One thing I look forward to every fall is the Turner Classic Movies October schedule.
Once upon a time, if you wanted to watch any sort of monster movie you likely had to turn to late-night television to get your fix. With the advent of video, more options became available, but for the vast majority of horror and sci-fi films, you still had to keep your eyes on your local TV guide.
Those days are most certainly gone. With streaming and so many rare and forgotten films getting Blu-ray releases you can pretty much find anything you want to watch, when you want to watch it.
There's still something about watching an old horror film on broadcast TV that is so appealing for me, though. It's the nostalgia talking, I know. I have lots of black-and-white monster movies on DVD, but I kinda prefer letting TCM do the programming for me!
Also, there are still lots of films that you would think would easily be available on streaming or video that just aren't that accessible, unless you're willing to shell out the big bucks or have a region-free player at your disposal.
And so, every year around mid-September I start frequenting the TCM website to see what offerings they'll have available during October and, let me tell you, they rarely disappoint!
In the years past there have been very definite themes. One year, it was all kaiju films from Japan. For a few years TCM was exhausting the Hammer horror archive, much to my delight. And there have been many, many years that I can recall classic Universal was the focus.
The last few years it's seemed like a smorgasbord of all these films. I've also noticed that they've started including more (ahem) "contemporary" works from the 70s and the 80s.
It's hard to tell what the theme - if any - will be this year, but as of today I was able to view the first few days of TCM's October schedule and I thought it would be fun to share some of the upcoming horror films you can check out on Turner Classics, provided you still have a cable TV package!
Let's consult my handy-dandy spreadsheet. /me adjusts his glasses...
Stylish, I know!
As an aside, let's start with the purple section at the top. Although the focus of this post is the October horror films that TCM is known to offer, I couldn't help but draw your attention to a block of giant bug movies coming up on September 15th! TCM posted a blog about the special theme night, which mentions six films and includes Mothra, but I couldn't find it on either the US or Canadian schedules. That aside, the are some fun sci-fi monster films coming mid-month that you may enjoy!
The October proper schedule shows a veritable dog's breakfast of options and I can't say that I'm upset about it!
We've got a pair of giant kaiju films, some classic Universal, a Hitchcock, a few sci-fi monster flicks carrying over from September, a Hammer Frankenstein, and even some Tony Scott!
At first glance, it doesn't look like there's a cohesive theme here, but honestly there still could be down the line. It may come in the form of nightly blocks dedicated to different production companies, actors, or time periods. We shall have to wait and see!
And I know that unless you're in the Pacific or Central time zones these airings would have to be firmly programmed into your PVR, but there will very likely be more prime time slots dedicated to the horror genre as we get closer to Halloween.
If you're looking for one more little adventure to try during the spooky season, you might find something fun on your TV guide! I find it more and more difficult to find anything in the horror genre freely playing on broadcast TV, but TCM will certainly hold the line this October, if you want to give it a shot!
You can even relive those nights long past of waiting up until the late night monster movie played on TV, while you hid under a blanket and thought up your escape plan back to your bedroom once the movie was over!
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