TCM’s October 2026 Schedule: Vincent Price, Lon Chaney, Hitchcock & Halloween Horror

October is here and Halloween season has arrived, and Turner Classic Movies is rolling out its killer movie lineup of things that go bump in the night, murder at the movies, creepy cinema, and horror legends.

Settle in with a cozy blanket and gear up for a fright-filled trip through Hollywood’s classic horror movies. The network is bringing plenty of spooky favorites throughout the month. From the many faces of Lon Chaney to Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, the October lineup offers a great mix of beloved horror classics.

See the full spooky schedule below. Don’t have TCM? Don’t fret, HBO Max subscribers can watch a small selection of these horror greats in the TCM hub.

All times noted are Eastern.

Friday, October 2

Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces

Beginning at 8 pm

Everett Collection

Long before movie monsters were brought to life by CGI, the silent screen was haunted by the transformative genius of Lon Chaney. Dubbed “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” Chaney didn’t just play characters — he sculpted them out of greasepaint, wires, and putty. Tonight’s focus on Chaney begins with the 2000 documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces, which peels back the prosthetics to reveal the man behind cinema’s most harrowing masks. The theme continues with Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), a biopic starring James Cagney that traces Chaney’s path from vaudeville to early Hollywood and illustrates how his upbringing with deaf parents influenced his art.

Next up is Chaney’s most famous film, The Phantom of the Opera (1925), a master class in horror that remains terrifying a century later. Chaney traded in his signature prosthetics to deliver two of his most dramatic performances as tragic circus clowns in He Who Gets Slapped (1924) and Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928). The night concludes with The Blackbird (1926), with Chaney playing dual roles as a criminal and a clergyman.

8 pm Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000)
9:30 pm Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)
11:45 pm The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
1:30 am He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
3 am Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
4:30 am The Blackbird (1926)

Tuesday, October 6

Murder at the Movies

Beginning at 8 pm

Everett Collection

Tonight’s programming is curated by TCM host Alicia Malone with a theme based on her first novel, Murder at the Movies: A Movie Palace Mystery, a classic whodunit to be released today. The evening begins with René Clair’s chilling 1945 murder mystery And Then There Were None, based on Agatha Christie‘s novel, in which a group of strangers trapped on an isolated island try to determine the identity of a ruthless killer who is methodically picking them off one by one before it’s too late.

In Murder She Said (1961), Margaret Rutherford takes the reins as the irrepressible Miss Marple, who witnesses a strangulation through a train window and takes the investigation into her own capable hands. The evening also includes The Kennel Murder Case (1933), starring William Powell as suave, razor-sharp detective Philo Vance, and Alfred Hitchcock‘s psychological masterpiece Suspicion (1941), with Joan Fontaine playing a sheltered heiress who slowly comes to the terrifying realization that her charming new husband (Cary Grant) might just be a murderer.

8 pm And Then There Were None (1945)
9:45 pm Murder She Said (1961)
11:30 pm The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
1 am Suspicion (1941)
2:45 am The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)
4:15 am The Case of the Howling Dog (1934)

Wednesday, October 7

Directed by Joe Dante

Beginning at 8 pm

Everett Collection

Tonight, TCM celebrates director Joe Dante, whose inventive blend of horror, science fiction, nostalgia and satire made him one of the distinctive filmmakers of his generation. The evening begins with the warm and witty Matinee (1993), starring John Goodman as a charismatic 1960s exploitation filmmaker staging a sensational movie premiere against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The journey continues into the cul-de-sacs of middle America with the delightfully paranoid dark comedy The ‘Burbs (1989), featuring Tom Hanks as an anxious homeowner whose quiet neighborhood vacation spirals out of control alongside neighbors played by Carrie Fisher and Bruce Dern. The retrospective closes with the atmospheric werewolf classic The Howling (1981), starring Dee Wallace and Patrick Macnee, which redefined the modern monster movie with its groundbreaking transformation effects.

8 pm Matinee (1993)
10 pm The ‘Burbs (1989)
12 am The Howling (1981)
2 am Eyes of a Stranger (1981)
4 am The First Deadly Sin (1980)

Thursday, October 8

Creepy Cinema: Desperate Survival

Beginning at 8 pm

Everett Collection

Two very different groups fight to make it through impossible circumstances tonight. First, Susannah York,  Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin enter a grueling Depression-era dance marathon in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969). Next, Alfred Hitchcock showcases the action almost entirely at sea in Lifeboat (1944), where survivors of a torpedoed ship pull a German sailor aboard their small boat. Both films trap strangers together and show just how quickly fear and desperation can change people as they struggle to survive.

Then stay tuned for a marathon of classic sci-fi creature features sure to make you shiver.

8 pm They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)
10:15 pm Lifeboat (1944)
12:15 am The Blob (1958)
1:4 5am Fiend Without a Face (1958)
3:15 am The Thing From Another World (1951)
4:45 am Them! (1954)

Friday, October 9

Boorman and the Devil

Beginning at 8 pm

Go behind the scenes of one of Hollywood’s most infamous sequels with the TCM premiere of Boorman and the Devil, David Kittredge’s 2025 documentary about the making and reception of John Boorman‘s Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), which follows. Airing next are three more films directed by Boorman: the semi-biographical wartime drama Hope and Glory (1987), the tough crime thriller Point Blank (1967) and the South Africa-set drama In My Country (2004). It is a full night devoted to Boorman’s ambitious career.

8 pm Boorman and the Devil (2025)
10 pm Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
12:15 am Hope and Glory (1987)
2:15 am Point Blank (1967)
4 am In My Country (2004)

Thursday, October 15

Creepy Cinema Classic Monsters

Beginning at 12:45 am (late night)

Everett Collection

The lineup begins with The Brides of Dracula (1960) and Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb (1971), followed by Christopher Lee in Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968). Lee and Peter Cushing reunite in Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), which brings their famous rivalry to modern London. The marathon continues with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959), three films that helped define Hammer Productions’ colorful Gothic style.

10:15 pm Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982)
12:45 am Brides of Dracula (1960)
2:30 am The Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb (1971)
4:15 am Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968)

Continued on the 16th ….

Friday, October 16

Becoming Hitchcock: The Legacy of Blackmail

Beginning at 8 pm

Courtesy Fathom Events

This night, devoted to Alfred Hitchcock and four of his memorable leading women, starts with the 2024 documentary Becoming Hitchcock: The Legacy of Blackmail, which explores the director’s signature style through the making of the 1929 film Blackmail. Following is the sound version of Blackmail, starring Anny Ondra, and The 39 Steps (1935), with Madeleine Carroll. Grace Kelly takes over later in Dial M for Murder (1954), while Eva Marie Saint joins Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959). A 2014 TCM festival conversation with Saint closes the lineup.

Thursday, Oct. 22

Creepy Cinema: Going Crazy

Beginning at 8 pm

20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection

Two intense dramas take viewers inside psychiatric institutions, reflecting the attitudes and treatments of their own eras. Olivia de Havilland stars in The Snake Pit (1948) as a woman who cannot remember how she came to be hospitalized. The film earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress. Following, Tennessee Williams‘ Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) brings together Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift for a story involving trauma and a wealthy woman determined to keep a family secret buried.

Thursday, October 29

Creepy Cinema: Women in ’70s Horror

Beginning at 8 pm

Two unsettling films from the 1970s put women at the center of Gothic stories. In The Beguiled (1971), the women and girls at an isolated Southern school take in a wounded Union soldier during the Civil War. Then enjoy The Sentinel (1977), which stars Cristina Raines as a fashion model who moves into a Brooklyn brownstone filled with strange neighbors and even stranger secrets.

8 pm The Beguiled (1971)
10 pm The Sentinel (1977)
11:45 pm I Walked With a Zombie (1943)
1 am Bedlam (1946)

Friday, October 30

Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive

TCM, 8 pm

Everett Collection

TCM will bepremiering the Vincent Price documentary Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive for the first time on TV, and it will be available to stream the next day on HBO Max. This beautiful documentary celebrates the life and legacy of one of horror’s most recognizable stars with commentary from Tim Burton, John Waters, and many more. The tribute continues with The Fly (1958), followed by House of Wax (1953), the hit that helped establish Price as a horror icon. House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Mad Magician (1954), The Tingler (1959) and The Bat (1959) keep him onscreen through the night.

7:45 am Chamber of Horrors (1966)
9:30 am Spider Baby (1964)
11 am White Zombie (1932)
12:15 pm The Walking Dead (1936)
1:30 pm Mad Love (1935)
2:45 pm Eyes Without a Face (1959)
4:30 pm The Haunting (1963)
6:30 pm Curse of the Demon (1958)
8 pm Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive (2026)
9:45 pm The Fly (1958)
11:30 pm House of Wax (1953)
1:15 am House on Haunted Hill (1958)

Saturday, October 31

Halloween Terror-Thon

Beginning at 7 am

Of course, TCM is celebrating all things spooky on Halloween. The daytime lineup includes Doctor X (1932), Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), Pufnstuf (1970), Dracula (1931), The Mummy (1932), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Tonight, Frank Langella takes over as the Count in Dracula (1979), followed by Brian De Palma‘s Phantom of the Paradise (1974). A Val Lewton triple feature of Cat People (1942), The Seventh Victim (1943) and The Leopard Man (1943) airs before Night of the Living Dead (1968) closes out the marathon.

7 am The Hypnotic Eye (1960)
8:30 am Dr. X (1932)
10 am The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
11:30 am Transylvania 6-5000 (1963)
12 pm Pufnstuf (1970)
1:45 pm Dracula (1931)
3:15 pm The Mummy (1932)
4:45 pm Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
6:30 pm Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
8 pm Dracula (1979)
10:15 pm Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
12 am Cat People (1942)

For many more movies airing this month, click here to download or view the full printable October 2026 TCM schedule.

TCM Daily and Weekly Movie Schedule: October 2026

See the channel's month long daily movie schedule, and download the full October calendar.

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