Hey Arnold!may not have very many Halloween-specific episodes, but it has enough spooky, creepy, and unsettling stories to keep viewers on edge, no matter the time of year. The lineup ofNickelodeon cartoons in the ‘90swill never be matched for many people who began watching TV during the decade. One of the crown jewels of these shows wasHey Arnold!Set in the fictional city of Hillwood, a combo of Seattle, Brooklyn, Chicago, and other cities,Hey Arnold!had a distinct flavor and tone with its realistic, down-to-earth urban environment.
Unlike some other animated shows, the characters never found themselves in cartoonish situations like inSpongeBob SquarePantsor had access to an action-packed lifestyle like the ones inRocket Power. Everything that happened inHey Arnold!could happen in the life of any city kid. Maybe that’s why there’s only one Halloween episode in the series, whereas something likeSpongeBobSquarePantshas many Halloween episodes. That doesn’t mean the city can’t be a scary place andthere are plenty ofHey Arnold!episodes that fit right in with the spooky season.
10"Part-Time Friends" (Season 3, Episode 16a)
Grandpa Appears For One Freaky Scare
“Part Time Friends” from season 3 finds Gerald and Arnold both getting jobs at Mrs. Vitello’s flower shop. When Mrs. Vitello gets injured, she puts the more veteran Gerald in charge, which immediately gets on Arnold’s nerves. The pair butt heads and argue over who’s really in charge, nearly bringing an end to their friendship, or at the very least, ruining their plans to make some money.
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During a flashback sequence, Arnold imagines himself and Gerald many years in the future at an advanced age, and still arguing about the flower shop. The elderly Arnold motions to the thing he fears most, and an unexpected camera pan shows a nearly zombified Grandpa cackling before his lower jaw cracks off. It comes completely out of nowhere in an otherwise standard episode ofHey Arnold!probably causing plenty of startled jumps off the couch when it happened.
9Das Subway (Season 1, Episode 13a)
A Relatable Claustrophobic Nightmare For City-Dwellers
In season 1’s “Das Subway”, a play onthe famous submarine movie,Das Boot, Arnold and most of his friends take the subway one afternoon when the train shuts down, trapping the kids with an assortment of adults, who are all varying degrees of relaxed with the situation.It’s a very relatable fear for anyone who has ever traveled underground in a major metropolitan areaand when the air conditioning shuts off, the worst nightmares of many urbanites appear on-screen.
It’s a very claustrophobic episode and the subway conductor, whose nerves are clearly already frayed, makes the whole situation worse. The slowly growing hysteria in the car is punctuated by plenty of jokes, of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s still an uncomfortable situation all around. Fortunately, the end of the episode features a bunch of puppies and hugging to erase some of those claustrophobic feelings.
8Arnold Visits Arnie (Season 5, Episode 10a)
Arnold’s Cousin Is Back For His Second, Strange Episode
Arnie’s first appearance inHey Arnold!came in season 4, episode 11a, “Weird Cousin”, where his dead-eyed, monotone personality was upsetting to basically everyone who met him. It’s even weirder in season 5, episode 10a, “Arnold Visits Arnie”, where Arnold goes to his cousin’s hometown and finds a country bizarro version of Hillwood. Where every character from his home has an opposite counterpart. As in, the Phoebe look-a-like is not the brightest student, and the Stinky look-a-like is brilliant.
The episode feels like a mashup ofInvasion of the Body Snatchersas Arnold begins to notice all the eerie similarities between his cousin’s home and his own. There’s even an extended homage toChildren of the Cornwhen Arnold has a nightmare about Arnie and his friends chasing Arnold through the fields at night for some nefarious purpose.
7Phoebe Cheats (Season 2, Episode 8b)
Phoebe’s Guilt Manifests In Scary Ways
A parody ofThe Tell-Tale Heartby Edgar Allan Poe, “Phoebe Cheats” is one of the fewHey Arnold!episodes to star Phoebe Heyerdahl, the class over-achiever and A+ student. In this season 2 episode, Phoebe makes a huge mistake by plagiarizing a poem for entry into a poetry contest. Her guilt becomes unbearable, and when she wins the contest, her feelings manifest in the trophy she receives, which resembles Emily Dickinson.
Phoebe’s anxiety-ridden wait to find out if anyone will discover she’s cheated is tense enough for anyone who made a judgment of error in middle school.
Phoebe’s anxiety-ridden wait to find out if anyone will discover she’s cheated is tense enough for anyone who made a judgment of error in middle school. Things get even spookier when the unmoving statue of Dickinson begins whispering, “cheater” to Phoebe. Framed against a dark, stormy window, it’s a frightening sequence that wouldn’t be out of place inan episode ofAre You Afraid of the Dark.
6Wheezin’ Ed (Season 1, Episode 13b)
A Scary Urban Legend About A Mobster’s Buried Treasure
TheHey Arnold!gang rarely travels out of Hillwood, but in “Wheezin' Ed”, the gang go to Elk Island to uncover the secret treasure of the titular gangster. Gerald introduces the “Legend of Wheezin' Ed”, a Prohibition-era gangster who hid his ill-gotten treasure on an island off the shore of Hillwood. The gang travels to the island only to uncover an illegal penny-forging operation and determine there’s no buried treasure there after all.
Illustrator Chris Robertson guest-animated the “Legend of Wheezin' Ed” sequence in the episode.
The most frightening part of the episode comes from Gerald’s tale, which is drawn in a completely different style than the rest ofHey Arnold!, a hallmark of animated Halloween episodes.The scratchy, dark drawings of Wheezin' Ed are the things of nightmaresand suggest a particularly violent life for the gangster. Even more unnerving, the end of the episode returns to Elk Island where a raspy laugh can be heard coming from the cave, suggesting something supernatural after all.
5Haunted Train (Season 1, Episode 2b)
Arnold, Gerald, And Helga Investigate An Urban Legend
In “Haunted Train”, Grandpa takes over for Sid and Gerald as the teller of an urban legend. On a boring summer night, Grandpa Phil tells Gerald and Arnold about “The Haunted Train”, a ghost story about an engineer who drove his train off the tracks and reappears every year on the same night to take passengers to the fiery underworld. Intrigued, Arnold, Gerald, and Helga go to the abandoned train station to see what’s real and what’s not and get more than they bargained for.
There are plenty of frightening sequences in the episode, such as lights flickering, doors slamming, and other perfectly Halloween events that make the trio believe in the Haunted Train. Everything is eventually revealed to have a logical explanation, but the ending of the episode sees the Haunted Train arriving with the hideous, demonic engineer cackling at the helm, with only Brainy there to witness it.
4Four-Eyed Jack (Season 2, Episode 16b)
Arnold’s Boarding House May Have A Ghostly Resident
In “Four-Eyed Jack”, the residents of Arnold’s boarding house begin to suspect that the ghost of a former resident, Four-Eyed Jack, is behind strange occurrences in the building. It’s a quintessential Halloween episode with a great build-up as the tenants find Jack’s glasses and explore the increasingly frightening house. ThisHey Arnold!episode even has the adults frightened, making the ghost story feel more real than ever.
The entire episode builds to one final jump scare that is executed perfectly.
The entire episode builds to one final jump scare that is executed perfectly. Once everyone decides that there are no such things as ghosts, they all go to bed. Suddenly, an invisible spirit picks up the glasses and approaches Gerald on the couch. As he opens his eyes, he sees the green, ghostly visage of Four-Eyed Jack, who just stares at him before saying, “Boo!”. It’s half-funny and half-terrifying thanks to the ghost suddenly appearing on-screen. There’s almost a nightmare-like quality to his steady silence.
3Headless Cabbie (Season 4, Episode 14a)
An Urban Legend About A Spectral Carriage Driver
In “Headless Cabbie,” Arnold tells his friends a ghost story during a sleepover. His story is a riff onThe Headless Horsemanand is about a park carriage driver who picks up a mysterious woman who offers him a red scarf. During their ride, the scarf wrapped around a tree and decapitated him. Now he haunts the park on autumn nights. Disbelieving the story, the boys go to get some ice cream and take a shortcut through the park where they encounter the same events from the story.
Despite not being set on Halloween,thisHey Arnold!episode is a classic of the holiday thanks to its chilly and haunting atmosphereand the urban legend at the center of the story. As the boys go deeper into the park, it feels more and more like they will meet something supernatural and the end of the episode hints that there may indeed be a headless cabbie wandering the park late at night.
2Arnold’s Halloween (Season 2, Episode 11)
The One And Only Hey Arnold! Halloween Episode
The onlyHey Arnold!Halloween episode, appropriately titled “Arnold’s Halloween”, is not necessarily that scary but has all the hallmarks of the holiday. The episode is a parody of Orson Welles’The War of the Worldsthat finds the Hillwood citizens mistaking a Halloween prank for an actual alien invasion. Wanting to one-up his Grandpa’s pranks, Arnold and Gerald decide to fake an alien invasion, and when they accidentally knock all the power out, the grown-ups are sure that they really are under attack.
This episode is filled with Halloween hallmarks, including everyone spending the episode in costumes, candy, Halloween pranks, and decorations all over. Every frame will get viewers in the mood for the spooky holiday. It’s also one of the fewHey Arnold!episodes that bring together most of the cast, which is one of the best parts of any holiday-themed episode.
1Ghost Bride (Season 5, Episode 20a)
A Violent And Frightening Urban Legend
In “Ghost Bride,” Gerald tells the story of the titular spirit, whose real name is Cynthia Snell. Cynthia brutally murdered her fiancé after he left her alone at the altar to marry her sister. After also killing her sister, she jumped from the second story of her home, killing herself. Cynthia was buried in a cemetery near where the boys live and apparently arises once a year on the anniversary of her death. When they go to see it, they’re scared by Helga and Curly, who both dress as the ghost.
It’s one of the most violentHey Arnold!episodes with lots of references to murder and suicide, making it a Halloween episode more in line with John Carpenter’sHalloweenthan an afternoon special. The depiction of the brides' murders is intense and the rainy, dark atmosphere that settles over the episode makes this one of the most frightening and spooky stories inHey Arnold!.
Hey Arnold!
Cast
Hey Arnold! Is a Nickelodeon animated comedy/drama series that follows a group of kids and adults living in New York. Arnold, the “football head” shaped protagonist, lives with his eccentric grandparents, who seem to get into more mischief than he does, and attends P.S. 118. Along with his best friend Gerald, Arnold interacts with several other unique students, which includes frenemy Helga – who secretly harbors feelings for him. The show tackles various topics relevant to growing kids and teens, such as poverty, loss, romance, jealousy, and more, and eventually went on to have a feature film.
