If you know anything about me, you know that I don't do scary. I grew up with family members who were either impartial or obsessed with Halloween and scaring. I learned quickly that being scared was not an activity I enjoyed and that I was easily scared. Heck, I jump if you move to fast. I can see it coming and I'm still going to flinch.
As if disliking being scared was not enough, I really did not enjoy watching scary movies (except the funny ones like Scream that are just so fake that they make me laugh). I loved the Alvin and the Chipmunks Halloween movies and watching "The Munsters" with my dad, but only because they weren't scary.
As you can imagine, my favorite Halloween TV episode is not scary either. In watching it again, it's amazing that I saw it for the first time thirteen years ago. That's right. It's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" Halloween special from 2005: "The Ghost in Suite 613." Quite possibly the best Halloween episode to ever cross this planet just because of the humor mixed in with the slight scare, this episode highlights the nightmare every child worries about around Halloween time. While now, Halloween is just about dressing as slutty as possible and drinking yourself to death, Halloween used to be about walking about, trick or treating late at night and hoping not to run into a ghost.
In this episode, the cast tests the myth of the ghost in Suite 613. She is believed to be a beautiful, rich woman whose husband cheats on her after leaving her for war. After discovering the news, she threw her hairbrush at her mirror in a fit of rage and the glass shattered. One of the pieces cut her when the mirror shattered and she died. The cast heads into Suite 613, determined to discover whether or not the ghost does or does not exist.
The most famous scene from this episode involves Esteban, the lowly bellhop. Everyone has seen him speak in a woman's voice as if possessed. While the cast looks scared, the audience can laugh at the fact that again, Esteban sounds like a woman. In the end, we find out that the whole thing was a plot to scare Zack, as the rest of the cast was tired of him scaring them and pulling pranks on them.
"The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" is available for streaming in the Apple Store and Amazon (or Youtube for free). To the scaredy cats like me looking to watch something that celebrates Halloween, "The Ghost in Suite 613" is a great choice.
