This Week in Horror History | Turistas, Scalps, House of Dracula & Girls Nite Out - Weekly Spooky: Scary Christmas Stories | Terrifying Tales to Creep Your Holiday

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's the first week of December. Time to clean those
moldy piles of former pumpkin off your porch. The Christmas
lights are flickering to life, and horror fans are sneaking
just one more spooky watch in between all the cozy
comfort movies. This is the strange shivery overlap, where backpackers

(00:27):
disappear in the tropics, campus scavenger hunts turn deadly, and
even the classic Universal monsters come shambling back for one
last bow. So let's see if you can survive this
on top of your relative's fruitcake. So put on your
scissor hands and let's go. You're listening to this Week

(00:59):
in Horror History for December one through seventh. I'm your host,
Enrique Kuto, and I'll help you flip open the horror
calendar to see which movies, monsters, and macab milestones crawled
out during this exact week in years past. As we
begin the true start of spooky Season's winter phase, we'll

(01:23):
head to Brazil for an organ harvesting vacation from Hell,
drop in on the last serious Universal monster mashup, and
find Native American spirits looking to slaughter anyone in their way.
Then We'll dig into a deep cut campus slasher that
limped through drive ins before being resurrected on Blu Ray,

(01:47):
roll through some key horror birthdays, and finish with a
December Ready recommendation you can stream tonight first Up. December one,
two thousand and six, Terestas hits theaters and immediately makes
every backpacker rethink those off the beaten path travel plans.

(02:11):
Directed by John Stockwell, Theestas follows a group of young
travelers in Brazil whose dream vacation turns into a nightmare
when a bus crash strands them in the middle of nowhere.
Locals offer hospitality, but it quickly curdles into something much nastier,

(02:31):
an underground Oregon harvesting operation that feels like a sun
soaked cousin to the Hostile Era Torture Boom. Shot entirely
in Brazil and released under the title Paradise Lost Okay
in the United Kingdom, Theestas was the very first film
put out by Fox Atomic, a sub label of twentieth

(02:55):
Century Fox that was intended to specialize in comedy and
John films, most notably The Hills Have Eyes Too. Twenty
eight weeks later, The comebacks The Rocker, Miss March and
Twelve Rounds. But unfortunately, if you recognized any of the
films in that list, then you know they were all

(03:16):
kind of cult hits and didn't do big box office,
which is why shortly thereafter Fox Atomic closed in two
thousand and nine. However, Touristas started strong, with around fourteen
point seven million dollars worldwide on a ten million dollar budget,
so not a complete disaster, but definitely not the breakout

(03:40):
the studio needed these days. It plays more like a
time capsule of the mid two thousands, when horror was
very grimy and mean, and often obsessed with the idea
that every foreign bus ride is one unlucky turn away
from doom. A fun and shocking film that I personally

(04:01):
need to revisit, and if you too want to revisit it,
you can rent it at any of the usual suspects
like Apple TV, Amazon Prime or Fandango at Home. Jump
back with me to December second, nineteen eighty three, and
things get even rougher in the desert with fred Olin

(04:23):
Ray's micro budget nightmare Scalps. Fred Olin Ray, by the way,
one of my biggest cinematic heroes and a guy I
even got to work with. He was the executive producer
on the show Boggy Creek, the series which I directed
all six episodes of season one four, which is available
right now on two BTV. You should check it out.

(04:45):
It won't cost you anything. But Scalps is a wild
ride and one of Fred Olan Ray's first breakout films,
which began arguably one of the most prolific careers in
all of B movie cinema, if that's what you want
to call it. Fred's directed over one hundred films in
every genre imaginable, from Western's comedies, family movies, lifetime movie dramas,

(05:09):
Christmas movies, you name it. Fred ol and Ray has
yelled action at it. But this one is extra special
and extra nasty. It's about archaeology students who ignore every
sensible warning and dig on sacred native land, unleashing a
vengeful spirit that tears through the group in a haze
of possession, animal attacks, and gritty, low budget gore. Shot

(05:35):
on sixteen millimeter film with a very low budget Scalps
as the kind of video store relic that lived or
died on its lurid VHS cover and word of mouth
alone in theaters. It slipped into limited release in December
of eighty three and never came close to what might
be called mainstream success. But on home video and now streaming,

(05:59):
it's become a cult curio messi offensive but fascinating for
fans of regional and DIY horror. And if you want
to learn more about fred ol and Ray in his career,
he put out a phenomenal memoir called hell Bent for Hollywood.
You can grab on Amazon or wherever you buy your books.
It's an excellent read if you love learning about making movies.

(06:23):
And right now you can stream Scalps on Amazon Prime
Video with your membership, or grab yourself a collector's edition
Blu Ray Chalk full of extras. If that's what you're into. Now,
let's fast forward or rewind, depending on which reel you're

(06:44):
holding to December seventh, nineteen forty five, when Universal releases
House of Dracula and effectively closes the book on their
classic monster cycle. This one is a full on monster summit.
You've got Dracula, You've got the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's Monster,

(07:05):
all converging on a tormented doctor who's trying to cure them.
All of course, the cures go horribly wrong, and what
you end up with is a fever dream mashup of capes,
neck bolts, and tortured mad scientist melodrama. It didn't make
the same cultural splash as earlier Universal horrors, but financially

(07:30):
it held its own as part of the studio's steady
monster business, and historians often point to it as the
final serious entry in that original Frankenstein saga before things
went full parody. Abbot and Costello. I'm looking your direction.
It's a fascinating snapshot of a studio squeezing the last

(07:53):
drop from its most famous of creatures. If you've never
seen House of Dracula, I do recommend it. I'm I'm
a nerd for the well for everything, but when it
comes to Universal monster movies, there are just some Sunday
afternoons when all I crave, other than maybe a bowl

(08:13):
of chicken noodle soup, is Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfband, the
Creature from the Black Lagoon in black and white, in
all their classic glory, and this film really does scratch
that itch. I feel like I don't revisit it enough. Honestly,
if you've never seen it, House of Dracula is currently
streaming on Indie Flicks with a subscription, or you can

(08:36):
rent it or buy it on services like Amazon, Apple TV,
and Fango Fandango at Home. This week in horror History
is brought to you in part by Savoriesta dot com.
Save Arista is the coffee brand that brings you bold,

(08:56):
intense flavors and gourmet taste, but with an rl Stein
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If that appeals to you as well, you can head
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(09:19):
checkout to get twenty five percent off your first order,
and every purchase supports our program directly. Thanks to all
the spookies have already tried save Arista for themselves, and
thank you to save Arista for supporting the program. All right,
we've hit organ thieves, cursed deserts, classic monsters, and we'll

(09:40):
get to a certain lonely boy with scissors for hands
in a bit. But our deep cut this week puts
us back on campus, where a bear mascot and a
pile of steak knives turn school spirit into a body count,

(10:10):
and we're back. So let's talk college radio, scavenger hunts
and a killer who turns the school's mascot into a
slasher icon. Our deep cut spotlight for December one through
seventh is Girls' Night Out from nineteen eighty two, also
known as The Scare Maker, a scrappy early eighties slasher

(10:34):
that puts a twisted spin on college campus horror. The
film opens with the suicide of Dicky Cavanaugh, a disturbed
former patient at a sanitarium, cut to nearby DeWitt University,
where the basketball team's big win kicks off a night
of celebratory chaos. Of course, the school's chipper campus radio

(10:57):
DJ hosts an all nightscavener hunt, sending students racing around
the grounds in the middle of the night. While everyone's
chasing clues, a killer in the school's bear mascot costume
prowls the shadows, having strapped steak knives to the costume's pause,
so every bear hug can be one to dismember totally.

(11:23):
It's pure Golden Age slasher energy. Late night cafeterias, locker
rooms and dorm hallways full of horny, bickering students, punctuated
by surprisingly nasty kills. The killer taunts victims over the phone,
stalks them through the darkness, and leaves a trail of
bodies that the authorities are a step too slow to connect.

(11:47):
Of course, of these movies, cops are never really that
plugged in. Yeah, not so much. Release wise, Girls' Night
Out is exactly the kind of oddball film that well
this show exists to resurrect. It first slipped into theaters
in the Southern United States on December third, nineteen eighty two,

(12:08):
under its original title The aforementioned Scare Maker, via a
small regional test run that barely moved the box office needle.
The film later resurfaced nationwide on home video in the
mid eighties under the title Girls' Night Out That's Night Nie,
where its lurid cover and killer bear hook finally found

(12:32):
an audience among VHS renters. They were voracious and they
needed content. For decades, it lived in that half remembered
zone of bootlegs and fuzzy TV airings. I remember seeing
a ton of copies in horror movie conventions in the
early two thousands. It seemed like it was one of

(12:53):
those lost films, but not necessarily very many people were
really looking for it, I guess. But then, thank goodness,
Boutique Labels stepped in Media Blasters gave it a DVD
release in the two thousands, but it wasn't until Aarow
Video did a new restoration in Blu Ray that the

(13:14):
film got a proper cult movie upgrade, complete with commentaries
and other extras. Now what was once just another forgotten
slasher has become a minor collector favorite, especially for fans
of campus horror and regional independent filmmaking. If the idea
of a knife clawed bear mascot stalking sororities during a

(13:37):
scavenger hunt sounds like your kind of film, and why
the hell wouldn't it be Girls' Night Out? Is absolutely
worth your time. In the United States, you can stream
it on the Arrow Player, which is Aero Film's streaming
service with a membership or subscription, rent, or buy it
digitally on services like Amazon, Apple, or grab Arrow's final

(14:00):
nominal cleaned up Blu Ray. Full of so many extras,
I don't know if you damn it, if you can,
if you can bear it all right, spookies. Let's light
some metaphorical birthday candles safely and far from any flammable

(14:22):
film stock. December one, nineteen forty one. Sean S. Cunningham
is born, the producer director who unleashed Friday the Thirteenth
on summer camp counselors everywhere and helped to define the
slasher boom. Who'd have thought that one conversation with a
writer saying you want to rip off Halloween could turn

(14:45):
into a lifetime of scares for the entire world. Gotta
love it. Happy Birthday, Sean. December third, nineteen seventy one.
Keegan Connor Tracy is born. She'd go on to appear
in Final Destination two and White Noise, becoming a familiar

(15:06):
face in early two thousand Supernatural Horror, and she was
also in one of my favorite episodes of creep Show,
the series on shutter It was the episode to Grandmother's
House We Go. December third, nineteen eighty two. Director Adam
Wininguard enters the World. Years later, he'd give us a

(15:28):
ton of films I'm a very big fan of. Just
a few to note would be your next The Guest
and Big Monster SmackDown. Godzilla versus Kong and Godzilla x
Kong the New Empire as well. He also directed A
Horrible Way to Die Homesick blair Witch, the sequel to
blair Witch that I almost forgot about. But I actually

(15:50):
really like that one, so no hate there. I hope
it's a great one, Adam. Can't wait to see what
you come up with next. December fourth, nineteen fifty four,
Tony Todd is born. Unfortunately we lost Tony this year,
but he was an incredible guy, the man whose voice
alone could haunt your bathroom mirror from candy Man to

(16:13):
final destination. He is undoubtedly Horror Royalty and deeply missed.
So raise a glass of I hope that's blood red
holiday punch, and not never mind to all of them
this week. Four are then, and now let's take a

(16:37):
look at December Horror and how it keeps evolving while
hitting some surprisingly similar nerves. On December one, two thousand
and six, we mentioned Terista, which tapped into fears about globalization,
medical exploitation, and the ugly side of exotic tourism. Ordinary
travelers become human resources in the worst possible way. As

(17:02):
if normal human resources aren't bad enough, sliced up so
the rich can live just a little longer. Jump ahead
to December seventh, twenty twenty two, when Megan premieres in
Los Angeles. Suddenly the fear isn't crooked doctors in the jungle,
It's a smiling, hyper connected robot babysitter who knows your

(17:25):
kid's secrets better than you do. Made for about twelve
million dollars, engrossing over one hundred and eighty million worldwide,
Megan proved that audiences are still hungry for horror that
mixes social anxiety with a dark sense of humor, especially
when it involves technology stepping into intimate roles it might

(17:48):
not be ready for both. Films, in their own way,
are about trust, who we hand our bodies and our
loved ones over to when we're tired, overwhelmed, or chasing comfort.
Whether it's a surgeon with a scalpel or an AI
doll with Wi Fi, horror keeps reminding us that convenience

(18:08):
can have teeth. And by the way, if you missed
out on the second Megan movie, I know a lot
of people didn't seem to love it so much, but
I really enjoyed it. It was like The Terminator two
of the series. You should really check that one out.
It's streaming on Peacock and all the usual suspects if
you want to rent or buy it online. For this

(18:32):
week's recommendation, I'm steering you straight into a snowy suburban
fairy tale and perhaps the most mainstream recommendation so far
on the show. A film I've appreciated since I was
a young young man, Edward Scissorhands, which began its limited
theatrical release on December seventh, nineteen ninety, and went full

(18:56):
scale America on December fourteenth. If by some strange turn
of events, you haven't seen it, this is the story
of an unfinished artificial man taken in by a pastel
neighborhood that wants to tame and trophy him at the
same time. It's melancholy and strange, with enough gothic edge

(19:19):
to scratch the horror itch, especially when the mob mentality
kicks in, but soft and emotional enough to pass as
a family holiday staple. Let's call it gateway horror. I
like that term. On a twenty million dollar budget, Edward
Scissorhands carved out about eighty six million dollars worldwide and

(19:43):
has only grown more beloved over the decades. It really
is a perfect entry point if you're trying to drag
non horror friends into something a little darker for December
without immediately jumping to Killer Santas or Evil Nazi Elves. Yeah,
if you know, you know in the US, you can

(20:04):
stream it on Disney Plus, Hulu and Max, or rent
and buy it just about anywhere. Throw it on during
a cold night, dim the lights and let the snow
machines and Danny Elfman's score do the rest. That's going

(20:24):
to do it for this week's tour through December one
to seventh in horror history. If you enjoyed this trip,
make sure you're subscribed, because here at Weekly Spooky, there's
almost always something to enjoy. In fact, tomorrow we start
the season with our first of many scary Christmas stories,

(20:46):
as we release Charles Campbell's The Weather Outside is Frightful
and believe you mean it lives up to the title.
Then on Thursday we'll have a story by Morgan Moore,
also Christmas theme, and on Friday a brand new Strickfield
Christmas novella called The Christmas Carnival. You Won't Want to

(21:07):
miss it, so be subscribed and don't be afraid or
be afraid. You know what, it's a free country. You're
also welcome to email us at Weeklyspooky at gmail dot com.
We love to hear from you, but now it's time
for me to get back to it. I'm Enrique Kuto,
and you've been listening to this Week in Horror History.
Until next time, keep warm, keep watching, and remember just

(21:30):
because it's the holiday season doesn't mean the monsters take
time off too

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This Week in Horror History | Turistas, Scalps, House of Dracula & Girls Nite Out

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