It’s our time, horror movie fans.
Once again, Turner Classic Movies has curated a made-to-order fright fest with a schedule of nearly 100 horror films throughout October.
Friday evenings are devoted exclusively to scary movies starting Oct. 2 when horror author David J. Skal, whose new book with TCM is “Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond,” introduces four films starting at 8 p.m.
Those four movies and many others in the book will be shown on TCM in October including “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “Mystery of the Wax Museum,” “Them!” and “The Wolf Man.”
TCM’s Star of the Month (#sotm) is horror great Peter Cushing, whose films will be featured in prime-time every Monday night in October. Though the first two weeks (Oct. 5 and 12) focus on Cushing’s early roles and non-horror work, Oct. 19 is devoted to his Hammer films – including three Frankenstein movies – and Oct. 26 is all horror including two Dracula films.
Oct. 14 is Tod Browning Day with seven of his films programmed including three with Lon Chaney. The month culminates in around-the-clock horror films on Oct. 30 and 31.
Here is the list of films to help you plan your viewing and DVR schedule.
Friday, Oct. 2
Fright Favorites: David Skal Frightmare
8 p.m. “Dracula” (Universal, 1931). Bela Lugosi remains the face of Dracula nearly a century later.
9:30 p.m. “Cat People” (1942). Director Jacques Tourneur’s poetic horror story about a woman who fears she turns into a panther.
11 p.m. “House on Haunted Hill” (1959). Vincent Price invites strangers to spend the night in a haunted house for a big payday.
Saturday, Oct. 3
12:30 a.m. “The Haunting” (1963). A far more terrifying take on strangers who spend the night in a haunted mansion. Keep the lights on.
Friday, Oct. 9
Fright Favorites: Back From the Grave
8 p.m. “The Ghoul” (1933). Boris Karloff is an Egyptologist who returns from the dead for revenge against those who have betrayed him.
9:30 p.m. “Black Sleep” (1956). A scientist puts his victims into a black sleep as he experiments on their brains to save his wife. Starring Lon Chaney Jr., Basil Rathbone.
11 p.m. “Mark of the Vampire” (1935). Tod Browning remakes his film “London After Midnight.” A count (Bela Lugosi) and his daughter (Carroll Borland) are suspected of murder when a man is found dead with two pinpricks on his neck. With Lionel Atwill, Lionel Barrymore.
Saturday, Oct. 10
12:15 a.m. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968). George A. Romero’s original zombie classic set the standard that still resonates today.
Monday, Oct. 12
6 a.m. “The Reptile” (1966). Hammer film set in a small Cornish village where people are mysteriously dying from snake bites.
7:45 a.m. “The Killer Shrews” (1959). A mad scientist turns shrews (rats) into giant deadly creatures.
9 a.m. “King Kong” (1933). The classic beauty and the beast tale needs no introduction.
11 a.m. “Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” (1953). A frozen prehistoric dinosaur is awakened by nuclear tests in the Arctic. The stop-motion creature is by the great Ray Harryhausen.
12:30 p.m. “Gojira” (1954). A giant beast is revived by nuclear testing and goes on a rampage in Japan.
2 p.m. “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954). Geologists on an Amazon expedition discover one of the most iconic creatures in film, the Gill Man. Richard Carlson, Richard Denning and Julia Adams star.
3:30 p.m. “Creature from the Haunted Sea” (1961). A killer who blames his murders on a legendary sea monster gets the surprise of his life when the beast shows up in this Roger Corman film.
4:45 p.m. “The Green Slime” (1969). Green goop turns astronauts on a space station into one-eyed monsters.
6:30 p.m. “Night of the Lepus” (1972). Adorable bunnies turn killer monsters in this must-see cult classic with Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh and DeForest Kelley.
Wednesday, Oct. 14
Seven films directed by Tod Browning.
10:15 a.m. “The Unholy Three” (1925). Tod Browning and Lon Chaney collaborated for the second time in this film about three criminals who disguise themselves as circus performers to steal from the rich.
Noon: “The Unknown” (1927). Chaney is chilling as an escaped killer who hides out in a sideshow by pretending he is armless, then falls in love with a young Joan Crawford. You will believe Chaney is armless in his remarkable performance.
1 p.m. “The Blackbird” (1926). Chaney plays a bishop by day who turns into a thief called the Blackbird at night.
2:30 p.m. “The Thirteenth Chair” (1929). A medium holds a séance to clear her daughter of murders. Bela Lugosi investigates.
4 p.m. “Freaks” (1932). Browning’s landmark film starred people with real disabilities as circus “freaks” in this statement against the idea of physical perfection.
5:15 p.m. “Mark of the Vampire” (1935). See Oct. 9
6:30 p.m. “The Devil-Doll” (1936). See it for Lionel Barrymore disguised as a cross-dressing old lady as he seeks revenge on those who sent him to prison. Or see if for the fun special effects of creepy little people he sends off to do his bidding. Just see it.
Friday, Oct. 16
8 a.m. “Little Shop of Horrors” (1960). Roger Corman’s musical-horror film about a bloodthirsty plant. Look for Jack Nicholson in an early film role.
9:15 a.m. “Village of the Damned” (1960). This entry in the creepy killer kid horror genre stars George Sanders and Barbara Shelley.
10:45 a.m. “The Brain that Wouldn’t Die” (1962). A scientist keeps his fiancée’s decapitated head alive while he searches for a new head.
12:15 p.m. “Carnival of Souls” (1962). A woman survives a car crash only to be haunted by the dead.
1:45 p.m. “Dementia 13” (1963). A scheming widow joins her husband’s family at their Irish estate for a family ritual. Written and directed by a youthful Francis Ford Coppola; produced by Roger Corman.
3:15 p.m. “The Raven” (1963). Corman, Price, Lorre and Karloff – do you need to hear more?
4:45 p.m. “Spider Baby” (1964). Lon Chaney Jr. plays a caring chauffeur to three orphans who suffer from a genetic disease. Look for Carol Ohmart who was so great as the scheming wife in “House on Haunted Hill.”
6:15 p.m. “The Nanny” (1965). Bette Davis is a nanny who cares for a boy just out of a psychiatric hospital in this Hammer Film production.
Fright Favorites: Horror Anthologies
8 p.m. “Dead of Night” (1945). Excellent anthology about a man who meets a group of strangers at a farm and insists he has dreamt about all of them. The guests share five supernatural stories including the chilling chapter “The Ventriloquist’s Dummy.”
10 p.m. “Twice Told Tales” (1963). Vincent Prices narrates and stars in three tales based on the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Saturday, Oct. 17
12:15 a.m. “Black Sabbath” (1963). Mario Bava directs a trilogy of terror. Boris Karloff narrates and also stars in one segment as a patriarch returning home who may or may not be a vampire.
1:45 a.m. “The Fearless Vampire Killers” (1966). Roman Polanski’s comedic horror film about a professor who travels to Transylvania in search of vampires.
3:45 a.m. “House of Dark Shadows” (1970). Dan Curtis directs the first film based off his supernatural television series that finds Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) searching for a cure for vampirism.
Monday, Oct. 19
Star of the Month: Peter Cushing (Hammer Horrors)
8 p.m. “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1959). A different look for Peter Cushing and Peter Lee. Cushing plays Sherlock Holmes; Lee is the in-danger Sir Henry Baskerville.
9:30 p.m. “Horror of Dracula” (1958). The one that started it all for Hammer Film, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and director Terence Fisher.
11:15 p.m. “The Mummy” (1959). Christopher Lee is the lovesick Kharis the Mummy, who returns to life and thinks he’s found his reincarnated love.
Tuesday, Oct. 20
1 a.m. “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957). Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee star in the first of seven Frankenstein films from Hammer.
2:45 a.m. “Frankenstein Created Woman” (1967). For the fourth film in Hammer’s Frankenstein series, Peter Cushing returns as the doctor who this time gives life – and beauty – to the body of disfigured young woman.
4:30 a.m. “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!” (1970). The fifth film in Hammer’s Frankenstein series puts a more sinister take on the doctor, once again played by Peter Cushing. With Veronica Carlson and Freddie Jones.
Thursday, Oct. 22
11:30 p.m. “Mystery of the Wax Museum” (1933). Fay Wray is targeted by a demented artist who turns his victims into wax statues. Directed by Michael Curtiz.
Friday, Oct. 23
1 a.m. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968). George A. Romero’s original zombie classic still resonates today.
Fright Favorites: Creature Features
8 p.m. “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954). See Oct. 12.
9:30 p.m. “The Blob” (1958). Steve McQueen and his teen friends try to get a town to believe there’s a giant person-eating blob on the loose.
11:15 p.m. “The Tingler” (1959). Vincent Price stars in William Castle film about a parasite that feeds on fear and can only be stopped by screaming.
Saturday, Oct. 24
12:45 a.m. “The Thing from Another World” (1951). An Air Force team sent to investigate reports of a crashed space craft in the arctic discover a frozen alien (played by James Arness).
8:09 a.m. “Black Cats and Broomsticks” (1955). Eight-minute short examines superstitions.
Sunday, Oct. 25
1:45 a.m. “The Werewolf” (1956). A scientist seeking a cure for radiation poisoning turns a man into a werewolf.
3:15 a.m. “The Howling” (1981). Rob Bottin’s werewolf effects were stellar in this modern werewolf film involving a search for a serial killer.
5 a.m. “The Mummy” (1932). Boris Karloff is a sympathetic mummy seeking his lost love he believes has been reincarnated. Zita Johann from “The Sin of Nora Moran” co-stars.
Monday, Oct. 26
Midnight: “Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages” (1922, silent). Documentary explores witchcraft going back to the Middle Ages.
4:15 a.m. “Eyes Without a Face” (1959). A scientist seeks a face for his disfigured daughter.
6 a.m. “The Beast with Five Fingers” (1946). The hand of a murdered concert pianist returns to life seeking vengeance. With Robert Alda and Peter Lorre.
Star of the Month: Peter Cushing (Horror Icon)
8 p.m. “Nothing But the Night” (1972). A doctor (Peter Cushing) and investigator (Christopher Lee) look into mysterious deaths connected to an orphanage and a troubled young orphan.
9:45 p.m. “Madhouse” (1974). A horror movie star convicted of the death of his fiancée returns to his most famous role after his release from a mental hospital only to have bodies start to pile up again. Vincent Price and Peter Cushing star in this Amicus Production.
11:30 p.m. “From Beyond the Grave” (1973). Four-part British anthology film from Amicus stars Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, Diana Dors.
Tuesday, Oct. 27
1:30 a.m. “Scream and Scream Again” (1970). Icons of horror Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star in this strange sci-fi film about a scientist who harvests body parts for his experiments while a serial killer who drinks blood is on the loose.
3:15 a.m. “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” (1973). Christopher Lee stars for the seventh and final time for Hammer as Dracula, now living in modern London. Peter Cushing, as always, is on his trail.
4:45 a.m. “Dracula A.D. 1972” (1972). Young partygoers in modern London, including a descendant of Van Helsing, are targeted by Dracula. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
Thursday, Oct. 29
7 a.m. “The Devil-Doll” (1936). See Oct. 14
11 a.m. “Tormented” (1960). Richard Carlson is a pianist haunted by his guilt over a dead lover in Bert I. Gordon film.
2:15 p.m. “Night of Dark Shadows” (1971). In this sequel to “House of Dark Shadows,” Quentin Collins (David Selby) brings his wife (Kate Jackson) to his newly inherited Collingwood.
4 p.m. “Indestructible Man” (1956). Lon Chaney Jr. plays a criminal brought back from the dead who seeks revenge on his lawyer and partners.
5:15 p.m. “From Hell it Came” (1957). From the monstrous tree genre – a South Seas prince wrongly executed for murder comes back as a lumbering tree seeking revenge.
6:30 p.m. “Death Curse of Tartu” (1966). Archeology students disturb the grave of a witch doctor and unleash apparitions.
Friday, Oct. 30
6:30 a.m. “Doctor X” (1932). The trio of Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray and director Michael Curtiz work together again in film about cannibalistic murders in New York City.
8 a.m. “The Mask of Fu Manchu” (1932). Karloff plays a Chinese madman who goes after an expedition searching for the tomb of Genghis Khan. Watch if only to see Myrna Loy as his evil daughter.
9:30 a.m. “The Most Dangerous Game” (1932). A big-game hunter hunts humans who are stranded on his island. Joel McCrea, Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong.
10:45 a.m. “Island of Lost Souls” (1932). Another mad scientist on an island, this one (Charles Laughton) turns humans into beasts.
Noon: “White Zombie” (1932). Bela Lugosi is a zombie master who haunts newlyweds on a Haitian sugar plantation.
1:30 p.m. “The Vampire Bat” (1933). Melvyn Douglas helps investigate when bodies drained of blood show up in a British village. With Fay Wray.
2:45 p.m. “The Mystery of the Wax Museum” (1933). See Oct. 22
4:15 p.m. “Mad Love” (1935). Based off “Hands of Orlac.” Peter Lorre is a surgeon who operates on the hands of a pianist, despite him being married to the woman he loves.
5:30 p.m. “The Walking Dead” (1936). Boris Karloff is sympathetic as a framed man brought back from the dead to seek revenge. Michael Curtiz.
6:45 p.m. “The Return of Doctor X” (1939). Unfortunately, it’s not a sequel to “Doctor X.” Instead a reporter who discovers a murder investigates when she later turns up alive. Humphrey Bogart plays a lab assistant.
Fright Favorite: Deals With the Devil
8 p.m. “The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake” (1959). A voodoo curse marks a family for death.
9:15 p.m. “Eye of the Devil” (1966). Deborah Kerr and David Niven travel to his ancestral wine estate in France where an old pagan ritual insists on a human sacrifice to save the crops. Cast includes Sharon Tate, Donald Pleasence and Flora Robson.
11 p.m. “The Devil Rides Out” (1968). A tale of black magic and Satanic cults with Christopher Lee playing a good guy trying to save a young woman’s life in film. Directed by Terence Fisher with screenplay by Richard Matheson.
Saturday, Oct. 31
12:45 a.m. The Wicker Man” (1974). A Puritan police officer (Edward Woodward) investigating the disappearance of a child in a small Scottish island finds bizarre happenings and pagan rituals. One of Christopher Lee’s best performances.
6 a.m. “Freaks” (1932). See Oct. 14
7:15 a.m. “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1932). Fredric March won an Oscar for his dual roles of a man battling good and evil. Makeup is by Wally Westmoore. Miriam Hopkins co-stars.
9 a.m. “House of Wax” (1953). A sculptor whose hands were burned in a fire, tries to rebuild a wax museum – any way he can. Starring Vincent Price, Phyllis Kirk and Caroline Jones. Lab assistant Igor is billed as actor Charles Buchinsky – you’ll recognize him as Charles Bronson.
10:45 a.m. “Children of the Damned” (1964). See Oct. 16
12:30 p.m. “The Bad Seed” (1956). Unsettling and terrifying film about a seemingly sweet 8-year-old girl (Patty McCormick). Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
2:45 p.m. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945). Hurd Hatfield makes a deal with the devil to stay young. Great supporting cast features George Sanders, Donna Reed, Peter Lawford and Angela Lansbury.
4:45 p.m. “The Wolf Man” (1941). Lon Chaney Jr. plays Lawrence Talbot who suffers a tragic fate after being bit by a werewolf. Claude Rains is his father. Maria Ouspenskaya steals the show. This was the first of five times Chaney Jr. would play the werewolf.
6 p.m. “The Haunting” (1963). See Oct. 2
Nuclear Nightmares
8 p.m. “Dr. Strangelove” (1964). Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant black comedy about the atom bomb. With Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Slim Pickens.
10 p.m. “Them!” (1954). The film that started the giant bug craze. James Whitmore and James Arness investigate mysterious deaths and find giant ants. A mute little girl adds to the suspense and her first words give the film its name.
Sunday, Nov. 1
Midnight: “The Seventh Victim” (Noir Alley). An innocent young woman travels to New York City to find her missing sister and discovers a Satanic cult in this horror noir.
1:30 a.m. “I Walked With a Zombie” (1943). Voodoo, zombies and romance are in store for a nurse brought to a Caribbean island to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner. Directed by Jacques Tourneur.
3 a.m. “The Body Snatcher” (1945). Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff find cadavers to help a doctor with his medical experiments in this film by Robert Wise. The last of eight films starring Lugosi and Karloff.
4:30 a.m. “The Leopard Man” (1943). From Jacques Tourneur and Val Lewton. After a black leopard escapes from a club where it is part of a musical act, bodies are found around town. But who really is the killer?
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