My Top 10 Favourite Halloween TV Specials For People Afraid of The Dark

Halloween is a very weird holliday. For kids, halloween is awesome. You get to dress up, eat sweets, go out at night to ask strangers for those sweets and prove how grown up you are by watching a scary movie.

For adults Halloween is the opportunity to wear the costume you paid too much for last year and prove how much of a wimp you are by watching a scary movie.

I am terrible with guts and gore. I jump at any loud noises and in general just don't enjoy the spectacle of horror movies if there isn't a good dose of comedy or a really good story in there. It's only now through my film course that I'm forcing myself to look outside of the corney 80's hammer horror films and watch films like The Babadook, Midsommar and The Ring. As good as those films may be I still wouldn't say I enjoyed watching them, most of them I viewed half behind my fingers.

So what is a weakling like me to do on the scariest night of the year? Well luckily some of my favourite TV shows have me covered with enough Halloween specials to fill an evening of stuffing my face with chocolate (What? It's not like there's going to be any trick or treaters this year!)

Multiple Halloween episodes from the same series can turn up on this list but they must be part of a larger series. I hope you enjoy my spooktacular playlist for the faint of heart.

1. Brooklyn 99- Halloween (S1E6)

Starting off strong with what has become one of Brooklyn 99's most recognisable episodes. The halloween heist is an elaborate competition the officers of the 99th precinct take part in to claim the title of best detective/ genius. Jake has to steal Captain Holt's medal of valor before midnight to win but he's got competition. This episode sparked a long tradition of halloween heist episodes every season, each one getting more ridiculously complicated than the last. Hilarious, crazy and a little bit dumb, it hits my casual viewing sweet spot.

2. Glee- The Sue Sylvester Shuffle (S2E11)

What's scarier than a group of high school students who can't sing? I'm joking of course... kind of. After getting through the entirety of Glee over lockdown I have developed a fondness for it and this episode is up there with one of the best. When the football team continue to harass the Glee club, calling them homophobic slurs the football coach and Glee club coach force them to work together to put on a spooky half-time show during the big game. The makeup is awesome, the songs are great. It's an episode you can just sit back and enjoy.

3. Will and Grace- Boo Humbug (S1E5)

Will and Grace is one of my favourite sitcoms and this early episode is definitely one of the most endearing. When he has to have a last minute meeting, Harland one of Will's clients leaves him to babysit his two young kids over halloween, ruining their wine and movie plans. What I really love about this episode is watching Will and Grace trying to be parents and the discomfort they feel initially while looking around for something for the kids to do. Eventually they're able to find their inner child. Meanwhile far from the innocent childish halloween, Jack takes Karen to a halloween street parade in the gay district. The juxtaposition of the two is brilliantly entertaining.

4. Community- Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps (S3E5)

The Community Halloween episodes are just a delight. Not only does the shows sandbox format allow the writers to do literally anything they want, the higher age rating also allows them to get scarier with it. Britta runs an anonymous personality test on her friends that indicates one of them is a psychopath. To identify the person they get everyone to tell a scary story. This episode manages to be both hilarious and a bit disturbing with some scenes that may frighten younger kids but will no doubt delight any horror fan who gets the references.

5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer- Fear Itself (S4E4)

It was a tight battle between this episode and the season 2 episode called Halloween when all the Buffy characters turn into whatever they were dressed up as. However, Fear Itself just has that edge that makes it all the more enjoyable. The character work in this episode is brilliant as the scooby gang go to a frat house halloween party where someone drew a pentagram on the floor for decoration that ends up summoning a fear demon. Each character is confronted with their own personal worst fear. The episode has a few good jump scares but also bucketloads of that wonderful Buffy humour.

6. Doctor Who- Blink (S3E10)

Like thousands of kids all around the world, this episode of Doctor Who scared me so much that going to a garden centre the day after it aired nearly killed me. This episode works really well as a one-off because the doctor is hardly in it. We see him briefly in person but the rest of his interactions are on a tape. Instead we follow a new character Sally Sparrow as she goes snooping in an old abandoned house, tearing back a piece of wallpaper to find a message "Beware the Weeping Angel". Enter one of the Doctor's most iconic new monsters. Not just one of my favourite episodes to watch on halloween, Blink has to be one of my favourite episodes of TV full stop.

7. Modern Family- Halloween (S2E6)

This episode won Modern Family its Emmy and it's not hard to see why. This has to be one of the funniest episodes of the hit show as Claire, a halloween fanatic, tries to get the get the whole family involved in her haunted house but tensions are running high. Cameron is upset since halloween brings back traumatic childhood memories, Jay and Manny are making fun of Gloria's accent (forcing her to try out some hilarious new ones) and Haley won't stop wearing slutty halloween costumes. Slutty Mother Teresa is the crowning jewel. The episode is full of great interactions as the cast all bounce off each other effortlessly.

8. Community- Epidemiology (S2E6)

Another Community episode making it to the list (because of course). Episodes like Epidemiology are what makes Community special because believe me when I say no other show could possibly pull an episode like this off. At the annual Greendale halloween party some bad food starts turning the students into litteral Zombies and the infection is spreading throughout the night. Our group of heroes must stop the infection by turning down the heating. As usual the episode is clever, funny with just enough horror to keep you on your toes. Community is the master of unexpected Joy.

9. How I Met Your Mother- Slutty Pumpkin (S1E6)

I couldn't possibly do this list and not include the slutty pumpkin. It captures perfectly both the fun and total weirdness of adult halloween. In this episode Ted is reminiscing about Halloween a few years ago where he met a girl at a roof party dressed as a pumpkin who was "carved in specific places". Every year since, he's gone to the same spot in the same costume to try and meet her again. This is baffling to his friend Barney who wants to sneak in to a victoria's secret halloween party and wants Ted to let go. The episode may seem crude (I mean... yeah it is) but the conclusion it comes to is actually very sweet. The humour is great as always with this show and you can't help but feel for Ted as he's waiting for his pumpkin to arrive.

10. Gravity Falls- Summerween (S1E12)

Saving the best until last! I adore this show with every fiber of my being and this episode gets put on every year without exception. Spooky and clever with a message at heart about growing up. Dipper and Mabel are looking forward to going trick or treating until Dipper hears about a party the teenagers of the town are going to. Not wanting to disappoint Mable he pretends to be sick, throwing away his candy that angers a creature called the Summerween Trickster. If they want to survive the night they must trick or treat for 1000 pieces of candy to appease the trickster.

I hope you've enjoyed my list and indulge in a little ridiculousness this halloween. We are already living in a nightmare so why scream when you can laugh? None of these specials are perfect and I'm sure there's plenty more out there but these shows always bring me comfort and if they can do that with seasonal spooky vibes attached then that's just a bonus.

Happy Halloween everyone!