Small-screen terrors
Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Frankenstein, Romero’s undead ... they’re all just a click away this weekend on your screens at home. This is the best weekend of the year to watch horror movies, and the cable networks have it covered. Here is a sampling of scares:
THURSDAY
“The Craft” (6:30 p.m. Freeform): There’s a little “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” with a dash of “Heathers” in this 1996 comedy-horror tale of high school outcasts.
“Thirteen Ghosts” (8 p.m. AMC): Tony Shalhoub plays a widower with two children who inherits a sinister mansion from his late uncle (F. Murray Abraham), a celebrated ghost hunter who died on the job.
“Zombieland: Double Tap” (8 p.m. FX): The 2019 sequel to the 2009 apocalyptic comedy hit “Zombieland,” with Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin all reprising their roles.
FRIDAY
“Halloween” (6 p.m. AMC): Jamie Lee Curtis launched her “scream queen” career and psychopath Michael Myers was introduced in this 1978 slasher movie from director John Carpenter.
“Goosebumps” (6 p.m. FX): This fanciful tale makes R.L. Stine himself a character, as played by Jack Black. He becomes involved in the effort to contain monstrous characters he created when they’re accidentally released into the world.
“Halloween II” (8 p.m. AMC): Michael Myers follows his injured target (Jamie Lee Curtis) to the hospital on Oct. 31 in Haddonfield, Ill.
“The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (8 p.m. TCM): Vincent Price stars in this 1971 film about a madman who uses the plagues of ancient Egypt to avenge his wife’s death.
“Night of the Living Dead” (10 p.m. TCM): George Romero’s locally filmed 1968 classic brings the undead to life.
SATURDAY
“A Nightmare on Elm Street” marathon (Syfy): The network begins the marathon at 8 a.m. with “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010) and it runs till midnight with eight helpings of Freddy. The evening list is “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” (6 p.m.), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) (8 p.m.), A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) 10 p.m.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas” (7:10 p.m. Freeform): This surreal 1993 animated fantasy from Tim Burton (“Edward Scissorhands”) takes the overlapping holiday scenario to the extreme.
“Halloween H20: 20 Years Later” (7:30 p.m. AMC): Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her iconic role in this seventh installment in the famous horror movie franchise.
“Frankenstein” (8 p.m. TCM): Determined to prove he can create a synthetic man out of others’ body parts, Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) comes to regret his experimentation in this 1931 horror classic, based on Mary Shelley’s novel and starring Boris Karloff.
“Halloween Resurrection” (9:30 p.m. AMC):: Internet users watch six collegians as they spend the night in Michael Myers’ (Brad Loree) childhood home.
“Young Frankenstein” (9:30 p.m. TCM): Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy classic stars Gene Wilder as a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein.
SUNDAY
“Hotel Transylvania 2” (6 and 10:15 p.m. TBS): Dracula (voice of Adam Sandler) enlists his pals to put his grandson through a monster-in-training boot camp in this sequel to the 2012 animated comedy.
“The Witches” (8 p.m. TBS): The 2020 remake of the 1990 film adaptation of a Roald Dahl book about a boy and his grandmother who stumble upon a convention of child-eating witches.
“Psycho” (8 p.m. TCM): Anthony Perkins inhabits the role of Norman Bates in the 1960 Hitchcock classic.