Between all those doorbell interruptions for trick-or-treaters, TV offers chilling, creepy, blood- curdling Halloween holiday options — and those are just the “Simpsons” opening credits.
For the littlest goblins, ABC replays “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” at 7 tonight on KMGH-Channel 7. For serious film buffs, TCM offers the 1925 silent version of “Phantom of the Opera,” starring Lon Chaney (reissued in 1930 with some sound), at 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
For everyone else, there are both serious and wacky offerings throughout the weekend.
Here are the five best options for thrills on the couch this Halloween:
1. “Raising Hope,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday on KDVR-Channel 31. If you haven’t yet checked out Fox’s new trailer-trash sitcom from Greg Garcia (“My Name Is Earl”), this holiday- themed episode is a fine place to begin. On baby Hope’s first Halloween, Grandma (Cloris Leachman) has too much chocolate and Jimmy (Lucas Neff) recounts why he hates the holiday. “It’s Jolly Rancher and martini time for Mommy!” says Virginia (Martha Plimpton).
2. “The Walking Dead,” 8-9:30 p.m. Sunday on AMC. Zombie apocalypse! Based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, this gritty new AMC drama depicts the terror of survivors in a six-episode first season, starting with the episode “Days Gone By.” Andrew Lincoln stars as police officer Rick Grimes.
3. “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” 8:15-10:45 p.m. Saturday on TCM. Robert Aldrich’s 1962 Hollywood gothic classic. The great Bette Davis is Miss Baby Jane Hudson, a former child star; Joan Crawford is Miss Blanche Hudson, a movie queen forced into retirement after a crippling accident. The sisters live as recluses in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
4. “Scary Movie 3,” at 8 p.m. Sunday, and “Scary Movie 4,” at 8 p.m. Saturday on Comedy Central. David Zucker’s wonderfully ridiculous parodies of the horror- movie genre from 2003 and 2006, respectively, are full of sight gags, cheap shots, pratfalls and bad puns. Rated PG-13, they deserve a tougher rating for sheer idiocy, but that’s the fun.
5. “The Haunting,” 7:30 p.m. Sunday on TCM. Great cast in this 1963 thriller: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn and Lois Maxwell knock around a New England mansion, Hill House, which seems to harbor a ghostly presence. Director Robert Wise knew how to make a haunted house picture.
Note for “Simpsons” fans: “The Treehouse of Horror XXI,” the annual “Simpsons” anthology,” is delayed by Giants-Rangers baseball until Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. on KDVR. This year the Halloween special spoofs “The Office,” wii, board games, “Dead Calm” (with Hugh Laurie as a guest voice), and “Twilight” (with Daniel Radcliffe providing the voice of the vampire Homer calls “that unholy dreamboat”).
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, the wrong television broadcast times were given for the “Scary Movie” series.
