The possibilities are endless when it comes to a good scare. The horror anthology is a rarity in the genre but when executed successfully they are beloved. Andrea and Alex do a deep dive into two infamous cult classics which deal in a variety of stories taking place around everyone’s favourite holiday.
REQUIRED READING
Creepshow. Dir George A Romero, 1982.
Trick ‘r Treat. Dir Michael Dougherty, 2007.
EXTRA CREDIT
Trick ‘r Treat: Season’s Greetings – The short that started it all.
History of Halloween. An extensive overview on how the holiday came to be.
Faculty of Horror’s 31 Days of Halloween – Take a look at Alex and Andrea‘s list of horror movies to watch in the spookiest month.
Stephen King’s Reign of Terror. We team up with our friends at Movies Ruined My Life for a three hour episode all about King.
COURSE NOTES
Intro song: Nail Ballet from Nightmare Picture Theatre, courtesy of James Zirco Fisher.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
My podcast app won’t download the episode! When I click the link to download the Mp3 from the blog it says “page not found”. Help! I need my Halloween installment of FoH!
Sorry Boo, looks like the link broke overnight. I believe I’ve fixed it – can you try again please?
Great episode, as always! I’m planning to revisit both these flicks for the holiday, with the bonus excitement of introducing them to my freshly-dug-up girlfriend who is fairly new to horror culture. Happy Halloween!
Loved the episode. Great pair of movies–and I only watched Trick ‘R Treat this evening. Really enjoyed its acts of misdirection in particular.
On the Halloween note, since I’m always watching horror or listening to horror soundtracks or extreme forms of music and thinking I look cool in my heavy metal jacket and tatts, I like to pick something lighter for my costume. This year I’m going as The Dude. Happy Halloween all!
I was talking with friends about go to Halloween horror films and these two were top of my list. They are both more creepy fun the out right scary. They both have vibrant colours and are visually intersting.
Happy Halloween! Fun episode as always. I hadn’t seen Creepshow before until it became homework and it was enjoyable. My favorite had to be ‘The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill’. The buffoonery dovetailed into that wonderfully nihilistic ending and it suggests how very thin the veil between comedy and tragedy (or horror for that matter) really is.
By the way, I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one who listened to a Halloween sound effects cassette in January! For me, I needed a little bit of Halloween all year round.
I saw this video today and thought it might be up the Faculty’s alley. Another Halloween take at the intersection of academia and genre fandom — China Mieville on Marxism and Halloween: http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2908-boo-it-s-china-mieville-on-marxism-and-halloween?discount_code=40AutumnHighlights&utm_source=Master+List&utm_campaign=7f66ce6465-US+Direct+-+Autumn+Halloween+treats%21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1f96ba5fab-7f66ce6465-410253629
so can i crash on your couch for the next 4 to 8 years please?
Yep
I really liked the episode as a whole, as I usually do. However, when discussing Trick R’ Treat (particularly the schoolbus portion), the use of “savant” as a descriptor is not only off, but a bit icky. Worth keeping in mind the attachment to the term “idiot savant” when reffering to people with ASD (clearly what the film is attempting to portray). Not to be overly shitty, but it aggravates the hell out of me when ASD is treated as a superpower. So, I couldn’t help myself.
Something I find interesting is that the premise of “The Lonesome Death…” is extremely similar to HP Lovecraft’s “Color out of Space”. The two diverge into very different stories but the Color out of Space is about a meteor that lands on a remote farm. The family gets into contact with scientists from a nearby university, and eventually the whole family succumbs to a bizarre disease caused by what’s implied to be an alien life form. I can’t help but think this isn’t accidental, and maybe King and Romero were giving a little tip of the hat to a horror icon of an earlier generation.
Love this podcast. One thing about creepshow that you guys didn’t mention was the reoccurring ashtray in every short. It’s a little onyx black ashtray with a silver figure. It’s the one Bedelia used to kill her dad in the Father’s Day short.
Speaking of horror anthologies, have you ever seen the old TV show, “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” It was a 90s TV show, and I think it was Canadian. As someone who’s too afraid to watch or read most horror (and yet still listens to your podcast because it’s awesome and I love your analyses), this was right up my alley as a kid.
I may have listened to this podcast approaching a decade later, but Sam isn’t a horror icon anywhere near the level of those slasher series you mentioned, nor was he back when this movie went direct-to-DVD. The Babadook is a more iconic single-movie horror entity.