What to Watch on TV this Weekend: Chloe's Guide

Oct. 28–30, 2016

Halloween is the spookiest time of the year, a season of equal parts celebration and superstition. Patch readers seeking a safe alternative to trick-or-treating need not look any further than the comfort of their own homes—or couches! Here are a few suggestions for what to watch on the upcoming All Hallows' Eve weekend.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Friday, Oct. 28 - AMC - 2 p.m.

The enigmatic evil of Freddy Krueger is reimagined in the 2010 remake of West Craven's 1984 horror film of the same name, revolving around a group of teenage friends who are being stalked in their dreams by the undead serial killer. The film keeps its finger on the proverbial pulse of all the gory mayhem that kept audiences on the edge of their seats in the 1980s. A Nightmare on Elm Street stars Jackie Earle Haley as the immolated antagonist alongside Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Her), Kyle Gallner (Red State), Katie Cassady (Gossip Girl), Connie Britton (American Horror Story), Kellan Lutz (Twilight Saga, The Legend of Hercules), Clancy Brown and others. The film is the second highest-grossing Nightmare on Elm Street film in the franchise in North America behind Freddy vs. Jason in unadjusted dollars.

Saw (2004)

Saturday, Oct. 8 - POP- 1 p.m.

The inaugural installment for what amounted to a seven-film franchise is, perhaps, the quintessential Halloween film, brimming with enough mystery and shock value to keep audiences guessing and in suspense through to the final moments of the 103-minute production. Directed by James Wan (Insidious, The Conjuring), Saw follows two men who awake to find themselves chained in a large, dilapidated bathroom, with one ordered to kill the other or his family will die. The film was given a $1.2 million budget and shot for 18 days, opening at third on the then-Halloween weekend and grossing $18.2 million, eventually generating a worldwide profit of $103,096,345. It had become the most profitable horror film after Scream.

The Birds (1963)

Sunday, Oct. 30- BBC - 4 p.m.

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds employs all the makings of a true Hitchcock production: humans versus nature, lies and deceit, the role of women and, of course, violence. The film, loosely based on Daphne du Maurier's 1952 story of the same name, stars Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren in her screen debut and focuses on a series of sudden and unexplained, violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay, Ca. throughout the course of a few days.

Scholar Camille Paglia interpreted the film as an ode to facets of female sexuality, noting that the leading male character, Mitch (Taylor), is defined by his relationships with his mother, sister and ex-lover, a balance that is disrupted by Mitch's attraction to Melanie (Hedren).

The Purge: Election Year (2016)

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The Purge: Election Year is the third installment of a series of films centered on an American, dystopian world in which all crime—including and, perhaps, especially murder—is legal 12 hours on a singularly designated day of the year. Despite mixed reviews, the film grossed more than $118 million, becoming the highest-grossing film of the series. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads that while the film "isn't particularly subtle," its "blend of potent jolts and timely themes" add up to a "nastily effective diversion." The Purge: Election Year stars Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) as the main protagonist as well as Frank Grillo (Captain America), Mykelti Williamson (Forrest Gump), Edwin Hope (The Purge series) and others.

The Conjuring 2 (2016)

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There is something uniquely unsettling about a horror film that is based on true events. The Conjuring 2 is the third film in a franchise series, following the events of its predecessors, The Conjuring (2013) and Annabelle (2014). Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as married paranormal investigators and authors Ed and Lorraine Warren from the first film. The Conjuring 2 follows the Warrens as they travel to 1977 Britain to help the Hodgsons, who are experiencing poltergeist activity at their council house in Brimsdown, Enfield, an event that later became referred to as the Enfield Poltergeist. Directed by James Wan, the film grossed more than $320 million worldwide, and a spin-off film, The Nun, is in development, as announced in June.

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