If you’ve had your fill of scary movies, or are looking to get more variety per viewing evening, below is a list of the 10 best Halloween themed episodes on Netflix Instant. Some are scary, some are funny, some are downright awful, but they’re all available, right now, for your Halloween-themed celebrations.
The episodes are staggered between drama/horror series and sitcoms, just to ensure you can make it through the night without getting a little too creeped.
10. “Halloween” The Office. Season 2
The show’s first Halloween episode is also its best. Michael has to fire someone on Jan’s orders and everyone’s tense. But mostly, the costume gags are hilarious.

9. “Life of the Party” Angel Season 5 Episode 5
Angel‘s only Halloween episode is set at the annual office party of the evil lawfirm Wolfram & Hart. It’s pretty ridiculous, but what better setting for a Halloween party can there be than an office of full of actual demons? There’s also a lot of David Boreanaz having sex, and Spike looking exasperated upon the mewling human experience, Amy Acker and a conga line. What else could an Angel fan ask for?
8. “Jack Gets in the Game” 30 Rock Season 2 Episode 2
Three words: Werewolf. Bar. Mitzvah.
For real 30 Rock Halloween fun watch “Stone Mountain” (S4E3) to see the writers throw the world’s most pathetic costume party.
7. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” Supernatural Season 4 Episode 7
A very, very old witch plans to summon a demon that raises the dead and will destroy, well, everything. This is the stuff of Supernatural. But “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” is the show’s first directly Halloween themed episode, and it doesn’t disappoint. Who wants to apple-bob in face-scalding water? Anyone?
6. “Halloween” American Horror Story Season 1 Episodes 4-5
A season of horror television built around a haunted mansion, American Horror Story’s Halloween episodes were destined to appear on this list. Pop in for the two-part episode, then jump to a sitcom on the list.
Interesting note: “Halloween” was written by James Wong, who will also write the the #1 entry on this list.
5. “Halloween” Frasier Season 5 Episode 3
Frasier is one of those shows that often gets described as a “smart show,” and this episode, well, it qualifies. “Halloween” is basically a Shakespearian comedy: Roz thinks she’s pregnant, tells Frasier, Niles overhears and thinks that Daphne is pregnant, and that Frasier is the father. Everything falls apart in Frasier-fashion at a literary-themed costume party. It’s very funny.
4. “The Howling Man” Twilight Zone Season 2, Episode 5
Picking only one episode of The Twilight Zone for a list like this is an almost impossible task. But it needs an appearance and I’ve chosen “The Howling Man.” Because scary stories and religion are like peas and carrots and the question of Evil as personified by the Devil is at the heart of American Horror.
Here, an American walking Europe is lost in a storm and comes upon a religious hermitage living in a castle. He seeks shelter, and finds another man locked up in a cell in the basement. The prisoner claims he is being held by a cult; the men of the order claim that the man in the cell is Satan, captured and trapped behind the Staff of Truth. Is he the devil or are these monks crazy?
3. “The Honking” Futurama Season 3 Episode 2
“The Honking” introduces one of horror’s fiercest monsters: the werecar. Actually a driver-less haunting car is not new to Futurama (we all remember Christine, no?) but here it’s much funnier and, somehow, even less silly than Stephen King. The whole episode is a horror-show best-of and, like all Futurama, full of hysterical, unexpected quips.

2. “Fear, Itself” Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 4, Episode 4
In this Halloween one-shot, Buffy and and the Scooby Gang face the realization of their worst fears. Only weeks into their freshmen year of college, “Fear, Itself” also provides a nice turning point for Buffy, who has struggled to make the change to college. But here, she realizes that college is full of demons and monsters that need destroying. Just like High School. Very funny, very scary Buffy.

“Fear, Itself” is Buffy’s best Halloween episode but not the only one. If you have the time, be sure to watch “Halloween” (S2E6), another Halloween TV classic. In “Halloween”, the Scoobies are turned into the costumes they are wearing, transforming the Slayer into a most proper 18th century lady.
1. “Home” The X-Files Season 4, Episode 2
“Home” is not technically a Halloween episode. But it aired in the Holiday slot for the show, and it is absolutely terrifying. It was the first episode of The X-Files (or any network television show) to receive a viewer discretion warning for content, and after its initial airing, FOX banned it from the network. A stand-alone, monster-of-the-week episode, “Home” takes Agents Mulder and Scully to Home, Pennsylvania, where a farming family has been living in total isolation since the Civil War.
“Home” is not great television (one actor called it “awful, even for us“). But it is terrifying television. You’ll never think of Johnny Mathis the same again.
Bonus Episode (because I can’t in good conscious end this with the Peacock Family): “The One with the Halloween Party” Friends Season 8 Episode 6.
Friends is not yet available on Netflix, but it’s coming. And I recently caught this episode on re-runs and it’s hilarious and guest stars Sean Penn.


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