Cable gets the scary stuff (well, scary for kids) out

Shriek to Scream

Cable TV channels are kicking into high gear in Halloween mode beginning with Nickelodeon's "Shriek Week." Starting at 7 p.m. today with the "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode "Curse of Bikini Bottom," Nick will feature scary stuff - for kids, anyway - through Halloween. Spike TV jumps in with "Scream 2009" at 9 p.m. Tuesday; it's a two-hour special taped earlier this month in Los Angeles and features new stuff from the "Star Trek" and "Twilight" franchises.

More than Girl Talk

The Documentary Channel takes a look at the increasingly mainstream underground mixing artist Greg Gillis, better known as the musical group Girl Talk, in Brett Gaylor's new film "RiP: A Remix Manifesto." Girl Talk is known for making fantastic song pastiches out of previously released music, without obtaining copyright releases. The film examines the issue at 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26.

Granddaddy 'Pumpkin'

Of course, of all the Halloween specials, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is the granddaddy of them all. It gets its annual airing on ABC at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, on WLS Channel 7. Although this is where Snoopy began to dominate the "Peanuts" TV specials, it's also got plenty of the trademark Charlie Brown angst, best reflected in the line, "I got a rock."

Creature preacher

All right, Waste Watchers, this week it's nothing but good: Robert Mitchum as a ruthless ex-con posing as a demented preacher in search of some lost loot in "The Night of the Hunter." It's the only movie ever directed by actor Charles Laughton, and it's a doozy, with expressionist shots and a prevailing tone of dread that mixes in atonement toward the end, embodied by Lillian Gish. It's at 7 p.m. today on Turner Classic Movies.