The Halloween season is upon us, and all of us here at Chick Flick Reviews love the holidays (just wait til Christmas). In honor of the season, we’ve put together a list of our favorite Halloween/scary movies. So if you haven’t seen any of these, make sure to check them out.
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice is on the top of the list because it’s not only one of my favorite film of the genre, it’s one of my favorite’s of all time. To quickly sum it up, Michael Keaton plays Beetlejuice, a ghost who claims to be a human exorcist. He “helps” the recently deceased Venkmans (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) clear the new family out of their old home.
Hocus Pocus
Quite a few of us grew up watching Hocus Pocus every Halloween (Candice watches it every week because it’s a Disney movie). It’s a kid friendly movie about three witches (played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) who return from the dead on Halloween to take over Salem, Massachusetts. There’s also a talking black cat named Thachery Binx.
It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
Everybody has seen, at the very least a little bit of, It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. It’s a classic that’s on TV multiple times during the season. If by some chance you haven’t seen this, do yourself a favor and watch it. You’ll be happy you did.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas is the second movie on our list from Tim Burton. Jack Skellington learns to appreciate his Halloween spirit.
The Exorcist
Sometimes held as “the scariest movie of all time” (maybe not by today’s standards), The Exorcist helped defined a generation of horror films. If you’re a younger reader and haven’t seen this, it’s well worth the time. If you don’t think it’s scary, I guarantee your mother does.
Sleepy Hollow
Yet another Tim Burton film. Sleepy Hollow is simply a retelling of the class story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving…Â But this one has dreamboat Johnny Depp and actor extraordinaire Christopher Walken.
Alien
Alien is one of those movies that isn’t so much scary as it is creepy. It is, of course, about aliens, but it’s more about being left alone in space, where no one can here you scream.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Zack Snyder’s (Watchmen, 300) remake of the George A. Romero zombie classic does justice to the original, and spices it up for a new generation. It’s not as scary as you might think, either. It’s filled with more funny moments than it is moments that make you jump.
The Thing
The Thing is an older movie by John Carpenter staring Kurt Russell. It’s about a group of researchers in Antarctica that unwittingly house an alien being that slowly begins to take over their base. When I was young, this was one of those horror movies that would be shown at 3 in the afternoon on TV and I would always sneak into ‘the other room’ to watch it.
The Haunting (1963)
The Haunting was the very first horror movie I ever watched in it’s entirety. When I was about 10 years old I was on vacation with my family and it came on TV around midnight (I was on vacation! I could stay up that late!) This movie TERRIFIED me. I remembered very little about it other than being scared witless. When it was released on DVD I was a senior in high school and I bought it. Rewatching it, it wasn’t nearly as scary of a movie as I remembered it being, but it still has that nostalgia for me. Well worth watching (or buying for $5, for that matter).
The Shining
The Shining, staring Jack Nicholson, is Stanley Kubrick‘s visionary masterpiece of Stephen King‘s novel. Jack Torrance is the winter caretaker of the haunted The Overlook Hotel. Over the course of the season, he is slowly driven mad by the ghosts and his psychic son.
The Army of Darkness
Part of The Evil Dead Trilogy, The Army of Darkness is the last and (often thought as) the best film of the series. Ash (Bruce Campbell) is thrown back in time, where he battles The Army of Darkness in hopes to return home. This film is where many of Bruce Campbell’s trademark phrases are from; “Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This… is my boomstick! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart’s top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department.”
Well that’s our list, what’s yours? Leave a comment and let us know if we missed any. =)
no Disney Channel love for the first Halloweentown?
I can honestly say that I haven’t seen it. Would you be interested in doing a guest review?
its not worthy of its own review…but should be mentioned in halloween favorites because it will certainly be on tv this month as well has halloween town 2: kalabar’s revenge, halloween town high, and return to halloweentown.
halloweentown is the only good one though.
last night i was visited by the ghost of halloween past and he informed that you ERNEST SCARED STUPID is not on this list!! you have greatly disturbed the paranormal balance.