Halloween TV Picks
Angel (1999)
Best watched when it comes on at 6:00am on TNT in the mid-oughts, get your VHS tape ready for the second half of the second episode, so you can watch it when you get home for school and not miss a beat. You’ll see Angel, world-weary and defeated, hovering on the brink of darkness in a fallen world and think, “Man, I can’t wait to grow up and wear cool trench coats and be sad all the time.” Kids, let me tell you, dreams really do come true. –Nathaniel Berry
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
Many of you have probably watched this infamous series on Netflix, but if so, I definitely recommend giving it a special second or third watch. This show is loosely based on Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name, and is a genius horror picture in every sense. Flashing between past and present, the various complex tales of each individual family member will keep you hooked from start to finish. It's a genuinely scary watch and features many "signature ghosts" that will definitely make you keep a night-light on. Underlying it all, the story examines familial relationships and how a mutually shared event can set fire to a family once tightly knit by love and all that we hold dear. —Giulia Di Stravola
Twin Peaks (1990)
Who killed Laura Palmer? Put on a pot of coffee, warm up a slice of cherry pie. Enjoy the most sustained sense of mood that television has to offer as you wait to find out. —Gauraa Shekhar
Scooby Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
Okay, so this is technically a TV movie, but I think it stands, as I have never been so frightened by TV as with this movie. Sure, maybe I was nine, but this is legitimately terrifying if you’ve ever watched Scooby Doo: it’s all real. No masks, no switcheroos. Real, walking, dead people, and I gotta say, the resolution is thin at best - the evil isn’t conquered; the zombies are still zombies. Somewhere out there, in the great blue ocean, is some tiny island, still rife with the living dead. –Elliot Alpern
The Office, “Halloween” Season 2, Episode 5 (2005)
Pam and Jim sexual tension, Michael Scott being himself, and Dwight Howard’s résume. All while wearing costumes. –Madeline Garfinkle
The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special (2017)
I have to be honest, I never quite understood the whole David S. Pumpkins thing that SNL did with Tom Hanks, but for me, it's like the equivalent of canned cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving: the appeal is sort of lost, but it also doesn't feel like the holidays without it. I feel like it's the right kind of odd for the moment, one that confuses rather than scares. Also, fun fact, Chris Hemsworth was supposed to originally play the David S. Pumpkins role. –Rachel A. G. Gilman
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
You know how it goes: In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. Seriously, though, is it even Halloween if you haven’t binge-watched a couple seasons of Buffy? —Gauraa Shekhar
Morning Shows
The lamest Halloween thing about me is that I really love seeing the different costumes that the anchors of The Today Show and Good Morning America wear on Halloween. They always have some intense themes like the '90s or nursery rhymes, and of course, their costume departments go all out. If you're not dressing up this year, it's worth it to vicariously live through them. –Rachel A. G. Gilman
The Terror (2018)
Full disclosure, I’m still in the middle of watching this, but it’s been fantastic so far. Inspired by a true story of two ships stuck in the ice of the Arctic circle, with the second season delving into WWII Japan–the horror here is artfully done, and truly creepy. The show presents stellar historical fiction, with a steady, pulsing undercurrent of dread, throughout. –Elliot Alpern
True Detective (2014)
But just the first season. I know it’s a toxic macho power fantasy, but there’s no show on TV I’ve ever seen capture the feeling of knowing that bad things are going on somewhere in the background, that you are powerless to stop them, that you must bear witness to them anyhow if you want to be able to call yourself a man. I watched it a lot when I was a social worker. The soundtrack is very good. I figured everyone else was picking Twin Peaks and I didn’t want to copy them. –Nathaniel Berry
