AMC FearFest schedule for October 17 through 23

As a fan of horror movies, one of the many things I look forward to in October is the joy of AMC FearFest. It’s a solid month of great horror films, and it’s a daily thing. We are already halfway through FearFest this year, but there are still plenty of spooky flicks to see, so let’s take a look at the current week’s schedule.

October 17:

The Conjuring (1:30 p.m.) – Genuinely frightening, this is based on one of the real paranormal investigations performed by Ed and Lorraine Warren. When the Perron family moves into a farmhouse in Rhode Island, they are terrorized by supernatural events. The Warrens try to help, and find themselves in danger, along with the family.

Thir13een Ghosts (4:00 p.m.) – When widower Arthur and his two kids inherit a modern mansion made with way more glass than would be deemed safe, it couldn’t come at a better time. Unfortunately for the family, Uncle Cyrus was obsessed with imprisoning ghosts for his own reasons. These are not happy, friendly spirits.

Candyman (6:00 p.m.) – Virginia Madsen is a grad student working on a thesis involving urban folklore when she comes across the legend of Candyman, said to be a murderous spirit who appears if you say his name five times in front of a mirror. Don’t do it!

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (8:00 p.m.) – It wouldn’t be FearFest without plenty of Halloween films in the mix! I think I’m in the minority here, but this is one of my top five favorites in the Halloween franchise. Laurie Strode is now the headmistress of a ritzy academy, where she resides with her teenage son John. Spoiler alert: Michael Myers shows up.

Halloween: Resurrection (10:00 p.m.) – After the events in H20, a traumatized Laurie is in a psychiatric hospital. When a group of college students win a competition to appear in an internet reality show, they find themselves being filmed in the Myers’ home. Guess who crashes the party?

October 18:

Child’s Play (12:00 a.m.) – This is the original film in the Chucky franchise, the one that birthed numerous sequels and a hit series on syfy. Serial killer Charles Ray Lee is executed, but his soul now resides in a Good Guys doll. Single mom Karen buys the doll for her son Andy, and soon enough, Chucky/Charles is up to his old tricks.

Invasion of the Neptune Men (5:19 a.m.) – A superhero and a group of Japanese kids attempt to stop invaders from Neptune.

Eli Roth’s History of Horror (9:00 a.m.) – It’s definitely worth watching every single episode of this docu-series, in which Roth and dozens of iconic horror directors, writers and actors discuss the scary movies we all love.

Amityville: The Awakening (10:00 a.m.) – The tenth installment of the Amityville franchise stars Bella Thorne as a teenager who moves into the famous house in Amityville, along with her family. That’s a bad idea, and things go wrong pretty quickly.

Pet Sematary (12:00 p.m.) – In my opinion, this dark, relentless story is one of the best Stephen King adaptations. The Creed family moves into a house in rural Maine, where they meet their elderly neighbors, the Crandalls. All seems well until a critically injured jogger is brought into the  University clinic where Louis Creed works. The jogger’s dying words of warning are only a small taste of the tragedy to come.

Pet Semetary 2 (2:00 p.m.) – In this sequel to Pet Semetary, teenager Jeff and his father move to Ludlow, where Jeff is told the story of the Creed family. The death toll in this film is a lot higher than in the original.

Halloween: Resurrection (4:00 p.m.)

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (6:00 p.m.)

Halloween (8:00 p.m.) – In one of the most iconic horror films of all time, Michael Myers escapes and comes home to Haddonfield. Despite the best efforts of Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael manages to wreak bloody havoc before Halloween night has ended.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (10:00 p.m.) – For this 2010 remake, the intention was make Freddy Krueger scary again, instead of the one-line quipping comedian he had become. Although the film had a pretty big opening weekend, attendance dropped by 72% on the second weekend.

October 19:

Fright Night (12:00 a.m.) – When a new neighbor moves in, teenager Charley Brewster quickly comes to believe he is a vampire. When Charley’s friends don’t believe him, he convinces Peter Vincent, a television horror show host to help him prove it.

How to Make a Monster (9:00 a.m.) – When a film studio is purchased by a different company, they plan to stop making horror films and focus instead on comedies and musicals. This means that longtime monster makeup artist Pete will be losing his job. He hypnotizes young actors playing Frankenstein and The Werewolf into killing the new studio’s bigwigs.

Invasion of the Neptune Men (9:15 a.m.)

Dracula 2000 (9:30 a.m.) – A group of thieves unknowingly steal a silver coffin containing the body of Dracula). When Dracula is released, the plane crashes in the swamps of Louisiana, and the vampire ends up in New Orleans.

Dracula II: Ascension (11:30 a.m.) – In this sequel to Dracula 2000, a group of scientists try to achieve immortality using the remains of Dracula.

Fright Night (1:30 p.m.)

Halloween 1978 (4:00 p.m.)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 (6:00 p.m.)

Thursday, October 20, 2022:

Children of the Corn: Revelation (9:00 a.m.) – In the seventh COTC film, Jamie travels to her grandmother’s apartment in Omaha after she is unable to reach her by phone. Jamie should have left when she realized the apartment building was empty, except for some strange children.

Carrie (1:15 p.m.) – Marathons are fun, but it’s always nice when FearFest brings us a classic horror film. Carrie White is a shy, quiet teenage girl who is often bullied by her peers. Not only that, her mother is a religious zealot and Carrie herself has the newly budding talent of telekinesis. If you think these facts add up to a disastrous prom, you are correct.

House of Wax (3:30pm) – A group of college kids on their way to a football game get a flat tire in what looks like an abandoned town. The only place they can go for help is a creepy wax museum with a dark secret.

Jeepers Creepers (6:00 p.m.) – FearFest is presenting a horror great filmed very close to my hometown. A brother and sister travelling home for spring break run into trouble in the back woods of Florida. When they see a strange figure seemingly dumping bodies in an old church, they go inside and end up battling the Creeper, who eats human body parts to stay alive.

Thirteen Ghosts (8:00 p.m.)

Poltergeist (10:00 p.m.) – The Freeman family live in the new Cuesta Verde development, so it’s puzzling when they start to encounter ghostly activity in their home. Little Carol Ann is the first to really catch on to what’s happening, but when she disappears, her family is determined to rescue her from the spirits.

We can always look for Stephen King adaptations during FearFest

October 21:

Christine (12:30 a.m.) – In this fairly faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, unpopular teenager Arnie finds and works to restore a 1958 Plymouth Fury. Things start to look up for Arnie during the process, but the car begins to kill people who bully him.

Carrie (2:30 a.m.)

Tanks of El Alamein (9:00 a.m.) – The story of a group of Italian soldiers awaiting a tank assault is told through the eyes of the 185th Paratroopers Division “Folgore.”

Violent Midnight (9:15 a.m.) – A small town in New England is terrorized when a murderer begins slashing the students at a women’s college.

I, Frankenstein (9:30 a.m.) – Based on a graphic novel, this story begins with the premise that Frankenstein’s monster is still alive in modern times.

Ghosts of Mars (11:15 a.m.) – This film, directed by John Carpenter, is set in a future where hundreds of thousands of people live and work on Mars. Things change when a mining operation happens upon a Martian civilization capable of taking over human bodies.

They (1:30 p.m.) – When psychology student Julia and some of her friends start to experience night terrors, one of them commits suicide. When Julia tries desperately to find out what is going on, she finds herself in danger.

Thirteen Ghosts (3:30 p.m.)

Poltergeist (5:30 p.m.)

Trick ‘r Treat (8:00 p.m.) – Way to go, FearFest! One of my favorite Halloween films is a mixture of bloody horror and dark comedy, as we visit different residents of a town that celebrates the holiday in a big way.

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Misery (1:14 a.m.) – Writer Paul Sheldon crashes his car into a snowbank, and is rescued by his “number one fan” Annie Wilkes. Unfortunately, Annie is not happy that Paul killed off her favorite character, and forces him to write another book. As good as James Caan is as Paul Sheldon, Kathy Bates’s Annie Wilkes is what totally makes this film. Her Academy Award was well deserved.

The Prophecy 3: The Ascent (5:00 a.m.) – This third installment in the Prophecy franchise stars Dave Buzzotta as Danyael, born to a human woman, but sired by an angel. When he is fatally shot, he comes to realization of his powers when he rises from the dead, and now he must decide if he will use those powers for good or evil.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (7:00 a.m.) – FearFest does love the franchises! You know the formula: a group of teens decide to party at Camp Crystal Lake, and Jason escapes from the morgue to slaughter them one by one. Also, spoiler: It wasn’t the final chapter.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (9:00 a.m.) – Remember when I said The Final Chapter wasn’t? This one was its follow up. Several years after Tommy “killed” Jason, he is in a mental hospital, struggling to recover from the trauma. When he is released to a halfway house, the murders begin.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (11:00 a.m.) – Poor Tommy. He is back in a mental institution, but escapes to dig up Jason’s body and cremate it. It doesn’t work out, and Jason comes back to murder some more.

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1:00 p.m.) – Kane Hodder makes his first appearance as Jason in this sequel. Jason is entombed in the bottom of Crystal Lake, and is accidentally released by a girl with telekinesis.

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (3:00 p.m.) – Jason manages to sneak onboard a cruise ship packed with high school seniors headed for New York City. Of course, our hockey masked killer slaughters as many people as possible on the ship, but then takes his machete to Manhattan.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (5:00 p.m.) – In the last film, Jason was blown away by FBI agents, but that doesn’t stop him. A coroner working in the morgue was Jason’s body is taken is hypnotized by the killer’s heart, and his body is taken over. Guess where he heads? That’s right, he goes back to Crystal Lake.

Friday the 13th 2009 (7:00 p.m.) – In this reboot, a man named Clay goes to the woods near Crystal Lake in search of his missing sister. He comes across the disintegrating summer camp, but he also comes across the machete-wilding Jason.

October 23

Friday the 13th – Part III (1:00 a.m.) – Yet another teen party (this one at a lake house) is interrupted by Jason and his machete. Joining in on the bloody fun is a gang of bikers.

The Orphan (3:00 a.m.) – When nine-year-old Russian orphan Esther is adopted by an American couple, it’s expected they will now just be a happy family. But something isn’t right with Esther.

Graveyard Shift (5:52 a.m.) –Based on a short story by Stephen King, this tale is about a textile mill infested with rats. A group of men is employed to go deep into the mill and clear the place of the rodents.

Thinner (7:52 a.m.)  – Obese lawyer Billy Halleck accidently hits a Gypsy woman with his car, killing her. When he is let off scott-free, the woman’s father places a curse on him, causing him to rapidly lose weight.

Final Destination 5 (9:52 a.m.) – Another FearFest franchise marathon! In this sequel, the opening vision is the disintegration of a suspension bridge, loaded with vehicles. Sam manages to save himself and his friends before the disaster kills them, but as we know from prior films in the franchise, death will always find you if it’s your turn.

The Final Destination (11:52 a.m.) – Another premonition, another chase by death. In this version, college student Nick is at a racetrack with some friends when he foresees an accident that hurls deadly debris into the grandstand. He saves himself and his friends, but, you know what happens.

Final Destination (1:52 p.m.) – The first and best in the franchise, in my humble opinion begins with a group of high schoolers ready to depart on an airplane for their senior trip to Paris. Alex (Devon Sawa) has a vivid premonition of a mid-air explosion and panics, resulting in he and several of his classmates being booted off the plane. Spoiler alert: We see the plane explode as the group is arguing in the airport.

Final Destination 2 (3:52 p.m.) – One year after the plane explosion from the first film, student Kimberly Corman is on her way to Daytona Beach to celebrate spring break with her friends. Her premonition of a bone-chilling accident involving a logging truck (seriously, I now get nervous when I spot a truck hauling logs) saves the lives of multiple people. Of course, they all end up being hunted down by death.

Final Destination 3 (5:52 p.m.) – Honestly, the best thing about the sequels to Final Destination is always the opening disaster sequence. In this case, it involves a derailed roller coaster. You know what happens next.

That’s the FearFest schedule this week, join us next week for more frightening fun.

Do you watch the film’s on AMC’s FearFest? Which ones are on your must-see list for this year? Tell us in the comments section.