TVSquad

It's the season for scary movies - bad scary movies, good scary movies, campy scary movies, any kind of scary movie. And depending on what cable company you subscribe to, there are plenty of free offerings right now on demand.

FearNet is the obvious go-to place for freebies, although it has its detractors hanging around this blog. One of the best choices available now is Return of the Living Dead III. Unless you're a hardcore horror geek, you may not know this one. And the plot -- a young couple near a military base are torn apart when she becomes one of the living dead -- may not sound exciting. But the first zombie onscreen is convincingly freaky, and the surprise ending is actually kind of a surprise.

FearNet also has Severed Ties, in which a severed arm comes back to life as a reptilian killing machine. And who doesn't like a good Garrett Morris/Oliver Reed team-up? And there are a couple of bigger movies, like Brian DePalma's Body Double and Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, and Sleepaway Camp II and III, featuring Pamela Springsteen (Bruce's sister).

But FearNet isn't the only game in town. If you have the Epix Free Preview on demand, you can see Bubba Ho-Tep, based on a Joe R Lansdale short story and starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis as Elvis and JFK (kind of). Also, Frankenstein, which they label Frankenstein 2004, with Parker Posey (she must have been one movie short of her quota that year), Love Bites from 1993 starring Adam Ant as a vampire, Poltergeist III, and Pet Sematary (scary if only for its spelling).

For the kids, Disney on demand has Return to Halloweentown (which reads "ReturnHalloweenTown" on the schedule due to lack of space) and Twitches, Too, which is based on the popular kids books.

Turner Classic Movies has Close Encounters of the Third Kind (which I thought was pretty scary as a kid) and the original 1958 Steve McQueen version of The Blob. You'd think tough guy McQueen could handle a bit of Jello, but he was young yet.

Plenty to keep you busy over Halloween, no matter what kind of scary movie you're into.