It’s that spooktacular time of the year when witches darken the skies, ghouls hover in the attic and goblins hide under your bed.
Television knows a bad thing when it sees it, and both the big and little screens are tuned up for the screaming.
Disney+ warns its viewers with movies like “Don’t Look Under the Bed,” “Girl vs. Monster,” the ever-popular “Hocus Pocus” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Paramount+ plans on pounding your pulse with some classics like “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Blob,” the 1974 version of “Murder on the Orient Express” and the 1976 iteration of “King Kong.”
Don’t be dismayed by reruns, there’s always the original feature to fritter your jitters. “Mr. Crocket” emerges on Hulu. He’s the children’s television host who kidnaps small children and murders their parents — not a savvy way to boost his ratings.
Apple TV+ offers the family friendly stop-motion animated “Creepy Cave Crawl,” a “Shape Island” Halloween special. and all three seasons of “Ghostwriter” are loitering in the shadows for viewers who’ve missed them. A ghost who haunts a neighborhood bookstore starts releasing fictional characters into the world.
“Velma: This Halloween Needs to Be More Special!” sounds innocent enough, but this is an adult animated event on Max in which friends have just 24 hours to liberate Velma and face a vengeful spirit. Packed with famous voices like Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes and Gary Cole, you know this is no slacker flick.
Svengoolie and his Saturday “Classic Horror & Sci-Fi Movie” at 8 p.m. on MeTV will present “Invaders From Mars,” followed by the Jim Henson-Frank Oz classic “The Dark Crystal.”
New to the field and just in the nick of time is the new Scream TV, which features, you guessed it, horror programming all the time — with bone-busting shows and free streaming if you want to test it out.
Over on the Shudder streamer perches a Russell Crowe piece called “The Exorcism,” in which he plays an actor who begins to fall apart while he’s shooting a horror film.
Starz got the jump on Halloween and has been sporting spooky shows all month. Watch your step with features like “Ash vs. Evil Dead, “The Exorcist III,” “Frailty,” “Navy SEALS v Demons,” “Nothing Left to Fear” and “Santa’s Slay.”
Not to be outdone, Netflix sports a classy original, “1922,” based on a Stephen King novella. A farmer admits he killed his wife — but that’s not the end of it, as he supposes.
The third time’s a charm for “Terrifier 3,” as it became the No. 1 movie in America after it opened in theaters on Oct. 11. That vicious old clown is at it again terrorizing the innocent siblings who assumed their lives were back to normal.
And though it sounds safe enough, the horror-thriller “Director’s Cut” opens in select theaters on Halloween — on demand to follow. A sociopath preys on a punk band that wants desperately to be as famous as, well, the Dead Kennedys.
You don’t have to go far on Halloween to find a body bag full of scary movies on Turner Classic Movies. Starting at 1:15 p.m. on Oct. 31, you’ll find “Freaks,” followed by “The Bat,” “The Wolf Man,” “The Black Cat,” the original “Dracula” and the original “Frankenstein.”
