Get your popcorn and pumpkin spice: spooky season is upon us, and Freeform has the perfect lineup for day one.
The network recently unveiled its "31 Nights of Halloween" schedule, and is starting Oct. 1 strong with '90s and early '00s fan-favorite films that will have a certain segment of the population feeling all the nostalgic feels.
Halloweentown starts the seasonal celebration, with a 1 p.m. airing of the franchise's first film.
TheDisney ChannelOriginal Moviefirst premiered on Oct. 17, 1998, and has been beloved ever since. The film and its three sequels all star the late Debbie Reynolds as matriarch Aggie Cromwell — a witch. She is joined by Kimberly J. Brown, who plays her otherwordly granddaughter Marnie Piper, plus Judith Hoag as Marnie’s mother Gwen Cromwell Piper, Joey Zimmerman as Marnie’s brother Dylan Piper and Emily Roeske as Marnie’s sister Sophie Piper.
The original was followed by Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge (2001), Halloweentown High (2004) and Return to Halloweentown (2006).
At 90s Con in Daytona Beach, Fla., last month, Brown told PEOPLE that fans ask her about another film "literally every day," adding, "the possibilities are endless."
Next up, audiences will be treated to a 3 p.m. airing of the original The Haunted Mansion. The Eddie Murphy-led film, which was released in 2003, is based on the Disney theme park attraction of the same name. In it, Murphy stars alongside Marsha Thomason, Wallace Shawn, Jennifer Tilly and Dina Spybey-Waters.
The movie tells the story of two real estate agents, Murphy and Thomason, who get trapped in a haunted mansion in the Louisiana Bayou with their two children.
Twenty years later, Disney remade the film with a somewhat spookier approach. The new film starred Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Jared LetoandJamie Lee Curtis. There's also a 2021 take on the tale starring the Muppets.
Then, at 5: -
05 p.m., Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas will hit Freeform. The celebrated stop-motion movie was directed by Henry Selick, and coincidentally celebrates its 31st anniversary this October.
The film follows Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon, with the singing voice ofDanny Elfman), the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who becomes obsessed with Christmas Town and recreating it in his home world. With help from rag doll Sally (Catherine O'Hara), he learns the importance of being true to one's self, as well as the real meaning of the Christmas spirit.
Another Tim Burton flick will follow at 6:45 p.m., when the director's original Beetlejuice will air. The film premiered in 1988, and follows a recently deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) now "living" as ghosts confined to their home. They contact Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a sleazy spirit who "helps" haunt the house, but soon he becomes dangerous to the couple and the living tenant's daughter, Lydia (Winona Ryder).
Alongside Baldwin, Davis, Keaton and Ryder, the film also stars Catherine O'Hara. The latter three returned for the film's sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which premiered last month and also stars Jenna OrtegaandJustin Theroux.
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Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker will round out the evening with an 8:50 p.m. airing of Hocus Pocus. The 1993 original stars the three actresses as three cursed witches, a.k.a. the Sanderson sisters. The women return to Salem 300 years after their deaths by hanging in search for some youthful souls to devour.
The Sanderson sisters reunited for a sequel in 2022, breaking streaming records on Disney+ when Hocus Pocus 2 debuted. AthirdHocus Pocusfilmwas announced in June 2023.
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