What’s on TV over Halloween - scariest TV shows and movies
Everything you need to know about which spooky treats to watch on Halloween
Spooky season is upon us – and that means it's time for telly fans to enjoy all sorts of scary treats on the small screen.
A wide range of Halloween fare has already been added to streaming services this year, including The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix and Truth Seekers on Amazon Prime Video, but on terrestrial TV there's slightly less content when it comes to new shows.
However, the schedules are absolutely packed with all sorts of horror films – so treating yourself to a scary movie might be the best way to get your Halloween fix this year.
Read on for our picks of the best TV shows and films showing this Halloween – you can sign up for Amazon Prime for £7.99 a month with a 30-day free trial, and watch movies now with a Sky Cinema Pass from NOW TV – get a 7 day free trial. (It’ll then auto-renew at £11.99 a month, but you can cancel anytime!)
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Ghost Adventures Halloween Special: Curse of the Harrisville Farmhouse – Saturday 31st October at 9pm, Really
Really has been running a series of Halloween programmes in the run up to 31st October, including This is Halloween and Ghost Nation. It culminates in this Ghost Adventures special, which sees the team investigate reports of electrical anomalies, shadow figures and disembodied voices at a former prison.
Bram Stoker's Dracula – Saturday 31st October at 9pm, Sony Movies
A 15th-century Transylvanian knight becomes a vampire after the death of his beloved wife. Centuries later, he learns she has been reincarnated, and travels to Victorian London with the intent of seducing her into joining him in living death.
Rosemary's Baby – Saturday 31st October at 9pm, TCM Movies
A couple move into a new apartment, and the husband forms a close friendship with their elderly neighbours. The wife soon becomes pregnant, and starts to suspect her spouse has been seduced into a Satanic cult, who have sinister plans for her baby
The Witch – Saturday 31st October at 12:15am, Channel 4
An English farmer is driven from his land in 17th-century America, and settles on the edge of a sinister forest. The family suffers a series of inexplicable disasters, and as tension rises between them, the eldest daughter finds herself accused by her own parents and siblings of being a witch.
The Awakening – Saturday 31st October at 12:45am, BBC Two
In 1920s England, paranormal investigator Florence Cathcart travels around the country exposing supposed supernatural occurrences as hoaxes. She is summoned to a remote boarding school to examine reports of a haunting, but finds her rational disbelief in the occult challenged by the disturbing events that unfold there.
John Carpenter Double Bill (Halloween followed by They Live) – Saturday 31st October at 10:45pm, Film4
Halloween - Homicidal madman Michael Myers escapes from a mental institution 15 years after murdering his sister, and goes on a killing spree in his home town. Although a psychiatrist is quickly on his trail in a bid to stop the loss of more lives, a shy teenage girl babysitting for her neighbour is unaware of the grisly fate in store for her. (Want to check out the sequels? Here's how to watch the Halloween movies in order.)
They Live - A drifter arrives in Los Angeles seeking work, only to discover the city's population is being dominated by aliens who control their victims through subliminal advertising.
Poltergeist – Saturday 31st October at 11:10pm, BBC Two
A family experiences strange events after invisible phantoms invade its home. At first the ghosts seem harmless, simply making things move by themselves. But before long, they spirit away the five-year-old daughter to their own plane of existence, forcing her parents to call on paranormal researchers to find their missing child.
The Ring – Sunday 1st November at 12:35am, BBC One
A journalist investigates several teenage deaths, which are linked to a cursed videotape and the rumour that anyone who watches it will die a week later. Her growing obsession with the tape endangers herself and her family - and to avoid the predicted fate, she has just seven days to find out where the recording came from.
There are also several options on streaming services, such as:
Truth Seekers - Amazon Prime Video
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star in this new horror-comedy series about a team of part-time paranormal investigators who team up to uncover and film ghost sightings across the UK, sharing their adventures on an online channel for all to see.
Watch Truth Seekers on Amazon Prime Video.
Midsommar - Amazon Prime Video
A couple travel to Sweden to visit their friend's rural hometown for its fabled midsummer festival, but what begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
Watch Midsommar on Amazon Prime Video.
A Nightmare on Elm Street - NOW TV
A young girl realises that she has to stay awake at any cost to avoid the clawed killer who is butchering her friends one by one in their dreams.
Watch A Nightmare on Elm Street with a Sky Cinema Pass from NOW TV – get a 7 day free trial.
The Lighthouse - NOW TV
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
Watch The Lighthouse with a Sky Cinema Pass from NOW TV – get a 7 day free trial.
Also check out our list of best horror films on Netflix. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
