November 18, 2025 • 20 mins
Step into late November with This Week in Horror History, the horror podcast that digs into the spooky anniversaries hiding between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In this episode, we dive into a full week of genre milestones for November 18–25, from cult slashers and gothic ghost stories to Stephen King adaptations, survival horror gaming, and a haunting cannibal romance.
We kick things off at summer camp with Sleepaway Camp (1983), the infamous 1980s slasher movie whose shocking final twist made it a cult legend on VHS and a must-watch for every serious horror fan. Then we ride into the fog with Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999), a stylish gothic horror film packed with headless-horseman mayhem, Hammer Horror vibes, and one of Johnny Depp’s most beloved spooky roles.
From there, we lock the supermarket doors and let The Mist (2007) roll in. This Stephen King horror movie traps terrified townspeople in a grocery store surrounded by Lovecraftian monsters and religious hysteria, building to one of the bleakest endings in modern horror cinema. We also pick up a controller for Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005), a grim Xbox 360 survival horror game that turned a next-gen console launch into a nightmare of crime scenes, jump scares, and first-person brutality.
Our Deep-Cut Spotlight sinks its teeth into Salem’s Lot (1979), Tobe Hooper’s terrifying Stephen King TV miniseriesthat made an entire generation afraid to look out their bedroom windows. We talk small-town dread, the iconic window-scratch scene, and how this vampire story helped shape everything from Fright Night to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Midnight Mass.
Along the way, we roll through horror birthdays (including icons connected to The Silence of the Lambs, The Thing, and indie horror favorites), revisit the legacy of Universal’s Frankenstein in a Then & Now segment, and close with a Weekly Recommendation: Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All (2022), a melancholic cannibal road movie that plays like a twisted, emotional Thanksgiving watch.
If you love horror history, Stephen King adaptations, Tim Burton gothic horror, 80s slasher movies, Thanksgiving horror, and deep dives into cult classics, this episode is your cozy, creepy guide to late-November genre viewing.
Subscribe to This Week in Horror History on the Weekly Spooky network so you never miss a horror anniversary, hidden gem, or nightmare from the vault.
Sleepaway Camp (1983)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
The Mist (2007)
Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005 – game)
Salem’s Lot (1979 miniseries)
Bones and All (2022)
We kick things off at summer camp with Sleepaway Camp (1983), the infamous 1980s slasher movie whose shocking final twist made it a cult legend on VHS and a must-watch for every serious horror fan. Then we ride into the fog with Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999), a stylish gothic horror film packed with headless-horseman mayhem, Hammer Horror vibes, and one of Johnny Depp’s most beloved spooky roles.
From there, we lock the supermarket doors and let The Mist (2007) roll in. This Stephen King horror movie traps terrified townspeople in a grocery store surrounded by Lovecraftian monsters and religious hysteria, building to one of the bleakest endings in modern horror cinema. We also pick up a controller for Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005), a grim Xbox 360 survival horror game that turned a next-gen console launch into a nightmare of crime scenes, jump scares, and first-person brutality.
Our Deep-Cut Spotlight sinks its teeth into Salem’s Lot (1979), Tobe Hooper’s terrifying Stephen King TV miniseriesthat made an entire generation afraid to look out their bedroom windows. We talk small-town dread, the iconic window-scratch scene, and how this vampire story helped shape everything from Fright Night to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Midnight Mass.
Along the way, we roll through horror birthdays (including icons connected to The Silence of the Lambs, The Thing, and indie horror favorites), revisit the legacy of Universal’s Frankenstein in a Then & Now segment, and close with a Weekly Recommendation: Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All (2022), a melancholic cannibal road movie that plays like a twisted, emotional Thanksgiving watch.
If you love horror history, Stephen King adaptations, Tim Burton gothic horror, 80s slasher movies, Thanksgiving horror, and deep dives into cult classics, this episode is your cozy, creepy guide to late-November genre viewing.
Subscribe to This Week in Horror History on the Weekly Spooky network so you never miss a horror anniversary, hidden gem, or nightmare from the vault.
Sleepaway Camp (1983)
- Streaming: Currently streaming on Peacock and available via Prime Video (depending on region/packaging).
- Physical: Recent Blu-ray restorations from boutique horror labels are in print and easy to hunt down for collectors.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
- Digital: Available to rent or buy digitally on the usual suspects, including Prime Video and Apple TV.
- Physical: Long-standing Paramount Blu-ray and DVD releases are widely available.
The Mist (2007)
- Streaming: Streaming on Peacock and Paramount+, often as part of their Stephen King / horror lineups.
- Physical: Blu-ray editions are easy to find, including releases that feature Frank Darabont’s preferred black-and-white cut.
Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005 – game)
- Digital: Recently delisted from major digital storefronts, so it’s not a simple click-to-buy anymore.
- Physical / Legacy: Best found as a physical Xbox 360 disc or as remaining PC keys from reputable sellers that still activate on Steam; expect some tinkering on modern hardware.
Salem’s Lot (1979 miniseries)
- Streaming: Shows up on free-with-ads streamers like Tubi and on horror-centric services such as AMC+ and Shudder from time to time, though availability shifts.
- Physical / Digital: There are solid DVD and Blu-ray editions in circulation, and it’s typically available to rent or buy digitally on major VOD platforms when it falls out of flat-rate streaming.
Bones and All (2022)
- Digital: Available digitally on Prime Video.
- Streaming: Also popping up on cinephile-focused streamers such as The Criterion Channel and MUBI, making it easy to slot into a late-night double feature.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Late November is a weird time for horror. Jack o'
lanterns are collapsing in the yard, Christmas lights are half hung,
and the genre is busy sneaking in some of its strangest,
moodiest releases while everybody else is thinking about turkeys and shopping.
(00:22):
This week in horror History, we're pitching our tent at
the edge of the holidays, a summer camp shocker with
an all timer twist, a gothic decapitation fest from Tim Burton,
a supermarket siege full of cosmic despair, and a small
main town that quietly grew fangs on network television. If
(00:45):
you like your comfort movies with a side of existential dread,
well here in the right place. This week in horror History,
for the week of November eighteenth through twenty fifth, I'm
(01:06):
Enrique Kuto, your tour guide through the anniversary's oddities and
deep cuts that built the creepy calendar we live by.
On today's tour will mark the theatrical birthday of sleep
Away Camp. Revisit Sleepy Hollow's fog drenched headless horsemen and
(01:27):
watch the mist roll into theaters. Then we'll talk about
a cult classic launch title that turned the Xbox three
sixty into a crime scene simulator. And after the break,
we'll dive into Toby Hooper's Salem's Lot, the mini series
that made an entire generation afraid of their own bedroom windows.
(01:54):
November eighteenth, nineteen eighty three, sleep Away Camp slashes its
way into theaters. New York audiences get first blood as
Robert Hiltzick's low budget slasher sleep Away Camp opens and
tries to ride the post Friday the Thirteenth wave, which
was riding the post Halloween wave. On paper, it's another
(02:19):
camp set body Count movie. In practice, it leans into
grubby detail and one of the most infamous final shots
in horror history. And if you don't know, you need
to find out. It crawled onto VHS, then into midnight
movie Cannon, and now it's a staple of the wait
(02:40):
you've never seen this lists and debates And I want
to say I went into sleep Away Camp completely and
utterly blind. I had heard, like crazy, this is gonna
set my age a bit on MySpace about how awesome
this box set for sleep Away Camp was. I'd never
(03:01):
heard of the movies beyond seeing the box covers in
video stores, so I went out and bought the sleep
Away Camp Survival Kit, which was a three disc set
from Anchor Bay. It was awesome, had lots of extras,
and it came in a box that looked like a
first aid kit. And actually that initial box got recalled
because they used a Red Cross on it, and ironically enough,
(03:24):
the Red Cross filed a cease and desist because I
guess they own that iconography. But I had no idea
what I was in for. And not only was sleep
Away Camp one pretty freakin' awesome, but I am a
massive supporter of the sequels as well. If you want
to revisit or finally witness that ending, it's free with
(03:49):
Prime right now on Amazon, or you can watch it
on Peacock with a subscription, or you can see it
completely and utterly free on places like to b pleaqu
and Pluto TV. At least as of the recording of
the show, there's no four K release of the original
yet on physical media, so you'll have to stick to
(04:10):
a standard Blu ray. But I've been enjoying very much
by four KUHD copies of the sequels. November nineteenth, nineteen
ninety nine. Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow gallops into cinemas Paramount
drops Sleepy Hollow in the pre Thanksgiving slot, giving Tim
(04:32):
Burton the keys to Washington Irving's Headless Horseman and letting
him shoot a hammer horror love letter on a studio budget.
The result is fog and blood and more severed heads
than you can shake a stick at. Although I don't
know why you'd want to anchored by Johnny Depp playing
Ichabod Crane as a fussy proto forensic nerd, and actually,
(04:57):
while it does borrow a lot from hammer horle horror films,
I think it borrows even more, at least in the
depiction of Ichabod Crane from nineteen eighty five's Fright Night,
directed by Tom Holland, not Spider Man, the Child's Play.
Tom Holland a vampire film I have a great deal
of fondness for because there's a character in there named
(05:18):
Peter Vincent, who is a vampire hunter in movies and
hosts horror movies on television, who ends up becoming a
real life vampire hunter, albeit very very reluctantly, and a
lot of his mannerisms and reaction to the situation. Really,
I think Depp at the very least watched Fright Night
(05:39):
a couple of times, you know, had a Blockbuster night
and got some inspiration. If you're in the mood for
autumn vibes long after Halloween ends, It's free on Pluto TV,
or you can rent or buy it digitally on the
usual suspects like Prime Video, Apple TV, or you could
even spin that long standing paramount Blu Raye. I'm due
(06:01):
for a revisit of Sleepy Hollow. Hey, Dave, if you're listening,
bring it over. November twenty one, two thousand and seven,
The Mist blankets theaters. Huh boy, talk about another shock ending.
Frank Derabant, the guy who turned the Shawshank Redemption into
(06:24):
a comfort movie, adapts Stephen King's novella The Mist and
delivers Pure Despair. Derabant would later go on to massive
success as one of the showrunners for the long running
Walking Dead. The film follows a main supermarket full of
ordinary people in a kind of love crafty and fog,
(06:46):
then watches their fear mutate into religion, mob rule, and
one of the bleakest endings in mainstream horror, if not
all the way through the genre, it didn't blow the
doors off the box office, but its reputation has only grown,
especially in light of that gut punch final scene. Currently,
(07:08):
you can stream The Mist on platforms like Peacock and
Paramount Plus, or grab the Blu ray that includes Darabot's
preferred black and white cut that makes it feel like
a lost nineteen fifties horror movie. November twenty second, two
thousand and five, Condemned Criminal Origins launches with Xbox three sixty.
(07:34):
When Microsoft rolls out the Xbox three sixty, one of
its launch titles is a filthy little first person horror
game from Monolith called Condemned Criminal Origins. You play an
FBI investigator chasing a serial killer through rotting apartments, abandoned malls,
and subway tunnels, doing more forensic work with a lead
(07:57):
pipe than with a lab. It's focus on melee combat,
forensic puzzles, and sheer grime made it a cult classic
and a formative I really shouldn't be playing this at
two am experience. Physical copies still trade hands, but in
a very twoenty twenty five twist, the game has been
(08:19):
delisted from major digital storefronts, sparking rumors and wishful thinking
about a possible remaster. I want to take a quick
moment to thank save Arista Coffee for sponsoring this episode
of This Week in Horror History. If you love the
bold flavor of coffee, but sometimes you just can't handle
(08:43):
another cop After ten pm, while you're binge watching the
entire four K collection of Nightmare on Elm Street, well
save Arista. As you covered if you had to save
aresta dot Com, you'll see all kinds of decalf and
half calf blends that taste premium, but with a whole
lot less caffeine, so the jitters you get will only
be from the man with razor knives who haunts your dreams.
(09:05):
You can head to save aresta dot com and use
promo code Spooky at checkout and you'll get twenty five
percent off your order, and every purchase supports our program directly.
So head to save aresta dot Com, use promo code
Spooky at checkout, get your discount and support the show.
Huge thank you to save Aresta dot com for their support.
(09:27):
After the break, we're driving up to Salem's Lot, where
the real estate is cheap and the vampires well they're plentiful.
(09:50):
Now that we're back, let's talk about a mini series
that permanently ruined the idea of looking out your bedroom
window at especially if you live on the second floor.
Our deep cut Spotlight this Week lands on Salem's Lot,
the nineteen seventy nine CBS mini series that proved you
(10:13):
could sneak genuinely terrifying vampire horror onto network television. For
those uninitiated, there were several very famous examples of TV
made horror films in the seventies that emotionally and psychologically
scarred an entire generation. Dark Knight of the Scarecrow comes
(10:35):
to mind that might have been the early eighties, and
another one that's really famous is the Trilogy of Terror.
Basically anything Dan Curtis touched It Turned to Gold if
You're a Psychiatrist. Directed by Toby Hooper, who had directed
Texas Chainsaw Massacre just a few years earlier, and based
(10:55):
on Stephen King's nineteen seventy five novel, it aired over
two nights November seventeenth and twenty fourth, which puts the
second half squarely in This Week in Horror history. Instead
of a suave, talkative Dracula type, Hooper and Company gave
us Kurt Barlow as a chalk skinned rat, toothed no
(11:19):
speratu who never speaks, just hisses and lunges out of
the dark. And don't get me started on the eyes.
The contact lenses were mortifying, even before you remember that
this is the seventies, so those lenses in his eyes
were made of glass. The setup is simple. Writer Ben
(11:39):
Mears returns to his hometown of Jerusalem's Lot to work
through a childhood trauma involving the creepy Marston House on
the Hill, only to find that a mysterious antiques dealer
and his unseen partner have moved in and the locals
are starting to look up a little pale, even for
(12:01):
New England. What makes Salem's Lot special isn't just the plot,
but the way it weaponizes every day small town life.
Gossiping neighbors, bored kids, a local priest, all slowly swallowed
by an infection nobody wants to name. Visually, it's pure
(12:23):
late seventies comfort, horror, paneled walls, boxy cars, blue tinted night.
But Hooper keeps dropping images that feel like urban legends
come to life. The often referenced glick boy tapping on
the window, the corpse that sits up on the Morgue table,
that Antler impalement at the Marston House. It's no wonder.
(12:46):
Later creators of vampire stories, from the aforementioned Fright Night
to Buffy to Midnight Mass have cited Salem's Lot as
a major influence. If you've only ever heard about it, Well,
we have some moderately good news. It's still available, but
you'll have to rent it on your preferred service like
Prime Video, Apple TV, wherever you rent your movies. There's
(13:10):
also a very solid Blu Ray addition in circulation. I
have it, and it's pretty cool. It is a very
long movie. They put them together instead of presenting it
as a mini series, although it feels like a two
part mini series. I guess that. Okay, I'll shut up.
That is a very mini series, I suppose, but heed
(13:31):
my suggestion. Maybe don't watch it right before bed, especially
if your bedroom window doesn't have curtains made of garlic
and holy water. Okay, I don't know how you'd make
curtains out of holy water, but I mean science has
come a long way since seventy nine, right, right, let's
(13:57):
light some candles black ones, obviously, for this week's birthday
role November eighteenth, nineteen sixty two. Kurt Hammett is born.
Metallica's lead guitarist, is also one of the world's most
famous classic horror collectors, with a museum worthy stash of
posters and props and the coffee table book too much
(14:21):
Horror Business to prove it. November nineteenth, nineteen sixty two.
Jody Foster was born, an all time great who gave
us one of horror's most iconic final girls as Clarice
Starling in the Silence of the Lambs. Also, I want
to mention this is one of those examples, a very
(14:44):
early perfect example of a film being a horror movie,
but then people trying to kind of scoot it under
the rug as, oh, well it's a thriller. Well, sure
it's a thriller, but it has a guy biting somebody's
nose off. I think it's a horror movie. So just
hand over the oscar and let's stop arguing about semantics. Yes,
(15:05):
I'm aware, I'm in a room alone. November twentieth, nineteen
forty eight. Richard Maser. Genre fans know him as Clark
the dog Handler and John Carpenter's The Thing and as
an adult stan URIs in the nineteen ninety IT mini series,
(15:25):
and I can't wait to talk about the thing when
the time comes. Four are then, and now we're raising
a glass or maybe a lightning rod to Frankenstein. On
November twenty first, nineteen thirty one, Universal officially released James
(15:48):
Wales Frankenstein in the United States, cementing Boris Karloff's flat
topped creature. And of course this moment I want to mention.
When I was trying to find that sound effect for
the show, everything I found was from young Frankenstein and
(16:11):
not the original, So that goes to show you how
iconic moments can morph and evolve in the zeitgeist. I
guess it's only seventy minutes long, but between the lab equipment,
the little girl at the lake, and the burning windmill,
it pretty much wrote the visual language of Mad Scientist
(16:32):
horror as it would come to be known. Fast forward
to right now, and Frankenstein is back in the conversation
thanks to Guermo Del Toro's new adaptation, rolling out theatrically
in the fall and hitting Netflix in early November. It's
actually available right now, and I'm ashamed to say I
haven't had a chance to sit down and watch it yet.
(16:53):
Del Toro is leaning closer to Mary Shelley's novel, but
he's also openly paying homage to the nineteen thirty one
film that first terrified him as a kid. It's a
pretty cool full circle moment. Ninety plus years after that
original November release, the same stitched together myth is still
(17:14):
being jolted back to life for a new generation. And
of course, as we wrap up this week's episode, I
have to give you my weekly recommendation, and this one's
a little more recent. It's Bones and All from twenty
twenty two. Luca Guadagnino's melancholy Cannibal Road movie, which opened
(17:38):
wide in the US on November eighteenth, twenty twenty two,
is set against the wide open Midwest in the nineteen eighties.
It follows two young eaters as they become known, who
bond over a shared urge to consume people and hit
the road in search of family, belonging and maybe a
(17:59):
way to live with the hunger. It's a slow burn,
part doomed romance, part Americana travelogue, actually filmed not far
from where I live, but it's also part absolutely gnarly
body horror when it wants to be Taylor Russell and
Timothy schallomet sell the tragedy. Mark Ryland steals scenes as
(18:24):
a deeply unsettling older eater, and the whole thing feels
like a well, like a Thanksgiving movie from a parallel universe,
one you don't want to visit. As of this recording,
it's available with subscription on Prime Video and also cinophile
focused streamer movie, so it's an easy one to add
(18:46):
to a chilly night double feature. I also want to
mention I saw Luca Guadaldino's most recent film, After the Hunt,
which is not a horror movie, but my goodness, gracious,
it was excellent. I enjoyed the hell out of it.
And that My Spookies was this week in Horror History
(19:08):
for November eighteenth through twenty fifth. If you enjoyed our
little stroll through slashers, fog, monsters, and small town vampire plagues,
make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode.
We drop these every single Tuesday, and we'd love to
hear from you. Send us an email at weekly Spooky
(19:28):
at gmail dot com. And while you're doing favors for me,
why not also leave us a five star rating on
Apple Podcasts or Spotify to let other spookies know they're
in the right place. Also, tomorrow, right here on the Feed,
we'll have a brand new story from Michael Kelso and
it's a creepy one. So make sure you're back here
tomorrow for Weekly Spooky. And by the way, on Friday,
(19:52):
we're dropping a massive story compilation Thanksgiving horrors you will
not want to miss until then. Keep your windows latched,
your tapes rewound, and your calendar marked. And remember our
days are numbered. That's how we tell them apart. Now
back to trying to make a curtain out of holy water.
Late November is a weird time for horror. Jack o'
lanterns are collapsing in the yard, Christmas lights are half hung,
and the genre is busy sneaking in some of its strangest,
moodiest releases while everybody else is thinking about turkeys and shopping.
(00:22):
This week in horror History, we're pitching our tent at
the edge of the holidays, a summer camp shocker with
an all timer twist, a gothic decapitation fest from Tim Burton,
a supermarket siege full of cosmic despair, and a small
main town that quietly grew fangs on network television. If
(00:45):
you like your comfort movies with a side of existential dread,
well here in the right place. This week in horror History,
for the week of November eighteenth through twenty fifth, I'm
(01:06):
Enrique Kuto, your tour guide through the anniversary's oddities and
deep cuts that built the creepy calendar we live by.
On today's tour will mark the theatrical birthday of sleep
Away Camp. Revisit Sleepy Hollow's fog drenched headless horsemen and
(01:27):
watch the mist roll into theaters. Then we'll talk about
a cult classic launch title that turned the Xbox three
sixty into a crime scene simulator. And after the break,
we'll dive into Toby Hooper's Salem's Lot, the mini series
that made an entire generation afraid of their own bedroom windows.
(01:54):
November eighteenth, nineteen eighty three, sleep Away Camp slashes its
way into theaters. New York audiences get first blood as
Robert Hiltzick's low budget slasher sleep Away Camp opens and
tries to ride the post Friday the Thirteenth wave, which
was riding the post Halloween wave. On paper, it's another
(02:19):
camp set body Count movie. In practice, it leans into
grubby detail and one of the most infamous final shots
in horror history. And if you don't know, you need
to find out. It crawled onto VHS, then into midnight
movie Cannon, and now it's a staple of the wait
(02:40):
you've never seen this lists and debates And I want
to say I went into sleep Away Camp completely and
utterly blind. I had heard, like crazy, this is gonna
set my age a bit on MySpace about how awesome
this box set for sleep Away Camp was. I'd never
(03:01):
heard of the movies beyond seeing the box covers in
video stores, so I went out and bought the sleep
Away Camp Survival Kit, which was a three disc set
from Anchor Bay. It was awesome, had lots of extras,
and it came in a box that looked like a
first aid kit. And actually that initial box got recalled
because they used a Red Cross on it, and ironically enough,
(03:24):
the Red Cross filed a cease and desist because I
guess they own that iconography. But I had no idea
what I was in for. And not only was sleep
Away Camp one pretty freakin' awesome, but I am a
massive supporter of the sequels as well. If you want
to revisit or finally witness that ending, it's free with
(03:49):
Prime right now on Amazon, or you can watch it
on Peacock with a subscription, or you can see it
completely and utterly free on places like to b pleaqu
and Pluto TV. At least as of the recording of
the show, there's no four K release of the original
yet on physical media, so you'll have to stick to
(04:10):
a standard Blu ray. But I've been enjoying very much
by four KUHD copies of the sequels. November nineteenth, nineteen
ninety nine. Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow gallops into cinemas Paramount
drops Sleepy Hollow in the pre Thanksgiving slot, giving Tim
(04:32):
Burton the keys to Washington Irving's Headless Horseman and letting
him shoot a hammer horror love letter on a studio budget.
The result is fog and blood and more severed heads
than you can shake a stick at. Although I don't
know why you'd want to anchored by Johnny Depp playing
Ichabod Crane as a fussy proto forensic nerd, and actually,
(04:57):
while it does borrow a lot from hammer horle horror films,
I think it borrows even more, at least in the
depiction of Ichabod Crane from nineteen eighty five's Fright Night,
directed by Tom Holland, not Spider Man, the Child's Play.
Tom Holland a vampire film I have a great deal
of fondness for because there's a character in there named
(05:18):
Peter Vincent, who is a vampire hunter in movies and
hosts horror movies on television, who ends up becoming a
real life vampire hunter, albeit very very reluctantly, and a
lot of his mannerisms and reaction to the situation. Really,
I think Depp at the very least watched Fright Night
(05:39):
a couple of times, you know, had a Blockbuster night
and got some inspiration. If you're in the mood for
autumn vibes long after Halloween ends, It's free on Pluto TV,
or you can rent or buy it digitally on the
usual suspects like Prime Video, Apple TV, or you could
even spin that long standing paramount Blu Raye. I'm due
(06:01):
for a revisit of Sleepy Hollow. Hey, Dave, if you're listening,
bring it over. November twenty one, two thousand and seven,
The Mist blankets theaters. Huh boy, talk about another shock ending.
Frank Derabant, the guy who turned the Shawshank Redemption into
(06:24):
a comfort movie, adapts Stephen King's novella The Mist and
delivers Pure Despair. Derabant would later go on to massive
success as one of the showrunners for the long running
Walking Dead. The film follows a main supermarket full of
ordinary people in a kind of love crafty and fog,
(06:46):
then watches their fear mutate into religion, mob rule, and
one of the bleakest endings in mainstream horror, if not
all the way through the genre, it didn't blow the
doors off the box office, but its reputation has only grown,
especially in light of that gut punch final scene. Currently,
(07:08):
you can stream The Mist on platforms like Peacock and
Paramount Plus, or grab the Blu ray that includes Darabot's
preferred black and white cut that makes it feel like
a lost nineteen fifties horror movie. November twenty second, two
thousand and five, Condemned Criminal Origins launches with Xbox three sixty.
(07:34):
When Microsoft rolls out the Xbox three sixty, one of
its launch titles is a filthy little first person horror
game from Monolith called Condemned Criminal Origins. You play an
FBI investigator chasing a serial killer through rotting apartments, abandoned malls,
and subway tunnels, doing more forensic work with a lead
(07:57):
pipe than with a lab. It's focus on melee combat,
forensic puzzles, and sheer grime made it a cult classic
and a formative I really shouldn't be playing this at
two am experience. Physical copies still trade hands, but in
a very twoenty twenty five twist, the game has been
(08:19):
delisted from major digital storefronts, sparking rumors and wishful thinking
about a possible remaster. I want to take a quick
moment to thank save Arista Coffee for sponsoring this episode
of This Week in Horror History. If you love the
bold flavor of coffee, but sometimes you just can't handle
(08:43):
another cop After ten pm, while you're binge watching the
entire four K collection of Nightmare on Elm Street, well
save Arista. As you covered if you had to save
aresta dot Com, you'll see all kinds of decalf and
half calf blends that taste premium, but with a whole
lot less caffeine, so the jitters you get will only
be from the man with razor knives who haunts your dreams.
(09:05):
You can head to save aresta dot com and use
promo code Spooky at checkout and you'll get twenty five
percent off your order, and every purchase supports our program directly.
So head to save aresta dot Com, use promo code
Spooky at checkout, get your discount and support the show.
Huge thank you to save Aresta dot com for their support.
(09:27):
After the break, we're driving up to Salem's Lot, where
the real estate is cheap and the vampires well they're plentiful.
(09:50):
Now that we're back, let's talk about a mini series
that permanently ruined the idea of looking out your bedroom
window at especially if you live on the second floor.
Our deep cut Spotlight this Week lands on Salem's Lot,
the nineteen seventy nine CBS mini series that proved you
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could sneak genuinely terrifying vampire horror onto network television. For
those uninitiated, there were several very famous examples of TV
made horror films in the seventies that emotionally and psychologically
scarred an entire generation. Dark Knight of the Scarecrow comes
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to mind that might have been the early eighties, and
another one that's really famous is the Trilogy of Terror.
Basically anything Dan Curtis touched It Turned to Gold if
You're a Psychiatrist. Directed by Toby Hooper, who had directed
Texas Chainsaw Massacre just a few years earlier, and based
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on Stephen King's nineteen seventy five novel, it aired over
two nights November seventeenth and twenty fourth, which puts the
second half squarely in This Week in Horror history. Instead
of a suave, talkative Dracula type, Hooper and Company gave
us Kurt Barlow as a chalk skinned rat, toothed no
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speratu who never speaks, just hisses and lunges out of
the dark. And don't get me started on the eyes.
The contact lenses were mortifying, even before you remember that
this is the seventies, so those lenses in his eyes
were made of glass. The setup is simple. Writer Ben
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Mears returns to his hometown of Jerusalem's Lot to work
through a childhood trauma involving the creepy Marston House on
the Hill, only to find that a mysterious antiques dealer
and his unseen partner have moved in and the locals
are starting to look up a little pale, even for
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New England. What makes Salem's Lot special isn't just the plot,
but the way it weaponizes every day small town life.
Gossiping neighbors, bored kids, a local priest, all slowly swallowed
by an infection nobody wants to name. Visually, it's pure
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late seventies comfort, horror, paneled walls, boxy cars, blue tinted night.
But Hooper keeps dropping images that feel like urban legends
come to life. The often referenced glick boy tapping on
the window, the corpse that sits up on the Morgue table,
that Antler impalement at the Marston House. It's no wonder.
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Later creators of vampire stories, from the aforementioned Fright Night
to Buffy to Midnight Mass have cited Salem's Lot as
a major influence. If you've only ever heard about it, Well,
we have some moderately good news. It's still available, but
you'll have to rent it on your preferred service like
Prime Video, Apple TV, wherever you rent your movies. There's
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also a very solid Blu Ray addition in circulation. I
have it, and it's pretty cool. It is a very
long movie. They put them together instead of presenting it
as a mini series, although it feels like a two
part mini series. I guess that. Okay, I'll shut up.
That is a very mini series, I suppose, but heed
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my suggestion. Maybe don't watch it right before bed, especially
if your bedroom window doesn't have curtains made of garlic
and holy water. Okay, I don't know how you'd make
curtains out of holy water, but I mean science has
come a long way since seventy nine, right, right, let's
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light some candles black ones, obviously, for this week's birthday
role November eighteenth, nineteen sixty two. Kurt Hammett is born.
Metallica's lead guitarist, is also one of the world's most
famous classic horror collectors, with a museum worthy stash of
posters and props and the coffee table book too much
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Horror Business to prove it. November nineteenth, nineteen sixty two.
Jody Foster was born, an all time great who gave
us one of horror's most iconic final girls as Clarice
Starling in the Silence of the Lambs. Also, I want
to mention this is one of those examples, a very
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early perfect example of a film being a horror movie,
but then people trying to kind of scoot it under
the rug as, oh, well it's a thriller. Well, sure
it's a thriller, but it has a guy biting somebody's
nose off. I think it's a horror movie. So just
hand over the oscar and let's stop arguing about semantics. Yes,
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I'm aware, I'm in a room alone. November twentieth, nineteen
forty eight. Richard Maser. Genre fans know him as Clark
the dog Handler and John Carpenter's The Thing and as
an adult stan URIs in the nineteen ninety IT mini series,
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and I can't wait to talk about the thing when
the time comes. Four are then, and now we're raising
a glass or maybe a lightning rod to Frankenstein. On
November twenty first, nineteen thirty one, Universal officially released James
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Wales Frankenstein in the United States, cementing Boris Karloff's flat
topped creature. And of course this moment I want to mention.
When I was trying to find that sound effect for
the show, everything I found was from young Frankenstein and
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not the original, So that goes to show you how
iconic moments can morph and evolve in the zeitgeist. I
guess it's only seventy minutes long, but between the lab equipment,
the little girl at the lake, and the burning windmill,
it pretty much wrote the visual language of Mad Scientist
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horror as it would come to be known. Fast forward
to right now, and Frankenstein is back in the conversation
thanks to Guermo Del Toro's new adaptation, rolling out theatrically
in the fall and hitting Netflix in early November. It's
actually available right now, and I'm ashamed to say I
haven't had a chance to sit down and watch it yet.
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Del Toro is leaning closer to Mary Shelley's novel, but
he's also openly paying homage to the nineteen thirty one
film that first terrified him as a kid. It's a
pretty cool full circle moment. Ninety plus years after that
original November release, the same stitched together myth is still
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being jolted back to life for a new generation. And
of course, as we wrap up this week's episode, I
have to give you my weekly recommendation, and this one's
a little more recent. It's Bones and All from twenty
twenty two. Luca Guadagnino's melancholy Cannibal Road movie, which opened
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wide in the US on November eighteenth, twenty twenty two,
is set against the wide open Midwest in the nineteen eighties.
It follows two young eaters as they become known, who
bond over a shared urge to consume people and hit
the road in search of family, belonging and maybe a
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way to live with the hunger. It's a slow burn,
part doomed romance, part Americana travelogue, actually filmed not far
from where I live, but it's also part absolutely gnarly
body horror when it wants to be Taylor Russell and
Timothy schallomet sell the tragedy. Mark Ryland steals scenes as
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a deeply unsettling older eater, and the whole thing feels
like a well, like a Thanksgiving movie from a parallel universe,
one you don't want to visit. As of this recording,
it's available with subscription on Prime Video and also cinophile
focused streamer movie, so it's an easy one to add
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to a chilly night double feature. I also want to
mention I saw Luca Guadaldino's most recent film, After the Hunt,
which is not a horror movie, but my goodness, gracious,
it was excellent. I enjoyed the hell out of it.
And that My Spookies was this week in Horror History
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for November eighteenth through twenty fifth. If you enjoyed our
little stroll through slashers, fog, monsters, and small town vampire plagues,
make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode.
We drop these every single Tuesday, and we'd love to
hear from you. Send us an email at weekly Spooky
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at gmail dot com. And while you're doing favors for me,
why not also leave us a five star rating on
Apple Podcasts or Spotify to let other spookies know they're
in the right place. Also, tomorrow, right here on the Feed,
we'll have a brand new story from Michael Kelso and
it's a creepy one. So make sure you're back here
tomorrow for Weekly Spooky. And by the way, on Friday,
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we're dropping a massive story compilation Thanksgiving horrors you will
not want to miss until then. Keep your windows latched,
your tapes rewound, and your calendar marked. And remember our
days are numbered. That's how we tell them apart. Now
back to trying to make a curtain out of holy water.
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