This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FIU chapter.
It’s spooky season which means that a lot of people are in the theater watching movies that will either leave them paranoid or cause them unbearable nightmares. A lot of people tend to skip sleep all together and spend the night watching lighthearted movies to take their minds off the traumatizing experience. However, some people can’t find the perfect “It’s dark in my house and there’s demons waiting to grab my feet but I’m totally fine” movie. If you’re one of these poor unfortunate souls, I’m here to help you through the paranoia and the nightmares. As a fellow scaredy cat, I’m here to help you in your search for the perfect “post-scary movie.”
- How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days: This movie takes place in New York and follows the life of a magazine columnist Andie Anderson and an advertising executive Benjamin Barry. The audience follows them as they fall in love with each other over the span of 10 days. For those of you who enjoy a great 2000’s romantic comedy, this is a great movie choice for after a scary movie. The movie has the perfect mix of comedy and romance to help keep your mind at ease no matter how dark it is. As an added bonus, the stars of the movie are major eye candy! With that being said, if the romance and comedy doesn’t lighten your mood, Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson definitely will.
- Lilo & Stitch: Lilo & Stitch (if you haven’t seen it) is about a young Hawaiian girl named Lilo that is being raised by her older sister Nani. Lilo and Nani adopt a “dog” named Stitch who turns out to be an experiment from an alien planet. This movie can easily be described as anybody’s favorite Disney movie. The lightheartedness of the comedy and the childhood memories that are associated with this movie are enough to help you through your post movie paranoia.
- Chicken Little: This is another amazing Disney movie (hopefully you see the pattern here) about Chicken Little trying to convince a town that it’s about to experience an alien invasion. Usually people associate this movie with the iconic quote “The sky is falling!” This is an amazing movie to help you feel better about your surroundings and not feel as scared about your own shadow. Now I must warn you, you may end up having the song “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls stuck in your head for a month after watching this movie.
- An Extremely Goofy Movie: Another (surprise) Disney movie focused on Goofy and his family, specifically his son Max. The movie shows the audience how Max deals with college and new experiences, some of these experiences include having to deal with his father Goofy deciding he wants to go back to college. We see Max go through some difficulties and some pleasantries all while dealing with his father’s embarrassing tendencies. This is an amusing Disney movie that a lot of people can all relate to if they have had to deal with overbearing parents growing up. This is definitely going to be one of those movies that will touch the heart of many 90’s babies and help mend their traumatized minds this Halloween season as well.
- The Princess Diaries 1 & 2: Based on the life of a teenager from San Francisco called Mia Thermopolis, Mia’s life is turned upside down when her royal paternal grandmother comes out of the blue and tells her she is the princess of the country Genovia. The plot shows Mia going through the processes of turning into a princess while having to deal with the drama of High School. This story is one of the most beautiful and extreme “coming of age” tales that added fuel to the fantasy of every girl who grew up wanting to be a princess. The second movie came out in 2004 and follows Princess Mia as she goes through the process of becoming the next Queen of Genovia. The fact that these two movies are now on Netflix makes it even more amazing for Halloween because these movies are a wonderful choice if you’re in for a long night of not sleeping.
- Shrek: Shrek follows an ogre through his quest to save Princess Fiona and eventually fall in love with her. This movie is technically meant for kids but it has a lot of subliminal adult humor which could be a wonderful refresher after coming back from the movies.
- Scooby Doo: For those of you who grew up watching the animated cartoon of Scooby Doo like I did, this is a nostalgic movie full of humor a lot of people can enjoy. This movie is the original live action depiction of the cartoon we all know and love. The movie takes place in Spooky Island where Scooby and the gang are trying to solve a mystery while fighting monsters at the same time. The comedy and banter between all the characters in the movie would make this the perfect movie to reminisce on easier times and have a couple laughs as well.
- Mamma Mia!: For my musical lovers, you know I got you too! For those of you who haven’t watched this movie it takes place in Greece and shows a young girl’s quest to find out who her father is before her wedding. The movie isn’t just full of musical moments but of comical moments as well, the mix of these two aspects makes this movie a delightful treat after watching a scary movie.
- The Kissing Booth: This is a Netflix original movie based on the book written by Beth Reekles. This movie takes a modern twist to the romantic comedies we watched as teenagers that undoubtedly gave us false expectations of love. This movie does not fail to cause this same effect on us now as adults. The movie follows two people (Elle Evans and Noah Flynn) who grew up together and eventually fall in love because of a kissing booth at their High School carnival. If you don’t mind being reminded how single you are you should check out this movie after your scary movie marathon.
- To All The Boys I’ve Ever Loved Before: This is another Netflix original romantic comedy movie based on a book written by Jenny Han. If “The Kissing Booth” is not enough to feed your hopeless romantic soul, this movie will fill your heart to the brim. The movie starts with Lara Jean’s private love letters being sent out to her five biggest crush’s which sends her into a spiral. These letters being sent out led her to Peter Kavinsky, who ironically is one of the recipients of the love letters. This seemingly unfortunate event leads Peter Kavinsky and Lara Jean to fake date and make Peter’s ex and Lara’s real crush jealous. After months of fake dating (spoiler alert) the two end up falling for each other. This movie pulls at the heart strings and can be the perfect remedy for your scary movie paranoia.
Hopefully the list I’ve compiled helps all of you throughout the rest of your spooky season! May you all have sound dreams and scary low light bills this month.