Top 5 Scary Creepy TV Episodes

Halloween Addicts live in golden era of entertainment.
Thanks to the wonderful wonderment that is the DVD, we have a plethora of TV shows that are available for owning, renting (thanks Netflix!), or streaming than ever before. Obscure shows that you either needed to wait to catch on live TV or watch noise strewn, drop-out heavy copies on VHS.

In the month of October you'll see a ton of articles and blogs talking about must-see Halloween movie viewing, but rarely do people recommend some creepy TV to scare the pants off you.
I mean what is TV really, but an hour long movie with recurring characters and commercial breaks, right?

So Halloween Addict is stepping in to recommend just such hour long entertainment.
Here are five TV episodes to give you a shudder on these dark and windy nights...

1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Hush"

Though there are a metric ton of Buffy fans, there are plenty of horror fans who blow it off as a fluffy teen soap opera and are thereby missing some great stories. This is the episode that really brought me around to how great this show can be.
Synopsis: The creepy demons "The Gentlemen" capture the voices of the population of Sunnydale, so they may steal human hearts.
That's all I'm going to tell you.
The premise is creepy and "The Gentlemen" and their minions are some of the most disturbing creatures on the show. They're sort of part Silent Hill, part Hellraiser.
This episode isn't just scary, but has some genuinely funny moments too.

Trivia: Doug Jones is featured as the Leader of the Gentlemen. You may better know Doug as Faun in Pan's Labyrinth and Abe Sapien in Hellboy.

Here's a cool trailer for the episode.



2) The X-Files: "Home"

At the risk of being stoned to death by minions wearing t-shirts that say "I Want To Believe" I'll be upfront about this: I'm not an X-Files fan.

BUT I know good TV when I see it. When friends who loved the show badgered me to watch the episode "Home" I sat down with a skeptical mind. But boy oh boy, did I not expect what I saw.
Take The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, add a wink of Christine, bring in a cast like The Hills Have Eyes and then have Mulder and Scully investigate.
Pshoooooo. That's all I'm going to say.
(Tip: Don't read anything on the episode, you'll ruin it. Just watch it.)

Here's a clip.



3) Amazing Stories: "Mirror Mirror"

I loved this series when it was on TV. What made it stand out besides the fact that it was from the creative mind of Steven Spielberg, were the caliber of guest directors on each episode.

This particular one was directed by an up and comer by the name of Martin Scorsese. Though Martin isn't really known for his entries into the horror genre, you can see how he still can compete with the Kubricks and Carpenters in scaring the pants off you. (And hey, maybe this whetted his appetite to re-make Cape Fear?)

What you need to know: A horror novelist dismisses the supernatural and his ability to be scared but is forced to reconsider when he constantly sees a misshapen dark figure whenever he looks in a mirror.

This episode takes the horror genre device of the "mirror scare" and amps it up to 11.
And did I mention it was directed by Martin Scorsese?
Why are you still here and not watching this episode?
Go!

This trailer for the episode might give away some scares. I'd advise watching the episode cold. But, in case you're curious...



4) The Twilight Zone (80s): "The Shadow Man"

The original Twilight Zone series is a legendary masterpiece that influenced a ton of horror and sci-fi artists working and creating today. So much so, that when the series was resurrected in the 80s it drew such big names as Wes Craven, Harlan Ellison, Rockne S. O'Bannon and Ray Bradbury to name a few contributors.

The episode "The Shadow Man" is a scary story about a supernatural creature who lives under a boy's bed.
Directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling) it's simple (not even a full episode of the show) with a typical Twilight Zone spin.

5) Tales from the Crypt: "Dig that Cat... He's Real Gone"

I've always liked Tales from the Crypt in concept: a gory Twilight Zone with a living corpse host. But I always found, more often than not, that the series went more for the gore than being smartly written.

This episode "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone," I find is "one of the good ones."
Maybe it's so well done because it was helmed by Richard Donner who had a few of the better episodes in the series.
Regardless, because Tales was on HBO and got some great directors, it also got some great actors. For instance, this episode stars Mr. Joey Pants: Joe Pantoliano who plays the role of Ulric with murderous glee.

The whole thing smacks of its E.C. Comics origins. Brightly colored. Stylized shooting. And a twist ending which makes it darkly wonderful.

So there you have it. Five hours of fun for your Halloween viewing list this year.

As always: if there are other episodes you want to recommend, please let me know. I tried to stick to stuff I could definitely find on DVD, but there's a lot of material to mine and my canary just died.