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Wednesday, December 11, 2024 76° Today's Paper


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Frightful films, shows on deck for the week

If you haven’t tuned in yet for a Halloween-­themed TV show or movie, there’s still time to watch some spooky seasonal programming.

On All Hallows’ Eve, TCM offers a full day of classic horror movies including “Bride of Frankenstein” (2 p.m.), “The Pit and the Pendulum” (6:30 p.m.) and “The Haunted Palace” at (8 p.m.).

On Freeform “Hocus Pocus” slithers in today at 8:05 a.m. and 6:10 p.m. It’ll appear a few more times on the network on Wednesday and Thursday.

The streaming sites are conjuring lots of diabolical dealings for their viewers. Hulu finds a bunch of college students caught up in a deadly board game in “Into the Dark: Uncanny Annie.” And it brought the chilling “Castle Rock” back for Season 2. Based on characters, places and themes of Stephen King, the psychological horror series stars Lizzy Caplan and Tim Robbins and a bunch of weirdo townspeople.

Shudder (an aptly named streamer for this time of year) will continue with its spooktacular “Creepshow.” The anthology series, which can be seen via streaming or on demand, promises everything from werewolves to goblins with bad intentions.

For folk who like a little humor with their horror there’s “Agatha Raisin & the Haunted House,” premiering Monday on Acorn.TV. It stars Ashley Jensen (we remember her from “Ugly Betty”) as the amateur detective who investigates the murder of a contemptible woman who inhabited the haunted mansion.

Skip on over to Sundance/Now and you’ll find “A Discovery of Witches,” the tale of modern love in a world populated by witches, demons and vampires who hide in plain sight among the unsuspecting humans.

Aussie Teresa Palmer plays an historian who denies her warlock roots but is confronted by her lineage when she calls up an ancient manuscript. Costarring is Matthew Goode (Tony Armstrong-­Jones from “The Crown”) as a vampire.

Aim your telly on Britbox Tuesday and you’ll find Michael Caine in an uncharacteristic role. He’s starring in “Jekyll and Hyde,” a 1990 TV movie based on the Robert Louis Stevenson classic about a researcher extrapolating the evil in himself.

But enough of fiction — how about a real ghost hunt? A&E is proclaiming the “most ambitious televised paranormal investigation ever” with its two-hour special “World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt: Pennhurst Asylum,” premiering Wednesday at 5 p.m.

In its day, the Pennsylvania asylum accommodated more than 10,000 patients, many of them children. Five brave souls will incarcerate themselves among the walls of the fabled sanatorium for two weeks to document reports of hyper-paranormal activity.

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