Review: Family Guy “A Little Fright Music”

Last year, Family Guy started off Season 23 with a Halloween special, “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Cheater,” released on Hulu. It seems to have become an annual tradition, with 2025 giving us “A Little Fright Music.”

Christmas might have the monopoly on carols, but Brian and Stewie make it their mission to change that once they hear “Monster Mash” one time too many. Meanwhile, Peter and his pals get a little more than they bargained for with some trick-or-treating shenanigans.

The elephant in the room with Brian and Stewie’s story, that fans have been asking about since the trailer dropped, is that there are plenty of songs people have “adopted” as Halloween songs over the years. The episode actually addresses this early on, with Brian listing a few, like “Witchy Woman” and “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Stewie admits “Thriller” is scary, at least on Bubbles’ behalf, but really wants a song directly about Halloween. Though, honestly, it’s almost a surprise Stewie doesn’t make an allowance for the unmentioned “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back.)”

When Chris shows off some costumes in front of Brian and Stewie, set to “Monster Mash,” Brian and Stewie decide to make their own song. Stewie gets in over his head, blowing money on a studio and dating his own answer to Yoko Ono.

Meanwhile, Chris plans on going trick-or-treating as an undead Travis Kelce, but Lois feels he’s too old, making him stay home to give out candy. However, Peter decides to go behind Lois’ back and take Chris out for a night of fun. Peter and his friends dress like nuns, inspired by The Town, but go along with everyone’s assumption that they are doing a Sister Act bit. After having fun trick-or-treating, they eventually find themselves dragged into the woods by mysterious masked figures.

For her part, Lois gets into her sub-plot early on, complaining how commercial Halloween has become in recent years, from the price of pumpkins to kids wearing costumes from shows they’re too young to watch. Her and Peter’s stories intersect when they find out about Peter’s lies about the holiday. The twist is easy to guess, but it does lead to a touching moment when Lois regains her holiday spirit.

Still, Lois bemoans that there aren’t Halloween songs to end the night on and viewers at home can see where this is going. Stewie and Brian arrive on the scene with a lavish 1920s-style spooky song. Going into this subplot, one would think it would have ended up mostly being jokes on what a bad writer Brian is, but it actually ends with a fun pay-off.

Meg doesn’t really get to do much this special, but at least gets to have fun as a witch during Stewie and Brian’s big number. For fans of Fox shows poking fun at each other, Chris also briefly gets to dress up like Grimsburg‘s Marvin Flute.

Wrapping things up, the special ends on a joke with the town getting ready for Christmas. Quagmire’s even got his own spin on “Ho-Ho-Ho.” All in all, it was a fun special, leaving viewers to get excited for whatever Hulu’s got planned for the winter holidays.