“One of the benefits of being on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was that set dec gave me a bunch of Halloween stuff,”… Read more
“One of the benefits of being on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was that set dec gave me a bunch of Halloween stuff,” Hannigan revealed in the video. “They used to loan me things for Halloween and then when the show was over, they were like, ‘Just take it all.’”
Spike (James Marsters) and the cross now in Alyson Hannigan’s yard, from ‘Buffy’ season 7.
Moving on to a massive cross made of metal and wood, the actress assured fans, “You might recognize this from Buffy” — but she wasn’t sure when it was featured. “You guys tell me. I bet you can tell me when you’ve seen this.”
Hannigan’s followers sure did. “Spike draped himself on that cross in season seven and began to sizzle and smoke!” confirmed an Instagram account called @BuffyProps.
In the scene, Buffy’s enemy-turned-lover (played by James Marsters) embraced the symbolic prop after revealing he got his soul back.
To me, he’s sort of got this cat feel to him, where everything is superior and if somebody wants to talk to… Read more
To me, he’s sort of got this cat feel to him, where everything is superior and if somebody wants to talk to him, it’s like, “Oh God, do I have to turn and look at you?” Everything’s such an effort because he’s so superior, so self-involved. Everything for me came from this elegant, cat feel. If anything, maybe like a Catwoman thing?
watching a horror movie lets you criticize somebody else for opening the door. playing a horror game gives you the door, a button prompt, and an opportunity to become the problem personally.
the five picks on my Halloween games shelf lean heavily toward survival, pursuit, and zombies with very little respect for your schedule. here is how they split up, depending on whether you want a solo nightmare or friends who can hear you make a poor decision.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival: the box is clearly a bad idea
Revival puts Hellraiser into first-person action-horror, with the Genesis Configuration puzzle box and Pinhead central to its premise. Trove’s listing identifies it as a single-player game from Saber Interactive. this is the shelf’s concentrated, self-contained nightmare lane.
the useful distinction is the format: a solo horror campaign rather than a recurring multiplayer match. expect the franchise’s adult horror territory; a puzzle box appearing in the description is not evidence that this is a relaxing puzzle game. consult the linked listing and official game site for current platform and purchase details.
Left 4 Dead 2: friendship, with emergency instructions
Valve’s co-operative horror shooter takes its survivors through cities, swamps, and cemeteries in the American South. its campaign structure gives a group something concrete to do together: get through the place currently doing its best to kill you.
this is the straightforward group-night pick. the goal is shared, the danger is immediate, and communication has a practical purpose beyond narrating your own competence. choose it when you want the Halloween gathering to include teamwork and an entirely avoidable argument about who wandered away.
the core setup is one Killer against four Survivors, as the official character guide lays out. unlike the shared side of Left 4 Dead 2, the threat here is another player with their own plans for your evening.
pick this when you want repeatable horror matches and the tension of being pursued by someone who can make decisions. the asymmetry is the hook: the two sides inhabit very different versions of the same encounter. a useful arrangement for people who think a Halloween party needs assigned roles.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II: yes, specifically the zombies
Black Ops II is the apparent outlier until you get to Zombies. the game includes that mode alongside its military campaign and other multiplayer offerings, which gives this 2012 shooter an obvious route onto an October shelf.
treat this as the Zombies branch of the evening. the point of including it here is the survival-horror-adjacent session inside the larger package. if you are organizing a group, check everyone’s platform and edition first; the shelf is a selection of games, not a promise that every old copy can connect to every other old copy.
Techland’s first-person open-world survival game puts scavenging, crafting, and infected streets into the same assignment. Trove lists both single-player and co-operative features, making it a useful bridge between a solo October project and a shared session.
choose this for a larger place to explore rather than a single evening’s playlist of matches. gathering supplies and planning a route add another layer to dealing with the infected. apparently surviving the apocalypse still involves errands. the official Dying Light site is the place to check the current editions and platform details.
that is the games shelf: one cursed box, several zombie situations, and an online appointment with someone who has chosen violence as their role. arrange snacks before the chase starts.
part 4 of the halloween shelf: six category roundups from my public Trove picks, checked october 18, 2026. browse the complete shelf. featured image: Halloween Games shelf card combining the five game covers in this article from my Trove shelf. original game cover artwork: respective publishers, including Valve, via Trove; used for commentary. Facet illustrations are site mascots.
the trees are having a terrible run of publicity on this shelf. children disappear into them. ancient things wait inside them. the local wildlife has features it should really have disclosed earlier. even leaving town won’t solve everything, because elsewhere the dead are walking and the gods have become pop stars. plenty to work with.
these are the five comics on trove’s halloween shelf: a zombie epic, two deeply unwelcoming forests, a monster hunter, and some divine celebrity trouble. they offer different kinds of darkness, so here’s where to start depending on whether you want survival, a mystery, a short plunge into the woods, or mortality with stage lighting.
robert kirkman’s series starts with rick grimes trying to find his wife and son after the dead have overrun the world. image’s series page makes the scale clear: the ordinary systems people depend on have collapsed along with everything else.
it’s the survival choice, where getting through today leaves the fairly substantial problem of tomorrow. the familiar zombie premise provides a way into questions about family, safety, and living alongside other frightened people. start at the first issue and give the comic room to establish its own world. recognizing the title from television doesn’t mean you need to treat the page as homework.
the low, low woods
for missing memories and a town with terrible secrets
carmen maria machado and dani send el and octavia into the mysteries of shudder-to-think, pennsylvania, after the two wake in a movie theater with hours missing. the surrounding woods contain rabbits with human eyes and other deeply unreasonable sights, while abandoned coal mines burn beneath the town. dc’s collected edition gathers all six issues.
choose this for body horror, uneasy friendship, and the fear of discovering what happened when your memory went blank. the setting alone makes a convincing case for moving, although packing boxes is probably insufficient preparation for a place called shudder-to-think.
wytches
for the family fresh start that immediately needs reconsidering
scott snyder and jock bring the rooks family to litchfield, new hampshire, hoping to get away from a traumatic past. something ancient and hungry is waiting in the nearby forest. that is the invitation in image’s first collection, which contains issues one through six.
this is a direct route to creature horror with family fear underneath it. the promise of a fresh start gives the danger something specific to threaten: people trying to feel safe again. pick it when you’d like a contained six-issue entry point and a reminder to ask considerably more questions about a property’s woodland views.
james tynion iv and werther dell’edera introduce erica slaughter to a community shattered by killings. children describe monsters in the woods; the adults aren’t sure what to believe, including whether this stranger can help. the publisher’s introduction to issue one is a useful spoiler-light starting point.
go here for an investigation with a dangerous outsider at its center and a threat the town can’t comfortably explain away. the title is being very direct about the stakes, so violence involving children is part of the decision. erica’s arrival offers a possible answer, which is more than the local reassurance department has managed.
every ninety years, twelve gods return in human form. two years later, they’re dead. kieron gillen and jamie mckelvie turn that premise into a world where divinity and pop stardom occupy the same space, as image’s series overview explains.
this is the shelf’s supernatural pop-fantasy option, for when you’re drawn to worship, fame, and the prospect of having everything briefly. the countdown gives the glamour a dark underside without requiring another trip into the trees. an excellent change of scenery. the mortality situation remains poor, but at least somebody has considered the outfit.
part 3 of the halloween shelf: six category roundups from my public Trove picks, checked october 18, 2026. browse the complete shelf. featured image: Halloween Comics shelf card combining the five comic covers in this article from my Trove shelf. original cover artwork: Image Comics, DC Comics and BOOM! Studios, via Trove; used for commentary. Facet illustrations are site mascots.
It is a perfect example of AI slop, a phrase we like to use for anything that is AI-heavy. Weird micro dramas.… Read more
It is a perfect example of AI slop, a phrase we like to use for anything that is AI-heavy. Weird micro dramas. Karma-farming fake videos on social media. “We are Charlie Kirk.” Yet usually the AI slop is coming from the fringes. People not already working in the entertainment world and eager to get a piece of the profit pie. This is coming from Fox, albeit the right wing news entertainment version of Fox and not The Simpsons-and-FX version owned by Disney. Fox Nation is a streaming service providing curated content for Fox News super fans. AI slop appearing there, a small service with limited content, makes the slop feel even more sloppy. Watching the doc, I could practically hear a cigar-chomping executive shouting “slop em up, boys.” Bringing Harry Houdini back from the dead could be a portent for the future of documentaries.
Shout! TV, ElectricNOW, MovieSphere, and Revry offer different ways to recreate cable’s put-it-on-and-leave-it-on experience without a subscription. Read more
sometimes I do not want to choose a show. I want to put a channel on and let it be television. a movie might become a sitcom, which might become something else. I can fold laundry while somebody in programming handles the decision-making.
this is the part of USA, TNT, and HBO that an endless single-show FAST feed does not quite replace. a marathon is useful when I specifically want that show. a general entertainment channel is useful when I would like the room to contain a variety of television without my continued supervision.
the best free cable replacement for that job is a small set of varied channels you actually like. these four are starting points, with different strengths. schedules can still include blocks and marathons, so the current guide matters more than an enormous channel count.
Shout! TV: start with the flagship
Shout! TV combines classic and cult films, television, and original programming across free live channels and an on-demand library. for variety, look for the main Shout! TV feed first. the company also operates dedicated show feeds and specialist channels; those solve a different problem.
Promotional image: Shout! TV; used for commentary.
this is the useful old-cable quality: a programming identity broad enough to contain more than one title. you are choosing a general sensibility, then allowing the schedule to make smaller choices.
the free Local Now channel page and Sling Freestream guide give you concrete places to inspect the feed. Shout! also offers direct viewing through its own site and apps. choose the ad-supported route if the point is keeping the bill at zero.
ElectricNOW: scripted comfort television and movies
ElectricNOW has a lineup built around shows such as Leverage, The Librarians, Almost Paradise, and The Outpost, alongside acquired films. the combination is closer to a familiar genre entertainment network than a feed devoted to one sitcom.
there is also genuine original programming. Electric’s 2026 expansion announcement explicitly scheduled the first two episodes of The Poly Couple on the FAST channel the same day the show launched in its app. the app itself contains additional channels, so select the ElectricNOW feed when you want this particular lineup.
you can inspect a free feed on Xumo Play or use ElectricNOW’s own service. expect episodic blocks as well as films; a varied library is not a guarantee that the next six hours have been programmed without a marathon.
MovieSphere: the movie-channel half of the cable experience
this one is a movie channel, rather than a movie-and-sitcom mixture. it belongs here because the HBO comparison includes that experience, too: arrive during a film, see what follows it, and stop designing your own evening. it does not come with HBO’s current originals.
Lionsgate also markets paid MovieSphere options. use the free live feed, not a subscription checkout wearing a similar name.
Revry: a mixed network with a queer point of view
Revry combines queer films, series, music, news, and originals. it is an especially useful addition when you want the channel’s perspective to feel relevant, rather than relying on a generic algorithm to remember gay people exist.
the network may still schedule title blocks. the reason to include it is breadth within a clear identity: scripted television can share space with performance, competition, and other programming. there is something to encounter beyond the episode you already came for.
build a tiny channel lineup, then stop browsing
start by favoriting Shout! TV and ElectricNOW. add MovieSphere when you want films and Revry when you want a queer network. look ahead a few slots in the guide before deciding which feed gets the remote tonight.
that is a more useful test than whether an app advertises hundreds of channels. three channels you leave running beat 400 channels you spend the evening evaluating.
these are alternatives to cable’s viewing rhythm, not free access to USA, TNT, or HBO themselves. the thing being replaced is the experience: somebody else assembles a varied schedule, and I am allowed to turn it on halfway through.
I do not need every moment of leisure to begin with a selection committee. sometimes I would simply like television to proceed.
This is part 6 of Stuff You Can Watch Free. The series covers original shows on free networks and channels that recreate cable’s put-it-on-and-leave-it-on experience.
vampire families, reluctant covens, one slayer, and a haunted estate. five shows from my halloween shelf, with room for different attention spans. Read more
apparently the real supernatural curse is having to deal with other people. vampires form households. witches need a group. a teenage slayer still has friends to worry about. even a sprawling english manor comes with several relationships in urgent need of attention.
that gives the tv corner of the halloween shelf a useful through-line. these five shows make room for the awkward, affectionate, destructive business of being close to someone, then add fangs or magic or a deeply unsuitable house. they also ask for very different amounts of your life, which matters when october is already filling up. here is what kind of company each one offers.
interview with the vampire: the relationship has a very long memory
amc’s adaptation of anne rice’s novel puts louis de pointe du lac’s account of love and immortality in front of journalist daniel molloy. louis, lestat, and claudia form the central vampire family, with all the intimacy and danger that arrangement suggests.
choose this for a sustained gothic relationship drama. having centuries available does leave plenty of time to develop a grievance. start at the beginning and give it your attention: the interview frame makes the telling of the story part of the attraction. this is a serialized commitment, best approached when you want to get invested in some exceptionally complicated people.
a powerless agatha harkness and a mysterious teenager assemble a coven to face the witches’ road. disney’s conversation with kathryn hahn and creator jac schaeffer gets at the appeal: agatha is a habitual loner being forced to work with others, who have their own reasons for being difficult.
the nine-episode run makes this a smaller calendar commitment. it is a wandavision follow-on, so that earlier series provides useful context. pick it for witchcraft, competing personalities, and a journey that requires an actual group effort. assembling a coven sounds lovely until somebody has to manage the coven.
buffy the vampire slayer: make room for the whole friend group
buffy begins with a teenager equipped to hunt vampires, then gives her a life that stubbornly continues around that responsibility. school, friendships, and supernatural trouble share a calendar. sarah michelle gellar’s buffy has help, but having a support system does not make the monsters especially considerate.
the original series runs seven seasons, making it the long-haul choice here. let october be the doorway if you want an ensemble to spend time with beyond halloween. start with season one and let the relationships accumulate. nobody needs to turn watching television into a deadline with candles around it.
what we do in the shadows: eternal life, shared accommodation
vampire roommates on staten island provide a fairly efficient sitcom premise. nandor, laszlo, nadja, and colin robinson have the modern world to navigate, alongside the human guillermo. immortality has apparently failed to make communal living straightforward.
choose this when you want the supernatural household to be funny. its six-season run is complete, and the comedy format makes it an easy choice for a few episodes at a time. begin at the start to get acquainted with the house. allow some space between installments if your tolerance for other people’s nonsense has already been tested that day.
the haunting of bly manor: a house full of attachments
an american nanny arrives at an english estate to care for two orphaned children. the household includes a chef, a groundskeeper, a housekeeper, and a past that refuses to remain politely in the past. mike flanagan’s gothic romance draws on henry james and places love and loss inside the haunted-house machinery.
this is a nine-episode limited series, a practical choice when you want a contained story. pick it for a more melancholy stretch of october, with room for the people as well as the ghosts. the accommodation looks impressive. the emotional deposit may be considerable.
so: a vampire family, a reluctant coven, a slayer’s circle, a house share, or a haunted estate. pick the company and the commitment that fit. halloween television has plenty of ways to make staying home feel socially exhausting.
part 2 of the halloween shelf: six category roundups from my public Trove picks, checked october 18, 2026. browse the complete shelf. featured image: AMC promotional artwork, via Trove; used for commentary. Facet illustrations are site mascots.
some halloween reading comes with a reassuring amount of distance. old castle. distant village. someone else’s questionable basement. these five books keep finding ways to make the trouble personal: your home, your face, your body, the people who say they’ll take care of you. lovely. very restful.
this is the books corner of the halloween shelf on trove, running from illustrated fairy-tale dread to gothic classics, alien body horror, and a supernatural romance with an alarming workload. pick according to how much unease you’d like to bring to bed. the bedside lamp can only do so much.
emily carroll’s collection holds five graphic stories, including his face all red. the publisher’s overview offers a useful warning about the territory: mysterious houses, an unsettling marriage, and familiar people who may be something else entirely.
it’s a good doorway into this shelf if you want your horror in separate, illustrated doses. the fairy-tale setup makes the danger feel close to home, with a forest conveniently available whenever somebody needs to make a terrible decision. yes, it’s a comics collection living in the books section here. the woods have bigger administrative problems.
you weren’t meant to be human: belonging comes at a cost
andrew joseph white takes alien invasion into rural west virginia. crane, a trans man, finds refuge among the followers of a hive that trades shelter and possibility for loyalty and bodies. that refuge becomes a threat to his autonomy. the premise puts unwanted pregnancy and reproductive coercion at the center of the horror.
this is the shelf’s heavy-duty body-horror choice, where needing somewhere to belong makes a person vulnerable to exploitation. check the author’s content warnings first. a book can be exactly the right kind of horrible and still require choosing the right evening.
the picture of dorian gray: skincare with consequences
oscar wilde gives a beautiful young man the ability to keep his looks while his portrait records the damage. penguin’s description lays out the bargain: dorian’s public respectability survives while his hidden life grows increasingly corrupt.
choose this for vanity, temptation, and the creeping possibility that appearances are doing an awful lot of unpaid labor. the bodily unease happens at a remove, hanging on a wall, which somehow makes it more intimate. imagine having a permanent record of your worst behavior in the house. then imagine still inviting people over.
victor frankenstein creates life and recoils from what he’s made. mary shelley’s gothic novel follows the damage of that rejection, with a creature denied companionship and a creator spectacularly unprepared for responsibility.
this is the pick for a sadder, more reflective halloween mood: ambition, loneliness, and the obligations that arrive after doing something irreversible. the creation is only the beginning of the problem. there is a whole person to account for afterward, a detail victor might have put somewhere in the project plan.
a ferry of bones & gold: a little romance during the supernatural emergency
hailey turner’s soulbound series begins with mage patrick collins and werewolf jonothon de vere. patrick is a supernatural agent dealing with a missing immortal, ritual killings, and gods collecting a debt. turner’s synopsis adds an inconvenient attraction to an already crowded caseload.
reach for this when you’d like the monsters and magic to come with queer romance and an investigation to follow. it’s the shelf’s urban-fantasy turn, with desire giving all that supernatural danger a different pulse. apparently even a looming disaster leaves room for a complicated crush. scheduling remains everyone’s real enemy.
part 1 of the halloween shelf: six category roundups from my public Trove picks, checked october 18, 2026. browse the complete shelf. featured image: Emily Carroll / publisher cover artwork, via Trove; used for commentary. Facet illustrations are site mascots.
queer horror, a disputed ending, mutual aid, a handsome fish situation, and a few notes from my own shelf. Read more
the nice thing about a small media-tracking site is that you can actually read what people wrote. the less convenient thing is that reading what people wrote immediately produces more things to read.
so, a look around Trove: queer horror, a disputed ending, mutual aid, and a very handsome fish situation. the opinions below belong to the people credited. the expanding backlog belongs to all of us.
Melinoë Agnès (@thrstyanrchst): 4/5. the ending caught them off guard, and their review is an enthusiastic recommendation for its queer horror. keeping the actual surprise out of this roundup seems like basic neighborly conduct.
Melinoë Agnès (@thrstyanrchst): 3/5. they liked the book, but the ending didn’t land for them. a useful distinction when a star rating by itself would make you do the detective work.
Melinoë Agnès (@thrstyanrchst): 4/5. a quick, accessible read that earned plenty of annotations, with a recommendation for anyone looking to make a difference. sometimes the useful reading list is the one that sends you back into the world with something to do.
jacob (@bartsdoodle): 5/5. the beauty of the film and its soundtrack are the big takeaways here. concise, enthusiastic, and considerably easier to fit into an evening than the three books i just added to your problems.
my rating: 3.5/5. my review was pretty practical: it got me hooked enough to buy book two. i mixed listening and reading on this one. not every recommendation requires a manifesto; sometimes the evidence is the next purchase.
my rating: 4/5. Graymatter Lane and an Emma-focused story. that was the pitch, and my review was essentially an immediate yes. some interests have a very efficient approval process.
my rating: 4/5. i called it the best competition reality show, with most of the credit going to the live feeds and the online community around them. which probably explains the amount of this blog devoted to people having preventable conversations in a house.
there we go: seven takes, several different kinds of media, and nobody had to build a personal brand around having finished a book. the shelves are open.
