Hollywood Suite’s Shocktober isn’t Just Zombie Town. Top 10 Picks, Returning Series and more!

In Canada, Hollywood Suite is back to deliver fan favourites of classic and modern age horror movies for the Halloween enthusiast. Their 2024 Shocktober line-up is here to play on air and on demand, and I’ve started with the broadcast premiere of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town.

Despite what the major critics say, I rather enjoyed this family friendly work about a young teen who has a dislike for the season, but will have to change his mind when his hometown gets ravaged by your not so typical zombie. What happens is a variation on a moment from Last Action Hero! You can read a full review of my first impressions here, and after subsequent viewings, I feel it has the potential to be a cult classic. To have Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase make cameos is a plus!

Also, the second season of the Hollywood Suite original series Cinema A to Z is ready to air with its premiere episode Serial Killers on October 10. In this episode, film experts uncover audiences’ fascination with the macabre through 26 portrayals of murderers on film from American Psycho to Zodiac. Although I’m not a huge fan of the slasher genre, I respect it because that’s where the movie Halloween emerged from.

From the press release, this month will also include “Shocktober premieres include new restorations of rarely seen Canadian creepers like Richard Loncraine’s notoriously difficult to find cult classic The Haunting of Julia (1973) starring Mia Farrow, William Fruet’s Funeral Home (1981), as well as a documentary about The Evil Dead fans Hail to the Deadites.”

I reviewed the latter (review link here) and it’s a true love-letter to the genre, and I’m glad it’s more easily accessible. That will be a work I’ll be watching again. It makes my top ten flicks I’ll be tuning into. For the remaining nine, they are:

• Daybreakers
• Death Becomes Her
• Funeral Home
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch
• House On Haunted Hill
• Omen
• The Innocents
• The Lair Of The White Worm
• The Serpent and the Rainbow

For a full list of Shocktober selections available on Hollywood Suite On Demand, please visit hollywoodsuite.ca/shocktober.

Author: Ed Sum

I'm a freelance videographer and entertainment journalist (Absolute Underground Magazine, Two Hungry Blokes, and Otaku no Culture) with a wide range of interests. From archaeology to popular culture to paranormal studies, there's no stone unturned. Digging for the past and embracing "The Future" is my mantra. View all posts by Ed Sum