(Note:  this piece follows a chronological organization, with dates in bold, in the interest of making the information more manageable.)

Let’s just start with what’s probably a truism at this point:  the programmers at Turner Classic Movies are the best at what they do.  Or maybe they just have access to the best library, or maybe it’s both.  In any case, as it does year-round with all of its programming, TCM does a nice job come Halloween of mixing the movies you’ve seen a million times (and wouldn’t mind viewing for the one-million-and-first time) with more obscure but worthwhile titles that you might not seek out otherwise.

On Friday, 10/19, the station offers an all-day buffet of horror that culminates in a Todd Browning mini-fest that features such well-known films as Freaks (1932) and Mark of the Vampire (1935).  However, it’s worth staying up late, or setting your alarm, to watch The Unknown (1927) at 1 am, if only for the masterful job that Lon Chaney does in a memorable role.  Exploring the same carny world as in Freaks, Browning shows his skill, like Fritz Lang, at handling silent thrillers as well as talkies.  Also offered that night is another legendary Chaney film, London After Midnight (1927), but as far as I know this is still a lost film—perhaps the most famous lost film of all time, and certainly the most famous lost horror film.  So I’m sure that what TCM will be airing is that slide-show-of-stills version that debuted a few years back, but I'm sorry to say that that presentation format just doesn’t do it for me.  Maybe some enterprising filmmakers will figure out an artful way to re-make this film like those folks who reconfigured Caligari a couple of years ago, or those who made the excellent neo-silent Call of Cthulhu (2005).

As an aside, and this is surely not part of TCM’s Halloween programming, but few films match the originality of the chills and thrills in Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (1982), which will be shown on Sunday 10/21 at 1 am (technically 10/22).  For fans of fantastic cinema, and horror in particular, this is a must-see.  No, there are no vampires or zombies on display, just images and moments that may lift off the top of your skull with their otherworldliness.

The next day, on Monday, 10/22, AMC begins its annual, long-running MonsterFest.  All in all, the lineup represents strong counter-programming to TCM, much in the same way that the station’s non-horror movies (sometimes) do.  In the ten days of Monsterfest’s run, there’s a smattering of b&w fare, but mostly AMC relies on classics and pseudo-classics of the last three decades.  Think Wes Craven and Stephen King, not Todd Browning and Boris Karloff.  We’re talking about flicks such as Children of the Corn (1984), Creepshow (1982), Hellraiser (1987), The Howling (1981)—and lots of sequels.  The horror highlights of this era are ones that you’ve undoubtedly seen before, so maybe you just want to have them playing in the background.  That is, it’s almost facile to recommend catching Halloween (1978) (10/24, 8 pm, 6 pm 10/25), Psycho (3:30 pm, 10/22), and The Exorcist (10/27 at 8 pm).

Actually, these are not the only times you can catch these titles; AMC’s approach in general is to place the same movies on a heavy, around-the-clock rotation of horror, so you’ll have more chances to catch any given film.  When you click on any item in the Web schedule (see “Related Links”), you’ll see the multiple times it’s being shown.  Of these ‘70s and ‘80s flicks, I have a soft spot for The Fury (1978)—Brian DePalma’s set pieces really work without being driven by a recycled Hitchcock story.  It too is airing many times (one instance:  midnight on the “morning” of 10/26), but my sense is that this movie is a cable staple all year round.

Fox Movie Channel is more subdued and less inspired in its Halloween-oriented programming. The station doesn’t really kick into gear until 10/26, when it airs Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Other (1972) and The Omen (1976).  The latter is given the “Fox Legacy” treatment, and its sequel airs the following evening.  But then FMC cools off in the days just before Halloween, showing Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) and similar fare but the titles that appear then seem a lot like token gestures for the horror fan.

Meanwhile, TCM turns up the jets higher and higher.

  That’s where I’ll be on 10/26, when the station features a zombie-thon within a larger horror-thon.  This series of films kicks off at 11:15 am and culminates with White Zombie (1932) at 5:15 pm, which you should see if you haven’t.  Some critics put it down as overrated, but atmospherically it’s top-notch, and Lugosi is suitably iconic.  The other titles in the zombie-thon feature voodoo-style zombies and some comedies (no Romero zombies); many of these flicks I’ve never seen, and hopefully there’s not a reason for that.  The zombies are followed by Roger Corman titles from the ‘60s, with Carnival of Souls (1962) thrown in for good measure.

If you happen to be up at 2:30 on the morning of 10/29, TCM is airing Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (1964)—not just arguably the greatest anthology film of all time, but an undisputed highpoint of Japanese horror itself… and for my money (why stop now?), one of the top two or three most beautiful horror films made in any country, in any time period.

On Halloween itself, AMC appropriately enough starts off a Halloween marathon at 6 am.  But if you tune in at 10 am you can experience the first six movies in the franchise shown consecutively in chronological order.  Over on Fox, the day also starts in a promising way.  I love that the station is showing The Innocents (1961), which is in my top ten horror films of all time, even if it’s at 7:45 am.  If you’re taking the day off, celebrating it as a true holiday, then I recommend you catch this at all costs.  Fox’s evening schedule on Halloween includes Pretty Poison (1968), Terror Train (1980), and Race with the Devil (1975).  For the horror/thriller fan, these are worth checking out at any point of the year, but may leave someone unsatisfied who’s looking for a true pinnacle of the genre.

You’ll have to head over to TCM for that.  The programming on Halloween day is impressively solid, featuring the odd Corman or Ed Wood flick, and a slew of strong titles such as Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963) at 6 pm.  Of particular note is the Michael Curtiz-Fay Wray The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) at 3 pm.  The centerpiece, however, is a Karloff-centered evening program with a focus on mid-‘40s Val Lewton-produced titles.

To me, Karloff is one of the great iconic male actors of any period, any genre, up there with Chaplin and Bogart.  So that’s my bias right there.  However, even if Karloff had never made the Universal films, but only those that TCM is featuring on Halloween, I think he’d still be legendary.  Bedlam (1946), in primetime at 8 pm, has scenes and situations that are practically guaranteed to make your hair curl.  Mark Robson, who probably deserves to be better known as a director, always just seemed to deliver such consistently strong work. An earlier collaboration of his with Karloff, Isle of the Dead (1945) airs at 4:45 am on 11/1 and, if you’re still awake at that hour, it’s sure to send you into uneasy dreams.  Be patient, though, with this film—there are some stretches of “drama” between the creepy moments—but even these are incredibly watchable, largely due to Karloff’s performance.  The production design has an eerie minimalism, and stylistically the film shows Robson in Jacques Tourneur mode.  Although everything in Isle of the Dead is as austerely atmospheric as Bedlam is ornate and overtly grotesque, the movie is no less effective.

Sandwiched in between these two classics, at 11 pm and 12:30 am are two other Karloff flicks that are probably in my top ten horror films of all-time (please don't ask exactly how many items are in that top ten).  The Body Snatcher (1945) can be viewed multiple times without losing its power—just about everything in the production is meticulous and effective.  Also, the wonderful Henry Daniell, so reliably terrific in supporting roles in everything from The Great Dictator (1940) to Camille (1936) to The Sea Hawk (1940), really gets a chance to shine here.  The pairing of him and Karloff, each at the top of his game, is more than memorable.  Finally, if you’ve never seen James Whale’s The Old Dark House (1932), you have an opportunity to do so at 12:30 am.  It’s 75 years old, but you could still make the case that it’s the ultimate exemplar of the subgenre that it shares a name with.  And that cast…!  Not only Karloff, but Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Massey, and Gloria Stuart.  One could argue that the twisted family featured in this film would not be equaled for more than four decades, not until the debut of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).

Happy viewing…