Medium's chilling Halloween episode cuts Patricia Arquette into Night of the Living Dead

By: Start TV Staff     Posted: October 16, 2018, 11:24AM

The eerie vibes of Medium provide viewers with plenty of scares throughout the series. With plots rooted in the supernatural, the series supplied chills whether the episode aired in fall or spring. Still, when Medium decided to do a Halloween episode in its sixth season, there was just something so naturally creepy about exploring the series within the holiday that "Bite Me" contains an endless stream of delights for those who bleed black and orange.

It all begins with the intro sequence, which finds Allison tossing and turning in bed. This is a sight we're used to seeing, but this time, instead of Patricia Arquette shooting up next to her husband with tousled blonde hair, it's a decidely different figure who emerges in the shadows of the familiar bedroom setting. Instead of Allison, it's Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson, making a cameo as lightning streaks.

The nightmares continue from there, literally. As Allison helps with the investigation of the murder of a funeral director, she has a sequence of dreams that replay the classic horror film Night of the Living Dead, only with Patricia Arquette in the role of Barbara. In black and white, we watch as the undead attack her in a cemetery scene long-regarded as the birthplace of modern zombies when George A. Romero first filmed it in 1968. The editing of these horror movie sequences with the Medium episode footage is fantastic, setting a mood that extends throughout the episode and pulls the entire family into the dreams.

While Allison dreams of zombies, terrified this dream may end in her actual demise if it continues long enough, her daughter Brigitte brings home the class pet tarantula and a B plot evolves that nods to B horror movies, too. The entire episode is so well-done, it makes us wish they'd had the foresight to do more Halloween episodes earlier on in the series. If only they knew a psychic who could've told them ...

Watch Medium on Start TV

Every day at 11 AM Eastern/ Pacific