The Monster Squad, Cujo, The Fly, The Others, Jason Goes to Hell, and Lovecraft Country headline this episode of This Week in Horror History, covering August 10 through August 16. As summer horror starts giving way to spooky season, we’re beginning the Halloween horror pregame with classic monsters, Stephen King terror, haunted-house mysteries, Jason Voorhees, cosmic horror, rabid-animal survival, and one of David Cronenberg’s greatest body-horror transformations.
Inside this episode:
August 10, 2001 — The Others opens in U. S. theaters
Nicole Kidman waits inside a fogbound mansion where every curtain must remain closed, every doorway follows a strict ritual, and mysterious footsteps suggest that Grace and her light-sensitive children may not be alone. Alejandro Amenábar builds a gothic ghost story from silence, grief, locked rooms, and competing versions of reality.
August 12, 1983 — Cujo opens in U. S. theaters
Stephen King turns a gentle Saint Bernard into the center of a brutally simple survival nightmare. Dee Wallace and a young child become trapped inside a failing car beneath the blazing summer sun while a rabid dog waits outside and their supposed shelter slowly becomes an oven. August 13, 1993 — Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday opens in U. S. theaters
The Friday the 13th franchise blows apart the familiar image of Jason Voorhees and transforms him into a body-hopping demonic force. Family bloodlines, possession horror, temporary human hosts, gruesome transformations, and one unforgettable final tease send Jason into his strange New Line era.
August 16, 2020 — Lovecraft Country premieres on HBO
Misha Green’s supernatural horror series follows Atticus Freeman, Letitia Lewis, and Uncle George across 1950s Jim Crow America, where sundown towns and systemic violence can be as deadly as the ancient creatures waiting in the dark. Cosmic horror, family history, inherited trauma, magic, body horror, and American history collide.
Deep-Cut Spotlight — The Monster Squad
Dracula arrives with the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Gill Man, and Frankenstein’s creature—and the only people prepared to stop them are a group of young horror fans who have spent their lives memorizing monster rules.
Directed by Fred Dekker and written by Dekker and Shane Black, The Monster Squad turns fandom into survival training. A German diary must be translated, silver bullets must be tested, an ancient amulet must be protected, and a treehouse club has one night to prevent classic evil from taking control of the world.
Funny, adventurous, spooky, and unexpectedly heartfelt, The Monster Squad became a beloved cult horror movie through cable television, home video, and generations of monster kids passing it along to the next generation. It is also perfect viewing for anyone beginning their annual Halloween movie-season pregame.
Horror Birthdays This Week:
Alfred Hitchcock, Halle Berry, Natasha Henstridge, and James Cameron enter the birthday roll, bringing connections to Psycho, The Birds, Gothika, Dark Tide, Species, Aliens, and some of horror and science-fiction cinema’s most memorable killers, creatures, transformations, and survival stories.
Weekly Recommendation — The Fly
David Cronenberg’s The Fly celebrates its 40th anniversary with a story that remains romantic, disgusting, funny, tragic, and profoundly human.
Jeff Goldblum plays scientist Seth Brundle, whose revolutionary teleportation experiment goes horribly wrong when an unnoticed fly enters the pod beside him. The machine combines their genetic material, beginning a physical transformation that neither science, intelligence, nor love can reverse.
With Geena Davis as journalist Veronica Quaife, Academy Award-winning makeup effects, unforgettable body horror, and a devastating central relationship, The Fly remains one of the defining horror movies of the 1980s—and an essential addition to any early Halloween horror watchlist.
Plus, Weekly Spooky returns Wednesday with another original horror story, followed by more terrifying history, strange mysteries, horror movie discussion, and unexplained broadcasts throughout the week. From The Others and Cujo to Jason Goes to Hell, Lovecraft Country, The Monster Squad, and The Fly, this week in horror history proves that terror can hide inside a locked mansion, wait outside a stalled car, move from body to body, follow a family across America, gather the classic monsters, or emerge from a teleportation pod. The calendar may still say August, but the Halloween horror pregame is officially underway.
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