Movies to watch this Halloween season
You can feel it in the air. That slight crispness. The sunlight changing slightly. Before we know it autumn will be upon us. And with that change a shadow will slowly spread over over our neighborhoods. No, it’s not winter that’s coming. It’s Halloween. In addition to the usual Halloween parties, decorations, haunted houses, and the like, another fun way to celebrate the spookiest month is with an October watch-list to let you watch a scary movie every night of October. There are lots of movies to choose from, and with decades of various genres, from classic monster movies, comedies, and even the odd alien abduction movie, here’s a list of suggestions to get your own 31 nights of frightening fun.
First off, since It: Chapter 2 just came out, here’s a few scary clown movies to get us started. You can read our review of it: Chapter 2 as well.
Our first recommendation would be, appropriately, It: Chapter 1. Find out where the clown carnage began with the Loser’s Club of Derry. You could also check out the original It miniseries and watch Tim Curry’s take on Pennywise. The benefit of a miniseries is it allows more running time to delve into the circus of horrors terrorizing the children of Derry. And where would we be for scary clown movies without Killer Klowns from Outer Space, from 1988. Watch as a circus-themed UFO comes down and alien clowns terrorize a small town. What’s more fun than being molly walloped by an alien clown and encased in a cotton candy web?
Nothing, that’s what.
And if you’re still in the mood for more mummer madness, October 4 is the box office debut of the Joker movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix in stand-alone origin story of Batman’s greatest nemesis. While not supernatural or horror in the classic sense, we’re sure there will be enough clown carnage to go around.
What Halloween movie list is complete without ghost movies? Ghost stories are a staple of Halloween. There are so many movies about hauntings so I’m sure most have their personal favorites, so here are five of my favorites to get you started.
First off, we have Oculus. A haunted mirror destroys two generations of a family in a chilling movie with strong performances by Karen Gillan and Katie Sackhoff. Following up we have The Conjuring, the first of a trilogy of horror movies. The movies are based off of the careers of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose investigations inspired the Amityville Horror films and books. Next up we have Insidious, itself the first movie of a tetralogy about a family besieged by entities from the astral plane. In addition, what ghost movie list would be complete without the classic Poltergeist. This movie needs no introduction, and is a must-watch for ghost movie fans. Rounding out our list we have the original Ghostbusters, mixing fair parts ghostly scares with humor, Ghostbusters is a fan favorite for a reason. Accept no substitutes.
Continuing on with our theme of ghosts and the paranormal, we shift slightly to movies about possession by demons and other malicious entities. We begin with the granddaddy of possession movies; The Exorcist. This classic follows a Catholic priest as he tries to rid a young girl of the demon possessing her. Paranormal Activity follows in a somewhat similar vein, as a malevolent entity torments a family as told through security camera footage. Paranormal Activity is part of a series of movies, so you’ll have plenty to watch.
Next up we have a genre of scary movie that probably frightens us here more than any other. Alien abduction movies. While not as large a genre as other types of horror, it certainly makes up for it with frightful scenarios. The Fourth Kind covers a researcher looking into the large number of missing persons cases in Alaska. The use of ancient Sumerian and hypnosis makes for some chilling scenes. Dark Skies was a terrifying movie. Watching as a family is slowly besieged by aliens trying to get to their kids is a dreadful ride, culminating in a heart-wrenching ending that will stay with you for a while. Then, Communion is a trip out to the stranger corners of the alien genre. It’s based on the alleged story of Whitley Strieber’s alien abduction. On top of the usual alien abduction scenes, there’s a good dose of what ufologists call “high strangeness”; the bizarre actions and events that often follow alien activity. Cleansing the palate with lighter fare brings us to Spaced Invaders, where invading martians crash-land on Earth on Halloween night. The problem is they are the size of 8-yr olds and everyone thinks they are children. Zany hijinks ensue as the aliens learn about earth and try to stave off global destruction.
That concludes the first half of our movie list for a spooky Halloween watch list. Join us tomorrow as we go into even more movies to watch during October, and please leave comments with your favorite Halloween movies!
First off, since It: Chapter 2 just came out, here’s a few scary clown movies to get us started. You can read our review of it: Chapter 2 as well.
Our first recommendation would be, appropriately, It: Chapter 1. Find out where the clown carnage began with the Loser’s Club of Derry. You could also check out the original It miniseries and watch Tim Curry’s take on Pennywise. The benefit of a miniseries is it allows more running time to delve into the circus of horrors terrorizing the children of Derry. And where would we be for scary clown movies without Killer Klowns from Outer Space, from 1988. Watch as a circus-themed UFO comes down and alien clowns terrorize a small town. What’s more fun than being molly walloped by an alien clown and encased in a cotton candy web?
Nothing, that’s what.
And if you’re still in the mood for more mummer madness, October 4 is the box office debut of the Joker movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix in stand-alone origin story of Batman’s greatest nemesis. While not supernatural or horror in the classic sense, we’re sure there will be enough clown carnage to go around.
What Halloween movie list is complete without ghost movies? Ghost stories are a staple of Halloween. There are so many movies about hauntings so I’m sure most have their personal favorites, so here are five of my favorites to get you started.
First off, we have Oculus. A haunted mirror destroys two generations of a family in a chilling movie with strong performances by Karen Gillan and Katie Sackhoff. Following up we have The Conjuring, the first of a trilogy of horror movies. The movies are based off of the careers of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose investigations inspired the Amityville Horror films and books. Next up we have Insidious, itself the first movie of a tetralogy about a family besieged by entities from the astral plane. In addition, what ghost movie list would be complete without the classic Poltergeist. This movie needs no introduction, and is a must-watch for ghost movie fans. Rounding out our list we have the original Ghostbusters, mixing fair parts ghostly scares with humor, Ghostbusters is a fan favorite for a reason. Accept no substitutes.
Continuing on with our theme of ghosts and the paranormal, we shift slightly to movies about possession by demons and other malicious entities. We begin with the granddaddy of possession movies; The Exorcist. This classic follows a Catholic priest as he tries to rid a young girl of the demon possessing her. Paranormal Activity follows in a somewhat similar vein, as a malevolent entity torments a family as told through security camera footage. Paranormal Activity is part of a series of movies, so you’ll have plenty to watch.
Next up we have a genre of scary movie that probably frightens us here more than any other. Alien abduction movies. While not as large a genre as other types of horror, it certainly makes up for it with frightful scenarios. The Fourth Kind covers a researcher looking into the large number of missing persons cases in Alaska. The use of ancient Sumerian and hypnosis makes for some chilling scenes. Dark Skies was a terrifying movie. Watching as a family is slowly besieged by aliens trying to get to their kids is a dreadful ride, culminating in a heart-wrenching ending that will stay with you for a while. Then, Communion is a trip out to the stranger corners of the alien genre. It’s based on the alleged story of Whitley Strieber’s alien abduction. On top of the usual alien abduction scenes, there’s a good dose of what ufologists call “high strangeness”; the bizarre actions and events that often follow alien activity. Cleansing the palate with lighter fare brings us to Spaced Invaders, where invading martians crash-land on Earth on Halloween night. The problem is they are the size of 8-yr olds and everyone thinks they are children. Zany hijinks ensue as the aliens learn about earth and try to stave off global destruction.
That concludes the first half of our movie list for a spooky Halloween watch list. Join us tomorrow as we go into even more movies to watch during October, and please leave comments with your favorite Halloween movies!
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