Clint Howard's unhinged ice cream slasher might just be the greatest horror B-movie ever made

Come Christmas time, if you’re looking for some wholesome (but not sickeningly so), feel-good, family entertainment, you can take your pick. While A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of the best sources of that warm holiday feeling, if you didn’t want to fork over the money to buy the special from Apple TV or Prime Video, you could get a similar sensation from things like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! But at Halloween time, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown stands alone in providing that cozy feeling, which is just one of the reasons it's become essential viewing this time of year.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown tells the story of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts gang and their goings-on around the Halloween holiday. There’s pumpkin carving, leaf-raking, and other fall activities which all lead to the kids going out for “tricks-or-treats.” All except Linus, that is, who sits in a pumpkin patch all night long awaiting a being known as “The Great Pumpkin,” who is supposed to leave presents in only the most sincere pumpkin patch. Linus even loops Charlie Brown’s sister Sally into waiting........

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