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Weekly Spooky
Weekly Spooky
Scary stories, urban legends, haunted places, cryptids and dark folklore with Henrique Couto. New nightmares throughout the week. Halloween all year long.
Sept. 24, 2026

Thursday Thrills | Halloween 2026 Horror Streaming Guide: Carrie & Crystal Lake

Thursday Thrills | Halloween 2026 Horror Streaming Guide: Carrie & Crystal Lake

What horror movies and shows should you stream for Halloween 2026? Henrique Couto previews six new movies and series arriving on U.S. streaming platforms: American Horror Story: 13 (Hulu, Sep 24); Infirmary (Shudder, Oct 2); Mike Flanagan's Carrie (Prime Video, Oct 7); R.L. Stine's Pumpkinhead 2 (Tubi, Oct 9); V/H/S/Mixtape (Shudder, Oct 9); and Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake (Peacock, Oct 15). From cursed pumpkins and found footage to telekinetic terror, this spoiler-light Thursday Thrills guide helps you build your spooky-season watchlist. Which nightmare will you stream first?

Bonus episodes & support: https://weeklyspooky.com/join
More scary stories: https://weeklyspooky.com/
Story submissions: WeeklySpooky@gmail.com

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The movie ends. The credits vanish. Your television goes black,

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and for one second, it turns into a mirror. There

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is your couch. There's the little pool of light from

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the kitchen. And there, over your shoulder, is the hallway

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you've spent the last two hours carefully refusing. to look

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at nothing is in it probably but the remote is

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on the other side of the room your phone is

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nearly dead and at some point tonight you still have

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to take out the trash this is the part of

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a good horror movie that I adore so deeply when

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it stops happening on the screen next up It starts

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borrowing your house as its new location. This is Thursday Thrills.

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A quick weekly ride into the creepy stories, haunted places,

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weird obsessions, and eerie little corners of the world worth

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talking about. I'm Enrique Couto, and tonight we are building

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a Halloween 2026 watch guide with one very irresponsible question.

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What kind of fear do you want to invite into

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your living room? Call it Pick Your Poison. These are

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some new streaming premieres, so think previews. not reviews. We'll

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decide which ordinary piece of your home each one might

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make you second guess, if not full-blown ruin. First, the

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one premiering tonight, if you're listening on this Thursday, September 24th,

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American Horror Story 13 begins on Hulu on with three

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episodes dropping at once. The official description is having a

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wonderful time, not telling us much at all. It promises

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familiar faces, an unlucky number, and the kind of anthology

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surprise this show likes to pull out from under the rug.

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Or just pull the rug out from under us. That

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secrecy is... that's the poison. It's the unmarked bottle at

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the back of the medicine cabinet. Maybe you want your

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horror neatly labeled Ghost, Killer, Monster, Cursed Object. American Horror

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Story is offering a door with a 13 on it

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and asking you to open it without checking the peephole first.

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And I respect that. I also reserve the right to

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watch with one hand already reaching for the pause button.

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And if tonight is too soon to make that commitment, well,

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good news. The rest of this menu gives you time

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to choose your damage. Let's start at the front door,

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where Halloween is supposed to be friendly. Plastic Skeleton is

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Candy Bowl may be a jack-o'-lantern whose face you carved

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badly enough that it looks vaguely disappointed in you particularly.

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Tubi says a new Pumpkinhead curse is waking up in Redhaven,

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and Sam and Becca have to stop it before it

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takes the town. R.L. Stine's Pumpkinhead 2 is scheduled for

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October 9th on Tubi. and you can catch the first

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film there already. And a bonus Halloween treat is... Cassandra Peterson,

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Elvira herself, will be playing a witch named... Cassandra. I

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loved the first one. I really did. It's a great

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one to watch, especially with younger ones who still like

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to be scared. I especially loved how its ending felt...

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much darker than you might expect from something... That's costume

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is resembling a gateway Halloween movie. It lets you enjoy

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the seasonal fun, but then it quietly asks whether you're

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paying attention to what the curse actually costs. No spoilers here,

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because that little turn deserves to find you on its own.

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So this is the poison for the person who wants

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the neighborhood to feel wrong. Not the impossible monster deep

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in a remote forest. The decoration you walked past on

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your own street. The porch light that clicks on when

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nobody seems to be home. The pumpkin that was facing

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the sidewalk when you left and seems to be facing

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your window when you returned. That's not a scene report,

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but That's more what a harvest curse does to Halloween decor.

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We've already decorated the crime scene for it. If the

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sequel keeps the original's willingness to put a dark little

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sting inside its Halloween candy, this may be the easiest

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entry point on our list and the one that leaves

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you eyeing your front steps afterward. Alright, now let's leave

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the porch, come inside, lock the door though. Excellent. That

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solved absolutely nothing. Shudder's Infirmary arrives October 2nd, also on

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AMC +. Its fictional setup is body camera footage from

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a security guard who vanishes on his first night at

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an old psychiatric hospital. The useful thing about a body

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cam for horror is how horrible it is as a limitation.

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It can show exactly where somebody looked, but it can't

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show what weighted half an inch outside the frame. And

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regardless of what the person wearing it is seeing, it

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only sees straight ahead. You're carrying laundry past a bathroom.

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The shower curtain is pulled all the way across. You

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don't believe something is behind it. Right? You also don't

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enjoy how much you suddenly need to keep believing that.

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A camera pointed straight ahead is just a more expensive

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version of that very problem. This is the poison for viewers...

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who like to participate. You will lean around the edge

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of the television as though the screen might somehow grant

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you a better angle. You'll study the background instead of

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the person who's speaking. Later, when you get up for

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a glass of water or some candy corn, you'll notice

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how many rooms you cross without seeing all four corners

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at once. As a filmmaker, I love that very simple bargain.

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The frame gives you information and then it teaches you

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to distrust every bit of it because so much is

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left out. If infirmary delivers on that premise, the jump

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scare may not be the part that follows you. It

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may be the empty space beside the doorway when you finally, reluctantly,

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Against your better judgment, turn off the light. If you

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are enjoying this tour of newly suspicious rooms, follow Weekly

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Spooky for Thursday thrills every single week and send this

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to a friend who suddenly needs the hall light to

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stay on. All right. You checked the doorway. You checked

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behind the curtain. You have achieved the deeply temporary peace

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of a person who has inspected the obvious places. Then,

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something makes a noise. On October 9th, Shudder and AMC

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Plus get VHS Mixtape, a new entry in the Found

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Footage anthology series. Shudder says this time music, rhythm, and

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sound are built into the horror. That is a particularly

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cruel choice for a movie. you're watching at home because

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sound does not stay politely inside the rectangle of the

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TV an image has edges you can look away but

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a sound fills the kitchen while you're getting yourself another

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drink It follows you down the hallway. If something in

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a film seems to be coming from the left speaker,

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your brain may briefly vote that the noise came from

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the left side of the actual room. Your brain is

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not a reliable houseguest after midnight. The anthology format helps too.

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Just as you settle in to one set of rules...

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A new story arrives and shakes the trap up. You know,

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the little metal one you're stuck in. For anyone who

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falls asleep with background noise, that premise is delightfully hostile. Suddenly,

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the hum of the refrigerator has a second opinion. Pick

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this poison if you want the credits to end, but

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the soundtrack to keep going in your head. Maybe you

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decide the safest thing is silence. Then the house makes

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its usual tiny noises, and you discover silence was not

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the safest thing at all. There is a different kind

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of noise in Prime Video's Carrie. The new Mike Flanagan

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series drops all eight episodes... October 7th, Amazon describes Carrie

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White navigating a viral bullying scandal, the casual cruelty of

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the social media age, and powers she simply can't wish away.

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The name and premise are familiar. The small screen in

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everybody's hand gives this version a fresh starting place. Carry

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is not the poison for someone who only wants a

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hand to shoot out of a dark closet. The frightening

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thing at the center of this story is that humiliation

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can become a bonding exercise. Somebody records, somebody shares, somebody

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laughs because everyone else is laughing. Then your own phone

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buzzes on the couch and the little screen is suddenly

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the one you don't want to look at. That can

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make for a rough night on the couch. A slasher

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can make you afraid of the backyard. A story like

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this might follow you into sleep. It asks you to

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remember a room where nobody stepped in or a moment

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when maybe you should have. Flanagan has a full series

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rather than one feature to let the pressure build. I'm

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very curious about the distance between the tiny phone screen

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where cruelty goes viral and the big screen in your

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living room where we have to sit with all its consequences.

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That contrast alone can make this feel like a nightmare

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with your name on it. Choose carry when you want

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horror that may linger after the lights are on, not

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because you're checking a closet, but because you're still thinking

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about what people are capable of doing in plain sight. Now,

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the practical problem. The trash problem. It's gotta go out.

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The bins are just beyond the porch light, and a

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three-night-old tuna salad is beckoning to leave your personal space.

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On October 15th, Peacock is bringing us Crystal Lake, its

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new Friday the 13th prequel series. Peacock has confirmed the

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release date. A binge drop and Linda Cardellini... as Pamela Voorhees.

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There's a trailer out now, but I'm saving the camp's

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worst surprises for October. The name Crystal Lake already carries

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a whole weather system with it. You hear it, and

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you know the kind of place where a path disappears

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in the trees, where a little distance from other people

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stops feeling like freedom. A prequel can move the dread

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backward you know the legend that comes later now you

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wait to see what horrors were before it this is

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the poison for the person who loves the ritual of

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the scary movie and then regrets having normal chores in

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your living room there are walls a lamp there's a

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reasonably sturdy door Outside is the short walk to the

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bins that somehow has no business being so long. The

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motion light turns off while you're halfway back. Congratulations, you

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are now negotiating with your own driveway. That is the

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wicked pleasure of this category of horror. It doesn't have

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to convince you your home is haunted. It only has

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to make the dark patch between two safe places feel like...

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like a scene. If Crystal Lake finds a fresh way

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into familiar Friday the 13th territory, I suspect that that

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is where it'll get me. Not at the lake, but

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on the walk. From my front door to the edge

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of the yard. Six ways to ruin a perfectly peaceful

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night at home. Beautiful. My vote. Start with the kind

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of scare you enjoy bringing home. If you want a

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playful Halloween chill with a surprisingly sharp edge, keep an

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eye on Pumpkinhead 2. And hey, it's free to watch

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on Tubi, so what have you got to lose but

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your soul? If you want to make the whole house

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feel bigger and less trustworthy, try infirmary or VHS mixtape.

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If you want something that might follow you into dreams,

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Carrie is waiting. And if you have chores after dark,

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Maybe save Crystal Lake until somebody else agrees to take

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out the trash. Whichever poison you pick, leave the room

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exactly as it is when the credits roll. Don't rush

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to turn on another light. Watch the television become a

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mirror again. See the couch. See the kitchen. See the

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hallway behind you. Then, when you're quite sure it's empty,

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go check the locks. This has been Thursday Thrills. I'm

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Enrique Couto. Sleep well and, if the trash can can

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wait until morning, let it. Come back tomorrow for more fear.

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Until then, lock your doors. As if that will help.