The ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Ghost Train Episode Deserves a Spot In The Halloween Hall of Fame

When you think of Halloween episodes that would deserve a spot in a hypothetical hall of fame, some probably come to mind immediately, right? The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror series, any of the Bob’s Burgers Halloween specials (but particularly Season 6’s “The Hauntening“), or the Halloween episodes of any of your favorite sitcoms — most have at least one.

This year, I’d like to submit a lesser-talked-about episode for entry into the Halloween Episode Hall of Fame: “This Is a Dark Ride” from Season 3 of Pretty Little Liars.

In short, “This Is a Dark Ride” traps the Liars, their significant others, and a number of adversaries (including the elusive A) on a moving train for nearly the entire 42-minute run time.

It’s Halloween in Rosewood and the Liars are going all out with movie-inspired Halloween costumes, an immersive and campy Halloween party on the “Ghost Train,” and… Adam Lambert?

Before even getting into the true Halloween elements of the episode, it already has all of the elements that make the best episodes of PLL so great: creepy dolls, masks and hoods that do an okay job at hiding someone’s identity, wild texts from A, a random mom-related subplot that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, a hilariously out-of-touch one-liner from Hanna (Ashley Benson), and the overall feeling of paranoia that seems to follow the Liars wherever they go.

And then comes the real Halloween stuff, starting with a spooky take on the theme sequence. You know right away that this isn’t going to be a normal episode of PLL because, in addition to what is already pretty creepy on its own, the iconic theme song now features loud claps of thunder and dripping blood.

It wouldn’t be Halloween without costumes, and this episode’s costumes are a marked improvement over the more generic Season 2 costumes. The Liars all go as movie characters, and the choices align with their personalities.

Hanna, of course, is dressed as Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch, complete with a white dress and blonde bob, bookish Aria (Lucy Hale) channels The Great Gatsby‘s Daisy Buchanan though her Gatbsy has to skip the train party, Spencer (Troian Bellisario) and Toby (Keegan Allen) take on the 1940s glam of To Have and Have Not‘s Marie and Harry, and Emily (Shay Mitchell) shows up and shows off in a Barbarella inspired leotard.

The episode also takes significant inspiration from the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, and his 1938 film The Lady Vanishes, which follows a tourist whose companion vanishes as they travel by train. Aside from the obvious homage, the train setting, Aria’s arc in the episode borrows elements from The Lady Vanishes, including the moment when she writes her name in the condensation on the train window because she can’t be heard over the noise. And she eventually, like the titular Lady, vanishes.

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Then there’s the palpable paranoia that runs through the episode. There’s already a baseline level of paranoia in every episode of PLL, with constant reminders that the Liars are being watched, people dying under mysterious circumstances, and the general threat that A poses. “This Is a Dark Ride” does a great job of heightening that so much that it doesn’t feel like a typical episode thanks, in part, to the train’s dimly lit, loud atmosphere.

We become aware of A’s presence on the train as the Liars do; first a spiked drink, Aria disappears, and her name written on the window is wiped clean except for the letter A, then Hanna encounters a masked person who she thinks is her boyfriend Caleb, only to find a more menacing figure dressed identically with another more frightening Ali mask underneath it.

It all reaches a climax in a particularly harrowing scene involving Aria, a Rosewood P.D. officer, a wooden crate, and an opening on the moving train big enough to throw someone off. To top that all off, an unidentified body is found to have been chilling (literally) inside the drinks cooler all night. And the episode’s parting shot is something straight out of a horror movie: a hand reaching up out of a plot of dirt.

By combining what Pretty Little Liars does best and elements that are even eerier than the ones Rosewood residents are used to, the show nails their second attempt at a Halloween episode and makes what I think is one of the best installments of the show’s entire 160-episode run.

The episode comes at a perfect point in the series, too; if this episode had been dropped into, say, Season 5 — once Ali returned and the identity of A switched hands multiple times — I probably wouldn’t be writing this article.

But by placing this episode at the midpoint of Season 3, the Liars still firmly believe their friend was murdered (even if they didn’t know by who), are only aware of the original A, Mona, and *spoiler alert* the audience has also just found out about presumed-good-guy Toby’s involvement with the A Team one episode before this so that reveal is still ringing loud and clear in our heads.

“This Is a Dark Ride” understands the special holiday episode assignment: it furthers the plot just enough to still be somewhat standalone. You can watch “This Is a Dark Ride” just to ring in spooky season without feeling like you’ve totally missed a step.

Pretty Little Liars is streaming on Max.