This Week in Horror History | Creepshow, Dracula & Ravenholm - Weekly Spooky: Scary Christmas Stories | Terrifying Tales to Creep Your Holiday

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the long dark of November, where the
leaves are gone, but the shadows stick around. This week
is drenched in gothic blood and neon bite, a lavish
vampire double bill that ruled the nineties box office, a

(00:21):
comics to screen creep show that made anthology horror cool again,
a TV thriller that launched a superstar director, a landmark
PC game that quietly snuck a classic Haunted Town chapter
into sci fi, and a slim Stephen King novella that
became a howling calendar of carnage. We'll sprint through the

(00:45):
big anniversaries, giving you tidbits and trivia along the way,
then dive into a TV deep cut that still makes
home feel haunted. So keep your earbuds in and your
car stereo rockin, because the calendar is coming and knocking.
You're listening to this Week in Horror History. I'm your host,

(01:16):
Enrique Kuto, and we're covering the week of November tenth
through sixteenth. So let's rattle the crypt and see what
climbs out on deck. Creep show cracks wide. Interview with
the Vampire premieres Bram Stoker's Dracula seduces opening weekend records,

(01:36):
a duel on ABC that made a career and the
game that sent us to Ravenholm after the Break, a
TV deep cut spotlight on Supernatural's Home, a birthday roll call,
a quick then and Now on Lush, nineties, vampire Cinema
Versus Today, and of course your Watch Now recommendation. November tenth,

(02:02):
nineteen eighty two, Night of the Living Dead's George Romero
and the legend himself, Stephen King joined forces to bring
us some delightful comic book macabre on the big screen.
After a July test run in Boston, Creep Show rolled
into wide release the week of November tenth, nineteen eighty two,

(02:24):
topping the box office with a five day haul and
cementing the EC style anthology as crowd pleasing horror, garish colors,
cockroach nightmares, and a Father's Day cake that well, no
one should eat. File it under proof that short, punchy
horror plays like Gangbusters between Halloween and Thanksgiving, and it

(02:46):
makes sense. I mean, they even brought cake. Creep Show
is one of those films that really sticks with you
because every story has that thick ec comic style which
would later become extreamly famous and a part of popular
culture when the Tales from the Crypt TV series debuted
on HBO about a decade later. Tales from the Crypt,

(03:10):
of course, based directly on the EC comic of the
same name and its sister comics like Vault of Horror,
Haunt of Fear, and Two Fisted Tales. Stephen King and
George Romero wanted to make creep Show as a homage
to EC comics because they both read them when they
were definitely way too young, and to suggest it warped

(03:32):
them would be a little bit of an understatement, I
would say, but still a great bit of fun. And
I personally have a massive soft spot for creep Show
two as well, And if you don't, well, fair enough,
but I have them both on four K and in
the late twenty tens, it kind of came full circle
when creep Show the series hit Shutter and AMC Plus,

(03:55):
helmed by makeup effects master Greg Nikoto, who came an
even bigger horror icon after becoming an indispensable part of
the Walking Dead production team. That all to say, if
you want to revisit or check out creep Show for
the first time, well it's available to rent on YouTube.
It's available to rent on Fandango at Home, Amazon Prime Video,

(04:19):
and Apple TV, and of course the TV series is
on AMC Plus and Shutter. Absolutely worth a watch. November eleventh,
nineteen ninety four, Interview with the Vampire Neil Jordan's Velvet
and Venom epic premieres, a lush and melancholy ride that

(04:41):
takes you through all of the beauty and romance as
well as the absolute despair of being a vampire. It
opens at number one with a November record at the time,
helped of course, by the stars Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt
and Kirsten Duntz and Anne Rice's sensuous theology of immortality

(05:04):
The Candles Gutter. The candles may have faded, but the
box office did not. In nineteen ninety four, I was
eight years old, but I had a teenage sister, so
you better believe Interview with the Vampire was just about
the most important film on the planet. And I saw
it so many times on VHS over and over as

(05:27):
my sister had her little lestat fantasy fulfilled at least
for a little while. But I have to admit the
film really does hold up. After all, these years, I
still enjoy the moroseness of the film as much as anything.
I think as you get older you start to appreciate
moroseness a little bit more. As weird as that is

(05:49):
to say, but hey, if you want to get your
moroseness on, I'm not going to stop you. You can
watch Interview with the Vampire on Amazon Prime, although you'll
have to rent it. You can also rent it on
Apple TV, Fandango at Home. A bunch of good places
and the blood sucking just will not stop. November thirteenth,

(06:11):
nineteen ninety two Bram Stoker's Dracula. Two years earlier, Coppola's
baroque Dracula explodes into US theaters on November third, nineteen
ninety two, marrying stagecraft in camera tricks and there is
no shortage of them, and operatic performances from Gary Oldman,

(06:31):
Winona Ryder and Anthony Hopkins to a maximalist tragic romance.
The capes swirl, the blood pops, and the film stakes
a monster opening for the season. So come on, Hollywood,
where's our big horror opening in November this year? You
guys gotta get your stuff together. I swear I actually
revisited this one for the first time in a very

(06:54):
long time. Again, teenage sister made me watch a ton
of Bram Stoker's Dracula, and it holds up to this
very day. It is a feast for your eyes. The
sheer amount of trick photography and special effects in the
movie is almost dizzying. It's almost insulting and offensive. The

(07:14):
sheer amount of masterful gags and effects, and of course
my sister's favorite part being Jianu Reeves and in four
k it is truly Chef's kiss. And right now it's available,
of course to rent on Amazon Prime, to rent on
Apple TV or Fandango at home, but you can watch
it right now with your Netflix subscription. So chop, chop,

(07:36):
and get to slurp in that blood. November sixteenth, two
thousand and four, Half Life two launched on Steam November sixteenth,
two thousand and four. Half Life two redefined first person
narrative and physics, but horror fans still whisper about Raven,

(08:00):
the saw blades, the head crabs, and of course, who
could forget Father Grigory's sermons in a town that feels cursed?
Proof that the scariest level in a sci fi Shooter
can be pure survival horror tone, and I have to
admit this one brought back a lot of memories. I

(08:22):
played so much Half Life and even attended a couple
of land parties. I know, I know, I fly my
NERD flag proudly, but that one is a deep one,
even for me. But you can play Half Life two
via PC with Steam and the twentieth anniversary edition includes
a little episode's menu. Head on back to Ravenholm and

(08:45):
meet up with Father Grigory. I'm sure he'd love for
you to confess your sins. November nineteen eighty three. Cycle
of the Werewolf by King. Stephen King's illustrated novella with
art by Bernie Wrightsen, landed in November of nineteen eighty

(09:07):
three as a limited hardcover twelve months, twelve full moons,
a small town gnawd to the bone, lean visual and
built like a calendar. It later morphs into Silver Bullet
from nineteen eighty five with Corey Haym and well the
incomparable Gary Busey. But that's a story for another time

(09:30):
but Horn. But as far as the book goes, it's
a tight read and you can finish it before midnight,
which is probably a good idea. Don't mind me, I'll
be up late tonight shopping for silver bullets on Amazon. God,
this Prime shipping better not fail me this time. Cycle

(09:50):
of the Werewolf is currently in print. There's a paperback
available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and just about anywhere
you get your books. November thirteenth, nineteen seventy one brings
us Duel, a TV movie from a director you might

(10:11):
have heard of before Jaws. Steven Spielberg delivers a white
knuckle ABC movie of the Week, a commuter hunted by
a faceless trucker. It aired on November thirteenth, nineteen seventy one.
Minimal premise, maximum dread, camera and sound design, do the
stalking See what I did there. It's a masterclass in

(10:34):
making the ordinary feel predatory. It's basically Jaws, except well,
the shark is a truck and the victim is any
of us who dare to head out on the highway.
That is a scary prospect. And you can rent Duel
at Amazon Prime. You can rent it on Apple TV,

(10:56):
Fandango at home. It's definitely worth a watch if you've
never seen it, especially if you're a Jaws fan, because
there's so many elements he would hone in on in
the making of Jaws. I want to take a quick
moment to thank our sponsor on tonight's episode of This
Week in Horror History, Cozy Earth. I know you spookies

(11:18):
out there love to kick back and relax after a long,
hard day of something really scary working for a living,
and nothing helps you relax quite like something comfy to
wear or cover yourself with. Cozy Earth has some of
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(11:40):
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(12:04):
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but after one high quality bathrobe, I've become a convert.
So head to cozyearth dot com find yourself something really,
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(12:27):
Earth for their support. When we come back, a haunted house,
a psychic named Missouri, and the episode that proves the
Winchesters never really left home Like any good slasher villain,

(12:55):
We're back and it's deep cut spotlight time. I guarantee
a lot of you spookies are big fans of Supernatural.
While on November fifteenth, two thousand and five, season one,
episode nine aired, titled Home, nine episodes in Supernatural stops
the road trip and makes the destination a little more personal.

(13:18):
Home takes Sam's vision back to Lawrence, Kansas, to the
house where his mother died, and turns a monster of
the week into more of a family affair. Director Ken
Garotti keeps the camera small and close, basement crawl spaces,
hallway angles that feel just wrong, a gas line that

(13:41):
hisses like a ghost breathing if ghosts actually breathe. It's
probably more ornamental than anything. Loretta Divine arrives as Missouri Moseley,
the show's first great psychic, anchoring the mythology with warmth
and righteous side eye. The scarceyequences snap into place with appliance,

(14:02):
Poltergeist's closet doors that hand through the crib. But the
real chill, the real part that gets to you, is
grief turning the floor plan into a crime scene. I am,
by no means a supernatural super fan, but I have
seen quite a few episodes, and of them all, this

(14:23):
one has always stood out to me. It aired on
November fifteenth, two thousand and five, and shows how TV
horror can earn longevity, not through bigger monsters, but by
pointing its little flashlight at the family photo on the
Mantle home is where the Winchester's quest stops looking like

(14:44):
a gig and starts feeling like destiny. If you only
sample one early episode, start there. It tells you how
the series will keep hurting and healing its characters for
fifteen seasons. And it's available to watch right now on Netflix.

(15:06):
But enough about deaths. We got four candles for you
this week on our birthday role. November tenth is Roy
Scheider's birthday. Not strictly a horror guy, but he was
Chief Brodie in the genre defining film Jaws, which we
talked about a little bit before, and of course, he
had the iconic line You're gonna need a bigger boat.

(15:28):
Unfortunately we lost Roy Scheider back in two thousand and eight,
but he had an incredible career and he helped us
realize that summer could be very, very scary. November twelfth,
Rada Mitchell. She showed all the final girl grit you
could possibly have in Silent Hill from two thousand and

(15:49):
six and had a lot of genre versatility from Pitch
Black to Haunted Town Motherhood. November thirteenth, Robert Lewis Stevenson,
the man behind Jekyl and Hyde, handed us a Victorian
horror as a split screen of appetite and reputation. It

(16:11):
still serves as a blueprint of duality today, whether it's
a horror film, a comedy, or just about anything in between. Really,
and finally, on November sixteenth, Burgess Meredith was born. Two
Immortal Twilight Zone turns Time Enough at Last and Printer's Devil,

(16:33):
plus a career of charming menace I mean, Burgess Meredith.
He's in Time Enough at Last, which is honestly like
the perfect Twilight Zone meme, what with the breaking glasses
in the fact that we all wish we could read more.
But he also cemented himself as the penguin on the
original Adam West Batman, which is mind boggling when you

(16:55):
consider that. Then later on he would play Mick in Rocky,
which Rocky is one of the greatest films of all time.
It's not horror, but but I'll be damned if I
don't show my love and appreciation for it. He also
played the elderly father to Jack Lemon in Grumpy Old Men.
The guy had just a monster of a career. Unfortunately

(17:16):
we lost him in nineteen ninety seven and he was
at ninety years old. Incredible career. Now let's look at
then and now velvet vampires from nineteen ninety two to now.
Back then, in the span of two novembers, opulent vampire
cinema storms, the multiplex Copolas Bramstoker's Dracula as we mentioned,

(17:41):
and Jordan's interview with the Vampire, expensive adult, unapologetically romantic,
featuring chandeliers, blood is perfume, immortality as addiction. These concepts
all really changed the way we understand and appreciate vampires.
In me, whether it's movies, televisions, books, you name it.

(18:05):
Vampires were never quite the same after the early nineties,
and sometimes I don't think the early nineties gets enough
love for the contributions it made to the horror genre.
As we move our eyes to the now, Prestige Television
redraws the bite, and AMC's Interview with the Vampire, a
TV series based on the same novel by Ann Rice,

(18:29):
leans more into the queer longing and trauma. It's extremely
well thought out and it fits beautifully with the film
while being very very different. Streaming favors these long arcs
on TV shows, and of course the massive, lush production
without sacrificing the bloodshed. The lesson isn't that vampires changed

(18:55):
so much as that culture loves to keep rewriting the
contract between beauty and appetite. Plus, let's just be real
for a second, Dracula is one thousand percent a metaphor
for sexually transmitted diseases. You can't change my mind on
that one. Now, Before I get out of here and

(19:17):
let you get back to your week, of course, I
can't leave without giving you my weekly recommendation. And this
one is a lifelong love of mine. The Slumber Party
Massacre from nineteen eighty two, Ugh, just the keyboard theme
from this movie alone makes me so very happy. That

(19:43):
is just such beautiful late seventies early eighties synth joy
right there, and that really describes the entire film. With
a lean seventy seven minute runtime, It's a cult classic
directed by Amy Holden Jones from Rita may Brown's script.

(20:04):
It's fast, it's funny, and it's feral. And it opened
in Los Angeles on September tenth, which is my birthday,
go figure. But the New York release was the week
of November twelfth, nineteen eighty two, so I'm counting it.
It really is the perfect post Halloween comfort, garbage food

(20:29):
kind of fun time, and it has a lot of
very subversive winks in it. Rita may Brown wrote the screenplay,
and she was famous for writing feminist books, a ton
of them. In fact, she's always claimed that the screenplay
for Slumber Party Massacre, which was originally titled Sleepless Nights,
was meant to be a kind of parody of slasher

(20:52):
films featuring gratuitous nudity, violence, and general debauchery and horniness
of teenagers. I've always felt like maybe that was a
little bit of a cop out, only because By the
time she wrote the screenplay, there had barely been any
slasher movies made. I mean, I think Friday the Thirteenth
wasn't even a big thing when she was writing the script.

(21:13):
You basically only had Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But
maybe I'm wrong, and Amy Holden Jones has had an
incredible career directing so many films outside of the horror genre.
But it all started with this Roger Corman produced feature
film with a perfect title, and that title is Slumber

(21:34):
Party Massacre, with its phone repair woman gags, pizza box punchlines,
and the most infamous power tool in all of horror.
Queue it up after the Velvet Vampires for a fun
and frisky midnight movie to cleanse your palette. And best
of all, Slumber Party Massacre is available just about everywhere

(21:54):
you could want to watch movies for free. Two BTV
has it, Zumo has it, Pluto TV has it, The
Roku channel has it, Fandango at Home has it. To
watch for free. It's on shutter AMC plus Filo Plex.
The sky is the limit. You have no excuse to
not give Slumber Party Massacre a spin, unless, of course,

(22:16):
it's not your kind of thing. No shame in that. Well,
that's it for this week in Horror History for November
tenth through sixteenth. If you're enjoying what we're doing here
on Tuesdays, leave us a rating on your favorite podcasting
app like Spotify or Apple Podcasts and share it with
your nearest spooky friend. And don't forget Tomorrow. Weekly Spooky

(22:37):
drops a brand new episode featuring a story by a
brand new author. You won't want to miss it. And
this Friday we might just have something special for you
on cutting deep into horror. So until next time, my friends,
keep that porch light lit and pack some silver bullets

(22:57):
just to be saved.

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This Week in Horror History | Creepshow, Dracula & Ravenholm

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