Editorials
10 Amazing Halloween Television Episodes!
When the Halloween season arrives, there’s nothing better than turning on your television and learning what your favorite characters will dress up as for their Halloween festivities.
Ironically, Halloween television is rarely about scaring viewers and almost always ends up focusing on Halloween parties. There are so many Halloween episodes out there that crowning ten best would be impossible.
Instead, here are nine favorites with one The Deadliest Warrior entry added for good measure.
Roseanne – “BOO!”
There are many great Roseanne Halloween episodes, but the first remains the best. The costumes aren’t as outlandish as they’d later become, but nearly every joke hits on one Halloween theme or another and it’s delivery is totally earnest and fun. Even before the big party, we have all the wonderful pranks and dark puns. Plus, you have to love a show where a mother asks her Halloween-resisting daughter, “Do you want to go upstairs and get dressed, or do you just want to go to Hell?”
Community – “Epidemiology”
Can a weekly sitcom about community college pull off a zombie episode without resorting to an ending where Star-Burns wakes up and finds it was all just a bad dream? Community’s great halloween episode, “Epidemioligy,” argues “yes” as the entire school (except for Dean Pelton) runs into a form of food poisoning that turns victims into zombies before frying their brains (or something). No one can remember what happened afterward, but the show never forgets as this episode introduced Shirley’s season two pregnancy plot. Chang, you sly dog.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – “Halloween”
The first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is fun, but the show doesn’t kick into high gear until season two, especially during this episode which supplies both laughs and drama while introducing major elements to the Buffy mythology.
Sunnydale unravels as everyone magically takes on the personality of their costume thanks to mischievous Ethan Rayne. Xander learns military training which comes in handy for the rest of the series. We get our first indications of Giles’ dark past. Plus Willow totally takes control of the Scoobies. It’s everything you’d want from an early Buffy episode, and it’s plenty Halloweeny as well.
The Simpsons – “Tree House of Horror V”
Like Rosanne, The Simpsons has a reputation for awesome Halloween episodes thanks to their annual Tree House of Horror anthologies. We may all have our pet favorites, but the hands-down winner has to be “Tree House of Horror V,” which includes a story where the Springfield school system consumes children literally as well as a parody of The Shining, and Ray Bradbury’s time travel mind-warper, “A Sound of Thunder.” It doesn’t get much cooler than this.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – “Who Got Dee Pregnant?”
Judging from the title, you wouldn’t think this Rashomon-style episode would have anything to do with Halloween. But since the story of who got Dee pregnant takes place at a Patty’s Bar Halloween party, we get our first ever It’s Always Sunny Halloween episode. The costumes aren’t as clever as on other shows because the people wearing them aren’t as clever. It’s worth it just to hear Charlie’s cannibalistic misinterpretation of The Phantom of the Opera or everyone’s inability to name Viggo Mortensen when referring to Mac’s Aragorn costume. And that’s saying nothing of the moment where we’re treated to a real life ostrich in Dee’s place.
The Office – “Halloween”
Every generation needs a sitcom to really knock it out of the park on Halloween, and right now that title goes to The Office. Annually, fans prepare for witty costumes galore and uncomfortable hijinks usually in some way revolving around said costumes.
This season two episode marks their most memorable attempt, simply because the story is so sad and horrible. Michael has to fire one employee before November and of course waits until the last day to make his choice. So while everyone has a good time on Halloween (relatively) one worker will be going home with their life ruined. Also, Michael has two heads.
The Walking Dead – “Day’s Gone By”
The Walking Dead’s opening episode, “Days Gone By,” was not the kind of Halloween episode where all your favorite characters dress up in really creative costumes for you to steal a week later as your own costume. Instead it was a chilling, gory feature-length episode of zombie apocalypse that just so happened to premier on Halloween night. So, actually, it’s more a Halloween episode than any other episode on this list. Plus: Disassembled horse!
American Horror Story – “Halloween 1 & 2”
American Horror Story is so cartoonishly dark and bizarre that almost every episode counts as a Halloween episode. And in pure American Horror Story fashion, the show’s first season aired not one but two Halloween episodes, one right on time, the other a week late. I could tell you what they were about, but it likely wouldn’t make any sense and might even over-titilate (it had something to do with American Horror Story’s wonky rules setting Halloween as the one day a year where ghosts can walk around like normals, so Rubber Man can finally go see Marilyn Manson or whatever). Let’s not kid around: American Horror Story is not a very good show. But it’s also the most awesome show.
The Deadliest Warrior – “Vampires vs. Zombies”
This particular episode of The Deadliest Warrior may have aired in September, but you’ll never convince me a show quasi-scientifically examining who would win in a fight between vampires and zombies does not belong on this list. Their methods may be hilariously arbitrary (vampires apparently have the strength of ten men; zombie hands are somehow three times human strength), but it’s still pretty awesome to see mock vampire jaws rip open a mock zombie skull jam packed with mock zombie blood and brains.
Family Matters – “Stevil II”
You might think the original Stevil episode, in which Steve Urkel gets a dummy version of himself that terrorizes the Winslows, was crazier than it had any right to be (Laura gets dismembered, after all), but the sequel, Stevil II, is even better. Not only is the dummy just as oddly terrifying as before, but this time there’s a scary Carl Winslow to join the child-traumatizing fun. Neither episode offers an explanation as to why Stevil looks like Urkel yet speaks with the voice of an evil bodybuilder, though.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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