Why streamers see Halloween as a great time to win over new subscribers

It’s officially spooky season, which means it’s Shudder’s time to shine.

The AMC Networks-owned streaming service, which specializes in horror programming, caters to fans of the genre year-round, but there’s something particularly potent about its service when the leaves begin to change.

“This time of year brings a whole world of people who might not be excited about horror every day of the year, but this is also their time to watch it,” said Sam Zimmerman, Shudder’s VP of programming. “We really think, through September and October and the Halloween season, now is the time for quite literally everyone to come in.”

Shudder doesn’t break out its subscriber base individually (AMC Networks’ portfolio of six niche streamers last reported 10.8 million total subscribers), but Zimmerman said there is a “major influx” of new subscribers during Halloween season. That’s, in part, because this time of year, “everyone is looking for horror programming,” he said.

Other streamers seem to know it, too. As the nights grow longer and the autumn air grows crisper, just about every streaming service wants subscribers to know about its lineup of scary movies and shows perfectly suited to the season. It’s an indication of a particularly powerful opportunity that Halloween and other short-lived seasonal moments present in the never-ending quest to win over viewers.

“There’s more of a cultural significance [to] watching these things during a certain timeframe,” said Molly Barth, a senior cultural strategist at cultural intelligence consultancy sparks & honey. “It gets you into the mood. It gets you into that fall mindset.”

Scary stuff

In the fall, many general-entertainment streamers want to look spookier—and more like Shudder—than they normally do. Users can check out curated Halloween collections, like “Streams & Screams” on Netflix, “House of Halloween” on HBO Max, “Halloween Horror” on Peacock (formerly known as “Peacocktober”), or “Huluween” on Hulu. Shudder runs its own annual “61 Days of Halloween,” which includes original series and films like the well-received Speak No Evil that aired on Shudder this season.

The curation of those Halloween collections isn’t just about lumping toget her scary movies all in one, Zimmerman told us. There’s a special kind of vibe that Shudder looks to evoke with its selections, he explained; supernatural themes and haunted houses are particularly appealing to audiences this time of year.

“You want the shock, and you want the scare and the thrill, but there’s a comfort-food aspect to it too, especially if you’re a big horror fan,” Zimmerman said.

For viewers, comfort-food viewing can also mean rewatching old classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Shining or, increasingly, tuning into reboots, remakes, or spin-offs. On Hulu this fall, viewers can watch the rebooted Hellraiser franchise; sister streamer Disney+’s much-less-bloody Hocus Pocus 2, the sequel to the 1993 classic that premiered Sept. 30, quickly became the No. 1 film premiere on Disney+ domestically to date based on hours streamed. Starting this week, streamers will be able to watch Halloween Ends, the final-for-now installment in the long-running Halloween horror-film franchise, on Peacock.

Entertainment companies are already keen on using rebooted franchises as a way to try to guarantee that audiences show up, and Halloween presents those opportunities to mainline nostalgia in spades.

“It’s an incredibly nostalgic holiday,” Barth said. “It evokes really strong memories of dressing up when you were little, trick or treating for candy, hanging out with your friends, your parents…That childhood element is particularly strong, and [is] a big reason why many people are drawn to these Halloween traditions.”

This is Halloween

Unfortunately for the Halloween lovers among us, every day is not Halloween, and soon the autumn nights will shift into the next holiday, ending the moment of spooky unity in the ever-competitive streaming landscape.

To spin out of October effectively, streamers like Shudder prepare for the tonal shift that comes with the move into November and December, Zimmerman said. Lighter spooky fare like the competition series The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans will run through the end of the year as other programming shifts away from haunted houses and jump-scares to programming like supernatural crime stories.

And just around the corner is Christmas programming, which also offers up another seasonal moment for streamers to capitalize on in the way that fits their service best.

“We’re gonna move directly into the holiday season,” Zimmerman said. “Christmas horror is a huge thing.”