This Week in Horror History | Evil Dead, The Ring & The Haunting of Hill House (Oct 12

Mid-October has stopped pretending to be autumn and started auditioning for Halloween. The leaves scrape the pavement, every dark window looks occupied, and the skeleton on your neighbor's porch has officially been there long enough to receive mail. This week, a family reunion comes with ghosts, a Michigan premiere unleashes a cabin full of demons, and a heavily armed tactical team discovers that equipment is no substitute for an exit plan.

Then a videotape gives us seven days to regret pressing play. After the break, a rockabilly killer brings a guitar with one deeply impractical modification. So check the corners, distrust your TV, and never let the guy from the hardware store join your rock and roll band. Welcome back to This Week in Horror History. Your weekly time machine through the creepiest anniversaries in film, TV, books, comics... and games. Tonight we're talking all about October 12th through 18th. Coming up, The Haunting of Hill House makes the family home everybody's problem.

The Evil Dead meets its first public audience. Fear puts you on point for the worst night you've ever had at the office. And The Ring makes a ringing telephone sound like a death sentence. Then our deep-cut spotlight, Slumber Party Massacre Part 2. Bad dreams, a girl's rock band, and a guitar solo nobody would ever request. October 12th, 2018, Netflix releases all ten episodes of The Haunting of Hill House, and Mike Flanagan gives us a haunted house you can move out of without... ever really leaving. His reimagining of Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel follows the five Crane siblings between their childhood in the mansion and adult lives, still shaped by what happened there. The family has scattered, but the damage,

not so much. Some remember monsters. Some remember parents who failed them. Everyone brings a different version of the same. terrible night. Thanksgiving must be a hoot there. Flanagan makes the ghosts frightening without letting them do all the work. Addiction, grief, estrangement, and denial keep opening doors the family thought were shut.

A conversation can hurt just as much as a knife to the back or an apparition going boo. Though an apparition does make it harder to finish a conversation. It is a hell of an October binge because the scares and the people matter so much. You want the cranes to escape even when they can't agree on what they're even escaping from. This was an incredibly addictive series that grabbed me from the first episode and had me just enthralled for ten episodes. If you've not seen it, start early.

Get watching it because it will pull you into a Halloween vibe that you will really enjoy. All 10 episodes are available exclusively on Netflix with your subscription. October 15th, 1981. The Evil Dead has its first public screening at Detroit's Redford Theater. It was still called Book of the Dead at that point. Forty-five years later, that little cabin is considerably more famous than its occupants would have preferred. Sam Raimi, producer Robert Tappert, Bruce Campbell, and their Michigan collaborators had fought through a difficult Tennessee shoot to get here. The result was five young people, one isolated cabin, and a recording that nobody should play. But, of course, naturally, they played it. Nobody ever discovers an ancient recording in a

horror movie and decides to catch up on the weather instead. What follows is frantic, handmade terror. The camera charges through the woods, the cabin feels less than safe, and Ash is not yet the confident wisecracker of later adventures, although he is still a pretty solid anti-hero, if you ask me. Right now, though, he's mostly trying to remain in one piece, and in this film... sort of does. I've been saying for a long time that the original Evil Dead it's my favorite of all of the series and not because it's the best or because it has the most lore or the biggest laughs but because it is the creepiest.

It's the one that actually kind of makes me unnerved and uncomfortable and it's the perfect Halloween one to watch because it will leave you feeling like you spent the night in that cabin and now You don't know what the hell is waiting for you outside it. The later U.S. commercial release came in 1983. It made about $ 2. 4 million domestically and $ 29. 4 million worldwide against a $ 375 million budget.

Those numbers aren't exactly 100%. That's just what I could find. I imagine worldwide might have meant a longer period, but... No matter how you look at the numbers, it was a monumental hit. It established Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell as major players in entertainment, and it all started at the Redford Theatre. in Detroit. If you want to give Evil Dead a watch, you really should, especially if you've somehow never seen it. It's available right now to watch on HBO Max with your subscription, and of course you can rent or buy it digitally through places like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at home. October 17th, 2005.

Vivendi announces that Fear has shipped to stores with retail availability scheduled for the following day. Developed by Monolith, First Encounter Assault Recon puts you in the boots of the Point Man, investigating a psychic commander and his clone soldiers. Then Alma appears and your extremely serious tactical operation becomes a ghost story with... Excellent muzzle flashes. The gunfights are fast and physical. Slow motion reflexes turn flying debris into spectacle while enemies communicate flank and force you out of cover.

For a moment you feel prepared for anything. Then the corridor goes quiet. A small figure appears where nobody should be. Suddenly all that ammunition feels like an administrative detail. That switch is the trick of the game. Let you feel powerful, then introduce something your training can't explain. The next doorway might start a firefight, but the next ladder might ruin your evening. GOG sells Fear Platinum, including the original game and both expansions, with Windows 11 verification in its preservation program.

So try and find it if you can. Give it a play. Have a good time. October 18th, 2002, The Ring opens in U.S. theaters, and the worst thing about a rental tape is no longer that somebody forgot to rewind it. Naomi Watts plays Rachel Keller, a journalist investigating a videotape linked to deaths seven days after viewing. Gore Verbinski directs the American remake of Hideo Nakata's 1988 Japanese film, itself adapted from Koji Suzuki's novel. The hook is beautifully cruel.

Watching is how you investigate. Watching is also how you become the next person who needs investigating. The television sits in your living room patiently waiting to stop being inert furniture. This is a classic. I mean, the Japanese original is phenomenal, but there's something about that 2002 The Ring that just checks all those... 2000-era horror movie boxes, and I feel like they've all aged shockingly well. It opened at number one with about $ 15 million. After expanding from 1,981 to 2,634 theaters, it climbed to roughly $ 18. 5 million the next weekend. The numbers list $ 129. 1 million domestic and $ 248 million worldwide against a $ 48 million production budget. That's a lot of people

paying to become... suspicious of their own phones and then vcrs and tvs but hey we gotta have some fun somehow it's available to watch right now on paramount plus with your subscription or you can rent or buy it on amazon video apple tv and fandango at home Tomorrow, on Weekly Spooky, as we bring you yet another spooky season tale, Trevor Gillespie's Halloween assignment is simple. Guard a bankrupt blood bank. No candies, No costume parties, just one miserable overnight shift that he never wanted. Then, somebody knocks.

The visitor is pale, polite, and very interested in coming inside. Trevor says no. Unfortunately, his customer has fangs, an agenda, and a dangerous talent for exploiting. careless words. Now a paralegal must protect the blood supply without becoming the freshest donation. I'm Banking On It by Tyler Belmont premieres tomorrow on Weekly Spooky as one of our many Halloween stories. So make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it and all the other bonus Halloween content every single day. So subscribe on your favorite podcast app and While you're at it, watch your wording, guard your throat, and remember, not every bloodsucker works for the bank. Alright, time for a quick breather.

But when we come back, Slumber Party Massacre 2 puts a power drill on a guitar and somehow makes that into everybody else's problem. Let's buzz. All right, my spookies, we're back. So let's meet a man who heard Killer Guitar Solo and took it literally. On October 16th, 1987, Slumber Party Massacre 2 gets a small Los Angeles theatrical opening before heading to home video. Writer-director Deborah Brock does not settle for another guy with another drill. She gives the drill a frontman. Crystal Bernard plays Courtney Bates, Valerie's younger sister from the first film. A weekend with her bandmates promises romance and a break from terrible memories. The Nightmares, though, they have other plans. Enter Atanas Illich as the Driller Killer.

Black leather, rockabilly swagger, and an electric guitar with a spinning drill bit. There are easier ways to get thrown out of a band, but this'll do. The first movie mixed a direct slasher threat with heaps of dark humor, but part two swerves into music video lighting, grotesque visions, and a killer who treats stalking like an audition. Courtney can't trust what she sees, but also... Neither can we.

The killer doesn't just enter scenes, he performs them. It's frightening but silly and wildly committed to whatever terrible idea just came to its mind. Working titles for it included Don't Let Go and Go For It. The end credits warning threatens unauthorized copiers with a midnight visit from the driller killer. Apparently the copyright department also books live entertainment.

This film is everything to me. It is fun. It's silly. It's gory. It's campy. It's super duper 80s. And it's just such a fascinating direction because Slumber Party Massacre 1, it's a classic. It's a legendary movie. It's got a lot of weird, creepy subtext. It's got a lot of great humor. Then 2 is the driller killer with a guitar.

Then 3 is the really heavy, dark one. Yeah, if you've never seen Slumber Party Massacre 3, it is a doozy. I love it, but it is a nasty little piece of work. I actually just recently randomly threw this film at my buddies on a Friday night movie night at my house. We put it on the big projector screen and they had to learn, you say why, I say because let's buzz. And this film did not have any theatrical grosses because this was a movie purely made for home video. And it has all the fun necessary to bring that joy, that VHS fun to the world. So it's not a Halloween-y pick per se. It's more of a summer fun gore fest with a lot of bizarre and memorable moments and a few sing-alongs if you're into

that kind of thing. But I think it's an unruly October pick. And it's one of those examples where so many sequels repeat the original, but this one asks whether the murder weapon could headline a show and if you can compete with B.B. King. So all I say is, you say why. I say because let's buzz. It's available to watch right now on Prime Video, Shudder, and AMC Plus with your subscription or free with ads on Tubi.

So you can't beat that with a stick. It's free. but maybe you could beat it with a drill guitar. Now it's time for some horror-related birthdays, and we've got some legends here yet again. First up, born on October 14th, 1944, is Udo Kier. Remembering the cult icon of flesh for Frankenstein, blood for Dracula, Suspiria, and Blade, a face that could make a perfectly ordinary introduction feel... Not ordinary, to say the least. There's no one quite like Udo Kier. A very happy birthday to Mr. Udo Kier. Born on October 16th, 1958, is Tim Robbins. His unraveling performance in Jacob's Ladder makes you want answers almost as badly as his character does.

It's a standout in a career of standouts. A very happy birthday to Tim Robbins. Born on October 17th, 1948, Margot Kidder, Black Christmas, Sisters, the reincarnation of Peter Proud, and, of course, the Amityville Horror, an extraordinary horror resume with enough attitude to keep the darkness on its toes. She always had that little extra something, that made her roles stand out, especially in her horror films. Happy birthday, Margot Kidder.

And finally, born on October 18th, 1927, is George C. Scott, a man who brought so much to The Changeling and The Exorcist 3. Few people could demand answers from the impossible with as much authority as he could. He made anything he was in elevated substantially in that, of course meant it would be much scarier. So a very happy birthday to George C. Scott and to all of our horror birthdays. This week for our Then and Now, listen to what changes across this week's stories. In The Evil Dead, the recording carries the danger into the room. In The Ring, the screen brings it home Fear makes us move through the nightmare ourselves. Hill House keeps changing the story by showing who remembers it. Different technology, same terrible bargain. You

want to know what happened and finding out means you'll get closer. Then Slumber Party Massacre 2 throws in a guitar drill because apparently horror history can't sit through one serious observation without questioning somebody plugging in an amplifier. And for our weekly recommendation, this is a classic. We're heading back to October 18th, 1984, when Re-Animator opens in New York, with Los Angeles following a week later. Stuart Gordon's loose adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's Herbert West stories stars Jeffrey Combs as a medical student whose glowing green reagent can restart dead tissue. His people skills could use a little reanimation as well. Bruce Abbott plays Dan Cain, the roommate pulled

into West's experiments, and Barbara Crampton is Megan Halsey, who has an excellent reason to distrust the new arrival. West doesn't see a catastrophe, all he sees is a result that requires further testing. The comedy comes from how seriously he takes himself while everything around him gets messier and messier, and I mean messier. You laugh, recoil, and then realize the next experiment has already started. The original release went out unrated rather than risk and X rating, which restricted advertising.

The best numbers I could find require... roughly $ 2 million domestically. The budget report differs a lot, with some places saying $ 900, 000. I would guess it's somewhere between a half a mil and $ 900, 000. That's just my opinion. But it did very, very well on home video because that is what this film was really built for. And Re-Animator is one of those movies I've watched dozens of times since I was a teenager because the sense of humor, the cool characters, the wild effects, and the world building really grab you deeply.

And I love the sequels, too. I've always thought of Beyond Reanimator as the most Halloween-y of all of them because I saw it on Halloween at Horrorama as a surprise screening. It's funny, it's frantic, and it's thoroughly disreputable. Just keep the glowing green stuff away from your refreshments. Trust me on that. It's available to watch free with ads on Tubi or through participating libraries on Hoopla, and of course you can rent or purchase it on Apple TV, Fandango at Home, and Amazon Prime Video. If you've never seen Reanimator somehow, get off your butt and check it out.

It's absolutely beyond worth your time. Well, my spookies, that's your trip through October 12th through 18th in horror history. Don't play the tape, trust the corridor, or ask the driller killer for an encore. Although he does a hell of a version of Easy Like Sunday Morning, but, uh... It kind of reminds me of being at the dentist's office at the same time. Tomorrow, Wednesday, don't miss I'm Banking On It by Tyler Belmont, a brand new original weekly spooky Halloween horror story. One paralegal, one blood bank, and one visitor who really needs to learn what closed means, but maybe he can't hear past his fangs and thirst.

We'll have to find out. And remember, all October long, we have nothing but great Halloween content for you to enjoy so you can enjoy this season to its fullest, whether it be more short horror fiction, free novellas, or even a movie review or two. You don't want to miss it, so make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcast app. And of course, I'll be right back here next Tuesday with more horror history for you to enjoy.

So until next time, remember, our days are numbered. because that's how we tell them apart. See you next week.

This Week in Horror History | Evil Dead, The Ring & The Haunting of Hill House (Oct 12–18)

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