Fright flicks are all over the place Friday and Saturday, in places you'd expect (TCM, AMC) and places you wouldn't (like PBS stations). Choices run the gamut from classic Boris Karloff to blaxploitation's Blacula to Troma's Toxic Avenger.
Karloff kicks things off during the day Friday when Turner Classic Movies runs 11 of the scare star's films. And not the usual Frankenstein titles either. Starting at 6 a.m., TCM progresses chronologically through Karloff's career, from 1932 to 1945, including The Ghoul (Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET), The Man They Could Not Hang (12:30 p.m. ET) and the Val Lewton noir Isle of the Dead (6:45 p.m. ET, all Friday on TCM).
Lewton's dreamlike darkness reappears in Saturday's Halloween marathon -- the creepy producer portrait Martin Scorsese Presents: Val Lewton, The Man in the Shadows (Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET), plus Lewton's original '40s Cat People and The Curse of the Cat People (5 and 6:30 p.m. ET, all on TCM).
AMC climaxes its annual FearFest of more recent chillers with some interesting choices. Monk comedy king Tony Shalhoub gets seriously spooked in 2001's Thir13en Ghosts (Friday at 6 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET, AMC), followed by the quintessential horror homage comedy, Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein (Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 7:30 a.m. ET, AMC). There's more wit with Kristy Swanson in the pre-TV feature film Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Friday night at 3 a.m., Saturday at 10 a.m. ET, AMC).
(Remember, AMC is also streaming horror B-flicks free online.)
Among the other fun tricks and smart treats:
Interview With the Vampire (Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET, Syfy), with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise embodying Anne Rice's bestseller.
Twelve Monkeys (Saturday at 9 a.m. ET, G4), Terry Gilliam's fantastical expansion of Chris Marker's classic short La Jette, starring Bruce Willis as a time traveler thrown into a nightmarish asylum with mental case Brad Pitt (in his Oscar-nominated performance).
Cape Fear (Saturday at 2:45 p.m. ET, Retro), 1962's original Robert Mitchum-Gregory Peck stalkfest.
The Silence of the Lambs (Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, BIO), the serial killer Oscar winner with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster.
Shaun of the Dead (Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, Comedy Central) and Scary Movie (Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, Comedy Central), making 21st century fun of it all.
Blacula and Scream Blacula Scream (Saturday at 4 and 6 p.m. ET, TV One), with William Marshall as a '70s blaxploitation Dracula.
The Toxic Avenger Part II (Saturday at 10 p.m. ET, G4), followed by two more crazy '80s Troma stews, The Toxic Avenger Part III (midnight) and Class of Nuke 'Em High (2 a.m. ET, all on G4).
And be sure to check your local stations, too. In New York, Elvira resurrects "Chiller Theater" to host the Hammer horror The Evil of Frankenstein (Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, WPIX/11). Even NYC public TV contributes George Romero's '60s zombie classic Night of the Living Dead (Saturday at 9 p.m. ET, WNET/13), followed overnight by a feast of other vintage treats: '30s creep-outs The Vampire Bat and The Most Dangerous Game, Roger Corman's cheap chills Dementia 13 and The Terror, and more.
(The autumn time change comes at 2 a.m. Saturday night into Sunday morning, so be sure to recheck those overnight airtimes.)