Turner Classic Movies Will Blow Your Mind in October: Get Ready for a Month-Long Horrorgasm

As one who recognizes that pop culture actually existed prior to 1970 (hell, it's probably been declining ever since), I've adored Turner Classic Movies since I got my very first cable box. It's easily my favorite television channel, and I'm also a proud subscriber of Now Playing, the network's official monthly programming guide (and a steal at $12 per year).

So anyway, I got the October issue in the mail the other day, with the earnest visage of Fredric March blazoned upon the cover, when what do my eyes notice in the lower left-hand corner... "Also This Month: Hammer Horror". But of course, thought I--finally TCM is doing something special for Halloween, filling in for the once-outstanding AMC, which dropped the MonsterVision ball a long time ago. After all, if anybody could deliver for Halloween, it would be Turner Classic Movies.

And I'm proud to report that not only was I right, but I couldn't have possibly anticipated just how right I would be. TCM is ready to bring the noise next month, people. Allow me to elucidate. You'd better sit down...

First, we'll start with the Hammer extravaganza. Turner plans on showing a total of 20 Hammer classic throughout the month, with four-movie blocks each Friday:

October 1
Horror of Dracula
Brides of Dracula
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
Dracula Has Risen for the Grave

October 8
The Plague of the Zombies
The Devil's Bride
The Reptile
The Gorgon

October 15
The Mummy
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
The Mummy's Shroud
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb

October 22
X: The Unknown
Five Million Years to Earth
These Are the Damned
The Stranglers of Bombay

October 29
The Curse of Frankenstein
Revenge of Frankenstein
Frankenstein Created Woman
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!

OK, still breathing? Well good, because I didn't even really get to what they have planned for the entire Halloween weekend itself. For the entire three-day period from Friday, October 29 through Sunday, October 31, they're pulling out all the stops. It'll be non-stop horror classics as only a channel like has the grapefruits to showcase. In addition to the Hammer Frankenstein flicks showing on the Friday, the weekend will feature the likes of:

• The Mystery of the Wax Museum (later remade as House of Wax)
• Isle of the Dead (Val Lewton's amazing Karloff vehicle)
• The Corpse Vanishes (underrated Lugosi Monogram flick)
• White Zombie (the first zombie movie!)
• Curse of the Demon (sublime British devil-worshiping gem)
• 13 Ghosts (seminal William Castle original)
• The Tingler (more Castle goodness--this time with Vincent Price!)
• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (every gay man's favorite horror film)
• Cat People (Lewton psycho-sexual thriller)
• Freaks (future cult classic that wrecked Tod Browning's career)
• The Terror (Karloff meets Jack Nicholson!)
• The Raven (Corman/Poe greatness!)
• House on Haunted Hill (the best of the Castle/Price collaborations)
• The Haunting (greatest haunted house movie ever made)
• Poltergeist (a little too recent for the channel if you ask me, but I'll take it)
• The Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney's iconic turn)

Cool? Well, that's less than half of all the horror films being shown by Turner Classic Movies for Halloween weekend. In short, folks, October on TCM is the kind of thing for which DVR was invented. Not that I'd know, since I still tape shows on my handy Reagan-era VCR, but you get my point. This channel will be doing it right the entire month, and I encourage everyone who has it on their cable lineup and loves good horror to enjoy those 31 days of bliss. I know I'll be.

VAULT VLOG: What You SHOULD Be Watching for Halloween

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TCM's Essentials Jr. Brings the Harryhausen

If you're like me, then you don't pass up any opportunity to expose your kids to the stuff that you really dug when you were a kid. Well, Turner Classic Movies has thought up a way to help those of us who will not rest until our offspring are as socially outcast as we once were. It's called The Essentials, Jr.

Fans of TCM recognize The Essentials as the channel's Saturday night series spotlighting the absolutely can't-miss gems of classic cinema. This month, they've introduced a less "serious" and more fun version intended to lure the kiddies into appreciating great movies from the golden age.

And coming up this Sunday night, The Essentials Jr. (hosted by Little Miss Sunshine's delightful Abigail Breslin and Batman & Robin's far-from-delightful Chris O'Donnell) presents Ray Harryhausen's 1957 chestnut 20 Millions Miles to Earth. The last of Harryhausen's special effects extravaganzas to be made in black and white, the movie tells the story of the implacable Ymir, a creature from the planet Venus who arrives on Earth and promptly begins to enlarge to alarming size and go on an old-school call-out-the-national-guard rampage.

It's a must-see for kids young and old, so whether you have procreated or not, I urge you to get yourself in front of the tube this Sunday for a true popcorn treat.

The Essentials, Jr. runs ever Sunday night. Future pics on the slate include the likes of Mutiny on the Bounty and Harvey.

TCM Pays Tribute to a Master

Fans of vintage horror would do well to plant themselves in front of the tube--or at least have their TiVos set--tomorrow night. That's because the always-excellent Turner Classic Movies has a night of Val Lewton in store.
To kick it off at 8p.m., Martin Scorsese presents Val Lewton - The Man in the Shadows, a new documentary on the man who produced the finest fright films of the 1940s. The doc will be followed by a marathon that includes eight of Lewton's nine horror pics: Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Leopard Man (1943), The Seventh Victim (1943), The Curse of the Cat People (1944), The Body Snatcher (1945, starring Boris Karloff, pictured), Isle of the Dead (1945) and Bedlam (1946).
Strangely, the marathon skips over 1943's The Ghost Ship. But it does include two of Lewton's non-horror productions: period picture Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) and Youth Runs Wild (1944), one of the earliest entries in the low-budget juvenile delinquency genre.
For more information, including TV listings, check out TCM's Val Lewton sub-site here.