Spooky season is upon us, and Halloween is just around the corner. Maybe you’ve got plans to freeze to death in a tiny costume while getting plastered on a Thursday night, but if your clubbing days are behind you, why not cosy up in front of the TV instead? Here’s a list of the best Halloween episodes of all of your favourite comfort TV shows.
14. Grey’s Anatomy – Thriller (season 10, episode seven)
Season 10, episode seven turns the hospital into a house of horrors, with a ghost lady, zombie-like behaviour and maggots. Leah has to deal with an actual bite from the zombie patient. And, as usual, there’s also plenty of frights in the doctors’ personal lives to look forward to.
13. Gilmore Girls – Twenty-One Is the Loneliest Number (season six, episode seven)
via Netflix
Gilmore Girls is a classic autumnal watch, so it’s probably already on your binge list this October. Skip forward to season six, episode seven and watch the Halloween episode, although it’s more about Rory’s 21st birthday celebrations. Instead of going to Atlantic City with Lorelai like they’d planned, she has a party catered more to Emily’s taste. There are a few Halloween-y elements in it, like Lorelai doing a mad scientist skit at her house.
12. Friends – The One With the Halloween Party (season eight, episode six)
via Netflix
Despite having 236 episodes, season eight, episode six of Friends is definitely one you’ll remember. The cameos include Sean Penn and Emily Osment, but Ross takes centre stage for his awful Sputnik costume.
11. How I Met Your Mother – Slutty Pumpkin (season one, episode six)
The main plot of season one, episode six is Ted being infatuated with a woman in a “slutty pumpkin” outfit he met in 2001. He was desperate to find her at the same party every year since then, but with no luck. Or at least that’s what he thinks…
10. Orange Is The New Black – Mischief Mischief (season six, episode five)
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Season six, episode five of Orange Is The New Black is not that terrifying at all. In fact, it’s mostly about a bunch of pranks between the inmates and the correctional officers. There are actually a few wholesome moments between Nicky and Lorna, and Suzanne and Frieda, making it a nicer watch.
9. The Office (US) – Halloween (season two, episode five)
via Netflix
The Office (US) is already one of the best TV shows of all time, but season two, episode five really takes the crown as one of the best Halloween episodes. Michael’s costume is everything and more.
8. New Girl – Halloween (season two, episode six)
Season two, episode six of New Girl is set with Jess working in a haunted house. The setting is spooky, but the premise is sad – Sam just doesn’t want to commit to her. The two end up parting ways, and Jess makes for a very sad zombie.
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Halloween (season two, episode six)
When the citizens of Sunnydale are all turned into their Halloween costumes, actual hell breaks loose. Buffy becomes a Victorian damsel in distress and Willow turns into a real ghost.
6. Riverdale – Halloween (season four, episode four)
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Riverdale takes the title as the most insane TV show to ever exist, and any of its episodes could be straight out of a psychological horror film. In season four, episode four, Cheryl and Toni chill with the petrified corpse of Cheryl’s brother Jason and bring out the Ouija board. Jughead is drugged and put in a coffin, and Veronica sets fire to an attempted murderer.
If you’re watching this one, you might as well head over to season seven and watch Halloween II, which is the sequel set in the 1950s style setting Riverdale had going on.
5. Modern Family – Halloween (season two, episode six)
Modern Family has to be one of the most iconic TV shows for doing a great Halloween episode. The family go all out on decorations and put every other house on the street to shame. My Halloween costume literally depends on whether Haley Dunphy would think it’s cool or not.
4. Scream Queens – Haunted House (season one, episode four)
via Disney+
To be honest, every episode of Scream Queens could be a Halloween episode, but season one, episode four is the biggest treat of them all. Chanel Oberlin goes crazy and delivers terrifying presents to her Instagram followers (all 700 of them, wow) such as severed heads, razor apples and boxes of blood. We also learn a lot more about the Red Devil Killer’s backstory.
3. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – The Dark Baptism (part one, episode two)
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is already a spooky TV show, but part one episode two is one for the books: Sabrina has to undergo her dark baptism, but is torn between her human world life and her witchy world callings. Which will she choose? Watch and find out.
2. Stranger Things – Trick or Treat, Freak (season two, episode two)
via Netflix
Season two, episode two is a treat for Stranger Things fans. Out of all my favourite TV shows, Stranger Things knows how to pull off its Halloween episodes. The Upside Down gang go to middle school dressed as Ghostbusters, and the big kids go to a party. Their costumes are ICONIC.
1. Brooklyn Nine-Nine – Halloween (season one, episode six)
via Netflix
Saving the best for last, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the absolute master of Halloween episodes. Start off strong with the first episode, season one, episode six, and work your way to one of my favourite Halloween episodes of TV EVER. You know which one I mean.
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Related stories recommended by this writer:
• ‘What’s your favourite scary movie?’: The ultimate horror trivia quiz to take this Halloween
• These are officially the scariest films of all time, according to actual science
• Think you’re a huge horror fan? Let’s see if you’ve seen at least 50 of these iconic films
