Carissa Duhamel – Copy Editor
The air is getting crisper, you’re beginning to find your car littered with burnt orange, warmed gold, and flaming red fallen leaves before your morning commute to class, every other Instagram picture seems to be of someone doing something cute in an apple orchard, and you can’t change a channel on TV without seeing a commercial for a pumpkin spiced latte while you’re sitting huddled on the couch covered in quilts because your roommates are still in denial that it’s time to turn on the heat. That’s right – it’s definitely October, and that doesn’t just mark the month you’ll go to bed wondering whether or not hypothermia will steal one of your toes while you sleep each night, it also means it’s the season for ABC’s beloved ’13 Nights of Halloween.’
The network’s video tribute to America’s scariest holiday begins Saturday, Oct. 19, a creepy 13 days before costumed kids come out to roam the country’s streets in search of candy.
For each night of the baker’s dozen long spookfest ABC features programming centered around one very eerie theme – that being the eve of Halloween.
Recurring film favorites like 1988’s tale of two newlydeads struggling to keep their home after the grave ‘Beetlejuice’ and 1993’s song-spotted story of mischievous witch sorcery ‘Hocus Pocus’ make the cut for the channel’s special yearly, but ABC also makes room for new viewing friends and fiends by broadcasting Halloween-themed episodes of shows ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and ‘Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story OF TERROR!’ welcoming a younger demographic to the October TV tradition.
Balance between frightening movie darlings of the past and emerging family-friendly faux-horrors make ABC Family’s ’13 Nights of Halloween’ the perfect thing to turn on while babysitting your neighbor’s varied aged kids, or to watch with your younger brothers, sisters, cousins, or nieces and nephews.
“I come from a big family, and there’s a huge span of ages between all of my cousins,” said SCSU senior Melita Feratovic, “So it’s nice to be able to watch something altogether that every person will like, no matter how old.”
Students like her are able to share the causes of their childhood nightmares like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘The Goonies’ with a younger generation while being exposed to fearful favorites of kids today like Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’ and ‘Coraline.’
Movies from ’13 Nights of Halloween’ are also worthy of watching independent of children born during the 2000s. Placed conveniently during the thick of midterms, the programming can serve as a 90-minute sanctuary during the all-out academic warfare that is the middle of the semester, or just a bonding moment between roommates reminiscing over simpler times.
College couples might want to tune in, too. ABC offers young lovers a way to keep date-night cute amidst a sea of terror-inducing horrors, which is a perfect opt-out from movie theater frights, and frightful prices. Not-so-tough guys and girls can still stay in the spirit of the season while cuddling in the more intimate privacy of their own homes or dorm rooms – and no one will gasp in horror if you do more kissing than scared screaming during the movie.
Although several of the ’13 Nights of Halloween’ have already passed, if you haven’t seen a single ghoulish show this year don’t miss your last chance! The last and most important day of the program is upon us now – the actual night of Halloween. Flip to ABC for ‘Scooby Doo,’ ‘The Addams Family,’ and after adult trick-or-treating, the network premiere of 2001’s psychological/supernatural horror ‘The Others.’ Just make sure you’re brave enough before touching your remote…or you have someone there with you to go to sleep with at night.
