By Kaya Miller
If —like me—you are looking forward to the start of the holiday season but are particularly excited for the spooky festivities of Halloween, then this list is for you. As everyone knows, the normal Halloween protocol is not quite possible this year. But that does not mean you cannot enjoy a good movie party this Halloween. So, I compiled this list of movies to watch this week leading up to the big day. I have movies for families, horror fans, and holiday classics. From cult favorites to Disney hits, this list is sure to have something for you. So take a look, and enjoy your viewing.
1. The Haunted Mansion
In this spooky comedy, a family is meant to go on vacation, but the father, Jim Evers, chooses work first. The real-estate agent’s wife, Sara Evers, is summoned to an old mansion, where the family encounters the ghosts inhabiting the mansion.
2. Frankenweenie
In this Tim Burton film, both the live action and animated version, a young science-loving boy by the name of, Victor, is a parodic version of Mary Shelly’s, “Frankenstein”. In the movie, the young Victor loses his dog to death, and uses his scientific knowledge to bring him back. I highly recommend watching one or the other if you can, or both!
3. Scooby-Doo The Movie
The movie happens years after the Mystery Inc. gang closed its doors, and Scooby-Doo and his mystery gang pals, Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, and Velma are individually asked to come to Spooky Island to investigate a series of paranormal incidents at the Spring Break hot spot.
4. Casper
An animated 90’s classic, where Casper, the friendly ghost, is a kind young spirit who peacefully haunts a mansion in Maine. When paranormal specialist James Harvey arrives to communicate with Casper and the mansion’s other spirits, he brings along his teenage daughter, Kat. Casper grows quite fond of Kat, but their budding relationship is complicated not only because Casper is dead, but also by his troublemaking apparition uncles and their mischievous antics.
5. Halloween
This slasher favorite, and renowned classic tells the story of a six year old, Michael Myers, who brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister. Afterwards, he was sentenced and locked away for 15 years. But on October 30, many years later, he is being moved for a court appointment. While being transferred for a court date, a now 21-year-old Michael Myers steals a car and escapes his restraints and returns home to Haddonfield, Illinois, where he looks for his next victims.
6. Scream
In this other 90’s slasher classic, high school students of an American suburb, are being targeted and attacked by a ruthless serial- killer and prankster in town. The students involved try to unravel the mystery of the masked (both face and voice), killer. All the while, this movie remains hilarious and almost parody-like towards the horror genre.
7. The Corpse Bride
Another Tim Burton favorite, Corpse Bride is about a young man, (Victor) about to be wed to Victoria, because their families have arranged their marriage. Despite them liking each other, Victor is nervous about the ceremony, to which he responds by running to the woods to practice. While he’s in a forest practicing his lines for the wedding, a tree branch becomes a hand that drags him to the land of the dead. It belongs to Emily, who was murdered after eloping with her love, and now wants to marry Victor. Victor, all while dodging Emily’s affection, must get back above ground before Victoria marries the villainous Barkis Bittern.
8. The Others
This wonderful thriller of 2001 shares the story of Grace, the devoutly religious mother of Anne and Nicholas, who moves her family to the English coast during World War II. She awaits word on her missing husband while trying to keep her children safe from their shared photosensitivity disease that causes the sun to harm them. Anne claims she sees ghosts, which her mother dismisses. Grace believes that the new servants are playing tricks but chilling events and visions make her believe something supernatural has occurred.
9. My Babysitter’s A Vampire
One of my favorite Disney spooky season movies is about a young, geeky fourteen-year-old Ethan and his buddy baby-sit his little sister and almost get her killed. Ethan’s parents come up with the worst punishment possible—a babysitter. Now Ethan’s about to find out that his babysitter is a fledgling vampire.
10. Poltergeist
A family in California is experiencing strange apparitions and occurrences. When the youngest child, Carol-Ann, is hearing things from the family’s different tv sets, the family experiences an overall traumatizing experience as the spirits turn from an amusingly strange occurrence, to a malicious and ill-fated series of events. Only when the family accepts help from supernatural experts and communicators, does the family have the chance to get back to normal.
11. Hubie Halloween
In this very new Netflix comedy, out this month in fact, Adam Sandler takes on the new wacky role of Hubie Dubois. The movie takes place on October 31st in Salem, Massachusetts, and the town’s strange, devoted community volunteer to help protect Halloween. Hubie, is once again attempting to protect his town from Halloween dangers. Sadly, as Hubie becomes the object of his fellow citizen’s derision and meanest pranks, Hubie finds himself struggling to make headway in the midst of a real investigation into a real murderer.
12. Carrie
The adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, has a withdrawn and sensitive teen, Carrie White, facing taunting from school peers and abuse from her fanatically pious mother at home. When strange occurrences start happening around Carrie, she starts to think she has supernatural powers. When invited to the prom by the empathetic Tommy Ross, Carrie tries to let her guard down, but things ultimately take a dark and violent turn.
13. House at the End of the Street
This Jennifer Lawrence film shows the story of a mother and daughter, new to town, who have chosen unfortunate housing near an older house, one that the town prefers not to think about. Soon enough, the not-so-close pair find themselves in the midst of unexplainable events, and the two officially discover what the unfortunate events at the neighboring house were. Years earlier a girl killed her parents and disappeared, leaving a brother, Ryan, as the sole survivor. Elissa, to her mother Sarah’s disdain, begins a relationship with Ryan, and the closer they get, the deeper everyone is pulled into a dangerous mystery.
14. The Nightmare Before Christmas
If you don’t already know Halloween’s favorite movie, then you most certainly should watch it (or even if you do). Tim Burton brings to life the story of the misadventures of Jack Skellington, Halloweentown’s beloved pumpkin king. Jack, who has become bored with the same annual routine of frightening people in the “real world”, wonders about Doing something different, and finds himself wandering into an interesting new world. When Jack accidentally stumbles on Christmastown, with its all bright colors and warm spirits, he gets a new lease on life. Inspired, the skeleton begins to plan a way to bring Christmas under his control by kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over Santa’s holiday role. But Jack soon discovers even the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton men can go seriously awry.
15. Hocus Pocus
Once again, if this movie has not already crossed your eyes, I truly hope you give it a go. The 90’s favorite features a young man, Max Dennison, who just moved to Salem, Massachusetts. The teen explores an abandoned house with his sister Dani and their new friend, Allison, who warns them of an old Salem witch tale. After dismissing the story Allison tells him, Max accidentally frees a coven of delightfully evil witches who used to live in the house. Now, with the help of a magical cat, the kids must steal the witches’ book of spells to stop them from becoming immortal and further terrorizing the town.
16. HalloweenTown
Another Disney classic, this witchy feature introduces us to Marnie and her kids. This folks are in store for a big shock when following grandma home to Halloweentown. They find out they come from an entire family of witches. This town is the only place where supernatural beings can lead a more or less ‘normal’ life, but trouble is looming, for on her 13th birthday Marnie not only finds out she is a witch, but that she and her family are involved in a fight against a growing evil daring to take over the world.
17. Twitches
You guessed it, witches again, but with twins! Here, two twins, separated at birth, are reunited on their 21st birthday, which just happens to be on Halloween. Upon their discoveries of each other, they also learn of their family past. There are witches from another realm/kingdom, which is facing a dangerous darkness. Only the power of the two royal sisters joining forces can save the twins’ birth homes.
18. The Addams Family
What a splendid time it must have been to be growing up in the 90s with all these holiday favorites. This movie shows the well-known Addams family experiencing a wild swindling of the betraying manor. When a man claiming to be the missing brother of Gomez Addams, Fester, arrives at the Addams’ home, the family is thrilled. However, Morticia begins to suspect the man is a fraud, for he cannot recall details of Fester’s life. With the help of a lawyer, Fester manages to get the Addams clan evicted from their home. Gomez realizes the two men are conspiring to swindle the Addams fortune and that he must challenge Fester in order to save his home.
19. Pet Sematary
Steven King’s familial tragedy is adapted in this (and the most recent 2019 film) movie. The family of Louis Creed moves to Maine, following Mr. Creed’s work. They find themselves in an eerie property, with a pet cemetery, iconically spelled wrong, and an old couple as their neighbors. When the daughter of Louis loses her cat, the father and his mysterious neighbor do the unspeakable, and bring about a morbid fate for them all.
20. The Witches
In the Roald Dahl film adaption, both the original and 2020’s remake, young Luke, inadvertently spies on a convention of witches while staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga. The Grand High Witch unveils a plan to turn all children into mice via a magical formula. When the conference sees that Luke overheard, the witches decide to test the formula on him. Now, with the help of Helga and the hotel manager Mr. Stringer, Luke the mouse must fight back against the witches.
21. Beetlejuice
This comedic fantasy displays Barbara and Adam Maitland die in a car accident, of which afterwards they find themselves stuck haunting their country residence, unable to leave the house. When the unbearable Deetzes and teen daughter Lydia buy the home, the Maitland ghosts attempt to scare them away without success. Their efforts attract Beetlejuice, a rambunctious spirit whose “help” quickly becomes dangerous for the Maitlands and innocent Lydia.
22. Hotel Transylvania
A fairly new animated favorite starring the comedic voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez and so on, is about Dracula and his family. Dracula, who lost his wife to humans, creates a hotel, an oasis, for monsters like him and his daughter Mavis. The hotel is blocked from humans, and provides a loving home for Dracula and Mavis, that is until a young human finds his way into the hidden hotel during Mavis’ 118th birthday.
23. Ghostbusters
Really any movie under the franchise will do, but as this list is striving for classics and nostalgia, let’s have a look at the original Bill Murray film: Ghostbusters. A team of scientists lose their cushy jobs at a university in New York City, and they decide to become “ghostbusters” to wage a fight against the supernatural for money. They stumble upon a gateway to another dimension, a doorway that will release evil upon the city. The Ghostbusters must now save New York from complete destruction.
24. Gremlins
Much like The Nightmare Before Christmas, this spooky film, focusing on a cute little creature bought from a strange store, can be viewed during the Halloween fun, or even later in the holiday season. The movie, as previously stated, is about a creature, the mogwai, an inventor dad bought for his son for Christmas. The gift comes with a set of rules, that if broken, can have dire, but funny, consequences.
25. Coraline
Another movie adaption of a book written by Neil Gaiman, showcases young Coraline, not Caroline, who moves with her family to a new residence. While exploring her new home, the girl discovers a secret door, behind which exists an alternate world that closely mirrors her own but, in many ways, is better. Coraline, happy with her discovery, finds the secret world to fulfill her in ways her true home can’t. That is, until the Other Mother and the rest of her parallel family try to keep Coraline there forever. Coraline must use all her resources and bravery to make it back to her own family and life.
26. Sixth Sense
A psychological thriller of great renown, the Sixth Sense brings to life a curious, and perhaps sad story. A little boy by the name of Cole Sear, is haunted by a dark secret: he sees dead people. Cole, frightened by these visitations, is too afraid to tell anyone about his anguish except child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe. As Dr. Crowe tries to uncover the truth about Cole’s supernatural abilities, the consequences for client and therapist are a jolt that awakens them both to something unexplainable.
27. Monster House
An animated horror about the mystery around a certain house on the block. A trio of kids go looking into the house to confirm their suspicion of something wrong afoot.
28. Girl vs Monster
A teenage Skylar who was born into a family of monster hunters finds herself dealing with the monsters of her family’s past. To save the day, she must, with her friends, face the monsters who threaten to ruin the holiday.
29. Get Out
This new type of horror is of a ph interracial couple going away to meet the girl’s family after deciding to take things to the “next level“. As the couple stays, it is clear something is not right with the girl’s relatives, and the boyfriend finds himself discovering a horrible truth.
30. The Ring
Watch the tape, and you have seven days to live. Watch this film of mystery and fright, as it unravels the haunting cause of why such a cursed tape exists.
31. Edward Scissorhands
A young, human-like creation of freakish appearance lives alone in his dead creator’s home until a visiting saleswoman takes pity on the man and brings Edward into her home, where he falls in love with the woman’s daughter.