Paris brings a hidden gem perfect for spooky season: the WNUF Halloween Special, a 2013 found footage film that commits so hard to the bit that the director distributed early copies by throwing VHS tapes out of a moving car.

Tommy unpacks the companies Charles Band built, burned, and rebuilt across five decades: from one of the first home video distributors in the country, to a VHS horror label with iconic oversized box art, to a studio cranking out 80 films in five years.

This week Paris and Tommy head back to the campfire. Paris dusts off Are You Afraid of the Dark's "The Tale of the Dead Man's Float," a forgotten Midnight Society tale that mashes up Jaws, Poltergeist, and Friday the 13th into one genuinely terrifying half-hour of 90s kids' TV.

Then Tommy tackles Goosebumps Book 7, Night of the Living Dummy, the origin story of horror icon Slappy... except Slappy barely shows up in his debut.

This week Paris breaks down Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006), the cult mockumentary horror-comedy that follows an aspiring slasher icon as he preps for his first killing spree, a razor-sharp send-up of every genre trope, with a surprise turn from Robert Englund.

Then Tommy returns to the attic for round two of dollhouse horror with The Dollhouse Murders, Betty Ren Wright's 1983 mystery about a family, a house full of secrets, and dolls that move on their own.

This week Paris and Tommy cover two forgotten stories about losing control. Paris dives into Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), the Cold War sci-fi film about a supercomputer given control of the US nuclear arsenal, a chilling precursor to Skynet that feels eerily relevant in the age of AI.

Then Tommy covers Among the Dolls, William Sleator's 1975 horror chapter book about a girl, an antique dollhouse, and the dark side of what happens when you're the one in charge.

This week Paris and Tommy dig up two pieces of forgotten fiction with a special guest, their friend Jude Sutton.

First up, Big Bad Beetleborgs, the Power Rangers era Saban show that swapped superheroes for ghosts, monsters, and a haunted house full of teenage chaos.

Then it's Brainscan, the 1994 cult flop where a video game literally makes you a killer, starring Edward Furlong and one of the most underrated villains of 90s horror, Trickster.

It took exactly 20 episodes for us to get so comfortable we forgot the intro and the outro, as punishment, we're leaving it in!

Paris brings a 1998 film with a 12% critical score, a 38% audience score, and reviews that include "the worst movie I have ever seen, EVER" and "watching someone unclog a toilet is more entertaining." It was based on a Michael Crichton novel. It was directed by Barry Levinson, who had won Best Director for Rain Man ten years earlier. Every piece was in place and it still ended up here.

Then Tommy brings a book by Andrew Neiderman. Does that name ring a bell? Pin is a neo-gothic psychological thriller about two siblings raised by a clinically detached physician father who used ventriloquism and a medical anatomy dummy to teach his children about the human body.

Paris brings the 1994 syndicated children's series that nobody remembers. Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills ran for 40 episodes as a direct response to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers phenomenon. Four teenagers chosen by an alien oracle named Nimbar to transform into giant constellation warriors and fight the evil Emperor Gorganus. It had a budget of approximately nothing and a title that did all the heavy lifting.

Then Tommy continues the killer toy quest with Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones. A Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award winning novella about a group of childhood friends, a mannequin named Manny found in a creek bed, and the one who couldn't let go when everyone else moved on. It's a slasher told entirely from the killer's point of view.

Holy Anthology Series!

Paris brings the anthology series that Ray Bradbury hosted, wrote, and personally adapted from his own catalog between 1985 and 1992. Every episode adapted a Bradbury short story. Every screenplay was written by Bradbury himself.

Then Tommy arrives at the next stop on the killer toy quest. The short story Prey and its adaptation in the made for TV anthology film "Trilogy of Terror" were both penned by Richard Matheson. Also we touch on the men's magazine pipeline that helped build the horror genre, and the rabbit hole that Tommy slid down.

Paris brings the Kevin Williamson script nobody mentions. It's not Scream. Robert Rodriguez directed it. Jon Stewart is in it. So is Salma Hayek, Elijah Wood, Famke Janssen, and Josh Hartnett. It came out in 1998 and it knew exactly what it was doing with the high school body horror and paranoia.

Then Tommy continues the killer toy quest. Ruby Jean Jensen published MaMa in 1983. It went through five print runs. It was out of print for decades before her daughter brought it back. It is about a widow who moves her three kids into her grandparents empty house and watches her youngest daughter spend every waking hour in the attic with a collection of old toys that seem to be draining the life out of her. The horror is domestic, quiet and Gothic.

Paris brings the only franchise in American horror where every entry is written and directed by women. The Slumber Party Massacre came out in 1982 and was originally written as a parody of the slasher genre by feminist author Rita Mae Brown. Director Amy Holden Jones got the job through Roger Corman after Martin Scorsese gave her a PA gig on Taxi Driver.

Then Tommy continues his quest for the definitive murderous toy novel. Keeper of the Children by William H. Hallahan is better written than Toy Cemetery, features a stuffed bear wielding an axe, a scarecrow that beats a man to death, and a climactic puppet battle. It is still not quite what Tommy is looking for. The search continues.