With Halloween quickly approaching and the weather (just as quickly) dropping, now is the perfect time as any to stay in, stay warm and enjoy a nice (or scary) Halloween movie! Now I may not be impartial since Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday, but finding a good, quality movie can definitely be difficult since so many just don’t live up to the holiday’s excellence. Since everyone can appreciate a fun movie night, I am here to tell you about the best Halloween movies to put on your holiday watchlist.
Whether you love the scary, edge-of-your-seat ones or you like the funny, not-so-scary ones, there is a movie for everyone this Halloween season. Since I am a lover of the suspenseful, jumpy movies, I have asked various people what their go-to Halloween movie is and here are the results, in order of spookiness (of course).
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It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
A Halloween classic – many people told me that they use this movie to officially start the fall and thus marking the beginning of the holiday season. The movie shows the whole Peanuts crew celebrating Halloween while Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin.
I’d give this movie a spooky rating of 0.
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Halloweentown (1, 2, & Halloween High ONLY)
Let’s be honest, while all the Halloweentown movies are great; it was never the same when they changed Marnie’s character. There is only one, true Marnie. That is why Halloweentown 1, Halloweentown 2, & Halloweentown High are the best ones to watch. The trilogy starts off with Marnie and her siblings finding out they have magical powers and travel over to Halloweentown to help their Grandmother save the town from various creatures. It continues on while the children grow up and become more involved in their powers and help fight bigger and badder things. Marnie leaves us with Halloweentown High where she is granted a chance to live a mortal life and go to mortal high school, but if one bad thing happens due to the magic, she loses her powers forever. Due to the various costumes and masks people wear, I’d give this a spooky rating of 1.
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Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus is probably one of the top favorite movies of the season. The movie takes place three centuries later where three sister witches are resurrected in Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween night. It is up to two teenagers, a young girl and an immortal cat to stop the witches’ crusade against children once and for all. If you aren’t into movies with witches and a kind of spooky dead guy, I’d give this a spooky rating of 2.
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Nightmare Before Christmas
There is no Halloween without Jack Skellington. Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, but in this movie he ends up stumbling upon Christmas town. He tries to understand Christmas Town and begins to adopt the ideals of Christmas, but gets the two holidays mixed up. Meanwhile, some not-so-nice Halloween Towners are trying to get Jack in a whole lot of trouble. Due to the “somewhat creepiness of the claymation” (as my friend would say), this movie gets a spooky rating of 4.
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Halloween
Michael Myers, a true icon of Halloween. The Halloween movies have spanned from their arrival in 1978 to all the renditions – the latest one being in 2009. The movies stemmed from the original where a six-year-old boy murdered his sister on Halloween night. He gets sent to a mental hospital and spends 15 years there until he breaks out and returns to his hometown to kill. Each movie after has shown Michael trying to come after and kill someone and someone always “kills” him, but he always comes back. I’d give this Halloween movie a spooky rating of 6.
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Sinister 1 & 2
I saw these movies with one of my best friends and while we both willingly went to see them, he and I were both scared out of our minds. Sinister starts with a stumped writer and his family moving to a new house where they find a box with eight homemade movies. Each movie shows a different family living in that same house being murdered, dating all the way back to the 1960s. The children are lured by a dark figure, named Bagoul, and he gets them to kill their families and then they disappear! The sequel was just as creepy, but also just as good. I would definitely give this movie a spooky rating of 8.5!
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Conjuring 2
The vote for this one was unanimous. Everyone I spoke to said that this movie was, by far, one of the best scary movies they have seen. While I slightly agree, it definitely did not disappoint. The movie takes place in 1977, where two paranormal investigators (Ed and Lorraine) travel to London to a home where a girl has been possessed by demons. The couple tries to relieve the girl of the possession, only to make themselves a target. This movie had me, and many others, sitting on the edge of the seat the entire time. Conjuring 2 gets a spooky rating of 9.
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre
This one is for all the gore-loving moviegoers out there. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies started in 1974 and since then have had plenty of renditions. The original movie shows five teenagers on their way to their grandfather’s grave where they pick up (and soon drop-off) a sinister looking hitch-hiker and make their way to their old home to find a bunch of cannibal eating, power-tool using, socially delayed people waiting for them. I would give this movie a spooky rating of 10 due to the excessive amount of blood and gore – yuck.
Halloween movies are an excellent part of what makes Halloween, Halloween. Whether you love the gory, suspenseful, scared out of your mind movies or you like the dancing cartoons in costumes; there is something for everyone to enjoy this Halloween season. So grab a movie, make some popcorn and watch till your heart’s content – you may want a buddy for some of the scary movies to hide behind!