Friday, October 29, 2021

TCM's Halloween marathon

Sunday is Halloween, and unsurprisingly, TCM is spending much of the weekend airing movies that are at least horror-adjacent if not outright horror. The marathon starts at 8:00 PM this evening (Oct. 29), and continues until the early morning hours of November 1, as TCM's programming day has traditionally run from 6:00 AM ET to 6:00 AM the next day.

I can't recall the last time the 1970s Donald Sutherland version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers showed up on TCM, but it's got an airing tonight at midnight. The Kevin McCarthy original is not on the schedule, which is a shame, since it's a pretty darn good original.

I mentioned the 1931 Frankenstein on Wednesday as part of the salute to Universal, and it's getting another airing at 8:00 PM Saturday, as part of a double bill with Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein at 9:30 PM, just before the movie that's putatively noir for Noir Alley, Cat People at midnight between Saturday and Sunday. And yes, Cat People has a second showing in the other Noir Alley slot at 10:00 AM Sunday.

I really enjoy the 1935 movie Mad Love, another version of the "Hands of Orlac" story; that will be on at 12:45 PM Sunday. And for a movie on Sunday that's got definite horror elements although it's less classical horror than the rest of the lineup, there's Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho at 8:00 PM Sunday.

There's also Silent Sunday Nights and TCM Imports to conclude the Halloween weekend. I don't quite think of Metropolis as horror, but there it is at about 12:45 AM Monday. Concluding the weekend is the Swedish silent movie Häxan at 5:15 AM, a fascinating "history" of witchcraft.

FXM doesn't seem to be doing anything for Halloween. The closest they have is Witchcraft at 6:00 AM Sunday. I can't believe it's been four years since I blogged about that one.

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