I’m a scaredy cat but have been enjoying the spooky season. I’m going to give you a list of Halloween media I’ve watched this year then some fun bonus stuff. But first, as I mentioned in my last Newsletter, I recently realized that early in our marriage, I didn’t respect my wife’s preference of holidays.
Partnering in Holiday Preferences
Between my preference for Christmas and Western culture’s affinity for the holiday, I never considered that it wasn’t at the top of my spouse’s list too. How blindly selfish! She loves Halloween, so when I said we didn’t have money to buy pumpkins, or was too busy to do trunk-or-treat, or didn’t hand out candy, it was disrespectfully unsupportive. Was I Reverend Moore in Footloose, or worse Dad Meiks (yes, DAD) in Frailty, or worse Jack Torrance in The Shining?
Not that my sweet wife guilted or resented me, or even mentioned it, but how sad that I was too oblivious to notice how much she enjoyed the season.[i] I may never love Halloween, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t love my wife enough to surprise her and celebrate something she enjoys.
Xollection Machine: Halloween 2025
Below is most of the spooky media I’ve watched this season. There are three categories: “Not Scary,” “Scary,” and “’80 & ’90s Spooky.” Each category has three TV shows or movies and, yes, I rated them. Enjoy!
Not Scary
#1. Abbott Elementary, “Candy Zombies,” (S2, E6) [2022]. This was the most fun Halloween episode I’ve seen in a long time! Sooo many pop culture references. Rocky Horror edited for church, Wanda’s impassioned scream at the hand of Thanos, and for thought provoking, Quinta Brunson’s lament that Sully Sullenberger, “Shouldn’t have had a movie before Harriet Tubman.”
#2. Sing: Thriller (2024). Cute short including all the characters from the Sing franchise with MJ’s hypnotic beat.
#3. Gilmore Girls, “Twenty-One Is the Loneliest Number,” (S6, E7) [2005]. Lorelei wants to create new Halloween traditions with Luke to distract herself from missing Rory. So Lorelei decides on a front yard skit where she has an operating table and quips at trick-or-treaters. And poor Luke will come out in an electric chair and have his intestines pulled out. (Is this where Modern Family got their ideas?!) Much of the magic is that we never see it.
Scary
#1. Weapons (2025). I thoroughly enjoyed solving the mystery while being creeped out. Great storytelling, cinematography, and acting.
#2. I See You (2019). Dumb title, great movie. I’d label this suspense, not gory horror.
#3. IT (2017) and IT: Chapter II (2019). I read the book twenty years ago (which was great but I don’t recommend) and watched both of these in the theater. The story hits some of the worst fears: a supernatural, decades long horror dwells in the drain pipes. But the heart of the tale is the relationship between the kids. Bonus: I’ve seen the first episode of IT: Welcome to Derry and enjoyed it.
’80s & ’90s Spooky
#1. The Midnight Hour (1985). This ABC TV Movie is fantastic (and available for free on YouTube here)! Clearly a product of 1985: a “Thriller” dance number, ’50s nostalgia a la Back to the Future, and Satanic Panic influences. If you look beyond every high schooler being in their 40s and a teacher constantly demanding alcohol at a high school party, this delightfully cheesy cinema is a ton of fun.
#2. The Gate (1987). A great ’lil ’80s treasure that dances between silly and eerie. I loved some of the irregular points (playing records backwards to get rid of demons) coupled with traditional horror tropes (like reading from Psalm 59 [“deliver me from my enemies”]). My wife noted they pandered to the Satanic Panic and to Christians for sealing up the Gate with the Bible.
Related: Listen to Christianity Today’s new podcast “Be Afraid”!
#3. X-Files, “Colony,” (Season 2, Episode 16) [1995]. Not really horror and yet so much of X-Files is spooky. I really enjoyed this one both for the shapeshifting alien storyline and as a (what I consider to be pretty big) mythology episode. FYI: This is Part 1. Part 2 is “End Game.” (No MCU affiliation, although I’d love if you wrote a crossover fan fic!)
Bonus
-You may know how much I despise commercials but when they’re good, I love ’em. So for a funny/cute one about Frankenstein’s monster, watch this!
-Check out Jordan Peele & Conan O’Brien on their favorite horror films and tropes.
-Last year for my Thanksgiving precursor I wrote about the comic Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985-86). I thought it was interesting that before covering Thanksgiving, the previous issue’s (# 5) final pages have Agatha (yes, of recent WandaVision and Agatha All Along MCU fame) talking about Samhain and “this night of all hallows.”
And the issue following Thanksgiving [titled “Batteries Not Included!” (# 7)] was set during the yuletide season. Apparently, Marvel hasn’t done it much, but they actively covered Halloween in October, Thanksgiving around November (oddly released 12/3/85), and Christmas in December. (Is this your tie in for the X-Files fan fic?!)
Xoncluding Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed the thoughts and lists. Have a safe Halloween!
Thanks, in Him,
-Chris (the Bearded Wonder) Fogle
[i] Empathy is a good partnership practice. How would it make me feel if she said we weren’t decorating for Christmas, that there wasn’t enough money to get the kid’s presents (there wasn’t, but she sacrificed so they had something), or if she said we couldn’t attend an advent service?