The Freeform channel focuses on family friendly types of programming (well, it is a Disney channel, after all), so it’s no surprise that the annual kid-oriented 31 Nights of Halloween schedule has been stocked with perennial favorites like The Addams Family (starring Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, and Christina Ricci), Edward Scissorhands, Monsters Inc., and Hocus Pocus. This year it’s joined by the debut of the young adult witchcraft series Coven Academy.
Scattered among the old standards—which tends to endlessly repeat the Addams Family/Hocus Pocus/Scissorhands grouping—were the original Ghostbusters as well as Ghostbusters: Afterlife (a really good sequel) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (a…not so great sequel), plus the three Sam Raimi–directed Spider-Man films, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Oh, and one showing of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the animated feature best known for its stellar adaptation of Washington Irving’s classic story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
So what’s on the menu for Halloween?
The day kicks off at 8:30 am (EST) with Casper, the 1995 adaptation of the comic book character, starring the world’s Friendliest Ghost along with Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman. Keep an eye out for the cameo by Dan Aykroyd as Ghostbuster Ray Stantz. Is Ray’s appearance an official part of Ghostbusters lore? Fans are still debating that, thirty years later!
Following Casper are 2003’s The Haunted Mansion (starring Eddie Murphy); 1993’s Hocus Pocus (starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as the three witchy Sanderson Sisters); the 1993 animated musical Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas; a repeat of Casper…and then a repeat of Hocus Pocus.
The night closes out with the sisters’ return in 2022’s Hocus Pocus 2, and another Tim Burton animated feature, 2012’s Frankenweenie, to carry you into the Day of the Dead.
What, no The Craft? (Well, maybe Coven Academy fills that niche. Kinda.) And looking at the “31 Days” schedule, it would’ve made far more sense to have loaded the big day with the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp marathon that Freeform offered on October 16: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Edward Scissorhands, Dark Shadows, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Sleepy Hollow. Now that’s a Halloween lineup!
Oh, well…
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the programming for AMC’s FearfFest. See you then!