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10 Of The Best Halloween TV Special Episodes Everyone Needs To See

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Written by Patti Pauley

The most wonderful time of the year for horror fans is inching oh so close and the appearance of the sights of sounds of Fall warm my cold, ghoulish heart. Pumpkin spiced every-damn-thing, colorful leaves, pumpkin patches, and of course Halloween special episodes on the silver screen. Of course, I relish watching these episodes all year round, but re-visiting them within the Halloween season is an absolute MUST and only heightens all my fuzzies for  everything spooky.

roseanne gif

 

A few years ago, I compiled a similar list complete with watchable videos reminiscing of long ago Halloween specials that included Garfield’s Halloween, and The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t, which you can visit by clicking here. However in this post, we’ll be sticking strictly to weekly TV shows and their beautiful Halloween episodes that celebrated the festival of Samhain. So here’s 10 of my personal favorites from Halloween episodes’ past that embrace the Halloween holiday in all its glowing majesty.

 

10. The Office

“Halloween”

dwight

Surely we can’t make a proper Halloween TV list without mention of The Office! Season 2, episode 5 simply entitled “Halloween”, consisted of the crew at work dressed in their best with a two-headed Michael, three-hole-punch Jim, and of course the magnificent Dwight as a Sith Lord. The episode that sits on the background of the most wonderfully spooky day of the year, lands Michael in the hot seat with Jan spreading his nuts thin over the Scranton Branch Manager having to fire an employee at the office. All the while Jim and Pam are doing what they do best, playing pranks on Dwight.

 

9. Family Guy

“Halloween On Spooner Street” 

family guy

Family Guy is no stranger to special holiday episodes, as they seem to have an angle for even the most obscure of holidays. However, they do Halloween justice pretty much year in and out and Season 9, episode 4 entitled “Halloween On Spooner Street” still holds the top spot in their growing list of Halloween specials. This episode has it all and more encompassing all the wonderful clichés of the holiday with that McFarlane sense of humor. From Stewie’s troubles with trick-or-treating, Peter and Joe pulling Halloween pranks on Quagmire, and of course the all-inclusive party at that stuck-up wench, Connie D’Amico’s house. The party however, leaves a bad taste in the mouths’ of Chris and Meg. A taste that boasts the flavors of regret and shame possibly?

 

 

8. The League

“Ghost Monkey” 

the League

The gang from The League is probably one of the goddamn funniest ensembles ever to be thrown together. Throw in a little Dirty Randy and Rafi and instant comedy gold, every time. In this Halloween episode,Taco steals a monkey from a pumpkin farm they had visited earlier in the day, because well, he’s Taco. Said monkey became agitated at Andre’s Ke$ha inspired playlist- and really who wouldn’t be, and a frazzled Taco throws the monkey out of the window of Andre’s vehicle in motion, because again it’s Taco. Kevin and Jenny having a child, convince the guys to celebrate the holiday in the suburbs and trick-or-treat adult style with a wagon full of booze. Pete brings along a Wiccan girl as his date for the drunken trick-or-treat, and Taco steals her away to help perform a seance to commune with the dead monkey. Just another perfectly ridiculous episode from the series with the added bonus of some Halloween love.

 

 

7. Salute Your Shorts

“The Ghost Story”

salute-your-shorts-zeke-the-plumber

Yeah so, technically it was a kid’s program on Nickelodeon back in the early nineties, but if you remember seeing it as a kid, it was terrifyingly phenomenal. Though not an official Halloween episode, it was played quite religiously on the network on Halloween for a few years, and ultimately it totally qualifies as one. The ghost of Zeke, as told by Bobby, haunts the grounds of Camp Anawana after being killed in an explosion that resulted in a gas leak that the camp janitor didn’t smell with having lost his nose in an accident. The only remnant was his toilet plunger that now bears a curse that the ghost of Zeke uses to suck embarrassing secrets out of campers heads. Cool huh? The other campers disturbed by Bobby’s story, vow to get even; and it is oh so glorious.

 

 

 

6. South Park

“Pink Eye”

south-park-pinkeye

The very first Halloween episode of South Park, still holds up as one of the most outrageously funny episodes to date of this little cartoon that shoves any and all filters right up your ass. It’s also the episode that made you never look at Worcestershire sauce the same way again. Kenny of course is killed at the beginning of the episode and while at the morgue, the embalming fluid gets mixed with the infamous Worcestershire sauce and turns our little Kenny into a zombie, who in turn bites the coroners and they as well turn. The zombie epidemic begins to spread, but it’s totally cool; the diagnosis is merely pink eye folks. On a side note, Cartman’s choice of Halloween costumes in this episode which are meant to piss off Kyle, are so wrong on a million levels, and at the time this aired (almost 20 years ago!) it was kinda taboo to see a cartoon kid dressed as Hitler. Stone and Parker really had, and still have, a serious set of balls to push those controversial boundaries. However it worked,and  it’s still pretty damn funny.

 

 

 

5. Bob’s Burgers

“The Hauntening”

bobs burgers

Bob’s Burgers became an instant classic as soon as the first episode aired, and if you disagree with me then you’re WRONG. The Belchers’ have several Halloween episodes under their belt, however the show that features Dr. and Lady Bobbenstien wins hands down. The episode centers around a haunted house built by Bob and Linda in an attempt to scare the now “un-scareble” Louise. The episode has all the fun Halloween elements one might expect from said seasonal special, but with the beloved Belcher humor. Oh, and a horrifying Boyz4Now song. That shit is pretty scary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCTXlerK8M0

 

 

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News

Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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