This is not actually a video cassette recording of a block of local television that aired on Halloween night, 1987. If you are someone who remembers local tv from that era, however, it really feels like it is.
I never plan one of these marathons around a specific theme for the movies that I watch. My goal is simply to get to 15 or 16 horror flicks that we haven’t written about before. Scott and I go about it slightly differently, he skews older and campier, I skew more current and mainstream, although we both cross over into each other’s lanes pretty frequently. Sometimes, though, a theme sort of emerges by accident. This year, I would say a good half of the movies I’ve covered so far fall under the general theme of horror intersecting with the entertainment industry. Three of them in particular, Late Night with the Devil, Evil Dead Trap, and this one, could be further grouped together as films about people in the entertainment industry attempting to exploit dark forces for the purpose of garnering views. Of course, when you have a horror plot where that is the premise, there are going to be deadly consequences, and that proves true for all three films.
Presented as a VCR recording off of someone’s television in 1987, complete with occasional fast forwarding and tracking issues, WNUF Halloween Special focuses on a local news program airing on Halloween night, followed by a special investigation where a reporter takes a camera crew into an abandoned property where a murder-suicide occurred several years prior. If you are my age, you are sure to feel a wave of nostalgia from the wholly fictional but incredibly accurate portrayal of the corny news anchors, the period-appropriate commercials for local businesses and station programming, even from the clothing and hairstyles. Simply put, WNUF could not have been crafted with more versimilitude. If the big horror angle had never paid off, I still would have enjoyed this time capsule of a movie. Yet, it manages to provide some legitimate scares at the very end of the broadcast, making great use of the found footage framing device. This is also a funny movie, but most of the comedy comes from slightly heightening the innate campiness of the subject matter it is covering. A local ad for a mattress store, for example, could be easily mistaken for the real thing because the filmmakers don’t overdo things with big obvious jokes. There are a handful of pointed punchlines that sneak through which are very funny, but even they don’t break the spell that this is an actual television broadcast from the Reagan era.
The performances are all pitch perfect, especially the two news anchors who pepper each other with un-funny, overly obvious repartee, then swing suddenly into solemn voices when the topic they’re covering seems serious. It is the playbook of all local news teams, regardless of era, and these two pull it off flawlessly. The real MVP has to be Paul Fahrenkopf, who is playing Frank Stewart, a sardonic reporter that draws a little on Geraldo Rivera for inspiration. Frank is leading the expedition into the purportedly haunted house, accompanied by a priest and a couple of elderly “spiritualists” very clearly in the mold of Ed and Lorrain Warren. Frank is clearly the type of guy who doesn’t believe any of this shit, but would be happy if they ended up summoning a real demonic presence just for the exposure it would give him. That push and pull is what makes the performance so fun – he is clearly stifling his own skepticism in hopes to keep viewers engaged with a little smoke and mirrors and make the evening a ratings success. When things actually start to go down, he’s the last of his group to notice because he’s too busy trying to pretend that he thinks there’s a possibility things are going to go down.
So, would I recommend WNUF for your October viewing? I had a blast with it, but I definitely think you have to be in the right mood. It is so realistic, and most of the humor so in the background, that it really does feel like watching an old recording of a television block, and that’s not something I’m in the habit of doing for a good time. If you were not old enough to remember the type of broadcasting being parodied here, I’m not sure there will be much to draw you in. If you are of that age, I think you could enjoy it as much as I did, but it still probably depends on your tastes. I personally find this type of thing a lot of fun. For example, I sometimes find myself returning to Kyle Mooney’s Saturday Morning All Star Hits on Netflix, which is a more surreal and obviously comedic take on the pop culture of my youth, but very much cut from the same cloth as WNUF. Even if you don’t think you have the patience for a dedicated viewing, it would be a lot of fun to have this on in the background of a Halloween party, especially if you don’t hip your guests to its origin.
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