A Nostalgic Halloween Movie & TV Marathon

[@GenX_Kid]

_Fright Night_ gets an annual rewatch along with _The Lost Boys_ and _An American Werewolf in London_ - three of my all-time faves. _The Monster Squad_ rules. Dracula calling Phoebe a "biscuit" always cracks me up, lol. Halloween just wasn't a thing in Australia when I was kid growing up in the 80s. We so wanted it to be, though! My mate's tried going trick or treating in 84/85. Pretty much got the same response at every house: "piss off, you little sh*ts." 😆

[@RetroDaze]

@@GenX_Kid That’s some poor Halloween spirit on their part! That called for some tricks!

[@sage9836]

@@GenX_Kid Lost Boys is some fun retro fashion!

[@nowhereman4217]

Love this channel. Really brings me back to a great time to be alive

[@RetroDaze]

@@nowhereman4217 That’s what we love to do! Always trying to bring back a little childhood joy. 🥹

[@isaacheres1354]

I love watching Hocus Pocus on Halloween day/night. It's my go-to holiday movie just like Home Alone is to Christmas P.S; I can't wait till Christmas when you make "A Nostalgic Christmas Movie & TV Marathon" video😊

[@RetroDaze]

That's a great idea!

[@jacqueline7938]

Oh, im saving this to watch later! 👍 🎃

[@RetroDaze]

@@jacqueline7938 It’s a doozy!

[@tedadamgreen]

I’m not into the scary but the spooky fun most definitely! Garfield, Peanuts and Scooby Doo are my speed Hope you enjoy the season! It is my favorite time of year 👊🏻😎🕹️

[@RetroDaze]

Ours too! We hope you enjoy it as well Ted!

[@thedaiglerreviews9460]

Lady in white is underrated, good watch for October👍

[@RetroDaze]

@@thedaiglerreviews9460 Yes! Lady In White is a good one! RIP Katherine Helmond.

[@FreedomKat]

Let us not forget The Worst Witch with Tim Curry, The Halloween That Almost Wasn't, The Halloween Tree and Sat the 14th!!!!

[@RetroDaze]

Love the first three! Been a while since any of us here watched Saturday The 14th though.

[@FreedomKat]

@@RetroDaze Aww I watched it again this year.,.. I still laugh.

[@FreedomKat]

@@RetroDaze Something Wicked this way comes is also fantastic!

[@RetroDaze]

Yes, that’s an underrated Disney outing.

[@isaacheres1354]

So many horror movies to watch in October and there is a 31 day limit to watch one movie per night. I feel like Halloween should go on forever or everyday just the entire month just so that you don't miss a day without watching a horror movie

[@RetroDaze]

There is just too much good stuff to cram into even just a month. We try to get started in early September because of this!

[@ZMAN_420]

Excellent Video Jon, My B-Day is in October. Halloween also in October, this is my favorite month.🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲

[@RetroDaze]

Twice the amount of awesome in the month!

[@RetroDaze]

Twice the awesome for the month!

[@sage9836]

Thanks a zillion to everyone who gave me the great movie recommendations for the Halloween season. I appreaciate they were curated for things that don't scare me too much.❤

[@RetroDaze]

We wanted to have a little something for everyone in there!

[@sage9836]

@@RetroDaze Your channel is a retro trick or treat bag - all kinds of treats!

[@Christina-yq7xg]

Awesome video brings back happy memories

[@RetroDaze]

@@Christina-yq7xg We’re very glad to do so! We enjoy it.

[@Justinretrostuffchannel-s6]

My favorite Halloween memory is dressing up

[@RetroDaze]

It was a huge part of the fun.

[@AutisticPhantomOtaku]

I love doing a Halloween marathon every year! I call it my Halloween Watch-a-Thon. My pics consists of both old and new movies and specials. Some of the movies that I watched so far this year include Witch's Night Out, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Under Wraps, Little Ghost and Bugs Bunny's Halloween Hijinks, which is actually a compilation featuring two Looney Tunes Halloween specials: Bugs Bunny's Creature Features and Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special. Some other movies and specials that I like to watch during my Halloween Watch-a-Thon includes, but are not limited to, Casper, Beetlejuice, Casper: A Spirited Beginning, Casper meets Wendy, various Scooby-Doo movies, Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School and Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, James and the Giant Peach, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ghostbusters 1 and 2, Hocus Pocus and a few early 2000s flicks, like the Batman versus Dracula and Monster House, which I'm about to watch next. I'm also thinking about watching Ernest Scared Stupid this year. Also, do you plan on covering video games to play around Halloween?

[@RetroDaze]

Great choices APO!

[@AutisticPhantomOtaku]

@@RetroDaze Thanks! I also watched Little Monsters earlier this week and a Halloween compilation by rinse repeat today. And I just got finished watching Scooby-Doo and The Reluctant Werewolf.

[@jeffreyboyd4719]

WOW! Great vid! Y'all took me for a ride on the Way Back Machine! Fright Night and The Lost Boys are on my must watch list. I remember watching Dark Night of the Scarecrow at my Grandma's house on her black and white TV...it was even MORE scary! I went to see Poltergeist with friends when it was first released. That's where I acquired my healthy fear of clowns! 🤡 LOL

[@RetroDaze]

@@jeffreyboyd4719 I think many of us developed that fear through that film! Thank you Jeffrey!

[@TadashiNazuka]

My favorite month of the year. The air smells clean with the cool breeze. Trick or Treat.

[@RetroDaze]

Well said! It’s as good as it gets for a holiday.

[@JoylessPumpkin]

Some great picks. Here are the ones I would add from the 70s/80s/90s: Amazing World of Ghosts (1978) Beetlejuice (1988) Creepshow (1982) Disney’s Halloween Treat (1982) Evil Dead, The (1981) Evil Dead II (1987) Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness (1992) Ghostbusters (1984) Ghostwatch (1992) Halloweentown (1998) Halloween Tree, The (1993) Hocus Pocus (1993) Nightmare on Elm Street, A (1984) Night of the Living Dead (1990) Paul Lynde Halloween Special, The (1976) Pumpkin Who Couldn’t Smile, The (1979) Sleepy Hollow (1999) And here's two bonus ones that are more recent but evoke their respective time periods well: Late Night with the Devil (2023) - Set in 1977 WNUF Halloween Special (2013) - Set in 1987

[@RetroDaze]

@@JoylessPumpkin Superb list!!! Between the whole crew here, I believe almost all of these are represented on one list or another.

[@bluejedi723]

Ernest scared stupid and Hocus Pocus are 2 must watch for me this time of year

[@RetroDaze]

Both are a lot of fun!

[@bluejedi723]

@@RetroDaze ernest goes to camp and camp nowhere are a summer must watch for me. Christmas isn't Christmas until I've watched Ernest saves Christmas at least once

[@TheJJmags]

What a great video!!!! 🧡🧡🧡

[@RetroDaze]

@@TheJJmags Thank you!!! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@JohnPaulC27]

It isn't halloween with out a Buck Flower cameo! hooray!

[@RetroDaze]

Ha! So true.

[@Dorelaxen]

Man, for years I used to go to an interactive Rocky Horror presentation at a small local theater (play theater, they'd toss up a white curtain and run it on a projector). They always ran it on the 30th and it was so damn fun (byob and boy HOWDY did we). Sadly they stopped doing the shows during the pandemic and haven't started back up.

[@RetroDaze]

Aww, that’s too bad. So many things like that were lost to the pandemic.

[@ZMAN_420]

Charlie Brown is on my list. Halloween the Original movie is the BEST! The Six Flags Great America near Chicago plays John Carpenters SCORE every minute of every day in October. Great Video🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲

[@RetroDaze]

It’s the perfect soundtrack song for the season. Thanks as always Z Man!

[@ctbinary42]

The best time of the year! Always something good and spooky on. Old or new, creepy marathons are the absolute best!

[@RetroDaze]

@@ctbinary42 Yes! Love this time of year so much! 🎃

[@crustyrivet4600]

Absolute bangers, every one.

[@RetroDaze]

Glad you agree! 👍🏻

[@FamicomFanatic]

Wow! The picks are many of the same movies/specials that my lady and I watch! We love Trick Or Treat (1986) with the 80’s hair metal vibe/amazing Fastway soundtrack and I wish we could get a legit copy of The Midnight Hour, but it’s so ridiculously expensive. We also like to watch Visiting Hours in either late Sept or early Oct. The hospital setting is fun and Michael Ironside is great as the villain! There’s SO MANY movies to watch and not enough days. Of course they can be watched any time of the year, but they hit better during the spooky season. 👻

[@RetroDaze]

Many of them are only to be enjoyed during spooky season for the full effect.

[@FamicomFanatic]

@@RetroDaze True dat!

[@Benjamillion]

It's unfortunate that more and more classic Halloween specials are getting phased out for modern family movies on channels like Freeform. Just more reason to have the motivation to order the DVDs or Blu Rays, if available. If I am looking for Blu Rays I like to make sure they don't make it cropped widescreen before buying.

[@RetroDaze]

@@Benjamillion Agreed! Especially not airing them on network television. Sad.

[@Shane3274]

Thank you. Very cool, please add chapters in future, thx 🙏🏻

[@RetroDaze]

Thank YOU Shane! We typically don’t add chapters since the videos are usually much shorter. In the 10 to 15 minute range.

[@shoked99]

I love cartoons and usually watch those during October. Great Pumpkin and Garfield are great, also Scooby-Doo and other specials, Looney Tunes and Disney cartoon shorts, etc. I'll check out some of your recommendations though. Thanks for the video.

[@RetroDaze]

Don’t forget Witch’s Night Out, Halloween Is Grinch Night, and Mad Monster Party!

[@machfront]

Despite being born in ‘74, I enjoy watching a number of things from the 50’s like “Horror of Dracula” or 70s stuff I saw on TV as a kid in the 80s like “The Blood on Satan’s Claw”. I really do miss the era when every sitcom would have a Halloween episode every year.

[@RetroDaze]

Just feel glad we grew up at a time when that was a thing.

[@SoberIrishman]

Thank you for adding Dark Night Of the Scarecrow to this list. A must watch every year, since 1983...🎃🎃

[@RetroDaze]

Our pleasure! It’s an awesome made for TV flick. Great for the season.

[@tylerpemberton3134]

Thanks for mentioning The adventures of Pete and Pete...love that show

[@RetroDaze]

Such a fun show.

[@LukeDodge916]

I call it Halloweentober and its basically 31 days of Halloween. 1 day is simply not enough 😂

[@RetroDaze]

It really isn’t! Actually a month feels like too little!

[@jaimecontreras6263]

Bless you.

[@RetroDaze]

You are most welcome!

[@joeyfarris2543]

Halloween 3 where no one comes home because they're already there🎃💀👻🦇

[@RetroDaze]

@@joeyfarris2543 Right? Home watching Silver Shamrock ads.

[@Robalini1]

I looked it up, and Trick or Treat was directed by Charles Martin Smith, best known for his incredible performance in American Graffiti. I'm goona check it out, it reminds of Evilspeak, an underrated 1981 film starring Clint Howard about a bullied boy at a military school who discovers a tome of evil. Besides your great picks, here are some I would add: * The Shining: OK, kind of too obvious, but I think we need to include the GOAT of horror on this day. Interesting to note that when Jack Torrance & his family tour the Overlook, it is actually supposed to be Halloween. * Suspiria: Spaghetti Westerns are a great genre, but this Italian horror film from the great Dario Argento may inspire you to eat some pasta with your pizza & Coke. Bonus points for Suspiria being the title of the best 80s Def Leppard album never made. * Hellraiser: You can always go with Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to go along with Halloween, but my favorite 80s horror franchise started with Clive Barker's creepy tale. And of course, you still win if you choose any of the others. * Angel Heart: Maybe this film isn't technically a horror film, but it's one of the five best movies of the 80s in my book, and this supernatural mystery has one of the best surprise endings ever. Alan Parker is a master, and Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro & Lisa Bonet among others are perfect in this. ^ The Company of Wolves & Near Dark: I put these films together, because they are both great updates of horror tropes (wolves & vampires) that try to make them fit in a realistic modern world. It's kind of what Christopher Nolan did with the Batman series, trying to make superhero stories that seem to fit in the real world.

[@RetroDaze]

These are all awesome picks! Some familiar and less familiar choices here. Very nice.

[@welikewhatwelikenetwork1213]

Most of these are also in my October rotation. One I added a few years back is 2013's WNUF Halloween Special. A faux lost television broadcast with commercials, it makes for perfect spooky time viewing.

[@RetroDaze]

@@welikewhatwelikenetwork1213 We are big WNUF fans here as well.

[@Rob-rx3jw]

What no The Gate, Hellraiser, Children of the Corn. Hell I would even accept The "Burbs" and even "Serial Mom."

[@RetroDaze]

@@Rob-rx3jw Serial Mom eh? Interesting choice!

[@XenobiaWolfMoon2]

I love Night of the Demons! I got to meet Amelia Kinkade and Alvin Alexis. I have Alvin's autograph! I also love Trick or Treat!

[@RetroDaze]

Both are very underrated and under appreciated!

[@Blairedwardperry-yu2mg]

Beetlejuice 😊

[@RetroDaze]

Excellent one!

[@LaDracul]

The undead Dick van Patten...got me thinking of "Disease or van Patten" from "Remote Control"...

[@RetroDaze]

😆 That’s a deep cut there.

[@jasonwomack4064]

It's not a Halloween movie, but one of my favorite childhood scary classics is "Nightmare on the 13th Floor". It was a made for TV movie for USA network.

[@RetroDaze]

Oh wow. Deep cut there. Need to look this one up.

[@pr0t34n]

Great round up, fun watch. I disagree a little bit with your assessment of Real Ghostbusters - i think it's pretty enjoyable by both kids and adults until it becomes Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters somewhere around season 2, at which point it veers off into kids only. Keep up the good work, your videos are a great watch!

[@RetroDaze]

Thank you for those kind words! There are definitely some episodes that are enjoyable at any age. As you mentioned, most are early on.

[@roygarcia4200]

Here’re my favorite Halloween movies, specials, & TV episodes The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Coraline, Casper, The Haunted Mansion, Ernest Scared Stupid, Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown, Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge, Halloweentown High, Return To Halloweentown, Monster House, Frankenweenie (1984), Frankenweenie (2012), It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, SpongeBob SquarePants Scaredy Pants, Blue’s Clues What Is Blue Afraid Of? & Blue’s Big Costume Party, Out Of The Box Trick Or Treat, Barney’s Halloween Party, & Toy Story Of Terror

[@RetroDaze]

Man, this is a great list with some heavy hitters. Some fun choices on here.

[@Thomas-db1zx]

Hey retro daze

[@RetroDaze]

@@Thomas-db1zx Hello Thomas!

[@brucewayne33497]

Movies that i used to love watching every October as a kid were Disney's Halloweentown but unfortunately Disney eventually stopped showing them on Disney Channel

[@RetroDaze]

Which is odd since Disney is not above dangling nostalgia bait to reel in viewers. You’d think they would do like a night of all the movies together or something.

[@rightwired]

Not watching "Halloween" on Halloween, is like not watching "Its A Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve. I always watch: Paranormal Activity, Eerie, Indiana, (season 1) and both version of 13 Ghosts.

[@RetroDaze]

@@rightwired We would compare it more to not watching Christmas Story on Christmas Day.

[@seaningram3285]

"The Midnight Hour" 1985 A made-for-TV movie. (featuring LeVar Burton, Shari Belafonte, Dick Van Patten, Cindy Morgan - from "Caddyshack", and Wolfman Jack as the Radio DJ. A B-Horror flick called "Graduation Day" featuring Vanna White (yes), Dark Night of The Scarecrow Children Of The Corn (Original) The Haunting (1963) House on Haunted Hill (1959) Ghost House (1988) The Amityville Horror (1979) The Fog (Original, and Remake) and, my Favorite - "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (1966)

[@RetroDaze]

Excellent list here. Ghost House… need to look into adding that one on a night.

[@tyneishalewis9917]

Another week of RetroDaze! And free from a whole week of rain too. One Halloween memory I have is from McDonald's. My Grandma had worked at McDonald's when the Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald VHS series came out. She would get the VHS tapes for me and my brother. The first Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald was Scared Silly. Ronald, his friends, a camping trip, and a spooky house what more could you ask for? It's on KZbin to watch too! I also enjoy the Nightmare before Christmas, Courage the Cowardly dog, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy Jacked up Halloween, Ed Edd n Eddy Boo Haw Haw, Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular & Revenge of Jimmy, and Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I would like to check out Ernest Scared Stupid and the Garfield Halloween special too!

[@RetroDaze]

@@tyneishalewis9917 Definitely check out the Garfield special if you’ve not had pleasure. It’s a treat. That Wacky Adventure thing is intriguing. Need to check that out.

[@Lakeshow82]

Halloween 4 has the best ending in the franchise imo but they ruined it by not going through with Jamie being evil going forward.

[@RetroDaze]

It kind of took the steam out of the series. Not following through on that.

[@emerald1805]

How can you leave out “The Dark Secret of Harvest Home” 1978 ??? Scariest made for TV movie of all time. Halloween/Harvest season, & Bette Davis!

[@RetroDaze]

Nice selection! Honestly had forgotten that one until you mentioned it!

[@RetroDaze]

Great selection! Had forgotten that one!

[@BrianRetro]

Okay, I know the perfect background video to play while trick or treaters are coming to your door. Just play the video of the VCR Game Doorways to Horror. It's on KZbin so you don't even need the tape, just play the KZbin video. I'm watching it now and I'm amazed at how many movies I'm recognizing from the many clips (sure helps that most of them are in the public domain).

[@RetroDaze]

That’s a really great idea! 💡

[@jiimmyd1815]

Are you afraid of the dark: tale of the twisted claw Salute your shorts: zeke the plumber

[@RetroDaze]

@@jiimmyd1815 Ha! We take it these left quite the impression on a younger you!

[@kudukilla]

Could also put the color remake of Night of the Living Dead on the list. George A Romero produced it, and his right hand man Tom Savini directed it. It’s almost like they colorized the original and changed the ending.

[@RetroDaze]

Definitely would make a great addition!

[@brucewayne33497]

Speaking of George Romero little fun fact originally at some point in his life he was supposed to have gotten to direct a live-action Resident Evil movie but unfortunately he never got to and instead Resident Evil fans got Paul W.S. Anderson's movies, Johannes Robert's live action adaption, and the piece of garbage live-action Netflix Series

[@mikemonk4375]

No Howling? No Jeepers Creepers? No Raw Head Rex, Lair of the White Wyrm, The Keep, or Wizard of Gore?

[@RetroDaze]

Jeepers Creepers would be too recent for this list. The others are great though!

[@Steven-qt4vx]

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) was a good scary movie

[@RetroDaze]

Especially for being a network TV production.

[@harleymax01]

Skippy! Weird to see him in something besides Family Ties :)

[@RetroDaze]

Might be the only other thing that people remember him in!

[@marcusm1885]

Dude you have got to have 1982's HELL NIGHT on your list or you're doing yourself a disservice. Literally based on staying in a haunted house for the night

[@RetroDaze]

Between the whole crew here, it is surely on somebody’s list!

[@reeltoreelauto-9719]

Just watched hell night for the first time a couple nights ago, it was so good and will definitely be on my yearly watch list.

[@randycunningham7318]

"Gimme."

[@RetroDaze]

Okay!

[@BrianRetro]

How can you mention Monster Squad and not include the classic line, "Wolfman's got nards!"? I always watch "Garfield's Halloween" as a double feature along with "Great Pumpkin." In fact, all three Garfield Holiday Specials I watch along with the Charlie Brown holiday equivalent, which would mean the Thanksgiving and Christmas Specials as well. My personal favorite song from Garfield is actually, "What Should I Be?" sung by the late, great, and the definitive voice of Garfield, Lorenzo Music: "What should I Be? There's so many sides to me! I could be handsome or brave, a king or a slave, it's all up to me! So what should I Be? What could I Be? What Should I Be? "I could be a Scary Vampire! Turn myself into a Bat, 'Flap! Flap!' Or I could put on some Black Pajamas, Go as a Big, Fat, Halloween Cat! "What Should I Be? There's So Many Sides To Me! I Could Be an Astronaut, a Robot, a Hobo, a Clown Or an Alien Creature Going Out on the Town! "What Should I Be? It's All Up To Me! What Should I Be?" Yeah, that's right, I'm so into this song, I typed the whole thing! I don't think there's anything I could add to the list, but for some reason, one movie I do not hear a lot on people's Halloween Watchlist is E.T. Now granted, that's a movie that one can watch any time of year. In fact, a lot of people count it as a summer movie since many of us watched it for the first time when it was first in theaters during the summer of 1982. It definitely is not a movie that throws Halloween in your face, but you do see decorations in the background, and let's not forget, there is a trick-or-treat sequence in the movie. If you're one of those who likes those old Looney Tunes specials that they used to air in the 70s and 80s, "Bugs Bunny Howl-Ween Special" is a possible watch. I never was big into the those specials, because you can always tell when they would switch from new animation to a classic short by the change in the voices as well as the animation. In most of those specials, you can pretty much tell when they make the switch and it makes you feel like the old short was used as a memory or something the characters were watching on a movie screen or TV. With the Halloween special, much of the content goes back and forth from classic short to new animation (the difference between the animation is so clearly obvious in this special). The editing is pretty bad, and you have to appreciate the special for this bad editing as well as it's pretty cheesy. Other Halloween specials that I would include are more or less pretty much what you can use as background noise. These would include "Fat Albert's Halloween Special", "Will Vinton's Halloween (which you can find on DVD along with the Christmas Special (the definitive special) and Easter Specials), and the often forgotten "Halloween is Grinch Night." Oh, and if you like specials that show classic cartoon shorts, I have to recommend from the 80s "Disney's Halloween Treat." The theme song alone with give you feelings of nostalgia. I've seen it posted pretty frequently here on KZbin. Overall, great start to the month of October and reliving our memories of Halloween nostalgia. I'm looking forward to more entries as we go through the rest of the month.

[@RetroDaze]

@@BrianRetro This was an epic comment! Some truly great additions here, and some fun and not-so-familiar appearances. Particularly love Grinch Night and Disney’s Halloween Treat on any list. Thank you for that Brian!

[@ladystrange7791]

The Midnight Hour was new to me last year, Transylvania 6-5000 I stumbled across early this year. I'll be watching both again this month...along w/ Teen Wolf, any/all Ghostbusters. Even at my age I don't do well w/ anything stronger than Goosebumps & Are You Afraid of the Dark level scary. 🤦‍♀️ So it's always comedy or preschool level scary in my Halloween marathons.

[@RetroDaze]

Nothing wrong with that! There is plenty out there to choose from that falls in that category.

[@RetroDaze]

Nothing wrong with that! There is plenty out there to choose from.

[@stephenthomas1492]

I say that ALL movies are PG. If you're not being a parent and supplying guidance on what your children consume, then you're not doing your job.

[@RetroDaze]

@@stephenthomas1492 You gotta throw some horror in there though.

[@Viciouspiked]

how do you talk about halloween and not mention michael jackson's thriller? blasphemy! lol

[@RetroDaze]

True. Rest assured, between the whole crew here, it is on at least one of our lists!

[@makevelicustoms]

Michael the PDF?

[@harleymax01]

Fat Albert Halloween special is a good one

[@RetroDaze]

It is! It’s kind of forgotten nowadays, but still has fans! That and the Will Vinton Halloween special.