October is my favorite month of the year for TV viewing. Most of the fall season shows have already started, and a large amount of networks devote the entire month to Halloween horror programming. AMC always delivers the goods for their annual Fearfest promotion, and they’re bringing a shitload of classics this year in marathon form, starting with the network’s gruesome flagship drama The Walking Dead. Keep your shotguns and crossbows loaded.
Kicking off this year’s bloody festivities is “Zombie Apocalypse Week,” which will deliver non-stop evenings of The Walking Dead action (and some boring conversations) starting on Monday, October 6. Blow off your responsibilities and World Egg Day and relive all four seasons of the high-rated series each weekday night starting at 7 p.m. ET. Beginning Saturday, October 11, at 12 p.m. ET, AMC will marathon the rest of the episodes, leading up to the much-anticipated Season 5 premiere that Sunday evening. Creating your own Terminus signs and hanging them around your town isn’t necessary, but it won’t hurt anyone…yet.
AMC Fearfest 2014 will officially kick off its 18th year of existence on Friday, October 17, and they’re pulling out some marquee titles to bring the scares. On October 17, you can find a hodgepodge of Stephen King films, including Cujo and the 30th anniversary airings of Firestarter and Children of the Corn. You’ll be one degree from Kevin Bacon the next night, as all four Tremors films will air back to back. Sunday is funday with an abridged Child’s Play marathon, with the first film and the latest one, Curse of Chucky, absent from the lineup.
Monday and Tuesday are the days you’re waiting for, though, as AMC will be running almost the entire Friday the 13th series, including the 2009 remake, with the only exception being 1988’s Friday the 13 Part VII: The New Blood. (Arguably not that big of a deal.) The next weekend is rerunning the Chucky and Tremors marathons on Saturday and Sunday, but you can check out the first three films in the Omen franchise on Friday, October 24.
The week of Halloween will be filled with, you guessed it, the Halloween franchise. The movies will air during primetime on Monday, October 27 through Wednesday, October 29, and they’ll be running over and over on Thursday and Friday, making sure your home is never quite safe from Michael Myers. It’s another incomplete collection, though, and only contains the first six films of the franchise, ending with Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, which I haven’t watched in eons.
I'm sad to see that Freddy and a few other favorites aren’t making the cut this year, but it’s still a solid lineup. Which marathon are you guys going to be stitched to your seats for?
