'Halloween' Movies on American TV This Year

Most of the classic movie channels seem to do an annual Halloween thing so I thought it would be good to do a rundown to alert everyone to what's available. I should have done this earlier as it seems that Fox Movie Channel is doing their horror movie marathon today but there is still lots of great stuff coming down the pipeline, be it cable or satellite. Sorry to our non-us readers for this one as it will probably have limited applicability to you. American Movie Classics seems to have the biggest list but they are also the only channel of the bunch that shows commercials so pick your poison! They also edit for tv but if it's the only place you can see a movie that you want you have to eat the red pill. For the adventurous, the Independent Film Channel almost always has some great programming on Halloween with this year featuring three of the 'Coffin Joe' movies by Jose Mojica Marins.

Let me know if I missed anything, I know that ABC Family and lots of those channels are doing Halloween specials too but this list was mostly devoted to theatrical movies.

Coffin Joe on DVD at Amazon.com
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on DVD at Amazon.com



Monsters-HD (part of the VOOM network on DISH network and a few cable systems):

• 'Gruesome Twosome' double features on 10/28 - living dead movies, teen wolf, twisted tales, monsters of myth (Jason and the Argonauts, Seventh Voyage of Sinbad), serial killers, etc.
  
• The first eight Friday the 13th movies (1-8, including the director's cut of number 8) and ALL of the Halloween (1-6) movies on 10/30-10/31 - they usually skip a few of the Friday the 13th movies so set your DVR if you are into this series. I thought that it got pretty sucky after the first couple.
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1-3 on 10/31 - if you haven't seen the first one you shouldn't be calling yourself a horror fan.

Turner Classic Movies

• Goke, the Body Snatcher From Hell - Monday 2AM - Weird Japanese alien creature movie from the late 1960's
• Halloween horror movie marathon - all day starting at 6am including many Karloff and Lugosi classics such classics as The Devil Bat - actually one of Bela Lugosi's best roles as far as I am concerned - and The Old Dark House, classic Hammer horror Revenge of Frankenstein, and Vincent Price in The House of Usher.

American Movie Classics

• 10/28 - lots of good stuff, the original The Fog, Magic - creepy ventriloquism doll movie, recommended, The Flesh Eaters, The Frighteners with Michael J. Fox - another decent one that many of you may not have seen
• 10/29 - a few Hellraiser movies (1 and 2), a couple of Friday the 13th's (3 and 7, 3 was originally 3d and I think Johnny Depp is in it?), and the 'classic' Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster!
• 10/30 - Puppet Master - the original, these movies got progressively suckier but I always thought the puppets were very imaginative and fun to watch, The Howling - the original, Alien Resurrection - I never have seen this and won't be watching the edited version with the dvd so readily available
• 10/31 - Dracula 2000 - not as bad as you have heard but not that good either, Halloween 1-6 - hmm, unedited HD versions on Monsters HD are obviously the way to go here if you have that option - I have never seen anything past two or three so I can't comment about those

Fox Movie Channel (commercial free and many movies are shown letterboxed, as they should be seen)

• 10/28 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the original movie, The Vault of Horror - excellent horror anthology, The Alligator People, Devils of Darkness, and Horror Of It All
• 10/29 - Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - ok, not horror but fun to watch as Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay for this turkey
• 10/30 - Damnation Alley - a silly post apocalyptic movie starring Jan Michael Vincent
• 10/31 - The Cabinet of Caligari - a remake from the 60's that I have not seen but I will be recording this one, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte - a creepy Bette Davis movie, Terror Train, and Race With the Devil - another one that I have not seen from 1975 that kind of sounds like a hippie movie worth watching

Independent Film Channel

• 10/31 - the Coffin Joe trilogy by the acclaimed Brazilian director Jose Mojica Marins - At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse, and Awakening of the Beast - highly recommended!