Since I’ve been watching a ton of Halloween/spooky entertainment, I thought it might be best to spread this micro reviews over several posts with the final one coming Halloween Day.
Elvira’s Haunted Hills
I purchased a copy of Elvira’s Haunted Hills back in the early 2000’s at Suncoast Video. It was the first Elvira movie I saw, and I remember being underwhelmed. Since then, I’ve watched Elvira Mistress of the Dark half a dozen times, and always have a good time with it. So, when I saw Haunted Hills was streaming on Tubi, I decided to give it a watch.
Truthfully, I spent my time doing other things, while only half-watching, which is advisable because this film is pretty terrible. It was not a great way to kickoff watching spooky movies, but at the time, I didn’t realize this was the beginning of my Halloween watchlist. It was just something I turned on.
Hellraiser

After Haunted Hills ended, I turned on Hellraiser because I haven’t seen it in a good twenty-five years and I am pretty excited about the upcoming video game.
Hellraiser holds up rather well and the practical effects and creature designs are incredibly top notch. The film makes you feel dirty and sweaty and in an uncomfortable way. I doubt I’ll ever watch it again, but it was a decent revisit.
Fright Night

It was by the end of Hellraiser that I realized I was going to watch another horror movie and my Halloween spirit was slowly awakening. I decided to check out Fright Night, a movie I’ve only seen once but enjoyed way more than I expected to. It was while watching Fright Night that I realized I should focus on more light hearted retro horror, since it feels more like Halloween than say Hellraiser.
Fright Night has the tremendous atmosphere and the soundtrack and score are amazing. Brad Fiedel of Terminator 2 fame did the score for Fright Night and it’s sequel.
Fright Night 2

I enjoyed Fright Night so much I decided to check out the sequel. Of course, it wasn’t streaming anywhere, but I found a great copy on YouTube. The sequel was surprisingly good! I don’t typically care for vampire movies, but for a fun 80s distraction that doesn’t take itself too seriously, it really checked the boxes for what I was looking for. I mean, it has a vampire on roller skates… what more could you ask for?
Mad About You, The Unplanned Child

This season two episode of Mad About You is not your typical sitcom Halloween hijinks. In fact, other than a mention of a Halloween parade, a homemade costume and a brief scene of trick-or-treating, there isn’t much Halloween themed about this. Definitely not one to add to any Halloween watchlists in the future.
Return of the Living Dead

Following Fright Night 2, I wanted something else lighthearted to watch and I haven’t seen Return of the Living Dead in a very long time. In fact, the only scene I remembered was the infamous cemetery dance scene.
I enjoyed Return of the Living Dead for what it was. I don’t know if I’ll ever watch it again, but it was goofy and fun.
The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, Legend of Duh Bigfoot

This was not something I went out of my way to watch, but instead watched as part of a YouTube video that collected old Halloween themed cartoons with commercials. I was not aware that the 1995 film Casper had a spin-off cartoon, but I’m happy to report that it was pretty decent.
Halloween: The ’81 Broadcast

In 1981, NBC paid three million dollars for the broadcast rights to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, Halloween. They aired Halloween the same night that Halloween 2 debuted in theaters. The original film was only 91 minutes, so once the censors cut some scenes, additional footage was needed to fill the time slot. Some extended scenes were used, as well as new footage that was shot during the filming of Halloween 2 which makes this an unique experience.
A DVD was released of this television cut in the early 2000s, and I remember enjoying it. I mean, it’s really not that different, but it does add a scene that better connects the first film and second film, and the big family reveal.
I haven’t seen the TV cut in many years, so when I ran across a fan edit I knew I had to watch. Darth Awesome took an updated HD scan of the film, edited it meticulously to match the original broadcast, then remastered the bumpers and added commercials from that era, all while adding a few film scratches and glitches, to give it that bootleg feel. Only one super low quality bootleg existed of the 1981 broadcast, and this facsimile is a wonderful way to experience the broadcast without straining your eyes.
Some more great information about the 81 Broadcast can be found on Dinosaur Dracula, Nightmare Nostalgia, and 45 Lampkin Lane.
The Midnight Hour
This made for TV movie is not something that has been on my radar. I hadn’t heard of it until my buddy Michael mentioned it and after reading his review on Letterboxd I knew I needed to check it out. Thankfully, someone has remastered and upscaled the original film (what a great use of AI) and uploaded it to YouTube.
This is a TV film from 1985, so I went in with low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not scary, but has that spooky vibe kid-friendly vibe. The biggest star is LeVar Burton, but I recognized a ton of the cast including Kurtwood Smith, Peter DeLuise (Stargate!!), Dedee Pfeiffer (Michelle Pfeiffer’s sister), and Dick Van Patten.
The highlight of the film was a Thriller knockoff dance number that occurs towards the end of the film and is performed by Shari Belafonte (Harry Belafonte’s daughter). The song is catchy and the dance moves are cheesy and fun. It’s just a shame the song’s not streaming, because it would be a great addition to my Halloween Playlist.
My Name is Earl, Little Bad Voodoo Brother

I didn’t go out of my way to watch this, it just happened to come up as part of my watching of My Name is Earl. In this episode Earl is trying to make up for not taking Joy’s kids trick or treating, so he attempts to throw a Halloween party for them and the rest of the trailer park. In the meantime, Randy ends up taking care of Catalina’s nephew who practices voodoo and he disrupts Earl’s plan. It’s a solid episode, but really doesn’t scratch that Halloween itch for me.
Family Guy Halloween Special (2025)

This was not great, but it got a couple of chuckles out of me. I will not revisit this in the future.

















