Scary Movie Book Club

Cabin at the End of the World (Knock at the Cabin)

Knock at the Cabin (2023) was adapted from Cabin at the End of the World (2018) written by Peter G. Tremblay. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan who wrote the screenplay along with Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, it stars Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn, and Kristen Cui. 
We were so excited we forgot our intro!
The movie and book are heavy in symbolism and Susie tried her best to explain what she remembers from an Apocalyptic Literature theology class she took over 20 years ago with gaps filled in from quick internet searches. She takes full responsibility for any inaccuracies.
We're looking for book suggestions since The Vampire Lestat is off the table for this year. E-mail us at: scarymbc[at]gmail.com to send in some suggestions.
I Am Legend with Will Smith was from 2007, Book of Eli with Denzel Washington was 2010. Both movie posters were rocking similar vibes. Give them a google.
 

Jurassic Park

Join us as we discuss the 1993 movie directed by Steven Spielberg and the 1990 book of the same name written by Michael Crighton. A classic for any 90s kid, the movie stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum with supporting cast including Samuel L Jackson, BD Wong, and Richard Attenborough. Screenplay by Michael Crighton, David Koepp, and an uncredited Scotch Marmo who did a lot of work between Crighton's first draft and Koepp's final which ultimately saw its way onto the screen.
 
A few show notes:
Special Effects were done by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic.
The dinosaur that squirts toxins is a Dilophosaurus (we were in the ballpark but no way were we getting a home run on the name).
The actual numbers discrepancy between expected and found velociraptors was 8 expected and 37 found. Yes, Susie's eyes did fall out of her head.

The Monkey

Based on the 1980 horror story by Stephen King, 2025's The Monkey was written and directed by Osgood Perkins and stars Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery and Collin O'Brien.
 
Stephen King's Dollar Baby program ended December 31, 2023. He posted on Twitter that it was due to "Margaret, the Mistress of Dollar Babies is retiring." Margaret managed the program.
 
Osgood Perkins' father is Anthony Perkins (who acted in Psycho). His death is mentioned in Vanity Fair's article featuring an interview with Osgood Perkins.
 
"The Monkey's Paw" was written by W.W. Jacobs in 1902.
 

Creepshow (1982)

April Fools! This month the movie came first! Both released in 1982, Creepshow is an anthology of Stephen King shorts adapted for screen and comic.
Two of the stories, "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" and "The Crate" were both previously published as short stories. The former was originally titled "Weeds" (1976) and appeared in Cavalier Magazine, while the latter was published in 1979 under the same title in Gallery.
The movie, directed by George A. Romero, featured a plethora of familiar faces such as Leslie Nielsen, Ed Harris, and Ted Danson.

Horns by Joe Hill

Published in 2010 it was quickly turned into a movie three years later in 2013. Screenplay by Keith Bunin, directed by Alexandre Aja, and starring Danielle Radcliff, Max Minghella, and Juno Temple. 
We want to apologize for the sound quality on Kristine's mic. Sound check was good but it must have shifted shortly after because upon playback it sounded like she was far away from a mic that was literally pinned to her shirt.

The Silence of the Lambs

Based on the 1988 novel by Thomas Harris, the 1991 film adaptation stars Jody Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Ted Levine. Screenplay written by Ted Tally and directed by Johnathan Demme, the Oscar-Winning film was a real treat this month.
 
This month marks the first actual appearance of Vlad the tuxedo cat (all prior appearances cut for time).
Apologies for the speed variances. We were really excited to discuss and our mouths often got away from us.
Clarification on the screenplay: Kristine gives credit to Harris as a screenplay writer but it was all Ted Tally.

The Color Out of Space

Written by H. P. Lovecraft in 1927 and movie-ified for the 5th time in 2019. Directed and written by Richard Stanley (writing credits also to Scarlett Amaris), starring Nicholas Cage, Joey Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Elliot Knight and Tommy Chong.
For the first time ever we have a pod-guest, Emily from Tell Tale Books, who you can watch on YouTube for more book-discussing goodness.
In the episode we talk about Project Gutenberg for all your classics-reading needs if you want to delve further into Lovecraft without purchasing a giant tome.
Susie mentions Arkham Horror: the Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games as a gateway to Lovecraftian understanding.
Emily briefly talked about Lovecraft being on the autism spectrum (gosh I hope I'm describing that the right way). A google search brings up lots of message boards and even a book wherein the author delves into the possibility, but nothing on the first page that seems at all conclusive... probably because the man is dead.
Madeleine Arthur we mentioned was on "The Magicians" as Fragile Human, but the descriptor is "Frail".
A google search will bring up many articles explaining how the color Magenta doesn't actually exist. Check out Sci Show's video about it (because Sci Show is awesome).
Finally, if anyone wants to produce some fine art of a person with Arden's Anthology of Shakespeare in one hand, Complete Works of H. G. Wells in the other, and the Complete Works of Lovecraft on a utility belt that would be rad. We'd love to see it.
 

The First Annual Scary Awards

We look back on our first season and discuss the best, the worst, and some of the in between.
 
When talking about Interview With the Vampire we neglected to provide the name of the actress who had taken over the role of Claudia. That's Delainey Hayles.
Kristine mentions The Exorcist being based on a true story. That is true. There was an exorcism in 1949 which inspired Blatty's novel.
The King/Barker piece is 1997's made for television movie Quicksilver Highway.
Our friend's podcast is Wave Makers Audio Plays. Found here on Podbean as well as other major distributors including Apple.

The Amityville Horror

Published in 1977 by Jay Anson and based on the real life events surrounding the Lutz family's takeover of the titular house after the murder of the DeFeo family it was turned into a movie soon after in 1979. The movie was directed by Stuart Rosenberg with the screenplay by Sandor Stern, and starred James Brolin and Margot Kidder.
It's a short episode this month. When it comes to the references to real life events most of the timeline was compiled using the Wikipedia page for the novel. A few side searches yielded results but most of it was the casual curiosity that started and ended with wiki.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Written by Bram Stoker in 1897 and adapted to the screen multiple times we chose Francis Ford Coppola's rendition with screenplay by James V. Hart starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Rider, Anthony Hopkins and Gary Oldman as the titular character.
Lots of show notes for this one so...
The actor who played Renfield in "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" was Peter MacNicol. Mel Brooks actually had Renfield be the visitor to Dracula's castle and then cast Steven Weber as Mina's beau Johnathan Harker, who stayed at home.
Princess Weekes' YouTube video is entitled 'How Mina Murray Became Dracula's Girlfriend' It can be watched here.
The Bram Stoker Estate webpage is simply bramstokerestate.com and has a plethora of nifty information about his lost journal and other stuff, worth a look.
Susie credited the statement about actors who don't work to Michael Caine. She's having a hard time finding evidence of it to make sure he said it. Someone on a forum suggested Christopher Walken had a similar quote. Can't find evidence of that either. She'll have to keep looking.
She did find the Carrie Fischer quote about no bras in space (she actually said "underwear"), and you can listen here.
Richard E. Grant's quote about wearing tights can be found on his X page, here.