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{{trope}}
[[File:
The [[Halloween Cosplay|characters are costumed]], their houses are decked out haunted mansion style, they tell spooky stories, and weird (or weirder than usual) things abound! It's the yearly '''[[All Hallow's Eve|Halloween]] Episode'''!
Probably the
If it's ''too'' scary (or rather, too ''successful''), this may result in [[Nightmare Fuel]]. Often [[A Day at the Bizarro]]. Either way, coming across a Halloween episode of a show you watch in syndication is often an unexpected treat.
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* ''[[Suite Pretty Cure]]'' has a Halloween episode. Unlike a lot of examples, it actually plays into the plot somewhat: It's the first episode after a major [[Wham! Episode]] involving {{spoiler|a change in villain management.}}
* ''[[Dirty Pair]]'' OAV episode 2 took place on Halloween. The plot involved a search for an escaped stolen combat robot, made more difficult by the camouflage provided by the many costumed people in town that day, and a fireworks display at midnight {{spoiler|during which the robot begins shooting missiles (which some bystanders assume are [[All Part of the Show]]), and Yuri and Kei destroy the robot with the fireworks after their usual weapons aren't enough.}}
* ''[[
== [[Fan
* [[Script Fic]] ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]'' has had several: "Home Un-Alone", "Full Moon: Full Baloney!", "The Great Halloween Heist", "Pranking the Ghosts"...
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* For the first four ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' books, an important plot development happens on Halloween and is usually the focus of the chapter in which it occurs, so those chapters could be said to be "Halloween episodes" in a sense. The first of these chapters is actually titled "Halloween".
** And also, Harry's parents were killed on Halloween of 1981.
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** ''Dead Beat'', wherein a whole bunch of necromancer descend on Chicago in a desperate attempt to claim godlike power.
* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'':
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
▲* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'': Each season except the seventh has one.
** Season 1: Sabrina's cousin Amanda is introduced
** Season 2: Sabrina throws a Halloween party
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** There's also one where Harry has a defendant locked up for contempt after he claims to be Death... and people mysteriously [[Death Takes a Holiday|stop dying]].
* ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' did tons, maybe one every single year, often involving the Taylors throwing a Halloween party, Tim inventing new extra-spooky Halloween decorations, impromptu scary prank competions, etc. Highlights of the series.
* ''[[Newhart]]'' had a Halloween episode in which all the residents of Stratford (except Dick Loudon, [[Only Sane Man|natch]]) become convinced that an [[The War of the Worlds (novel)
* Even ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]'' was able to take time out from the horrors of war to indulge in some Halloween tomfoolery. In the episode "Trick or Treatment", the staff share ghost stories, unaware that an apparently dead soldier outside is actually clinging to life. Fortunately, Father Mulcahy realizes the mistake just in time and the soldier is rushed into surgery to save him.
* The ''[[Benson]]'' episode "The Stranger" has the governor's mansion visited by a "Mr. G. Reaper" on a stormy Halloween night.
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* Halloween episodes tend to be rare in British series as the occasion is less of a big deal in the United Kingdom, but ''[[My Family]]'' (often cited as an "American-''style''" sitcom) did have one - which, for no apparent reason, was released in March.
** [[British Brevity]]? Just a guess, but it probably finished it's season in April and didn't return again until January, therefore there wouldn't have been much choice.
* Halloween being a holiday for the supernatural doesn't necessarily make things any easier for [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|the Scoobies]]. Ironically, Giles claims Halloween is usually a slow night for a Slayer, as vampires and other supernatural beings find it "crass".
** Season 2 had "Halloween", where the trick-or-treaters in Sunnydale are subjected to a literal case of [[Becoming the Costume]] thanks to Giles's former friend, Ethan Rayne. This unfortunately includes Buffy, who chose to dress up as an 18th century lady in an effort to impress Angel, and becomes a [[Damsel in Distress]] for the duration of the spell. And just when you think things couldn't get any worse, Spike finds out about Ethan's antics through Drusilla, and comes pretty close to offing her.
** Season 4 had "[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S4/E04 Fear Itself|Fear, Itself]]", where someone getting blood on a supposedly fake mystical symbol makes the college [[Haunted House]] significantly more lethal, subjecting Xander, Willow, Oz, and Buffy to their current fears. Xander gets rendered invisible to the others (being left behind while the others are at college), a simple tracking spell of Willow's gets ''way'' out of hand (getting too far out of her league with the magicks), Oz transforms and accidentally hurts Willow (losing control and hurting those he loves), and Buffy gets stuck fighting a bunch of zombies by herself (being abandoned by those she loves and being alone because she is the Slayer). Also memorable for introducing Anya's fear of bunnies, [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Awesome|Giles making a door with a chainsaw]], and {{spoiler|the five inches tall Gachnar}}.
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* ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' did two Halloween-themed episodes: with [[Vincent Price]] in season one, and [[Alice Cooper]] in season three.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] will usually have something Halloween related in the week Raw or Smackdown falls on Halloween. The most famous one was in 2002 that featured a backstage Halloween party where [[Stephanie McMahon]] (then Smackdown GM) and Eric Bischoff (then Raw GM) kissed in Stephanie's office. That was also the night that started [[John Cena]]'s rapper gimmick as he dressed up as Vanilla Ice and performed a rap.
* These days{{when}} you can usually expect the divas to have a costume contest which have been taking place since 2006.
** In fact in 2007 and 2008 the costume contests were part of the Cyber Sunday PPV. Mickie James won both of them, first for dressing up as Pocahontas and then as Lara Croft.
** The NXT rookie divas had a contest as well with Aksana as a devil, Maxine as an ice queen, Naomi as the Hamburger Helper hand, AJ as [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Raphael]], and Kaitlyn as [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Vickie Guerrero]].
* [[WCW]] used to have "Halloween Havok" a Halloween themed pay-per-view event. Highlights from the event included Rick Rude debuting as a masked "Halloween Phantom," a "Chamber of Horrors" Match, and a mummy called "The Yeti" attacking Hulk Hogan.
* Most recently{{when}} Raw had The Muppets as the guest stars and yes the Divas were in costume again.
▲== Radio Drama ==
* No discussion of Halloween episodes can overlook [[Orson Welles]]' (in)famous radio dramatization of ''[[War of the Worlds]]'' in a 1938 Halloween Eve broadcast of the ''Mercury Theatre on the Air''. The first half of the program, presented as a [[Phony Newscast]] of the Martians' invasion of New Jersey, led to panic in some parts of the country when listeners took the "reports" as real.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'' has a Halloween ''mission'' (two, if you're playing the [[Updated Rerelease]]) where Jimmy, Gary, and Petey run around and raise all sorts of hell on Halloween night, in costumes. [[Player Character|Jimmy]]'s a [[Dem Bones|skeleton]], [[Butt Monkey|Petey]]'s a pink bunny rabbit, and [[Big Bad|Gary]]'s a [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi officer]] ([[No Swastikas]], though).
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' runs special events for the week of Halloween, involving map variants starring ghosts and giant undead killers.
* Halloween is one of the major event Holidays in ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' both in the Gamecube version and in the City Folk version, where you buy candy throughout the month of October in Nook's store and give them to villagers to prevent them from playing tricks on you by transforming your clothes and pocketed items into Halloween themed items, while trying to find the real Jack (one of the special holiday NPCs) who all your villagers are dressed as and give him candy in order to get the Spooky furniture series from him, though this is the point of the holiday in both versions of the game, there are some subtle different features added to the holiday in the City Folk version, such as being able to get villagers who are inside their homes to give you candy with a complete costume outfit which was not possible in the Gamecube Animal Crossing's version of the holiday.
* ''[[Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare]]'' could be considered as an example.
* ''[[Infamous
* Some people like to consider ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' as one for the [[The Legend of Zelda|Legend of Zelda series]], what with the emphasis on masks, the [[Darker and Edgier|darker atmosphere]] and lots of genuinely scary moments. Not to mention the game was released in America on October 26, 2000, just 5 days before Halloween.
* ''[[Batman: Arkham Knight]]'' takes place on Halloween night, with Scarecrow as the [[Big Bad]].
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* ''[[The Whiteboard]]'' almost always has a Halloween-related story around October. Mostly it's just parties where [[Cameo]]s from other webcomics abound, but on occasion it's a full story arc, like with the 2010 [[Zombie Apocalypse]] story arc.
* In ''[[Roommates 2007|Roommates]]'' ([[Mega Crossover]] [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]]) the Halloween arc is traditionally the highlight of the year. Be it a Costume Party that gets derailed into a [[Murder Mystery]] (2008) or a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] (2011).
* An ''[[Ears for Elves]]'' filler page for Halloween [https://web.archive.org/web/20130512050701/http://www.earsforelves.com/archives/321 here] has drawings of the artist and site maintainer dressing up. Well, more like one getting into the festive spirit and the other wondering what the point is...
* ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]'' had a [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=196 particularly weird] [[crossover]] game, ''[[Saw]]''-inspired [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=249 nasty puzzle] trick-or-treating and [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=303 ultra-nerd] trick-or-treating.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]] does an annual Halloween double feature in which he rips apart horror-themed video games:
** 2006: The Nerd takes on the [[The Problem with Licensed Games|sucky licensed games]] of ''[[Friday the 13th (video game)|Friday the 13 th]]'' and ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' and fights both Jason and Freddy.
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* [[Equestria Chronicles|In the middle of a civil war, ponies throw a Nightmare Night party.]]
* [[Loading Ready Run]]'s ''[[Commodore HUSTLE]]'' had a Halloween episode in the form of "Roll For Treats", where Kathleen bemoans being too old to trick or treat and the crew play ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. Features Kathleen in a dirndl skirt (which Matt persists in calling a "beer girl" costume) and Tally trick-or-treating as a [[Bedsheet Ghost]] to hide her age.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* As mentioned above, ''[[The Simpsons]]''' annual "[[Treehouse of Horror]]" episodes, which are anthologies containing [[Three Shorts|three short stories]] with a horror theme ([[Played for Laughs]], of course). Oddly enough, for the last decade or so{{when}} most of these have premiered ''after'' Halloween, due to [[FOX]]'s World Series coverage pre-empting its Sunday prime time lineup at the end of October each yaer.
* The original ''[[Woody Woodpecker]] Show'' got a Halloween Special called ''Spook-A-Nanny''. It's included as an extra on the first Woody Woodpecker And Friends DVD collection, [[So Bad It's Good|and worth watching for it's cheese factor.]] Oh, and ghosts wearing Beatle wigs. No, really.
* [[Donald Duck]] starred in a bunch of shorts with a semi-scary atmosphere, such as ''Donald Duck and the Gorilla'', ''Donald's Lucky Day'', and ''Duck Pimples'', but the true Halloween episode is fans' favorite ''Trick or Treat'', where Donald's [[Jerkass|assholish]] treatment of his nephews leads to a witch helping the boys to get the best of their uncle.
* ''Mickey's House of Villains'' could be considered a Halloween episode of ''[[House of Mouse]]''. There, the Disney animated villains kick all of the good guys out of the House and rename it the House of Villains. Jafar gets Mickey's job as the master of ceremonies, while Captain Hook and Hades get Donald and Goofy's jobs as chief assistants. The rest is your usual HOM stuff, with showing scary shorts instead of the usual upbeat ones.
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* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' had "Fright Night" where Danny temporarily steals a sword from Fright Knight, the [[Anthropomorphic Personification|ghostly Anthropomorphic Personification of Halloween]]. Hell ensues (literally).
* ''[[Rugrats]]'' had "Candy Bar Creep Show", where the babies tried to get [[Brand X|Reptar Bars]], and "Curse of the Were-Wuff", where Angelica scares them into thinking they will [[Becoming the Costume|become their costumes]] after Halloween.
* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
* "Trick or Treat" from ''[[Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?]]'': After Zack and Ivy attempt another trick on [[Carmen Sandiego]], she pays them for their second trick attempt at arresting her.
* ''[[Trinton Chronicles]]'' has a whole story dedicated to the season of the witch, Hallow's Eve.
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*** Regular Show "Camping Can Be Fun"
*** The Amazing World of Gumball "The Poltergeist"
* ''[[Kick Buttowski]]'' had the [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming|predictably named]] "Kick Or Treat", where Kick accepts a challenge from Kendall to go trick-treating at the scary [[Old Dark House]] across the street. Turns out the house is {{spoiler|owned by a nice old lady who loves Halloween so much that she went completely overboard with the special effects.}}
* ''[[My Little Pony:
* [[The Backyardigans]] episode Scared Of You is this in all but name.
* ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' had "W is for Witch", in which the girls were able to [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself|get away using their Guardian identities in public]] in order to capture Nerissa. However, thanks to the series' serial storyline, when Toon Disney [[Executive Meddling|elected to air this during a Halloween-themed marathon]], it was shown ''earlier'' than it was supposed to, effectively spoiling viewers to a number of future plot points.
* ''[[American Dad]]'' did one of these where Stan tried to outdo his neighbor's haunted house. His solution? Bring in caged serial killers. {{spoiler|And then Roger frees them...}}
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' only has one, oddly. It was from season 9, where Chris and Meg went to a party, Stewie and Brian dealt with a bully that stole Stewie's candy and Quagmire getting revenge for a prank by Peter and Joe. {{spoiler|Lois becomes the bully for the bullies and actually scares Stewie a bit, Quagmire pretends to be possessed by a Japanese WWII pilot and MEG AND CHRIS ACCIDENTALLY MAKE OUT WITH EACH OTHER.}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Halloween Tropes]]
[[Category:Episodes]]▼
[[Category:Halloween Episode]]▼
[[Category:Holiday Special]]
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