WNUF Halloween Special

Well hold up... I wasn't really paying attention to the special and whatever the hell Frank Stewart was doing in that house. I was more focused on trying to order a rug from Phil's Carpet Warehouse but the person on the other line was so frustrating and rude. 

Jokes aside this was a really well made "tv special" film that felt really authentic to the time it's set in. I'm glad they made a bunch of commercials for the ad breaks and again just made the whole thing feel like a real tv broadcast. It's a special film that I can see myself turning on next Halloween and enjoying over again.

Well hold up... I wasn't really paying attention to the special and whatever the hell Frank Stewart was doing in that house. I was more focused on trying to order a rug from Phil's Carpet Warehouse but the person on the other line was so frustrating and rude. 

Jokes aside this was a really well made "tv special" film that felt really authentic to the time it's set in. I'm glad they made a bunch of commercials for the ad breaks and again just made the whole thing feel like a real tv broadcast. It's a special film that I can see myself turning on next Halloween and enjoying over again.

I like the vibe of the film but I just couldn’t get engrossed

I like the vibe of the film but I just couldn’t get engrossed

more funny than anticipated, dragged a little but i think that was kind of the point

more funny than anticipated, dragged a little but i think that was kind of the point

So we can just cut to commercial whenever we feel like it?

So we can just cut to commercial whenever we feel like it?

101/100 Horror Movies in 92 Days 2025

One of the things I underestimated about my family growing up, something that I assumed everyone did, and certainly something I did for a while, was how much they used to tape stuff off the TV. Maybe it was my granddad's idea (I lived with him and my nan, as well as my mom and two aunts), but there were shelves and shelves of VHS tapes, and most of them were blank tapes that had recordings from the TV on them. The store bought VHS tapes were definitely in the minority. And while I grew up in the UK and therefore didn't have that very acute nostalgia hit that WNUF Halloween Special is trying to tap into, I still remember those repetitive interstitials, host driven segments between the things you actually wanted to record, and fast forwarding through the advert breaks.

Just how well this movie captures the specific late-80s local American television experience is for others to debate for the reasons I mentioned above, but what WNUF Halloween Special captures that's more universal is that VHS experience, that 'live TV' experience, and that late-80s cheap sets and satanic panic that dominated the news around Halloween. Don't forget to check your trick or treat candy for razor blades kids!

There's also a fine line that WNUF Halloween Special has to tread, and it centres around how 'bad' it should be. It has to be bad enough to have the proper feel of local television from the 80s, but good enough to be a believable facsimile of local television from the 80s. For the most part it succeeds in feeling of its time. The ads are especially effective - the quality as well as the quantity (!). It's all greatly aided by the fact that they used vintage filming and editing equipment to really give it that unmistakeable look.

It's unlike any other found footage movie (and I'm including the V/H/S franchise in that), and I hope that more people explore that taped off the telly vibe.

101/100 Horror Movies in 92 Days 2025

One of the things I underestimated about my family growing up, something that I assumed everyone did, and certainly something I did for a while, was how much they used to tape stuff off the TV. Maybe it was my granddad's idea (I lived with him and my nan, as well as my mom and two aunts), but there were shelves and shelves of VHS tapes, and most of them were blank tapes that had recordings from the TV on them. The store bought VHS tapes were definitely in the minority. And while I grew up in the UK and therefore didn't have that very acute nostalgia hit that WNUF Halloween Special is trying to tap into, I still remember those repetitive interstitials, host driven segments between the things you actually wanted to record, and fast forwarding through the advert breaks.

Just how well this movie captures the specific late-80s local American television experience is for others to debate for the reasons I mentioned above, but what WNUF Halloween Special captures that's more universal is that VHS experience, that 'live TV' experience, and that late-80s cheap sets and satanic panic that dominated the news around Halloween. Don't forget to check your trick or treat candy for razor blades kids!

There's also a fine line that WNUF Halloween Special has to tread, and it centres around how 'bad' it should be. It has to be bad enough to have the proper feel of local television from the 80s, but good enough to be a believable facsimile of local television from the 80s. For the most part it succeeds in feeling of its time. The ads are especially effective - the quality as well as the quantity (!). It's all greatly aided by the fact that they used vintage filming and editing equipment to really give it that unmistakeable look.

It's unlike any other found footage movie (and I'm including the V/H/S franchise in that), and I hope that more people explore that taped off the telly vibe.