October is high time to be a cannabis consumer. Outdoor grows have reached maturity, store shelves are jampacked with bulk candy and fantastic movies that stretch the imagination are in the spotlight across various streaming platforms. The Dispensary Genie has been staying up late with the lights on to roundup films that best capture the spirit of the season in our list of Spooky Flicks to Stream While You Steam.
Idle Hands (1999)
Teen comedy meets stoner slasher in this 1999 theatrical release. The premise centers around a cloudy-minded young man who discovers that murders are being perpetrated by his own hands – which he has no control over and are therefore possessed. Victims include his own parents as well as best friends Mick and Pnub – who later come back as zombies and casually party with him. Though this movie was considered a flop at the box office, its legacy lives on due to the overall campiness it encapsulates as well as its star-studded cast, including talents like Seth Green, Jessica Alba, Vivica A. Fox, Kyle Gass of Tenacious D and the pop punk group The Offspring.
Leprechaun 6 – Back 2 Tha Hood (2003)
Though this film has been featured in Entertainment Weekly’s list of ‘The Worst Movie Sequels Ever’, it still holds a special place for those interested in the intersection of cannabis and horror media. The sixth installment of the beloved Leprechaun franchise transports our creepy cute anti-hero, played by Warwick Davis of Willow and Star Wars fame, to an urban environment riddled with stereotypical excesses associated with drug dealing culture. If you can get past the problematic premise, there are certainly clips in the film that capable of making you accidentally laugh or scream the packed bowl from your pipe. In one especially entertaining sequence, we get to see the leprechaun hit a glass bong that is offered to him by a party guest. This temporarily incapacitates him and prompts the other character to steal one of his gold coins. Big mistake. The leprechaun quickly snaps back to his senses and impales the sticky-fingered perpetrator with the waterpipe.
Watch Leprechaun 6 – Back 2 Tha Hood on Peacock
Class of Nuke ‘Em High (1986)
This low-budget B-movie comes to us from the legendary straight-to-video horror production company Troma Entertainment. Like The Toxic Avenger and other Troma films, Class of Nuke ‘Em High takes place in New Jersey and centers around the supernatural effects of nuclear waste. An group of punk teenagers in Mad Max style dress harvest a cannabis plant that had absorbed runoff from the local nuclear facility. Students of Troma High School are reduced to violent, mouth-foaming zombies after smoking the tainted substance. This movie provides a humorous commentary on anti-drug sentiments while encapsulating the distinct style of the sleeze horror genre from this time period.
Watch Class of Nuke ‘Em High on Shudder
Bones (2001)
Long before Snoop Dogg portrayed Huggy Bear in the Starsky and Hutch reboot, he played a pimp brought back from the dead to protect his hood in a film that shares the name of his character: Bones. This homage to the blaxploitation genre is an entertaining fusion of classic scares and everyone’s favorite cannabis advocate. Besides the title itself serving as a wink to smokers, cannabis makes a few brief cameos, including one in which a few characters decide to light a joint while exploring Bones’ haunted hideout (bad idea).
Evil Bong (2006)
This straight to DVD movie is more of a stoner comedy with horror elements. This physical effects driven film by Full Moon Productions harkens back to the company’s other rental store creature flicks like The Puppet Master franchise, Subspecies and Prehysteria. The premise of the movie centers around a cursed water pipe belonging to Jimbo Leary, played by cannabis legend Tommy Chong. After enough tokes from the haunted bong, users are transported to a dreamlike setting called Bong World, where they meet their demise in humorous and creative ways. The soundtrack includes an impressive lineup of rappers and rap groups known for their love of cannabis, including Kottonmouth Kings and Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog. If this cult classic leaves you wanting more, don’t worry. The franchise has expanded with a number of sequels, including Evil Bong 2: King Bong, Evil Bong 3D: The Wrath of Bong, Evil Bong 420, Evil Bong High-5!, Evil Bong 666 and Evil Bong 777.
Halloween (1978)
This John Carpenter classic helped create and define the slasher genre. Over 40 years from its original release, the film is still capable of producing popcorn spilling jolts of terror. At Dispensary Genie, we hold one particular scene especially close to our hearts. Jamie Lee Curtis and Nancy Kyes are portrayed sharing a joint on their way to high school when they encounter the father of Nancy’s character who is a local police officer. He seems too distracted by missing Halloween masks, rope and knives at the hardware store to notice any smell emanating from his daughter’s burgundy 1977 Monte Carlo. Whether this was due to professional inaptitude or willful parental disbelief is still debated amongst fans. Either way, the controversial scene remains an iconic moment in cinema and cannabis history.