Awards Daily TV

Season 5, Episode 10
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: Stephen King (yes, that Stephen King), Chris Carter

The X-Files‘ “Chinga” has a mostly negative reputation among television critics and those who have evaluated it in the context of the series at large. And I’m not really sure why. Coming off of the dreadful “Schizogeny,” this episode succeeds, in my opinion, on many fronts including the gentle parody of Mulder, the world-weariness and dedication of Scully, and the terrifying child/doll combo at the center of it all. Perhaps some of the episode’s production lore has colored its reception, but who knows? All I can tell you is, you can do a lot worse than “Chinga.”

The episode begins (in Maine, of course) with a nervous mother taking her daughter into a grocery store. Immediately, we’re definitely in Stephen King land as one of his biggest themes – the everyday horror of the family – comes into play. Inside the grocery store, Polly, the daughter, begins to whine about wanting to go home, and the mother sees a gruesome image in a reflection of a man with a knife through his eye. Terrified, the mother tries to leave the store as quickly as possible, but it becomes too late as the doll – Chinga – opens her eyes independently and influences the patrons of the grocery store to nearly scratch their eyes out. The butcher, later revealed to be the mother’s boyfriend, sees Chinga in a reflection, and he is forced to drive a butcher’s knife through his eye, mirroring the image the mother saw in the reflection. On vacation, Scully hears of the commotion and dances between wanting to be involved and wanting an actual vacation. Over the course of the episode, she tries to work with local law enforcement and then retreats into vacation mode. Her sense of duty finally pulls her into the case.

Meanwhile, Polly and her mother barricade themselves inside the house to avoid any further deaths, but many do occur in gruesome style, all accompanied by Polly’s (the doll’s?) favorite record. By the end of the episode, Chinga has grown suspicious of Polly’s mother and attempts to influence her to stab herself in the head with a hammer. Scully and the local sheriff arrive on the scene just as Polly’s mother attempts to burn the house down. Multiple struggles ensue before Scully is finally able to take the doll and nuke her in the microwave. In the end, a fisherman discovers a doll in one of his fishing traps – the same way that Polly’s father found Chinga.

The backstory of “Chinga” details a phone-based relationship between Stephen King and Chris Carter. Stephen King wanted to write a script for the series and did so, but Chris Carter did not approve of how King used Scully and Mulder. He effectively re-wrote a significant portion of the story which, by all accounts, resembled King’s original script only in the most general sense. And perhaps that’s why critics don’t appreciate the episode. To me, regardless of its authorship, it’s an above-average outing that features some effective scares – basically that doll is just creepy as hell. It gets a lot of mileage by that simple fact. I mean, Polly’s father pulled the doll out of the ocean and gave it to his daughter… That is, after he stabbed himself through the mouth with a hook.

Aside from the chills, I really enjoyed the Mulder / Scully banter, particularly in the scene where it is insinuated that Mulder is watching pornography (Mulder is a bit of a perv) when he’s really watching a documentary about killer bees, or something like that. There are a few scenes like this sprinkled through the episode, and the humor works well. Finally, this is another very strong Scully outing, centered by a solid Gillian Anderson performance. The rest of the cast acquits themselves nicely, but Anderson continues to find nuances within the character. This series would not be as half as successful as it is without her presence.

And it’s just the doll. That doll is ridiculously scary. That’s really what I responded to in “Chinga.”

Season 5, Episode 9
Director: Ralph Hemecker
Writer: Jessica Scott, Mike Wollaeger

The very real and serious topic of child abuse is saddled with an unbelievably awful “monster of the week” in the shape of killer trees. Yup, you read that right – killer trees. And not just killer trees, but killer mud too. The homicidal plant life ultimately becomes the extension of a heavily abused girl with significant daddy issues, but what it all amounts to is a bunch of garbage. “Schizogeny” is one of the weakest X-Files episodes I’ve ever seen.

It begins in something emotionally akin to a Beastie Boys video. A stepfather comes home and finds that his stepson never completed a project he was asked to do. Of course, the son is upstairs playing video games and listening to rock music (the nerve), and the stepfather accuses him of never amounting to anything. Outside, Bobby, the young boy played by Chad Lindberg of Ghost Stalkers fame, threatens to hit his stepfather with a shovel but runs into a nearby orchard instead. His stepfather chases him and eventually trips on a branch only to be sucked into the mud below. Bobby’s mother runs on the scene to see what appears to be Bobby trying to pull his stepfather out of the muck without success. For some unexplained reason, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate the crime which, on the surface, bears no connection to an X-file or to anything resembling federal jurisdiction.

Mulder and Scully meet with Bobby’s therapist, Karin Matthews (Sarah-Jane Redmond). She explains that Bobby was significantly abused by his stepfather and insinuates that, if Bobby did indeed commit a crime, it was completely justified. There are some high school scenes where Bobby is picked on and threatens to kill a classmate (something that would have him arrested immediately today) in front of his crush Lisa (Katharine Isabelle). Lisa’s own father is later ripped from a window and plummets to his death after he yells at her for being Bobby’s friend. After examining the evidence, Mulder begins to wonder if the foliage isn’t responsible for the deaths, and Gillian Anderson manages to pull out one more “What the actual fuck are you talking about?” look from Scully. In the end, after a few more tree-related incidents, the real culprit is revealed to be therapist Karin who has assumed the persona of her father, stashed his body in the cellar, and learned how to control plant life.

Sooooo…..

If you’re looking for a critical appraisal of this psychobabble / horticultural mess known as “Schizogeny,” then you can look elsewhere. I don’t have it in me. What I do have is a heaping mass of contempt for the 45 minutes The X-Files wasted of my evening. So, I’m supposed to believe that Karin’s grief and rage gave her the ability to control plant life? I’m also supposed to believe that she’s secretly lurking around nearby houses waiting for parents to become angry with their kids in order to kill them? I’m also supposed to believe Karin summoned the roots to bring her father’s skeleton into her cellar? For what purpose?

And there’s all that Psycho stuff that just feels completely unnecessary. I’m not even getting to the terrible performances by the teen actors or the trees that seemingly bled real blood or the guy that hulks around the backdrop, wandering through scene after scene, carrying a massive axe that no one questions? It’s all just an awful, horrible mess of an episode.

And, in cases like this, sometimes it’s just best to cut your losses. That’s all I have to say about that.

The Gilmore Girls is coming back, thanks to the almighty Netflix, who brings dead shows back to life like a mad scientist (not that we’re complaining about this latest Frankenstein). The project will apparently be four 90-minute movies rather than the typical hour-long episode.

Gilmore Girls went off the air in 2007 with Luke and Lorelei reuniting and Rory going off to work on the Obama campaign (yes, really).

There are so many expectations with this series. Here are 9 things we’re hoping to see.

1. Luke and Lorelei have twins.

In Episode 1 of Season 3 titled “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days,” Lorelei has a dream that she and Luke are having twins. Let’s see that dream come into fruition! Imagine the hijinks of Luke, Lorelei, and Sid and Nancy (or Leopold and Loeb).

2. Jess. Mariano.

Maybe he’s written another book, only this one is about life in Stars Hollow. He has to do a book tour. Anything. Give him anything to do! *Sigh*

3. Taylor comes out of the closet.

Finally! Gay marriage is legalized and Taylor finally finds a mate and puts all of his energy into planning the perfect nuptials at the Firefly Inn.

4. An explanation for the lack of beloved Edward Herrmann.

The Gilmore patriarch passed away in real life in December 2014.

5. An inside joke about Sookie’s career blowing up.

If anyone from Gilmore Girls has become hugely popular following the finale, then it’s Melissa McCarthy who played chef Sookie St. James, Lorelei’s best friend. Since GG, she’s become more than a just supporting player and even earned an Oscar nomination for Bridesmaids.

6. No April.

Nuff said.

Plus, Vanessa Marano (who played April) has other things to do now anyway. Like ABC Family/Freeform’s Switched at Birth.  

7. Kirk becomes mayor of Stars Hollow.

You know he’s never gonna leave.

8. Rory doing a walk-and-talk in the White House like an Aaron Sorkin character.

She’s working for Obama, but maybe she’s unsure of what her plans are post-oval office. Maybe… she has to head back home.

9. Lane becomes a YouTube star as a Mommy Rocker with hubby Zach.

Give the girl the fame and fortune she deserved! And something beyond that series ending (Zach got to go off on tour while she stayed behind with twin babies).

Season 5, Episode 8
Director: Daniel Sackheim
Writer: Vince Gilligan, Tim Minear

The X-Files‘s Vince Gilligan teams up with writer Tim Minear to craft a sequel to Gilligan’s much more accomplished “Pusher” where Gilligan created the anti-hero Robert Patrick Modell (Robert Wisden). The story goes that Minear had another idea in mind – a story about an atheist who hears the voice of God while in prison – but that idea didn’t pan out quickly enough. Enter Gilligan to help Minear ditch that story and use the return of Modell to fill in the cracks. That backstory confirms something I’d already felt – that “Kitsunegari” feels incredibly rushed and poorly considered. While it was initially thrilling to consider the return of a great foe in Modell, the plot spirals out of control by episode’s end.

The audience isn’t sure who is working so diligently through physical therapy at the beginning of the episode as Modell’s face is not initially seen. After he is able to use his mind control abilities on a newbie attendant, Modell escapes the prison hospital, alerting the FBI (and, more importantly, Mulder and Scully) to his new-found freedom. There’s a lot of dialogue about “playing Modell’s game” between Mulder and Scully until a dead body – Modell’s prosecuting attorney – turns up, painted all in Cerulean blue thanks to what appears to be Modell’s influence. Additionally, the walls are painted with a series of Japanese characters that spell out “kitsunegari,” roughly translated to “fox hunt.” Mulder and Scully believe Modell’s wife, Linda (Diana Scarwid of Mommie, Dearest fame), is Modell’s next target as he has apparently arranged to meet Linda at a commercial property she represents.

After Mulder has a run-in with Modell, he confesses to Scully that he does not believe Modell to be on another killing spree and that he believes Linda possesses the same mind-control powers. Mulder visits Modell’s physical therapist who receives a phone call from someone instructing her to touch a naked fuse box, thus electrocuting her in front of Mulder. When Agent Skinner returns to the safe house where Linda is sequestered, he finds Modell there, apparently with a gun, and shoots him (Modell had of course used his mind control powers on Skinner – more on this later). Mulder visits Modell in the hospital, but he is instructed to leave by a nurse who, in reality, is Linda using her mind control abilities. Linda uses her powers to talk Modell’s heart into stopping, thus killing him.

Finally, Mulder discovers the nurse was Linda and finds a piece of paper with an address on it. Following the address, Mulder finds Scully with a gun pointed at him and then to her head. When Scully fires, Mulder freaks, seeing Linda in front of him with a gun but claiming to be Scully. When this “Linda” tells Mulder personal details of his life, he hesitates, allowing “Linda” / Scully shoots the real Linda behind him. The end reveals that Linda Bowman is Modell’s fraternal sister and possesses the same abilities and incurable brain cancer that he had.

“Kitsunegari” may have been designed to be a “fox hunt,” but the revenge plot feels weak and poorly defined. Modell had dozens of instances in which he could have killed Mulder and even Scully, but he failed to follow through with them. Instead, the plot moves along with a series of contrivances and convenient plot twists that ultimately shatter the episode’s credibility. The biggest of these unbelievable twists is the identification of Linda Bowman as Modell’s sister, something completely out of left field given that a) she was recently discovered to be his sister, b) she managed to marry his prosecuting attorney in two days, and c) she has the exact same tumor that resulted in the exact same powers as Modell. Sadly, after this unbelievable twist, the writers fail to do anything really interesting with Linda as a character. She exists solely as an extension of the Modell storyline, and we know nothing about her as an individual. I would have loved for the director / writers to use Scarwid as an archetypal Hitchcock blonde. In some instances, it appeared they were headed in that direction, and I glimpsed images of Marnie here and there. That may have been me implanting my wishes on the story, I’m fully aware.

One particularly annoying betrayal “Kitsunegari” commits against its “Pusher” predecessor is the mental manipulation of Agent Skinner. In the former episode, Skinner cannot be controlled by Modell, which kind of made Skinner an infinitely cooler badass. Yet, here, he is easily controlled in the blink of an eye without a clear reason why. To the average viewer, it may not have meant very much, but, to me, it’s a detail to which the writers (and, yes, I’m including the great Gilligan here) failed to pay significant attention. Ultimately, “Kitsunegari” just kind of peters out in the end, failing to live up to the significant achievements laid out in the earlier Modell plot. It’s a shame, too, because Modell was such a fascinating character that appears here to be an exhausted afterthought. Maybe Modell should have remained untouched by a sequel because, you know, the sequel is never as good as the original.

On the 46th episode of the Water Cooler Podcast, the Cooler gang gathers ’round the Water Cooler to discuss their deep love and respect for The Simpsons‘ annual “Treehouse of Horror,” now in its 26th year and airing next on Sunday, October 25, on FOX. On the podcast, Joey “Jack the Ripper” Moser, Megan “Mauling” McLachlan and Clarence “Every Time a Bell Rings an Angel Gets Its Head Cut Off” Moye talk about what makes the “Treehouse” segments great, why they’re enduringly popular, and what contributions they make to the overall Simpsons‘ canon. They’ll also rank their personal favorite vignettes with a host of clips. Yes, folks, there are clips galore because… The Simpsons.

Join in the Halloween fun by listing your favorite episodes or vignettes. We’d love to hear what you think!

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Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Robin Write’s personal website Write Out of LA.

Captivating from the opening moments of childhood in Africa through the suffering and hope for survival of war, Beasts of No Nation is a rare feat of film-making excellence in just about every area. Setting up the innocence before shattering it, the opening moments are charming and endearing as children attempt the sale of an old hollowed out television set with the nickname Imagination TV – the kids perform various genres behind the frame, switching from melodrama to music dance to even 3D as one child protrudes through the empty frame. Minutes into the story, our young protagonist Agu (Abraham Attah) has to witness the horror of his mother, father, and older brother being murdered by malicious armed forces. Life-changing doesn’t cover it as free-spirited youth becomes the embroilment of war.

Agu’s journey lingers further into the realm of violence as rebel militia leader, known only as Commandant (Idris Elba), takes him under his wing under the proviso that he must kill or be killed. Soon enough Agu makes his first kill, handed a cleaver to horrifically dispatch of a captive man begging for his life. One of many brutally shocking moments in the film. Later Agu has little hesitation in firing a bullet through the head of a woman thus ending the torment of her rape. There are heavy scenes of front-line war throughout, overpowering emotionally rather than gratuitously relentless. While not easy to watch it is impossible to turn your eyes away. Each harrowing event or life taken drags these children further from their innocence – Agu’s voice-over at one point ponders tragically on how when the war is ended that he won’t be able to do child things.

Fresh off the True Detective acclaim, the clearly talented Cary Joji Fukunaga not only adapts the 2005 novel by Uzodinma Iweala, but also efficiently acts as director and cinematographer. Fukunaga’s grasp of the material and brilliance of execution has to go down as one of the clear remarkable achievements of this year. His nifty, composed handheld camerawork and long takes glide and drift meticulously amidst smoke and color – including an non-distracting, unforgettable sequence of intoxication and flourish with a distinct palette alteration. It’s a bravado visual effort, Fukunaga and his technical team have crafted a motion picture that lavishes multiple senses. Dan Romer’s score has poignancy and power, one of the most memorable in years. The film’s components sweep across the screen, perhaps reminding us of the likes of Apocalypse Now or The Thin Red Line, while somehow delivering a level of promise they may not have even declared.

Each moment and transition is different from the next, but none the more powerful and engulfing. Brutality and beauty seem to merge, acts of unquestionable violence and morality carry such emotive impact, as do some particularly engrossing sequence of dance and community bonding. Elba’s Commandant appears to be both a father figure and ruthless leader, a commanding, fearless turn and maybe the charismatic actor”s finest performance. Young Attah is just as mesmerizing, saying as much with his polluted face and eyes as he does with words – the film ends with his self-aware remorse and hope, and his eyes venture so close to the direct camera he could almost be speaking to us.

Branded by the Netflix distribution, Beasts of No Nation‘s scale and visual splendor means this was no where near the ideal release for a platform that allows us to huddle in a corner watching on a small screen with crummy laptop sound outage. I saw it as loud and as big as my home surroundings allow, but should you be fortunate to find the theatrical release close by then I implore you to go to an even bigger screen. I wonder how such a distribution can detract from the film’s own journey through awards season. It remains to be seen whether this is the best film of the year by the Academy’s criteria, but certainly one of them, and has all the right ingredients to make a realistic serge for a rare Best Picture winner worthy of the accolade.

Season 5, Episode 7
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz

After a brilliant and emotional outing in “Christmas Carol,” The X-Files returns to more standard fare in “Emily.” The episode returns Mulder to the storyline as he tries to help Scully deal with the revelation that Emily is her biological daughter as well as dig into an investigation around Emily’s origin and her deadly disease. Given the ticking clock that is Emily’s health, this mythology episode has more human-centered urgency than they normally do. However, the shift to the series mythology takes some of the wind out of the earlier episode’s sails.

“Emily” begins with a dream sequence in which a Stevie Nicks-looking Scully wades through a desert of sand and wind. Her voice over kind of babbles about this or that (I wasn’t paying attention, really), but the visuals are quite stunning. What’s the metaphor here? I initially assumed it was Scully wading through the desert of her womb, but later revelations point us in a different direction. In the real world, Mulder arrives in San Diego to support Scully and meet Emily. He brings news that there are no true records of Emily’s birth, her birth mother listed as “Anna Fugazzi” (fake). During an adoption hearing, Mulder tells the presiding judge that Scully had been abducted and her eggs harvested, making her barren in the process. He argues that the judge has no other choice but to grant custody of Emily to Scully, her technical biological mother.

After the judge expresses doubt in Mulder’s story, Scully receives another mysterious phone call, this time from the children’s ward where Emily now lives. They race there and find Emily safe but suffering from a high fever and a seemingly infected green cyst at the base of her neck. They take her to the hospital where a nurse attempts to biopsy the cyst causing a green liquid to ooze from the wound and making the nurse severely ill in a similar manner to experiences with other alien/human hybrids. Mulder visits Dr. Calderon, the man who was treating Emily’s anemia in a top-secret, double-blind trial. Mulder roughs up Calderon but is unable to get information out of him. He follows Calderon to a house where Calderon meets two other men who use the sharp pointed object to stab Calderon in the back of the neck. He is an alien/human hybrid. The other two men shape-shift into Calderon’s image, and one visits the hospital to inject Emily with a green substance, causing her body to shut down further. After Mulder stumbles upon an operation where senior citizen Anna Fugazzi (and others) are apparently continuously impregnated with alien/human hybrids. There, he has an interaction with the Calderon shape-shifter.

Later, Mulder returns to the hospital where Emily has lapsed into a coma. She eventually dies, and Scully finds peace and acceptance in the event since Emily was not naturally conceived and was never intended to be in this world. They host a small funeral for Emily, and, when Scully opens the casket, it is filled with dust and Scully’s cross necklace, echoing the opening sequence. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

The grown-up emotions, exploration of female bonds, and Anderson’s fantastic performance from “Christmas Carol” are now all gone in “Emily.” Now that Mulder is back on the scene, the episode becomes more about him and his bravado over Scully’s emotional plight. It’s a shame, too, because this was Scully’s arc. This was Emily’s story, not Mulder’s, and it should remain as much. Yet, we have to journey back into the world of an X-Files mythology, so Mulder must step back into the limelight and overshadow Scully in her moment of glory. That’s not to say Scully/Anderson don’t figure prominently in the episode, but it’s disappointing to have so much of it dedicated to Mulder’s attempts to further uncover the truth. Granted, it would be unlikely that Scully would ever leave Emily’s side to accomplish the investigation Mulder undertakes. Still, I’m constantly in search of more moments with Dana Scully. Otherwise, the episode was a decent outing, destined to disappoint because it has to shift into more conspiratorial tendencies than the emotional moments of the previous episode.

At least we had “Christmas Carol.”

Season 5, Episode 6
Director: Peter Markle
Writer: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz

The X-Files has hinted at Scully’s secret longing to have a child of her own for a few seasons now. Since her mysterious abduction, Dana Scully appeared to want to fill a gap left in her by the experience. The maternal instinct was touched on and perhaps parodied in the Season Four episode “Home,” and, after her cancer scare, the need for Scully to have a child, to carry on some sort of lasting legacy in her life, is stronger than ever. In “Christmas Carol,” her childless nature is refreshingly treated with respect and poignancy, rather than a comic or grotesque source of horror. As a result, the episode is not only a milestone for Gillian Anderson’s performance as Dana Scully but also a milestone for the power and necessity of female bonds from sister to sister and from mother to daughter.

“Christmas Carol” begins as Scully arrives with her mother for Christmas with her brother, Bill (Pat Skipper), who is expecting his first child with wife, Tara. Scully is happy for her brother but expresses a reserved, tentative happiness. She reveals to her mother that, as a result of her abduction, she can no longer conceive her own child, and the effect on Scully is significant. At the house, she receives a call from a mysterious woman bearing strong resemblance to her deceased sister, Melissa, instructing to her “help her.” Scully traces the call and arrives at a crime scene where a woman has apparently taken her own life in the bathtub some three hours before Scully received the phone call. She left behind a husband and daughter, Emily.

Having a constant nagging about the case, Scully presses the investigation further, beyond the boundaries of a standard suicide case. When rifling through the dead woman’s purse, she finds a picture of her daughter and takes it home to compare to a photo of her sister near the same age – the resemblance is uncanny. Scully continues to pursue the case, much to the annoyance of her brother Bill, and discovers that the woman had likely been murdered by secret injection through her foot of a strong sedative and a deep, persistent slicing of the wrists. Meanwhile, Scully arranges for blood tests of the little girl and finds that she matches Melissa’s DNA profile. After the child is taken into foster care, Scully tries to adopt her but will likely be turned down thanks to her high-stress job and lack-of-romantic status. In the end, a mysterious conspiracy begins to emerge as Emily’s adoptive father is visited in prison by two mysterious men and later hangs himself in his cell. On Christmas morning, Scully receives a deeper DNA analysis of Melissa and Emily’s blood, and the results are conclusive – Emily does not match the DNA profile of Melissa Scully. However, the resemblances were so striking that the lab ran a test against Scully’s DNA on file, resulting in a perfect match. Emily is genetically Scully’s daughter.

“Christmas Carol” doesn’t really have much in common with the Charles Dickens classic tale. Instead, the Christmas season reflected Scully’s deep, reborn religious connection to the world. There are dozens of instances of religious iconography that nearly suffocate the proceedings. What saves the episode is Gillian Anderson’s fantastically emotional, committed and (as of yet) unparalleled performance. We’ve never seen Anderson dig so deeply into Scully and elicit such an emotional, raw core within the character. Anderson’s work here is honest and true. She brings forward Scully’s personal issues over motherhood, her resentment of her sister in law, and her clinging to both science and faith to answer questions in her life. Anderson’s work here even tops that of “Never Again” and her Emmy-winning work in “Memento Mori.”

But perhaps best of all, the episode explores the deep relationship between the Scully women, often through flashbacks to different phases in their lives. Their relationships are strong, and The X-Files rarely spends time exploring connections between women. It is especially interesting when these bonds seem to have crossed into the supernatural realm and pushed Scully in the direction of helping the Sims women. The graceful direction and clear, unfussy writing harmonize with the material in a touching, emotional manner. Yes, this is one of a 2-part arc, but I personally feel that “Christmas Carol” stands on its own because it deepens the character of Dana Scully. I suspect the second part will trend toward the more traditional X-Files path, and that’s fine with me.

But I do appreciate the time spent growing Dana Scully and letting the audience see the damaged core of such a strong-willed woman. It’s an experience you’ll likely not forget.

In the two week run up until Halloween, TV programmers are cranking out as much Halloween-themed entertainment as they can possibly air within a 24-hour period. Channel surf, and  you’ll find everything from children’s classics (It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown anyone?) to modern classics (“Treehouse of Horror 26”) to traditional horror favorites (all the Friday the 13th and Halloween flicks).

To help you through your Halloween television bingeing, here’s a list of the more prominent fixtures, although it is by no means a complete listing. That would be a frightfully terrifying task to undertake…

• “Halloween of Horror” – The Simpsons first Halloween-themed episode outside of the “Treehouse” series airing Sunday, October 18, at 8pm on FOX
• It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown / Toy Story of Terror – Tuesday, October 20, at 8pm on ABC
• Fear Fest 2015 – AMC’s annual marathon of horror-themed programming kicks off on Sunday, October 18, and runs through Halloween night. Check listings for offerings.
• 13 Nights of Halloween – ABC Family’s supposedly family-friendly take on Fear Fest starts Monday, October 19, and runs through Halloween. It includes such timeless family classics as Hocus Pocus, Monster’s University, and Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (one of these things is not like the other).
• “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” – The Simpsons annual Halloween treat airs Sunday, October 25, on FOX. Rumor has it that Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart Simpson.
• Stephen King Thriller Week – Sundance TV will air a week-long marathon of films based on Stephen King’s classic works beginning Sunday, October 25. This includes the 35th anniversary print of The Shining.
• The following notable series will have specific Halloween programming in the week leading up to Halloween:
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine – Sunday, October 25 on FOX
  • Family Guy – Sunday, October 25 on FOX
  • Dancing with the Stars – Monday, October 26 on ABC
  • Fresh Off the Boat – Tuesday, October 27 on ABC
  • The Middle – Wednesday, October 28 on ABC
  • The Goldbergs – Wednesday, October 28 on ABC
  • Modern Family – Wednesday, October 28 on ABC
  • Ghost Hunters – Wednesday, October 28 on Syfy
  • black-ish – Wednesday, October 28 on ABC
• Treasures from the Disney Vault – TCM airs older Disney classics like The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad on Wednesday, October 28.
• Exorcism: Live! – The months-in-the-making special finally airs on Destination: America on Friday, October 30, at 9pm. Rather than focusing on a possessed individual, the episode reportedly will feature a live exorcism of the house that inspired the novel The Exorcist.
• Ash vs. Evil Dead – Cult audiences everywhere are foaming at the mouth for Sam Raimi and Bruce Campell to return to their horror classic films in this 10-episode series starting Halloween night at 9pm on Starz.

Slightly of note is Sunday night’s Halloween episode of The Simpsons, not to be confused with the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode that will air on October 25. 

Be sure to tune into Monday’s Water Cooler Podcast which covers the “Treehouse of Horror” genius.