Movies! has really gotten into Halloween this year, with Spooky Season–themed movie marathons running in October—a day of vampire films, a day of ghosts, a day of alien invaders, even a day of Vincent Price! Their Halloween schedule is sort of a blend of those topics, but every one is a classic. Okay, maybe not Earth vs. the Spider, but that has its charms, too…
Here’s what Movies! is offering for All Hallows’ Eve (all times listed are Eastern Time):
6:00 a.m.: Fiend Without a Face (1958): Marshall Thompson, Kim Parker, and Kynaston Reeves battle an atomic-powered invisible monster that likes to collect brains and spinal cords in order to create an army of similar horrors.
7:35 a.m.: Earth vs. the Spider (1958): Ed Kemmer and June Kenney try to save a town from a giant spider out to kill everyone. How’d it get so big? No one knows, but like the Fiend Without a Face, it’s probably nuclear related; irradiated monsters created by atomic bomb testings were all the rage in the 1950s (for example, Godzilla, Them!, Tarantula).
9:15 a.m.: The Blob (1958): Steve McQueen, Aneta Corseaut, and Earl Rowe have to deal with a big jelly monster from outer space that’s come to destroy their town—and eat everyone in its path! It practically oozes terror!
11:00 a.m.: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941): Spencer Tracy stars as the two-sided monster, Lana Turner as the woman Jekyll loves, and Ingrid Bergman as a pretty barmaid who draws the lascivious eye of the beastial Hyde in this adaptation of the classic novella by Robert Louis Stevenson.
1:30 p.m.: House of Wax (1953): Horror legend Vincent Price is a renowned sculptor turned madman (hey, it happens) who now runs a wax museum. Phyllis Kirk (The Twilight Zone), Charles Bronson (Death Wish), and Carolyn Jones (the original Morticia of The Addams Family) costar in this lavish flick about an artist who uses his gifts for revenge—and murder! It was originally presented in 3-D, so don’t be surprised when objects are hurled toward you at certain points.
3:30 p.m.: The Haunting (1963): Based on the classic Shirley Jackson novel The Haunting of Hill House, Julie Harris (The Dark Half), Claire Bloom (Clash of the Titans), Richard Johnson (The Monster Club), and Russ Tamblyn (Twin Peaks) star in this frightfully entertaining story involving a paranormal investigation of a haunted house that goes horribly wrong. Directed by Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Star Trek: The Motion Picture).
5:55 p.m.: House of Dark Shadows (1970): Jonathan Frid, Joan Bennett, and Grayson Hall star in this adaptation of the then-popular gothic soap opera, directed by creator Dan Curtis (The Night Strangler, Trilogy of Terror). Frid is Barnabas Collins, a lovelorn vampire smitten with a woman who resembles his long-ago greatest love; Joan Bennett is a scientist who might find a way to restore his humanity—if only she wasn’t so jealous of Barnabas’s true love… (Fun fact: The movie was shot in Sleepy Hollow, New York—home to the Headless Horseman!)
8:00 p.m.: The Fog (1980): Adrienne Barbeau (Swamp Thing), Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween Ends), her real-life mother Janet Leigh (Psycho), Hal Holbrook, John Houseman, and Tom Atkins (Halloween III: Season of the Witch) star in this film by director John Carpenter (Halloween, Christine) about a sleepy little West Coast town suddenly overrun by ghostly pirates—and not a Jack Sparrow to be seen!
10:00 p.m.: The Howling (1981): Dee Wallace Stone (Halloween), Patrick MacNee (The Avengers), Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore), and Robert Picardo (Star Trek: Voyager) star in this adaptation of the Gray Brandner novel, about a TV news reporter who, after being traumatized by an assault by a serial killer, travels with her husband to The Colony, a secluded resort, to rest. But the residents of The Colony and its surrounding area all share a terrifying secret, and it doesn’t take a full moon to bring out the beast in them… Directed by Joe Dante (Piranha, Gremlins) and featuring a screenplay by John Sayles (Alligator, Eight MenOut) and Terence Winkless, and amazing transformation effects by Rob Bottin (Game of Thrones).
12:30 a.m.: Black Christmas (1974): Olivia Hussey (Batman Beyond), Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey), Margot Kidder (Superman), and John Saxon (A Nightmare on Elm Street) star in this slasher by writer/director Bob Clark, about sorority sisters being stalked by a murderer during Christmastime.
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at Turner Classic Movies’ programming. Stay tuned!