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Umm... trick or treat? Why not both!

"It's Halloween, it's Halloween!
The ghosts will spook, the spooks will scare,
Why, even Dracula will be there!"
The Shaggs, "It's Halloween"

The characters are costumed, their houses or offices are decked out haunted mansion style, they exchange spooky stories and play tricks on people, and weird (or weirder than usual) things abound. Yep, it's the yearly Halloween Episode!

The Simpsons's annual "Treehouse of Horror" episodes are the iconic example, but most American kids' and genre shows will have at least one. While neither Samhain nor All Saints Eve is ever mentioned, if any of the cast boasts Mexican heritage, then the similarly spooky (but more upbeat) holiday of Dia de los Muertosnote  (Nov. 1—2) will at least get a shout-out; and if said character is the main character, then there's a good chance you're actually getting a full-on "Dia de los Muertos" Episode instead.note 

Will oftentimes be a Bizarro Episode as well; in that case, expect the cast to deal with monsters or any other supernatural/extraterrestrial phenomena that have turned out to be real. Or, if the show already takes place in such a setting, such phenomena will get far, far stranger. Either way, coming across a Halloween episode of a show you watch in syndication is often an unexpected treat rather than a trick. There may even be some songs about the holiday, either encapsulating it as a whole or one specific part. If the cast ends up in Halloween costumes, expect at least some of them to be a Shout-Out or even the occasional Actor Allusion.

Of course, if the Halloween Episode is too scary — or rather, too successful — this might lead to some serious Nightmare Fuel. On most non-supernatural-themed shows (particularly sitcoms), however, the tone will usually end up being considerably lighter.

There's a subversion/reversal in supernatural-oriented series in which Halloween is literally a holiday for supernatural beings, and they all stay home. (Some Fridge Logic here because this assumes that terrorizing the populace is a job for supernatural creatures, rather than leisure activity.)

See also Halloween Special, Halloween Trickery. For other holidays, see Christmas Episode, Thanksgiving Episode, Valentine's Day Episode, Easter Episode, and St. Patrick's Day Episode.


Example subpages:

Other examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Aikatsu! has "Idol☆Halloween". It's about Akari and her friends in a contest to collect the most candy in order to enter a special halloween audition.
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Deserted Island Diary: In volume 2, the final story is "How To Have a Proper Halloween", in which the human protagonists meet Jack, the Czar of Halloween. He sends the protagonists to go and get Halloween candy for him to eat so he won't play any tricks on them. At the end, the protagonists reveal that they ate the candy they were supposed to give him. However, they did get something else for him... a bunch of pumpkins from Lucky.
  • Bleach has a Halloween Episode as a Filler. It turns out that the events were just dreamed by Sajin Komamura.
  • Case Closed had a very pivotal case taking place on a Halloween cruise, where every attendee is expected to dress like a classic monster (though at the start, Kogoro Lampshades that it's nowhere close to Halloween date-wise). Ultimately, however, the cruise itself turns out to be largely inconsequential and mostly a way to split off half the cast so Conan, Ai, and the newly-introduced FBI people can do all the real plot-moving.
  • Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door takes place on Halloween, during which Spike tries to stop the villain from spreading a deadly virus.
  • 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 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.
  • GeGeGe no Kitarō (2018) has Halloween in an episode where a western vampire yokai takes over a movie theater and uses it to turn the visitors into vampires.
  • Girls und Panzer had a single snapshot of the student council in costume for Halloween in episode 8.
  • Hamtaro has one in the form of Ham Ham Halloween, which has the Ham Ham Gang have their own Halloween party. While at the same time, Laura and her friends go to their own Halloween party.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • Hetalia Axis Powers has two Halloween strips. One of which involves America and England trying to outscare each other (a long running competition between the two). Hetalia also recently featured a Halloween Special Episode which also included France harassing a young woman and resulting in a trip to jail. Surprisingly he didn't seem to mind that he had been detained and questioned by the police.
    • There was also a bigger one 2011, involving a party and costume contest.
  • Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama :
    • The 55th episode was about Kokoro's Cocotamas throwing a Halloween party and inviting other Cocotamas to join the festivities.
    • The Cocotamas hold another Halloween party in the 105th episode and have to find out who's responsible for knocking Tama-Senin unconcioous. It's revealed in the end that Tama-Senin knocked himself out because he accidentally caused a bowling ball to fall on him.
  • Little Witch Academia (2017) has the last two episodes of the show’s first cour, "What You Will" and "Samhain Magic Festival", revolve around the latter episode’s titular witch festival, which takes place on All Hallow’s Eve.
  • Lycoris Recoil: One episode occurs around Halloween, while Chisato is running around doing jobs while still in costume, Takina is handing out treats to young students.
  • Ouran High School Host Club has a Halloween episode with a Kimodameshi competition. It also gives the cast the opportunity to remark on how Renge dresses up in costumes even when it's not Halloween.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Pokémon the Series: XY has one, though it's about a Gourgeist Festival instead of a proper Halloween. In it, Team Rocket tricks a count into believing Ash and his friends are thieves who stole their Pikachu. Musashi/Jessie and the audience also learn that her Pumpkaboo is female and she evolves into a Gourgeist in this episode. Appropriately, the Pumpkaboo-Gourgeist evolution line is based on Jack O'Lantern.
    • Pokémon: The Original Series: In North America, "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak" was a ghost-themed episode that aired in October. In Japan, the episode aired in August.
    • Episode 94 of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon revolves around Ash and his friends hosting a haunted house for Lana's little sisters. It aired in October in Japan, but later internationally.
  • Pretty Cure:
    • 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 a change in villain management.
    • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! has one as well. It's about the Precures and Blue entering a halloween parade. However the episode reveals that Queen Mirage has a new servant working for her but it isn't until the end of the episode that we see who it is... Cure Tender/Maria, Iona's older sister.
    • Go! Princess Pretty Cure had a whole non-serial halloween-themed movie; which was actually three mini movies in one. Although most of them were themed around pumpkins.
    • Maho Girls Pretty Cure! has a whole Halloween episode trilogy. Episode 37 has characters prepare for the Magic World's "Pumpkin Festival", which is the plot of the next episode. Episode 39 then has an actual Halloween festival in the Mundane World.
    • HuGtto! Pretty Cure had yet another Halloween episode. Notable events include Daigan, who had previously been the victim of becoming a Bait-and-Switch Boss, being convinced to rejoin the Crisis Corporation and finally getting to fight the Cures (though he defects again after being defeated), and the viewers getting their first look at Hugtan’s true form, though they wouldn’t learn it was called Cure Tomorrow until later into the series.
    • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure has one that involves a costume contest. Among other things, Hikaru dresses up as a yeti, Lala dresses up as a tsuchinoko, and Yuni goes as herself. When their enemy Kappard shows up, people also assume he's wearing a costume, which leads to the Cures staging a sentai-style fight to protect their identities (complete with "Super Sentai" Stance). It's largely a fluffy episode, but it does reveal some backstory for Kappard.
    • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: Episode 35 shows the team preparing their school's Halloween festival. When a Yaraneda attacks, Manatsu impulsively deals with before Laura could arrive, resulting in the stolen energy not being able to get returned until the next Yaraneda shows up.
    • Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: In Episode 33, the Cures throw a Halloween party, while Amane has a Psychosomatic Superpower Outage after she lashed out at the Parfait Recipepe.
  • Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth has a Halloween episode with the Hidden Leaf Village having a Halloween festival, while Deidara and Tobi set out to ruin it with a giant pumpkin bomb.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: A chapter and episode discuss Halloween on how things change over time to the point they are unrecognizable.
  • Sgt. Frog had a Halloween episode where a mysterious girl who had apparently been adopted by a demon-like alien kidnapped Fuyuki.
  • Sorieke! Anpanman has a few Halloween episodes over the series' run. These episodes feature Halloweenman, a pumpkin-headed ghost who represents the holiday.
  • Tamagotchi: In "Shining Smiles! Happy Tamaween", the 30th episode of GO-GO Tamagotchi!, Mametchi and his gang stumble across a house where a Tamagotchi has been trying to scare anyone who comes near it by pretending to be a ghost and get to know the costumed kid.
  • Umineko: When They Cry: Halloween is mentioned in one story arc, where Maria loves Halloween because of its association with witches. She wants to go trick or treating despite the fact that it is not a practice done in Japan.
  • The final episode of Washio Sumi Is a Hero starts around Halloween. Even 300 years in the future Halloween is still a foreign holiday in Japan. Sumi and Sonoko briefly dress up at school.
  • Yo-kai Watch has a Halloween episode where Nate (dressed as Jibanyan) goes to a costume party with his friends. There he meets several "classic yo-kai" that can be seen by normal humans.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the students wear various Duel Monsters costumes, then there is a duel between Judai and the materialized spirit of the Black Magician Girl. Almost everyone believes that the Black Magician Girl is a cosplayer like everyone else, but Judai figures it out. At the end of the episode, Sho, who is a Black Magician Girl Fanboy, gets a kiss on his cheek by her spirit.

    Comic Books 

  • The Avengers: While not taking place directly on Halloween, an early 2-part story during The Avengers (Kurt Busiek) sees the Grim Reaper unleash several deceased members of the team now zombified on the current roster, and it was originally released during October.

  • Batman:
    • Batman: The Long Halloween was a thirteen-issue series where each issue was set on a holiday in the month it came out. The first and last issues, as the title suggests, were Halloween.
    • The sequel, Batman: Dark Victory likewise has the first issue take place on Halloween, with the failed attempt on Two-Face's life, his escape from Arkham Asylum, and the first Hangman killing occurring all on the same night.. The final issue subverts this however as the climax takes place a few weeks prior around Columbus Day and only the epilogue takes place on Halloween night.
    • The Robin Annual #7 contains two Halloween themed tales, one of Tim fighting "Scary Mary" in Gotham on the holiday (though he calls her "the great pumpkin") and another of Damian in Hong Kong. Tim also lampshades the Batbooks tendency to have Halloween themed issues:
    “Traditionally, there are two nights each year that I’ve learned to absolutely dread. October 30th and 31st. Devil’s Night and Halloween. Two nights every year when all the pent-up crazies come pouring out of the woodwork. Batman calls them amateur nights.”
    • Batman '66 featured a Halloween story titled "The Short Halloween" in the 46th issue of the digital version (with the print version only available through volume five of the trade paperback collection), the premise being that a boy and his younger sister dress as Batman and Robin to stop a pair of bullies stealing candy from children while wearing Joker and Penguin masks.
  • DC Comics: DC released annual Halloween Special Anthology Comics between 2007 and 2010, with stories ranging from genuinely spooky to more lighthearted takes on the holiday.
  • DC Comics Presents: One issue featured a crossover of Superman with the House Of Mystery title, which takes place on Halloween.
  • Gargoyles: A Canon Discontinuity comic story in Disney Adventures sees the clan take advantage of the holiday to go out in public without being feared, while Demona releases a wave of holographic monsters to attack the humans.
    • For a canon example, there's the combined mini-arc of "Masque" and "Bash," where most of the action occurs at a Halloween party held at the Eyrie Building.
  • House of Mystery: The New '10s version had two Halloween Annuals (2009 and 2010), which were actually Vertigo Comics anthologies similar to the DCU Halloween Specials.
  • Jem and the Holograms (IDW): Issue #9 takes place in a Halloween party. The Misfits decide to crash Jem's party because they're showing off their new music video. Kimber and Stormer make up after nearly breaking up due to Kimber thinking Stormer was involved in an attempted murder plot on her sister. It also counts as a Wham Episode because Pizzazz gets into a car accident and we learn something is wrong with Synergy.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: The comic had two Halloween stories: "Trick Or Beatings" (issue #31) had the girls framed for Halloween pranks staged by the Gangreen Gang, and "Halloween Hiding" (issue #67) had the Gangreens hiding out from the girls at a Halloween dance party.
  • The Smurfs: The story "Halloween" has the Smurfs and the Smurflings celebrating Halloween together, with the Smurflings paying a witch and Gargamel a visit by wearing pumpkins for masks and using lighted pumpkins to scare them.
  • Spider-Man: "Revelations", the very last arc of the infamous Clone Saga takes place on Halloween. Somewhat appropriate, given who the Big Bad turned out to be in the end.
  • Superman: A 2012 issue of Action Comics had a Halloween story, featuring a Phantom Zone escapee trapping Superman in the Phantom Zone. In the New 52, Phantom Zone prisoners can walk in the real world but cannot be seen, heard or touched, making them closer to actual ghosts. For bonus points, the issue is number thirteen.
  • Venom: One story, "The Enemy Within," sees Eddie and Morbius team up to stop a demonic invasion on Halloween.
  • Wonder Woman: In Sensation Comics, at once point during The Golden Age of Comic Books Diana, Steve Trevor, Etta Candy and her Holliday Girls throw a Halloween party during witch they accidentally travel to back in time to the Salem witchcraft trials, while most of them are dressed as witches. Accidental time travel was a bit of a recurring theme for Golden Age Wonder Woman but ending up in a time and place so thematically appropriate was rare.
  • X-Men: An early story spotlighting the Beast in his furred appearance during Marvel's Amazing Adventures anthology saw Hank fighting longtime X-Men villain the Juggernaut on Halloween night.
  • Young Justice: Issue #3 sees the gang hold a Halloween party for charity, while a time-traveling Mr. Mxyzptlk is released from before he becomes a trickster. Hilarity Ensues as the gang has to make sure Mxy becomes the mischief-maker he's known for being in order to keep time and space from falling apart.

    Comic Strips 
  • The classic Peanuts Halloween tradition of Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, who rises out of the most sincere pumpkin patch and delivers toys to all good little children.
  • The Garfield arc that ran the week of Monday, Oct. 23, 1989, in which Garfield imagines himself to be starving alone in a boarded-up house. Or at least he's probably imagining that—the Saturday strip that closes the arc leaves open the possibility that Garfield's happy, well-fed life might be the imaginary one.
  • Little Lulu comics had a few giant-size Halloween special issues, naturally with plenty of stories featuring Little Itch the witch.
  • Frazz has an annual tradition of Caulfield dressing up in a literature-themed costume for Halloween and challenging his teachers to guess his identity.
  • One of the Hsu and Chan comics that ran in Electronic Gaming Monthly had one of these in an October issue. The duo stage a haunted house attraction with a video game theme. Things go pretty normally until they reach a cemetery where obsolete video game systems are buried. Then the obsolete video game systems rise from their graves and send the brothers running.
  • Retail used to have a Halloween contest at work every year. A Running Gag is about how much effort Cooper puts into his costumes, only to lose because he picks characters from obscure media (such as Lone Wolf and Cub) and everyone else prefers something recognizable (such as Craig's Dracula). Eventually the Halloween contest went away because no one's heart was really in it anymore, and the Halloween story arcs became about how much the Christmas Creep keeps pushing earlier and earlier (with one year featuring Stuart literally pushing a Halloween panel out of the way because 'it's Christmas now').
  • Calvin and Hobbes: The very first time that the strip ran during Halloween there was a week-long series of comics about Calvin preparing for trick-or-treating (although it skips over the actual trick-or-treating part to the day after, when Calvin and Hobbes decide to go into town to admire Christmas decorations). This is also an example of Early-Installment Weirdness, as subsequent Halloween strips either didn't mention the holiday or limited it to a stand-alone strip.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Arsenic and Old Lace actually takes place on Halloween, although the only real nod to the holiday comes early on when some trick-or-treaters visit (in the daytime!).
  • Batman Forever has a Halloween party in the Wayne Manor, and while Bruce and Dr. Chase reminisce, Alfred hands out the candy to trick-or-treaters. Two of them, however, are more than just begging for candy...
  • Casper happens around Halloween, ending at a Halloween party specifically.
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial takes place a few days before, during and a couple more days after Halloween.
  • Funsize, a teen comedy which takes place mostly on Halloween night.
  • The classic 1978 slasher flick Halloween involves masked killer Michael Myers slashing his way through his hometown on (of course) Halloween. The other films in the subsequent franchise all take place on the holiday as well. Interestingly enough the original concept had the murders taking place over several days, but budget reasons led to them setting the whole story on one night.
    • Halloween III: Season of the Witch was an attempt to create an anthology series, but poor response scrapped these ideas and the producers have kept using Myers for the rest of the series. The plot of the film revolves around a man who believes that Halloween has grown too commercialized and has lost touch with its roots in pagan tradition, and seeks to restore that tradition by using his toy company and some Stonehenge-powered magitek to carry out a mass Human Sacrifice.
  • Halloweentown, of course.
  • Hocus Pocus is set on Halloween.
  • The Huluween Film Festival happens on Hulu every October since 2018.
  • Mean Girls has a scene where Cady goes to a Halloween party. The sluttiness of the women's Halloween costumes is both parodied and exploited for fanservice.
  • A Halloween party in Night of the Demons (1988) and its sequels serves as a catalyst to demonic activity.
  • Kenny & Co follows a young boy and his friends' everyday lives over a few days leading up to Halloween. That gave the director some ideas...
  • In America - about Irish immigrants in America - has a portion of the movie where the sisters go into school wearing costumes they made themselves...only to discover their classmates bought theirs. Showing that it was directed by someone who grew up before Halloween was popular in Ireland, their parents don't seem to know what trick-or-treating is.
  • The climax of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is set on Halloween night. On a meta-level, the film was released ten days before the holiday.
  • Left Bank features Samhain as the climactic ending night of the film when the human sacrifice is performed.
  • Ordinary People includes a brief scene of trick-or-treating children.
  • Meet Me in St. Louis, which is set in 1903-04, has a Halloween segment. It depicts the turn-of-the-century "pranks and mischief" version of the holiday.
  • Spaced Invaders depicts an attempted Alien Invasion of a small town by a crew of incompetent Martians after they intercept a Halloween re-broadcast of Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds.
  • The Predator is set around and on Halloween.
  • The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane begins with protagonist Rynn celebrating her 13th birthday on Halloween night, only to be interrupted when her creepy neighbor shows up for trick-or-treating with his kids.
  • At the start of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the Turtles pass by a Halloween parade.
  • The horror/comedy anthology film Trick 'r Treat is based around Halloween, and proudly features many of the tropes surrounding it (including the popular conception of Halloween as an old Celtic pagan holiday).
  • In Van Helsing Anna gets kidnapped by Dracula right before Halloween night, so the climax of the second act takes place at a masquerade ball in Budapest.

    Literature 
  • Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party has Hercule Poirot solving the drowning of a teenage girl in an apple-bobbing tub at the titular party.
  • The Doctor Who novels Forever Autumn, The Shining Man, and Pack Animals (the latter of which is actually a Torchwood novel). Also, the anthology collections A Universe of Terrors and Tales of Terror.
  • The 87th Precinct novel Tricks takes place on Halloween night.
  • The Relativity series has "Candy Corn." Unlike the other examples on this page, it's actually a comedy.
  • Junie B. Jones has the book Junie B., First Grader: BOO...and I MEAN It!
  • Lord of the Wings from the Meg Langslow Mysteries is based entirely around a Halloween festival being held in Caerphilly, Virginia. This being a murder mystery series, it's not complete, of course, without a couple of grisly murders and other troublesome incidents which Meg Langslow and her family / friends help to investigate.
  • The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury takes a group of boys through the history of Halloween as they try to save their missing friend.
  • In Among Others, the dead come back for a day on Halloween.
  • In The Worst Witch Halloween is a sacred holiday for witches. Every year Cackle's Academy goes to a celebration hosted by the Chief Wizard, and they appear to provide some entertainment. In the first book Ethel gets revenge on Mildred by cursing her broomstick to wreck their class's display. In A Bad Spell For The Worst Witch Mildred is banned from the celebrations but sneaks off anyway to get the wizard to turn a friend of hers back from a frog. It's tradition that the morning after the celebrations the whole school has a lie-in until midday.
  • The Rainbow Magic series had a triple-length special centered around Trixie the Halloween Fairy. Like the rest of the specials, main characters Rachel and Kirsty have to find her three magical items (candy, in this case) so that Halloween can be safe and fun for everyone else. Notably, this is the first Special Edition in the US-exclusive lineup (although this particular book did eventually make it back to the UK).
  • Roys Bedoys:
    • Downplayed in "Don't Watch Grown-Up Movies, Roys Bedoys!", where Roys and Maker watch a horror movie because Halloween is "around the corner".
    • Played straight in "Let's Go Trick-or-Treating, Roys Bedoys!", where the kids trick-or-treat.
    • Played straight again in "Roys Bedoys's Spectacular Halloween Zoom Party", where the kids talk to one another online, while dressed up, on Halloween.
  • Spooksville had The Evil House'', where the gang enters a mysterious house that turns them into their costume.
  • Fear Street has Halloween Party, the Sagas subseries had House of Whispers and Door of Death, while Ghosts of Fear Street has Who's Been Sleeping in My Grave? and Halloween Bugs Me''.
  • Samurai Scarecrow: The book is set around Halloween, and follows Yukio and his friends trick-or-treating, and running afoul of the titular scarecrow, or rather, Kasha dressed as the titular scarecrow.
  • The Powerpuff Girls has The Powerpuff Girls Save Halloween
  • Jaine Austen Mysteries: Death of a Neighborhood Witch, which revolves around solving a murder that happened on Halloween night.
  • Stick Dog: Book 7 of the series, "Stick Dog Craves Candy", is set on Halloween Night, and follows Stick Dog and his friends as they try to get some candy to eat.
  • Holland-Tide; or Munster Popular Tales by Gerald Griffin: The tales from the title are seven ghost stories told to one another by guests at a Hallowtide celebration.
    • "The Brown Man": A man curiously dressed up all in brown, owning a brown horse and a brown dog, marries Nora Guare. He treats her poorly and each night leaves their bed to go eat corpses at the cemetery. When she finds out, he kills her.

    Magazines 
  • Dragon magazine had a "horror issue" every October. This would feature features on undead or otherwise more "monstrous" monsters, articles about Ravenloft and Masque of the Red Death, tips on DMing a horror adventure, and so on.

    Music 
  • Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is a classic staple of the American Halloween tradition, although the holiday itself is never mentioned in the lyrics.
  • "The Haunted House of Rock" by Whodini is a Hip-Hop celebration of classic Halloween motifs.
  • "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" by the "North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative" is a charity single by a cast of performers.
  • "Spooky" by the Classics IV.
    Just like a ghost, you've been a-hauntin' my dreams, so I'll propose... on Halloween.
  • "Halloween" by Aqua. The song is also inspired by Slasher Movies.
  • Bob Dylan's not-otherwise-Halloweeny "She Belongs to Me" includes the lines:
    Bow down to her on Sunday, salute her when her birthday comes
    For Halloween give her a trumpet, and for Christmas buy her a drum
  • Most Pagan bands or artists will have at least one song dedicated to Halloween or Samhain.
    • British rock band Inkubus Sukkubus have "Samhain," "Goddess of Samhain" and "All Hallows Eve".
    • British folk singer Damh the Bard has "On Samhain Eve".
    • Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt has "All Souls Night".
    • German folk band Faun has "Halloween".
  • "You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween" by Muse not only uses the classic Haunted House metaphor in a surprising way, it also excerpts the Toccata and Fugue in D minor — better known as the Ominous Pipe Organ.

    Podcasts 

    Pro Wrestling 
  • One of the early editions of Saturday Night's Main Event had a Halloween theme, including a sketch with Roddy Piper celebrating the holiday. One of the children in the segment was a young Stephanie McMahon.
  • WCW had "Halloween Havoc", a Halloween themed pay-per-view event from 1989 onwards. Highlights from the event included Rick Rude debuting as a masked "Halloween Phantom," a "Chamber of Horrors" Match, a mummy called "The Yeti" attacking Hulk Hogan and Rey Mysterio Jr. losing his mask to Eddie Guerrero.
    • WWE NXT later revived Halloween Havoc as an annual event starting in 2020.
  • River City Wrestling's Halloween Horrors of 1994 in Winnipeg Manitoba. Yes, there was even a "Chamber Of Horrors" battle royal.
  • SMW had Halloween Scream events from 1995 onward to its shut down when its owner went on to work for the WWF.
  • All Pro Wrestling and Jersey All Pro Wrestling have the Halloween Hell event. Halloween Hell 2 was to be APW's final garage show.
  • 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. However since Triple H took over for WWE Creative, Halloween elements have pretty much been downplayed in favor of more nuanced storylines other than having a Trick or Treat street fight every year.
  • These days 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, A.J. Lee as Raphael, and Kaitlyn as Vickie Guerrero.
      • However, the practice of having WWE's female talents donning Halloween costumes has been phased out since the Women's Evolution as the focus shifted from looks to athleticism.
  • WWC began its Halloween Wrestling Extravaganza tours in 2006.
  • Dynamo Pro Wrestling and NWA Pro met up for Halloween Bash in 2009.
  • NWA had another Halloween-themed PPV, Samhain, in 2023.
  • LLF's Noche de Halloween has been one of its more popular shows since 2009. 2013's included La Chacala putting Diana La Cazadora in a casket.
  • During its guest host phase, The Muppets were the guest stars for Halloween Raw and yes, Divas were in costume again.
  • When World Wonder Ring Stardom adopted the Fukumen Mask Fiesta in 2014, it moved the event from July to October in order to run it alongside a Halloween party.

    Puppet Shows 
  • Barney & Friends has a direct-to-video entry called "Barney's Halloween Party", with the first part focusing on Riff struggling to choose a costume. The second part finds BJ helping a boy named Ramon trick-or-treat without his mother for the first time. Riff puts together a one-man band costume, and BJ and Baby Bop point out that he basically dressed as himself, to which Barney says it's fun to be yourself anytime of the year. This was all built around a big event at the park where kids could trick-or-treat at different stations without being too far away from their families. When Ramon's treats fall out of a hole in his trick-or-treat bag, BJ shares his with Ramon, and the other kids share theirs with BJ.
  • Bear in the Big Blue House had a Halloween episode where made a point of telling the audience that Halloween is nothing to be afraid of, because it's just pretend.
  • Dinosaurs had an episode which originally aired on October 31 where Robbie, stuck home baby-sitting Baby, told a scary story about becoming a were-caveman. This scared Baby so much he was going to tell on Robbie unless he was given candy. Since there was none in the house Robbie took Baby next door to ask for some.
    Neighbor: Is this some kind of trick?
    Robbie: No, it's just a treat for the baby.
  • Donkey Hodie:
    • Not an actual episode, but it had a web-exclusive clip featuring Donkey Hodie and Bob Dog wishing the viewer a happy Halloween.
    • An actual Halloween episode, "A Donkey Hodie Halloween," released in 2022. It focuses on Donkey and the others helping Purple Panda to overcome his fear of Halloween, which he's never experienced before, as they don't celebrate Halloween on Planet Purple.
  • Eureeka's Castle: In the Halloween special "It Came From Beneath the Bed, or Nightmare On Magellan Street," Magellan sees a monster outside the window at night and sets out to catch it to prove to Eureeka and the others that it's not just his imagination.
  • Fraggle Rock had an episode (not explicitly referred to as a Halloween episode, but it was released on at least one Halloween-themed home video release) called "The Terrible Tunnel" about a place where Fraggles went and supposedly disappeared.
  • The Muppet Show: Both the Vincent Price and Alice Cooper episodes. The former was filmed the week leading up to Halloween 1976 (although it actually aired in late January 1977 in the U.S., and late April the same year in the U.K.), and the latter aired two days after Halloween 1978 in the U.S.
  • The Puzzle Place: The episode "Spooky!" doesn't mention Halloween by name, but it first aired around Halloween and revolves around spookiness, with an Aesop that girls can enjoy spooky things just as much (and be just as good at scaring people) as boys.
  • Sesame Street: After decades of building up a library of home media on the subject, Sesame Street produced a proper Halloween episode as the season 46 finale. It debuted time for Halloween 2016 on HBO and a year later on PBS. The show's posthumous tribute to Jerry Nelson, who played Count Von Count, isn't directly addressed as a Halloween episode. However, it featured most every character involved dressing as the Count and aired on Halloween 2013.
  • Under the Umbrella Tree: In the special "Halloween Under the Umbrella Tree", Iggy injures himself and has to stay at the animal hospital overnight and miss his friends' Halloween party.
  • Yo Gabba Gabba! has one titled "Halloween" in which the characters dress up in outrageous costumes and gather private stashes of candy. Through the first three songs "It is Fall", "Halloween Party Song", and "Trick or Treat" the characters learn what happens on Halloween, and just as important, the fourth song "Too Much Candy" helps the characters to understand eating candy in moderation.

    Radio 
  • No discussion of Halloween episodes can overlook Orson Welles' infamous radio dramatization of The War of the Worlds in a 1938 Halloween Eve broadcast of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. According to legend, 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.
  • Our Miss Brooks had a radio Halloween episode named "The Halloween Party". Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, and teenagers Walter Denton, Harriet Conklin, and Stretch Snodgrass intend to have a small Halloween party the night before halloween, as Harriet is going away for the weekend. Miss Brooks intends to dress as a witch, and Mr. Boynton uses real bones from his anatomy student days for a skeleton costume. Walter Denton dresses as a Bedsheet Ghost, while Stretch Snodgrass dresses as HopalongCassidy. Harriet was going to wear her party dress. At the end, Mrs. Davis arrives home wearing a pumpkin on her head. Hilarity Ensues as Mr. Conklin cannot be around a party as he's near nervous collapse — he goes to Miss Brooks' to flee the party only to be surprised and frightened by Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass in costume.
  • The Christian radio drama Adventures in Odyssey has an interesting variant — an episode from early in the show's run called "What Are We Gonna Do About Halloween?" that taught An Aesop about Halloween being evil. Due to criticism, the episode was pulled from rotation and later released on the "Lost Episodes" album.
  • A 1948 episode of The Adventures of Archie Andrews was about Archie throwing a wild Halloween party as his house. His father is less than pleased however and refuses the money Archie's friends threw in to fix the damage.

    Roleplay 

    Tabletop Games 
  • In Mysterium, the ghost is only able to send his visions on Samhain (which equals to Halloween) because the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest.

    Theme Parks 
  • At the Disney Theme Parks:
    • All of the Disneyland/Magic Kingdom parks have their own Halloween event where guests are allowed to dress up and trick-or-treat around the park, with special Halloween festivities being available as well.
    • At Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland, Space Mountain gets a Darker and Edgier Halloween overlay and becomes Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy during the season.
    • At Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, The Haunted Mansion becomes Haunted Mansion Holiday, an with overlay based on The Nightmare Before Christmas that mixes elements of Halloween and Christmas together. Because of the mixed holidays, it doubles as a Christmas Episode and lasts until early January, unlike the other Halloween overlays, which are removed in early November.
    • As of 2017, California Adventure gets a Halloween overlay and festive decorations. 2017 also introduced the Halloween overlay for Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!, entitled Guardians of the Galaxy - Monsters After Dark.
  • Universal Studios has Halloween Horror Nights, a haunt event run in September and October that contains numerous haunted houses, scarezones, and special shows. It's also an event that grew so big in scope and fans that it was enough to warrant its own page.
  • Busch Gardens has Howl-O-Scream, a haunt event very similar to Horror Nights.
  • Depending on the location, SeaWorld has either the horror-oriented Howl-O-Scream, or the Halloween Spooktacular, which is a family-friendly event similar to what Disney has.
  • Six Flags has Fright Fest, again very similar to HHN and Howl-O-Scream.
  • Theme park "Hellendoorn" in the Netherlands is Halloween-themed during the entire month of October, and renames itself "Heksendoorn" during that time ("Heks" is Dutch for witch).

    Theater 
  • Tsukiuta's Lunatic Party stage play is their Halloween episode. Hajime, Haru, Rui, and Iku go to a Halloween market and buy gifts for their pets, and end up transporting them into a demon world where the pets turn human. Complete with sheet ghosts.

    Web Comics 
  • Bittersweet Candy Bowl has Mischief Night. Paulo dressed up as Edward for his girlfriend, Jasmine as an undead Geisha, Mike as Cthulhu, and Lucy as Lieselotte, an expy of Lucy from an RP on the forums.
  • Boy and Dog: In one strip, baby Rowan is complaining about not being old enough to eat his Halloween candy.
  • By the Tail had two pages set at Halloween throughout its run.
  • Fetish comic Craving Control had a two part special featuring its gluttonous protagonist Lalia going trick or treating and cleaning out the whole neighbourhood before any of the kids could show up.
  • Chapter 5 of Cobweb and Stripes brings Betelgeuse into the living realm to spend Halloween with Lydia, enabling her to escape being at home for another of Delia's terrible parties.
  • Freddy Fox has had three Halloween strips so far:
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, no matter what else may be going on in the storyline, the gigantic Halloween Monster always shows up for a cameo in the strip nearest to Halloween. His appearance changes subtly with each reappearance, and he does occasionally show up out of season.
  • Schlock Mercenary took this to the extreme with the annual "Schlocktoberfest", in which the storyline filling the month of October always took a dark theme, sometimes associated with classic horror movies. Howard discontinued Schlocktoberfest after the arc about Tagon's 49th birthday.
  • This issue of Questionable Content has the main characters talking about Halloween episodes of webcomics.
  • For Halloween 2008, nudist webcomic The Bare Pit featured three spooky stories told around a campfire, although the cartoonist admits that Australians don't celebrate Halloween the way Americans do.
  • Angst Technology often had the team attending an office Hallowe'en Party. Ink Tank has continued the tradition.
  • Bob and George had one every year. The first two were general costumes (with someone dressing as the Pink Power Ranger as a Running Gag) Starting with 2002 (and barring 2004), each year had a theme to the costumes.
    • 2002: Super Heroes
    • 2003: Final Fantasy
    • 2005: Video Games (Mostly Nintendo, but some Sega too)
    • 2006: Anime (also set in the hand-drawn universe)
  • Newman has a halloween episode (Season 1, EP 18) where the main characters are dressed up at a Halloween party in the drow kingdom. This episode does, however, tie into the main story.
  • Nicktoons Tales has the dark Nicktoons Tales of Terror episode. It has the main trio (A.D.S., Timmy, and ZIM) tell scary stories ala Simpsons' Treehouse Of Horror format.
  • The Bug Pond had a very short one where the insects at said pond celebrate a holiday called Hallow-Bean, where they dress up as common predators of bugs. With exception of one kid who went as a scorpion princess.
  • Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff has one. True to tradition, it was written and published on Christmas Day 2010. It later received a Call-Back in Homestuck when Kanaya "died". Not everyone thought this was appropriate.
  • Homestuck got one after the Grand Finale through the official MS Paint Adventures Snapchat. This shows not only the surviving characters partaking in Halloween celebrations but also Caliborn, Gamzee, the citizens of Earth-C dressing up as the comic's other characters for the holiday.
  • The Keiki comic "Beefer Madness" became a Halloween special about halfway through, because Peter Paltridge didn't have time to write a whole new story.
  • Mulberry had the title character hunt a zombie in "Franken-Berry", and later, pull some frightening pranks on her rival in "Let's Scare Mary Roach To Death".
  • The Whiteboard almost always has a Halloween-related story around October. Mostly it's just parties where Crossover Cameos from other webcomics abound, but on occasion it's a full story arc, like with the 2010 and 2012 Zombie Apocalypse story arcs.
  • Chapter 6 of Rain (2010) has Rain and her friends attending a Halloween party at Chase's mansion.
  • In Roommates, 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 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...
  • The first Nightmare Night story arc in Slice of Life, which starts off with costume planning, arcs through Pinkie Pie taking a bunch of kids out for candy, the telling of not-so-scary stories, and ending with the Cake Twins sneaking off to visit a Haunted House.
  • Typical Strange does a Halloween Issue every October.
  • Savestate: Starting here and running for the next 5 strips. It's kicked off by Nicole suggesting that Harvey get a job at the local haunted house.
  • Erika and the Princes in Distress: This Haloween Special follows Erika and Pita as they venture into a creepy mansion in order to rescue a supposedly-distressed Prince, only to find out said Prince not only already died long ago and now haunts the place, but also has a few literal skeletons in his closet...
  • Sleepless Domain: This late-October page has Anemone explain the upcoming in-universe holiday of Fright Night, in which children dress up as monsters and ask for candy from the adults in order to placate the monsters' spirits.
  • The concept of Hell houses is mocked in a Something*Positive strip here.
  • A series of Pebble and Wren strips show Pebble's first Halloween.
  • Val and Isaac have the alien equivalent of "Fear Day", with some of the cast detailing the different customs of their individual planets. One of the only example not to be released on Halloween itself.
  • El Goonish Shive has had several Halloween filler strips usually with the main characters dressed up. Also, the storylines "Marker" and "Escape From The Mall" take place a week before Halloween.
  • The Dumbing of Age storyline "This Was Halloween" flashes back to the Halloween of the first semester, in which three of the biggest questions of the second semester were answered: why Ruth and Billie broke up (Ruth broke it off because she believes the relationship was doomed to become toxic again and wanted to spare Billie that), why Billie was now hanging out with Raidah (After getting foiled in her attempt to stop the breakup, Billie runs into Raidah, who convinces Billie to join her instead), and why Amber and Walky broke up (Walky thought a bad taste joke about the deceased Mike still being alive was cool, and Amber, one of Mike's closest friends, didn't take it well).

    Web Original 

 
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Tropica-Halloween

Manatsu and the others prep for their school's Halloween festival while Laura tries to find a costume more suited for her.

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