutting deep
into horror. And on Saturday we'll have a big fat
compilation of holiday horror stories to help you wrap your
gifts while you hope the good Santa comes down your chimney.
And if you notice that this show is dropping a
little later, it's because there's so much weekly spooky fun,

(23:10):
we just have to stack it up on the days,
so sometimes this show might drop around noon or one
o'clock to make way for a scary story. Until next time,
Keep the lights low, keep the volume high, and remember
our days are numbered, because that's how we tell them apart.
See you next time.

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This Week in Horror History | Black Christmas, Young Frankenstein & Ghost Story (December 15–21)

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