What To Binge This Weekend: Halloween Horror Edition
Halloween falls on a weekend this year, which affords you extra time to pick a costume, stock up on your candy stash and binge your heart (and eyes) out on horror-themed programming. And you’ll have plenty of options to choose from, as numerous cable networks and streaming services are offering multiple marathons of scary movies and spooky episodes of popular TV shows. Yahoo TV has assembled this alphabetical guide to your many binge-viewing options this Halloween weekend. (Click the network name for the full schedule.) We promise there are no tricks here…just treats.
ABC Family
The network soon to be known as “Freeform” is currently hosting its last “13 Nights of Halloween” festival as ABC Family. On Oct. 30 and 31st, choose between such family-oriented Halloween staples as The Addams Family, Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Poltergeist. (Yes, Poltergeist is totally a family movie, though it may ruin bedtime forever.) And if you log in to the network’s streaming service, Watch ABC Family, you can binge on 10 episodes of Stitchers, 14 episodes of Freak Out and the Halloween episodes of shows like Melissa & Joey and Baby Daddy.
AMC
The home of The Walking Dead is in the midst of their annual “AMC FearFest” event, which culminates with a weekend-long marathon of the Halloween franchise, from John Carpenter’s groundbreaking 1978 original to 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection. (That latter film, by the way, is notorious for pitting prolific serial killer Michael Myers against…Busta Rhymes?) Tune into AMC anytime between now and Sunday and you’ll be able to watch Michael carve up some poor babysitter. It’s worth noting that there are some notable omissions from the line-up, including the 1998 Kevin Williamson-written reboot, Halloween: H20 as well as the 2007 Rob Zombie-directed remake and its 2009 sequel. But at least they’ve included secret classic, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a cult favorite that’s only gotten better with age.
Chiller
It’s a smorgasbord of high-brow and low-brow horror flicks, as the network’s Halloween Day line-up ranges from confirmed favorites like Maniac Cop and Silence of the Lambs to such oddities as CrocZilla and Gingerclown.
Comedy Central
There’s nothing scary about revisiting old episodes of Key & Peele and South Park — except when those half-hours tackle Halloween. Starting at 8:18 a.m. on Oct. 31, Comedy Central will air three episodes of K&P, starting with “Michael Jackson Halloween” and ending with “Scariest Movie Ever.” A marathon of South Park commences at around noon, with a special Halloween celebration hosted by that Colorado town’s gang of Goth Kids. Finally, the evening bring back-to-back airings of puppeteer Jeff Dunham’s 2012 special, Minding the Monsters.
Crackle
Build your own horror festival using Crackle’s library of scary movies, which includes such modern-day classics as Guillermo Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone, the Duplass Brothers’ Baghead and Joseph Kahn’s Detention. Of, if you prefer less arty scares, go with the good old-fashioned gore of the Boogeyman trilogy.
Disney Channel
Disney has been celebrating “Monstober” all month long, but it’s been saving the real festivities for Oct. 31. Spend the hours up until you and your kids hit the streets for some serious trick or treating by revisiting the Halloween episodes of Disney Channel staples like Dog With a Blog, Austin & Ally and Girl Meets World. There’s also an airing of Toy Story of Terror and the 2004 movie, Halloweentown High.
FX
Spend Halloween morning with Bella and Edward in a Twilight movie marathon and then use the evening hours to catch up on Scream Queens, with a five-episode marathon of Ryan Murphy’s other American horror story.
FXX
Relieve 25 years spooktacular years with The Simpsons as FXX programs a daylong marathon of all 26 “Treehouse of Horror” anthologies, starting with the all-time great 1990 original at 11:30 a.m. Best. Halloween Binge. Ever.
History Channel
Get a historical perspective on Halloween’s ghosts and goblins with multiple episodes of True Monsters and Haunted History. The latter series will provide the supernatural scoop on such events as the Salem Witch Trials, the Torso murders and Charlie Manson.
Hulu
The Mistress of the Dark is making Hulu a brighter place to spend Halloween. Watch the horror icon emcee thirteen Z-grade movies as part of 13 Nights of Elvira (sample flick: Evil Bong, starring Tommy Chong) and then check out her impressive pair of…um, feature films: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and Elvira’s Haunted Hills.
IFC
Time to trick-or-treat like it’s 1984, because IFC is airing five installments of the crowning achievement of mainstream ‘80s horror: the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Say it with us now: “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you.”
MTV
Spend some quality time with the witchy Wiccans of The Craft in the essential ‘90s teen horror movie, The Craft. That’s followed by the modern-day exploits of Leatherface in Jessica Biel’s 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and the 2013 sequel, Texas Chainsaw 3D.
Netflix
Although they’ve been available since Oct. 23, Halloween is the perfect day to gobble up the final 10 episodes of Netflix’s werewolf drama, Hemlock Grove.
Shout TV
Recreate the experience of watching old-school VHS tapes on the Internet…minus the tracking issues and need to rewind the cassette before your return it. Shout! Factory’s streaming service has made five vintage ‘80s horror movies available in their full-screen aspect ratios, including the demented Sleepaway Camp, the fashion-forward Exterminators of the Year 3000 and the Michael J. Fox-starring Class of 1984. As a bonus binge, check out the 2014 documentary Adjust Your Tracking, which profiles those contemporary cinephiles who just can’t quit VHS.
Spike
Swear fealty to the King of Horror: Stephen King, that is. Starting at 1:30pm on Oct. 31, Spike devotes its schedule to two plus-sized King miniseries: the three-hour Stephen King’s IT — in which Tim Curry terrified an entire generation of children as Pennywise the Clown — and the four-hour Rose Red. Would it be too greedy to ask for the original Salem’s Lot as well?
Starz
Bruce Campbell’s chainsaw-happy demon fighter, Ash, gets back to his killing ways when the new series Ash vs. Evil Dead premieres at 9 p.m. on Oct. 31. But the night before, you can catch a sneak preview of the series premiere right after watching all three of Sam Raimi’s foundational Evil Dead movies back-to-back. The carnage begins at 8 p.m. on Oct. 30 with The Evil Dead, followed by Evil Dead 2 at 9:30 p.m. and Army of Darkness at 10:55 p.m., and then coming to a grand finale with Ash vs. Evil Dead at 12:15 a.m. Our one-word review of that line-up: Groovy.
Sundance TV
While Spike celebrates Stephen King’s television work, Sundance TV brings several big screen King adaptations to the small screen. Fair warning: Firestarter, Cujo, Pet Sematary and a double dose of The Shining may cause you to forego your schedule Halloween party in favor of lying under your covers, shivering in fright.
Syfy
Start your day-long Halloween horror movie feast by having The Omen’s Damien over for breakfast; spend lunchtime with Wesley Snipes’ vampire hunter in Blade II; and allow Patrick Wilson to linger past teatime and into dinnertime with the triple bill of Insidious, Insidious: Chapter 2 and The Conjuring. It’s demonically delicious.
Travel Channel
The votes are in and the Ghost Adventures Halloween marathon has the selections for its fan-selected 10-episode marathon in place. The 10th place Adventure commences at 11 a.m. with No. 1 airing at 8 p.m., followed immediately by the two-hour event, Deadwood: City of Ghosts. Well, if we’re not going to get any more of the Ian McShane version, this will have to do.
Turner Classic Movies
If modern-day horror movies leave you cold, you can count on TCM to dig up classic chillers that provide the necessary thrills. White Zombie, House of Wax, Curse of the Demon and Mark of the Vampire are just some of the Golden Age titles on the network’s Halloween docket.
