Fall Television, DVDs, and Movies
Help Get You in the Haunting Mood

Hauntmistress, 9/9/2007

The Fall season offers the entertainment industry the chance to capitalize on the Halloween spirit by offering scary treats on the small and big screens. Here's our guide to finding the perfect movie to get you in the Halloween mood. This article will be updated as new shows are announced.

Television

It will be hard to turn on the Sci Fi Channel in October and not find something for the horror and Halloween enthusiast. Sci Fi's popular "13 Days of Halloween" is back (Oct. 19-31) with more than 250 hours of horror and sci-fi movies such as Cursed, Saw, Final Destination, Demon Hunter, Darkness, The Hollow, Cabin Fever, Route 666, and movies from "Horrorfest - 8 Films to Die For" (more info on that under the Movies section of this article). In addition, the 2007 Ghost Hunters Live investigation is airing on Halloween from the haunted Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. There are also new episodes of "Ghost Hunters" every Wednesday beginning Sept. 26. Check out Sci Fi’s website or your local television listings.

The Travel Channel's Most Haunted begins on Oct. 5, but it's the Oct. 19 episode you won't want to miss. It's a live broadcast from San Jose's Winchester Mystery House.

Over on ABC Family, catch "13 Nights of Halloween" featuring the new ABC Family Original Movie The Initiation of Sarah, plus Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, The Sixth Sense, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and more. And don't miss the Scariest Places on Earth marathon and Nature of the Beast on Oct. 21, a television movie about a boy and girl who fall in love. Only problem is, he's a werewolf.

Throughout September and October, AMC is airing a slew of classic and corny movies, including Army of Darkness, Slaughter of the Vampires, Psycho, Jack the Ripper, The Birds, Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice, and more. In addition, AMC's Seven Nights of Hitchcock starts September 16 and includes both classics and lesser-known works from every stage of the director’s career: Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, The Birds, Vertigo, Rope, Saboteur, Marnie, Frenzy, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Torn Curtain, The Trouble With Harry, Family Plot, Psycho, and Shadow of a Doubt.

Turner Classic Movies is showing scary movies throughout October, stepping up their game on the 26th and 31st with almost non-stop scares, including Voodoo Island, Bucket of Blood, King of the Zombies, Creature From the Haunted Sea, The Terror, Carnival of Souls, The Devil Bat, Cry of the Werewolf, The Body Snatcher, The Walking Dead, and Isle of the Dead.

Comedy Central presents the "Halloween Freak-For-All" Oct. 27-28 featuring the best of their scary/funny programming all day.

On HGTV, you'll want to catch What's With That Really Haunted Halloween House?, a special spin-off of the station's What's With That House? with host George Grey.

Movies

Sept. 7 brings us Hatchet, where a group on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour get stranded and end up in a terrifying nightmare.

On Sept. 14 get ready for Dragon Wars, based on the Korean legend of the Imoogi, in which demonic creatures will devastate the Earth unless a couple can ensure that the Good Imoogi comes to power.

Sept. 21 brings us the third Resident Evil movie Resident Evil: Extinction. Milla Jovovich is back as Alice, leading a group of humans through the Nevada desert to Alaska. Hunted and hungry for revenge, Alice is one bad chick.

Oct. 5 get ready for Trick 'r Treat featuring four deadly interwoven stories that take place on Halloween: a school principal who is a serial killer, a girl seeking a boyfriend in a twisted way, a woman who hates Halloween while her husband is obsessed with it, and teenagers who pull a cruel trick.

Also planned for an Oct. 5 release is The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, in which a man discovers he is the last of a group of immortal warriors dedicated to fighting the forces of darkness.

On Oct. 12 Rogue finds a group of people stranded on an island and being stalked by a giant crocodile.

Oct. 19 brings us 30 Days of Night, set in Alaska where the sun sets and doesn't rise for over 30 nights. From the darkness comes an evil to terrorize a small town's residents.

Oct. 19 is also the release date of Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour, a ghost-story mystery perfect for the 'tween and teen market. The heroine, 17-year-old Sarah Landon, is in over her head. Staying far away from home with her late friend's grandmother, she realizes she's sleeping in a haunted guest house and that she's just uncovered a small town's dark secret. Complicating things are a local psychic, an evil spirit and two brothers who may hold the key to an ever-growing mystery.

Seems like we've seen a trillion Saw films, but another hits the theaters on Oct. 26, Saw IV. In a continuation of the last film, a father and daughter must escape the evil Jigsaw.

Also on Oct. 26 comes The Signal. Cell phones, radios, and televisions begin broadcasting a signal that causes psychotic chaos.

Often scary movies are released just before Halloween and some even in November. It seems like they should be released in early or mid-October to capitalize on the Halloween spirit, but we'll take 'em whenever we can get 'em. November 9-18, 2007, After Dark Films presents "8 Films to Die For - After Dark Horrorfest". Eight new horror films will be released in over 500 theaters in 35 cities in the U.S. It will be your only chance to catch these movies in the theater. Check out the Horrorfest website for more information.

Haunted Bay will be first in line for the Dec. 21 release of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street starring the always superb Johnny Depp as the title character who seeks revenge on all who have wronged him.

To get you in the Christmas spirit you'll want to rush out and see the Dec. 25 opening of Aliens vs. Predator Requiem, in which Aliens and Predators wage their most brutal battle yet - in Colorado.

DVDs

The Director's Cut of Christian Slater's 2005 Alone in the Dark will be released Sept. 25. Watch Slater try to stop demonic forces from taking over the world.

Oct. 16 brings the straight to DVD movie Return to House on Haunted Hill. In this sequel to 1999's House on Haunted Hill, a group of people risk their lives in search of a cursed statue worth millions that will come at the cost of their souls.

On Oct. 23 get ready for Hostel II, Quentin Tarantino's follow-up to the successful Hostel. Three American students studying in Rome are drawn into a world of torture and suffering.