October is the month for cooler weather, bonfires and football games, but it is also the time of year everyone and everything around gets a little bit spookier. Television is no exception.
With Halloween among us, numerous television networks are joining the celebration by showing fan favorite Halloween flicks throughout the month. From the kid-friendly Freeform event “13 Nights of Halloween” to the darker horror movies shown on AMC’s “Fear Fest,” everyone is sure to find something to get them in the spirit for All Hallows Eve.
SyFy’s “31 Days of Halloween” kicked off their event on Oct. 1, and just as its name would suggest, the event will last up until the night of Oct. 31.
Not only are they airing cult classics like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Leprechaun’s Revenge” and “The Omen,” but they also include some newer favorites on the schedule (“Jeepers Creepers 2,” “Oculus,” “Sinister” and the “Wrong Turn” franchise, for example).
On top of that, old episodes of “The Twilight Zone” will air periodically throughout the month along with several SyFy original movies. For a full list of Halloween specials scheduled to air on the network, visit syfy.com/schedule.
Freeform’s “13 Nights of Halloween,” on the other hand, begins on Wednesday, Oct. 19 and plans to air all the best Halloween movies from your childhood to satisfy your nostalgia.
These movies include: “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Hocus Pocus,” “Corpse Bride,” “The Addams Family,” “The Goonies,” “Scooby Doo” and “Spooky Buddies.”
Several newer films have arrived on the lineup as well, such as “ParaNorman,” “Monsters University,” “Dark Shadows” and “Frankenweenie.”
No full-fledged horror movies will appear on Freeform, but they do add some fun alternatives that only vaguely relate to the holiday (“The Hunger Games” and “Matilda,” for instance). Visit Freeform’s website for a “13 Nights of Halloween” full schedule.
True horror fans will want to switch the channel to AMC when the network’s “Fear Fest” event starts on Oct. 13 with a Michael Myers marathon, showing “John Carpenter’s Halloween” and its four original sequels along with Rob Zombie’s remakes “Halloween” and “Halloween II.” Then throughout the month, “Fear Fest” will present virtually every 80’s horror movie and their many sequels.
Franchises being featured are “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Friday the 13th,” “The Amityville Horror,” “The Exorcist,” “The Omen,” “Child’s Play,” “Hellraiser,” “Children of the Corn” and “Tremors.” A “Walking Dead” marathon will also be aired leading up to the show’s season 7 premiere on Sunday, Oct. 23. A full programming schedule will be available by day on amc.com/schedule.
With movie choices like this on television, you may not want to leave the house all month. Of course, after watching some of them, you may be too afraid to.
