Alas, we’ve reached the final entry in this year’s Halloween Horrors series. The good news is that tomorrow is Halloween and we can all finally celebrate the day that we’ve spent all month anticipating and paying tribute to. Of course, the posts in this series don’t disappear once October ends and will be available year round, just in case you need a little dose of Halloween in the middle of next May.

Speaking of a “dose of Halloween”, we’re closing out this year’s series with a look at a film that provides a large dose of Halloween, as well as a steady IV drip of 1980s’ nostalgia. Today’s entry comes to us from our good friend Andrew “King of Horror” Guthlein of the horror podcast Talking Terror. Andy first joined our series back in 2017 with a few thoughts on the iconic Leatherface and has been a steadfast supporter and contributor to this series ever since. As always, you can catch “King G” and the rest of the Talking Terror crew for new episodes each Wednesday at 9pm EST. (Talking Terror: LINK)

As we close out the series for another year, let me once again offer thanks to all of this year’s contributors. Let me also thank all of you that have been reading these posts. However you choose to spend the holiday, know that I sincerely wish each and every one of you the happiest of Halloweens! Thank you for allowing me to share my love for horror and Halloween with you these last 9 years, and thank you for sharing your love with me.

 

WNUF Halloween Special

 By Andrew Guthlein

From a young age (and even now as a grown man), Halloween has been my favorite holiday. Sure, Christmas was fun, tearing up gift wrap and finding a sweet Nintendo underneath, but Halloween… Halloween was special! You could be whatever you wanted and score as much candy as possible… and boy, did we all try. However, aside from all of that, one of my favorite things about the spookiest of seasons was, of course, the Halloween specials. Whether it was a sitcom airing their yearly special or a special local news report, the Halloween specials were always something I was eagerly looking forward to. So, cut to many years later when I discovered the WNUF Halloween Special.

Released in 2013 and directed by Chris LaMartina (as well as several others), this “found footage”-style film focuses on an infamous television broadcast from October 31, 1987. Airing on the fictional WNUF TV28, the Halloween Special focuses on intrepid local television reporter Frank Stewart (played wonderfully by actor Paul Fahrenkopf) investigating the supposedly haunted Weber House, the site of the “spirit board” murders. Stewart, with the help of paranormal investigators Claire and Howard Berger (a comedic send up of Ed and Lorraine Warren), as well as local Priest Joseph Matheson, hopes to investigate the spirits of the Weber house and to possibly perform an exorcism to rid the place of evil. Of course, things begin to go wrong and this Halloween Special soon earns its “infamous” place in analog history.

Aside from the established plot of the movie itself, what truly makes the WNUF Halloween Special, well, special, is the commercials! Yes, you are technically watching a special that was taped off of television back in 1987, so you are going to get a plethora of local ads. These range from carpet warehouse commercials, political attack ads, basic cable sitcoms and movies, and spots advertising different shows that air on the network (my personal favorite being a spot for a heavy metal show called “The Quarry”). These commercials break up the action, but also add to the overall nostalgia experience of the movie. Sure, some ads may repeat themselves, but to that I say “what local station didn’t repeat the same ads while watching a broadcast of any time?” 

The WNUF Halloween Special is a project made out of love for the Halloween season. It’s apparent while watching the movie that Chris LaMartina appreciates this time of year as much as I and many of you do as well. It not only has that special Fall season feeling, but it just takes you back to a simpler time; a time when you would get home from a long day of trick or treating door to door and then crash down in front of the television to watch all of the spooky specials, all the while tearing into fun-size wrapped candies. (If you were lucky, you would hit a house with the full-size candy bars. That was the greatest of victories!) 

 

For those of us that have seen the WNUF Halloween Special, a big question is, “how did you discover this movie?”. I, myself, was able to find it through Camp Motion Pictures on DVD, but a lucky few found the movie through a “whisper campaign”, thanks to director Chris LaMartina and the producers. The crew would leave VHS copies of the movie at local horror conventions and would even toss copies out of car windows in the Baltimore area in hopes of sparking conversation about the movie. If that isn’t genius independent marketing, I don’t know what is.

In closing, if you are a fan of “found footage” movies or even Halloween nostalgia from a time gone by (like the 1980’s), I urge you to seek out the WNUF Halloween Special. It’s sure to be a viewing full of spooky and shocking tricks and treats. Happy Halloween!