WNUF Halloween Special (2013)

 The key to whether or not you will like this is 1) you dig the Found Footage genre, and 2) you were around in the 80s to truly appreciate the efforts of all involved (several directors involved; Think something in the vein of the V/H/S series of FF horror films) to make what you see throughout WNUF Halloween Special (2013) quite special. This was like a trip down memory lane. I have so many VHS tapes in a shed in my backyard, and I'm sure if I started scanning through some of them in my VCR I could find plenty of these commercials / advertisements. The attention to detail to make this feel authentic I can't applaud enough. This caveat, though: if you don't embrace and just hug this gimmick, or perhaps haven't experienced what is present throughout this ode to an era now thirty years gone, WNUF Halloween Special might not work. I could even see some viewers getting bored and tired of the gimmick after about 30 minutes.

Now besides the news broadcast and television station adverts, the meat of this is a particular visit to a murder house where a sarcastic host on Halloween night, along with obvious psychic frauds and an actor as a priest (who clearly wants to be anywhere but in the Webber House), named Frank Stewart (Paul Fahrenkopf) attending to hopefully either "summon spirits" or "cleanse the house of its evil". This is a 1987 "paranormal broadcast", obviously faked by all involved, not anticipating "visitors". It is important to note that a certain religious sect has a big problem with Frank's paranormal broadcast.

There are such adverts as a tampon commercial, invite to a strip club, a few dentist commercials where he asks for kids' candy for charity so they "protect their teeth" (and obviously visit his office specifically for their business), a rock music commercial (I especially loved two of the band's names: D.E.F.K.O.N and Pyrofire), recommended visits to the zoo and a "animal funnies" video, among other videos.

What I particularly enjoyed was how close this feels to 1987 Halloween with commercials about Channel 27's movie night with a mummy (with a host in front of a backdrop of a cemetery wearing cheap makeup), two newscasters wearing smiles and this faux happy personalities (putting on a performance while I think you can see how they are dying inside, probably wondering how they ended up on a 10 PM news channel hocking a ridiculous, exploitative broadcast at a supposed haunted house, hosted by a guy who just looks for ways to make those he puts a mic in the face of expose themselves as total fools and goofs. Like, for example, when Frank asks locals behind him at the Webber House (the history of it mimicking the Defeo murders) about believing in ghosts (they are in various costumes, unprepared to be made a fool of). He also pokes fun at his married couple hired to investigate with their supposed psychic abilities, tragically bringing their "sensitive cat" along with them (their equipment won't fare any better). The "call in seance" with a few callers (one of whom proclaims, "Iron Maiden RULES!!!! White Lion SUCKS!!!), as preposterous a gimmick as it is, Frank asks his psychics if they could provide some lottery numbers or stock advice!

I think this experiment works best as a well made time capsule, but I do feel it will not work for everyone. If you don't enjoy the commercials for how they feel like discoveries on a VHS tape, pushed into a VCR by somebody who might have found it in a stack of tapes in some dusty box located in a basement, or groove to the embarrassing (and eventually interrupted) Halloween broadcast, itself exposed as a farce masquerading as real, Frank essentially a Barnum broadcaster not anticipating how fanatical a certain group of Christians are. I think if you dig those V/H/S films, then WNUF Halloween Special might just suit your fancy. I enjoyed it.

But I am one of those who will pursue old made-for-television films recorded off of TBS (Turner Broadcasting Station, before it became a sitcom channel) in 1988. So WNUF Halloween Special is my jam. The commercials on "say no to drugs" and the suicide hotline...those legit were always on television in the 80s. Oh, and political ads with two candidates slinging mud, including such jabs as toxic waste companies paying under the table and adultery revealed. The gloves came off...it's 1987 and politics remain just as volatile and ugly.