Best Classic Movies on TV This Week: October 13-19
Your favorite movie may just be airing somewhere on TV this week, but how on earth are you supposed to know when and where? We’ve assembled a day-by-day guide to what’s playing every day this week, on both broadcast networks and cable channels, during primetime and beyond.
With Halloween soon upon us, you can expect to find a lot of horror on the airwaves this week, including, Halloween, Aliens, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, A Nightmare on Elm Street, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Lost Boys, Frankenstein, Poltergeist and Misery — and plus Young Frankenstein, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Addams Family and Hocus Pocus, for folks who love the spooky season but are scaredy cats.
If horror isn’t your thing, you’ll also find airings of Top Gun, Pillow Talk, The Manchurian Candidate, Leaver Her to Heaven, Sixteen Candles and much more.
Classic Movies on Monday, October 13
Werewolf Movies Marathon
MOVIES!, beginning at 12:10pm
A trio of werewolf films fill the day beginning with Werewolves on Wheels (1971), starring Steve Oliver and Donna Anderson. After a biker gang’s encounter with a satanic cult, the leader’s girlfriend is cursed to become a werewolf, leading to bloody mayhem among the gang members. Following is Bad Moon (1996), where a fiercely protective family dog becomes the only line of defense when a woman (Mariel Hemingway) and her son are threatened by her brother (Michael Paré), who harbors a deadly secret: He’s a werewolf. Next, it’s The Company of Wolves (1984), starring Angela Lansbury and David Warner. A young girl’s journey into adulthood is depicted through a series of interlocking, allegorical fairy tales about werewolves and burgeoning female sexuality. Last, it’s the 2002 horror Dog Soldiers, where a pack of werewolves targets a squad of soldiers (Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd) on a training exercise in the Scottish Highlands.
Primetime Movies
6:45pm Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982, Horror) Dana Kimmell, Paul Kratka IFC
7pm Law of Vengeance (1933, Western) Randolph Scott, Esther Ralston WE
7pm Set It Off (1996, Action) Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah BET
Cannon Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
7pm The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986, Horror) Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams SYFY
7:30pm Grumpy Old Men (1993, Comedy) Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau E!
8pm Halloween (1978, Horror) Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis AMC
8pm That Thing You Do! (1996, Comedy-drama) Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler TCM
8pm The Fifth Element (1997, Science fiction) Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman BBCA
8:15pm Aliens (1986, Science fiction) Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn FXM
9:25pm Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, Children) Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon FREEFORM
10pm This Is Spinal Tap (1984, Comedy) Rob Reiner, Michael McKean TCM
10:35pm The Ring Two (2005, Horror) Naomi Watts, Simon Baker MGM
11:30pm Eddie and the Cruisers (1983, Musical) Tom Berenger, Michael Paré TCM
Classic Movies on Tuesday, October 14
Vampire Movies Marathon
MOVIES!, beginning at 12:05pm
Here are some movies to sink your teeth into, starting with Horror of Dracula (1958), a classic Hammer horror adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel and the first performance by Christopher Lee as the Count. Next up is Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1974), starring Jack Palance as the Count. Written by Richard Matheson and directed by Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows), the story follows the iconic vampire as he travels to England, where he becomes obsessed with a young woman who is the spitting image of his long-dead wife. After that is Dracula’s Widow (1988), starring Sylvia Kristel and Josef Sommer. When a crate from Romania containing Dracula’s wife arrives at a Hollywood wax museum, she enslaves the museum owner and goes on a murderous rampage. Following that is Lust for a Vampire (1971), starring Barbara Jefford and Ralph Bates. The newly resurrected vampire Carmilla Karnstein (Yutte Stensgaard) enrolls in an all-girls finishing school, where she seduces and preys on her fellow students. Next comes Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), starring Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani. It’s a remake of the 1922 classic tale of the vampire who brings death to a German town after becoming obsessed with a real estate agent’s wife. The 1922 original, Nosferatu, starring Max Schreck, follows; it’s a silent film but captures the spirit of the Bram Stoker novel. Up next: The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, another in the Hammer horror series pairing Lee as Count Dracula and Cushing as Van Helsing. Here, Van Helsing and Scotland Yard discover the Count’s evil plan to unleash a global plague. Finally, we conclude with Night of Dark Shadows (1971), starring David Selby and Grayson Hall. Derived from the popular TV series Dark Shadows, the movie centers on Quentin Collins, a young artist who moves into his inherited family mansion and becomes tormented by strange dreams and visions.
Primetime Movies
New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
6:30pm Demolition Man (1993, Science fiction) Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes BBCA
6:30pm The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991, Comedy) Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley MGM
8pm A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, Horror) John Saxon, Ronee Blakley AMC
8pm Indiscreet (1958, Romance-comedy) Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman TCM
8:50pm Hocus Pocus (1993, Family) Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker FREEFORM
10pm Pillow Talk (1959, Romance-comedy) Rock Hudson, Doris Day TCM
10:14pm National Security (2003, Comedy) Martin Lawrence, Steve Zahn STZENC
11pm Once Bitten (1985, Comedy) Lauren Hutton, Cleavon Little SYFY
Classic Movies on Wednesday, October 15
Stories of World War II
TCM, beginning at 6am
Everett Collection
Get yourself ready for frontline action as TCM gives us a marathon of stories from the European theater of World War II. Leading off is Underground (1941), a tale of two brothers in the SS in Germany. One becomes convinced of the evils of Nazism and tries to convince his brother of those evils. Next up is The Cross of Lorraine (1943), about a group of French resistance soldiers in a German POW camp trying to devise a way to escape, starring Jean-Pierre Aumont and Gene Kelly. Following is Desperate Journey (1942), starring Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan and Alan Hale, in which an Allied plane crew is shot down behind enemy lines and attempts to escape with top-secret intelligence. Next up is The North Star (1943), starring Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews, in which a Ukrainian farming village braces itself for the German invasion. Next is Uncertain Glory (1944), where a French convict facing execution (Errol Flynn) offers to exchange his life for 100 captured Allied soldiers. Following is Joan of Paris (1942), about a Frenchwoman who risks her life to help five downed British airmen escape Nazi-occupied France. Next up is Passport to Destiny (1944), about a British cleaning woman (Elsa Lanchester) who sneaks into Nazi Germany, believing she is protected by a magical charm, to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Wrapping things up is To the Victor (1948), a drama about an American black marketeer in Paris who falls in love with the wife of a Nazi collaborator.
Primetime Movies
Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection
6pm Trick ‘r Treat (2007, Horror) Anna Paquin, Brian Cox AMC
6:22pm Novocaine (2001, Suspense) Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carter STZENC
8pm First Blood (1982, Action) Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna SHO
8pm Sullivan’s Travels (1941, Comedy) Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake TCM
8pm Top Gun (1986, Action) Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis PARMT
9pm Friday the 13th (1980, Horror) Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King BBCA
9:45pm How Green Was My Valley (1941, Drama) Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara TCM
10pm I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997, Horror) Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar AMC
Classic Movies on Thursday, October 16
Star of the Month: Angela Lansbury
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Everett Collection
Turner Classic Movies celebrates the career of Angela Lansbury on what would have been her 100th birthday with a block of her classic films. The night starts with her very first film, Gaslight (1944), also featuring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. Lansbury was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, while Boyer and Bergman were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, with Bergman winning. Lansbury was only 19 years old when she starred in the next film, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). The role earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations for both a Golden Globe and Oscar (she won the Globe), and she is forever remembered for her haunting and devastating performance as the beautifully kind Sibyl Vane. Following is The Manchurian Candidate (1962), a Cold War thriller about a U.S. soldier programmed as an assassin. While Lansbury rarely portrayed villains, as Eleanor, she brilliantly played the ice-cold wife of a powerful U.S. senator who ultimately was the monstrous mastermind behind their evil plot. Next comes Kind Lady (1951), a drama in which a wealthy, charitable woman is manipulated and imprisoned in her own home by a con man posing as a struggling artist. Concluding things is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982), a thriller about a vengeful barber who murders his customers with a straight razor, while his accomplice bakes their bodies into meat pies.
Primetime Movies
TriStar Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
6:15pm The Running Man (1987, Science fiction) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso BBCA
8pm Gaslight (1944, Suspense) Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman TCM
8pm Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005, Fantasy) Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint E!
8pm Rush Hour (1998, Action) Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker TNT
9:45pm Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985, Action) Chuck Norris, Oh Soon-tek MGM
10pm The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945, Horror) George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield TCM
10:13pm Big Daddy (1999, Comedy) Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams STZENC
Classic Movies on Friday, October 17
Gene Tierney’s Terror
TCM, beginning at 8pm
20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy: Everett Collection.
A pair of thrillers starring Gene Tierney are on tap tonight. First up is Leave Her to Heaven (1945), in which Tierney plays a beautiful but pathologically jealous woman who will go to murderous lengths to ensure no one else can have her husband’s love and attention. For her performance, Tierney earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Next is Black Widow (1954), in which a naive writer is found dead in a Broadway producer’s (Van Heflin) apartment, making him the prime suspect in a murder mystery where everyone has a motive. Tierney played the producer’s wife.
Primetime Movies
6:30pm Hocus Pocus (1993, Family) Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker FREEFORM
6:30pm The Green Mile (1999, Drama) Tom Hanks, David Morse BRAVO
7pm Freddy vs. Jason (2003, Horror) Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger AMC
7:15pm 50 First Dates (2004, Romance-comedy) Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore HBO
8pm Leave Her to Heaven (1945, Crime drama) Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde TCM
8pm The Abyss (1989, Science fiction) Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio MGM
8:45pm Fight Club (1999, Suspense) Brad Pitt, Edward Norton SHO
9:45pm The Lost Boys (1987, Horror) Jason Patric, Corey Haim IFC
10pm Black Widow (1954, Mystery) Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin TCM
11:07pm Zombieland (2009, Comedy) Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg USA
Classic Movies on Saturday, October 18
Courtesy of MeTV
Svengoolie Boo-Nanza
HOUSE OF SVENGOOLIE’S CARTOON BOO-NANZA Hosted by The Sven Squad! – 9am
The Sven Squad host spooky and kooky classic animation Saturday morning cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny and his friends, bringing home more Halloween fun.
SVENGOOLIE CLASSIC HORROR & SCI-FI MOVIE: Young Frankenstein – 8pm
Mel Brooks directs the sharpest comedy of his stellar career with this greatest of all horror movie send-ups, regarded as one of the best comedy films ever made. An American grandson of the infamous scientist (Gene Wilder), struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body with hilarious results. Also starring Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Terri Garr, Cloris Leachman
THE HOUSE OF SVENGOOLIE Hosted by The Sven Squad! : Frankenstein – 11pm
Dr. Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.
Two for One: John Carpenter
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Everett Collection
In tonight’s re-airing of the Ben Mankiewicz-hosted series, Mankiewicz is joined by filmmaker John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog), who introduces two films of his choosing. Carpenter will offer commentary on each film’s significance and its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and his own personal reflections on them. The films chosen are two classic horror films. First up is Frankenstein (1931), the classic Universal monster movie starring Boris Karloff. Following that is The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), in which Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is awaiting execution for murder and tells the story of his desire to create a living being to a priest.
Primetime Movies
6:15pm Final Destination 2 (2003, Horror) Ali Larter, A.J. Cook IFC
6:30pm Ghostbusters (1984, Comedy) Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd E!
7:15pm Con Air (1997, Action) Nicolas Cage, John Cusack FXM
8pm Christine (1983, Horror) Keith Gordon, John Stockwell AMC
8pm Poltergeist (1982, Horror) Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams BBCA
8pm Sixteen Candles (1984, Comedy) Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall VH1
8:30pm The Terminator (1984, Science fiction) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton SUNDANCE
9pm Avatar: The Way of Water (2022, Science fiction) Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña FX
10:01pm Crown for Christmas (2015, Romance) Danica McKellar, Rupert Penry-Jones HALLMARK
10:03pm The Bad Guardian (2024, Suspense) Melissa Joan Hart, La La Anthony LIFETIME
Classic Movies on Sunday, October 19
Sunday Night NOIR!
MOVIES!, beginning at 8pm
Queue up some classic film noir, starting with The Tattooed Stranger (1950), starring John Miles and Patricia Barry. The film follows two detectives working to identify a murder victim found with a distinctive tattoo and track down her killer through the streets of New York City. Following is Johnny Eager (1941), starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner. The stepdaughter (Turner) of a district attorney (Edward Arnold) falls in love with a gangster (Taylor) the DA sent away to prison when he was a prosecutor. Van Heflin won an Academy Award for his role as Eager’s associate.
Sundays With Hitch
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Courtesy Everett Collection
Two classic Alfred Hitchcock films are queued up and ready to go. First up is Vertigo (1958). Nominated for two Oscars, it’s the story of a former detective (James Stewart) hired to trail a woman (Kim Novak) who may be mentally unstable. Next up is Hitch’s classic The Birds (1963), starring Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor.
Primetime Movies
6pm Sixteen Candles (1984, Comedy) Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall VH1
6pm The Lost Boys (1987, Horror) Jason Patric, Corey Haim SUNDANCE
6:30pm Ghostbusters II (1989, Comedy) Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd E!
6:45pm Happy Gilmore (1996, Comedy) Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald BBCA
7pm Halloween (1978, Horror) Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis AMC
7pm Hocus Pocus (1993, Family) Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker FX
7pm Menace II Society (1993, Drama) Tyrin Turner, Jada Pinkett BET
7pm The Addams Family (1991, Comedy) Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia PARMT
7:30pm The Day After Tomorrow (2004, Action) Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal CW
8pm Heartbreakers (2001, Comedy) Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt VH1
8pm Misery (1990, Horror) James Caan, Kathy Bates SUNDANCE
8pm Vertigo (1958, Suspense) James Stewart, Kim Novak TCM
8:30pm Steel Magnolias (1989, Comedy-drama) Sally Field, Dolly Parton CMT
8:33pm Edward Scissorhands (1990, Fantasy) Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder ABC
8:45pm Uncle Buck (1989, Comedy) John Candy, Amy Madigan BBCA
9pm Addams Family Values (1993, Comedy) Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia PARMT
9:30pm Casper (1995, Children) Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman FREEFORM
10:15pm The Birds (1963, Suspense) Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren TCM
10:30pm Carrie (1976, Horror) Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie SUNDANCE
11pm The Addams Family (1991, Comedy) Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia PARMT
11pm The Great Outdoors (1988, Comedy) Dan Aykroyd, John Candy BBCA
11:02pm Saw (2004, Horror) Cary Elwes, Danny Glover SYFY
11:30pm Edward Scissorhands (1990, Fantasy) Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder FX
11:55pm Gladiator (2000, Historical drama) Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix STARZ
Top 50 Horror Movies
October 2025
The films in this issue have scared the living daylights out of us all for decades, what made #?
Buy This Issue