There’s plenty of new horror movies coming out this month to enjoy, but sometimes you want to go back to the classics during the holidays, and Turner Classic Movies has the perfect lineup for it. The channel just announced its October programming, celebrating Halloween in all kinds of way from filmmaker marathons to their iconic Halloween Terror-Thon.
Hosts Mario Cantone and Ben Mankiewicz are bringing their Creepy Cinema double features back this month, beginning today with a Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford cage match featuring Queen Bee and The Nanny. Other pairings (airing every Thursday night in October) include Gaslight and Sweeney Todd, as well as The Snake Pit and Suddenly, Last Summer, and every double feature will be followed by a late night horror festival, featuring films like The Blob, The Curse of Frankenstein, Kwaidan, Carnival of Souls, and The Honeymoon Killers.
On October 16, TCM is also paying tribute to a director that paved the way for modern horror: Tod Browning. A six-film marathon celebrates the queer filmmaker who was dubbed the “Edgar Allan Poe of cinema,” featuring titles like The Mystic and The Thirteenth Chair, along with Mark of the Vampire, which reunites the director with his Dracula star Bela Lugosi, and his seminal film Freaks, one of the first to ever center real disabled actors on screen.
Everything comes to a head on the day before Halloween, which kicks off their annual Halloween Terror-Thon — forty-eight straight hours of horror films beginning at 6AM on October 30. The marathon begins with Dr. Crippen, starring Donald Pleasance, and continues with the TCM premiere of the documentary Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive, alongside a double feature of House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill, two of the celebrated actor’s most beloved films.
Additional network premieres include the 1979 version of Dracula, as well as Fango favorite Phantom of the Paradise, and Pufnstuf, an adaptation of the trippy ‘70s kids show. Host Eddie Muller also brings a Noir Alley triple feature to the table, showcasing Cat People, The Leopard Man, and The Seventh Victim, while the rest of the marathon includes classics like Dracula, Eyes WIthout a Face, White Zombie, The Mummy, and The Bride of Frankenstein.
For more information on TCM’s full October lineup, you can check out their website.
