Halloween TV guide: best shows and films on BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV this weekend

Halloween is the alternative best day of the year, with pumpkin carving, trick or treating, guising and scaring ourselves into insomnia all part of the ‘fun’.

While cinemas are currently showing horrors, thrillers and kids’ movies, you might want to check out the range of spooky classics, comedies and horrors you can watch without any extra cost.

Here’s what Halloween movies and TV shows are on the box this weekend, where to watch and showing times.

Saturday 30 October

The Addams family (1991)

1.55pm, ITV

Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci and Raul Julia star in this classic family comedy about an eccentric family who are thrilled when their missing relative, Uncle Fester, arrives on their doorstep.

However, Uncle Fester isn’t the real long lost uncle of the Addams family, instead he has been sent by an evil doctor to act as a sleuth. What he finds are some truly strange goings on.

Addams Family Values (1993)

5.10pm, Channel 5 (PG)

Joan Cusick joins the original The Addams Family (1991) cast, in the second helping of the satirical dark comedy.

Wednesday, Pugsley, Morticia and Gomez  try to rescue Uncle Fester from his gold-digging wife who also happens to be a serial killer.

IT (2017)

9pm, ITV2 (15)

This supernatural horror is based on award-winning author Stephen King’s novel by the same name.

Based in 1988, it tells the fictional story of seven kids in a Maine neighborhood who are terrorised by a shape-shifting clown known as Pennywise.

The clown terrorises the children, they form a pact and refer to themselves as ‘The Losers Club’, before seeking out Pennywise and attempting to kill him.

The movie is succeeded by IT: Chapter Two, in which actor Bill Skarsgård reprises his role as the horrifying clown.

Spitting Image : Halloween special

9pm, ITV

Following its successful return to Tv this year, the puppet show which laughs in the face of celebrities; politicians and sports personalities returns for a one-off Halloween special.

While the sketches for the Halloween special have not been disclosed, viewers can expect the lines of  Sajid Javid, Jess Phillips, Gary Lineker, Ellen DeGeneres, Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Prince Andrew to feature.

The episode will premiere on BritBox shortly before being shown on ITV.

The Exorcist (1973)

10.40pm, BBC Two

This 1973 supernatural horror is a true Halloween classic, directed by William Friedkin and starring Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn.

A 12-year-old girl, Regan, is possessed by an evil spirit when she plays the Ouji board. When her mother pleads with two priests to perform an exorcism, they determine she has been taken over by a demonic entity.

As the two priests wrestle with the devil inside Regan, one is killed and the other makes the ultimate sacrifice to save her and rid her body of the spirit.

Sunday 31 October

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)

2.10pm, ITV (PG)

This children’s spooky comedy follows Sam and Sonny as they discover a locked ancient manuscript in a derelict building they’ve been asked to clean out as part of their budding garbage collection business.

Inside the locked box, they find and bring to life Slappy the Dummy, who gains their trust before attempting to sabotage their business and wreak havoc on their neighbourhood.

Starring Caleel Harris, Jeremy Ray Taylor, and Madison Iseman, based on R.L. Stine’s book.

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005)

2.10pm, ITV2 (PG)

This animated musical dark comedy is directed by critically acclaimed director Tim Burton and has all his trademark touches.

When Victor (Tom Cruise) is practising his wedding vows in the woods, he accidentally gets married to a skeleton-like creature called Emily (Helena Bonham Carter) who whisks him off to the land of the dead.

The Witches (1990)

3.40pm, Channel 5 (PG)

Based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel, this thrilling fantasy follows a young boy who goes to a holiday camp with his elderly grandmother, where he stumbles upon the witches she has always warned him about.

The young boy befriends another greedy, upper class boy and the two attempt to spy on Grand High Witch’s conference, only to be discovered, cornered and turned into mice.

Will they escape and how will they ever become human again?

Starring Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher and Rowan Atkinson.

BeetleJuice (1988)

5.35pm, Channel 5  (12A)

When couple Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) die in a car accident, they do not go to the afterlife and instead are stuck on earth and lurking around their home.

When they are unsuccessful in scaring away a family that has moved into their old home, they seek the help of bio-exorcist Betelgeuse (Michael Keating).

Directed by Tim Burton, this classic is dark but hilarious and is suitable for older children and adults.

The Small Hand: A Ghost Story

10pm, Channel 5

This gripping, haunting drama is based on the book of the same name by best-selling horror author Susan Hill.

Starring Douglas Henshall, Neve McIntosh and Louise Lombard, this adaptation by Channel 5 tells the story of an antiques dealer who gets lost on his way home from visiting clients.

He stumbles upon a derelict house and decides to explore, but he is not alone as a small hand grips him. Alone and in the dark, who will help him?

What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

10.45pm, BBC Two (15)

This mockumentary horror comedy stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, who also directed the film.

The spoof revolves around a group of Kiwi vampires, mainly a centuries-old vampire named Viago who shares a flat with three fellow bloodsuckers in present-day Wellington in New Zealand.

The quartet struggles to fit into a modern world of paying rent and staying fashionable, until young Nick is turned into a vampire and decides to help them to adjust.