In the canon of the genre, there are many horror movies that would be appropriate to watch on Halloween night. Most major cable networks do horror movie marathons, and virtually every streaming site has hundreds of choices.
The war of streaming services is emerging as the next significant conflict in the entertainment business, and streaming services like Netflix and Disney are competing against one another by releasing films and TV shows that are exclusive to their platforms. Consumers now have to spend time sorting through an ever-growing array of services to choose which one serves the information they want to view.
Here is our selection of the top 15 Halloween TV series and movies available today. With some popcorn and our suggestions, enjoy the holiday season while snuggled up in bed.
15 Best Halloween Movies And TV Shows To Watch
1. Ghostbusters
The first film on our list is the 1984 American comedy-drama Ghostbusters, which was written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis and directed and produced by Ivan Reitman. It stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis as three eccentric parapsychologists named Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler who start a ghost-catching business in New York City.
In order to prove that ghosts exist, Columbia University professors Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) founded the Ghostbusters, a paranormal study and removal organization. The simplicity of the concept contributes to its genius because it is undeniably amusing to see three comic heavyweights spar while battling ghosts and spirits throughout New York City. And even if you are an extreme worrier, you should be able to stomach Ghostbusters as long as your worst nightmare doesn’t entail a gigantic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man running amok.
It’s true that a significant chunk of my passion for Ghostbusters originates from two separate sorts of nostalgia: one for the friendship that hangs over the full course of this terrific little comedy and another that is absolutely solipsistic. But leaving nostalgia aside, this has always struck me as the best mainstream 1980s humor.
You can watch it on your Roku device with Hulu, Spectrum TV, Freeform – Movies & TV Shows, Prime Video, Vudu, ROW8, Redbox, or Apple TV.
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2. Hocus Pocus
A teen boy (Omri Katz) unwittingly revives a trio of evil comic witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) in Salem, Massachusetts, on Halloween night in the 1993 American fantasy comedy Hocus Pocus. Kenny Ortega is the director, while Neil Cuthbert and Mick Garris are the authors.
Walt Disney Pictures presented the movie on July 16, 1993, in the United States. It did not fare well at the box office and earned mixed to poor reviews from critics upon release. It may have cost Disney $16.5 million throughout its theatrical run.
Three children who escape the Sanderson Sisters’ enchantment transform a classic “Halloween Ghost Story” into a real-life adventure. When “a virgin lights the candle,” the Sanderson Sisters—amazingly portrayed by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy—who were executed roughly 300 years ago after being found guilty of witchcraft in Colonial Salem, Massachusetts, come back to life.
To prevent the evil witches from carrying out their evil plot to attract the town’s youngsters to their witch home and sip their life-force away from them, two teens and an eight-year-old must work together.
Hocus Pocus is presently accessible on Disney+. Hocus Pocus is available for streaming on Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes by renting or buying.
The Midnight Club
3. The Midnight Club
Now, let’s get to some of the new Halloween shows. Released on 7th October of this year, critics are vouching ‘the Midnight Club’ for this holiday season.
There is a contender for the Guinness World Record for the most designed jump scares in a single television episode. Coincidentally, a new Netflix series is releasing at the same moment.
At the Netflix New York offices on Thursday, co-creator of the series Mike Flanagan and his creative team were presented a plaque honoring the new record of 21 jump scares. The Midnight Club, his new series, will launch on the streamer the following day. Adjudicator Andrew Glass, a representative of Guinness, was present to make it official.
In the novel The Midnight Club, a group of youngsters lives together in a residence that functions as a hospice. They seek to live out their dying days without being buried in medical procedures, keeping each other company, despite the fact that they are all terminally sick, most of them having cancer, and one with AIDS.
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4. Trick ‘r Treat
A terrifying (and sometimes lovable) trick-or-treater who stumbles through each of the tales of terror in a tiny village on Halloween night binds the four short films that make up the modern Halloween cult classic Trick ‘r Treat from 2008 together. This makes it the ultimate Halloween pre-party date night movie before you cause your own mayhem on the streets.
Even though it earned fantastic reviews, it was apparently deemed to be too unorthodox of a movie for wide release, and just like The Cabin in the Woods five years later, nobody understood how to sell it to a large audience. It fell prey to its own creativity.
It simultaneously invokes vintage horror flicks from the 1930s and the newest independent film. I have no doubt that Trick ‘r Treat will continue to feel absolutely timeless in 30 years for this reason.
Trick ‘r Treat is available for streaming on Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes by renting or buying.
5. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Although A Charlie Brown Christmas may gain the most attention, this Halloween-themed play is just as wonderful. Linus and Sally spend the night in a pumpkin patch in anticipation of the Great Pumpkin, while Charlie Brown’s endeavor to go trick-or-treating ends just as poorly as you might predict.
All ages can enjoy this popular Peanuts classic. It fosters a number of famous Halloween practices, including trick-or-treating, apple-tossing, and the famed Great Pumpkin.
Snoopy plays it up during a pretend skirmish on top of his dog home while dressed up as a World War I flying ace, replete with flying bullets. The youngest viewers may find some of the Halloween pictures (ghosts, skeletons) disturbing.
The “Charlie Brown” Halloween special is exclusively available on Apple TV+ in 2022, and it is briefly free for everyone.
6. Hell House LLC
Hell House is a found-footage horror movie that was released in 2015 and was made by Fbi Films, written and directed by Stephen Cognetti. The documentary-style movie follows a team of Halloween haunted house designers as they prepare ready to debut their well-liked horror attraction, Hell House, in 2009.
On the first night of the journey, disaster strikes as an unspecified “malfunction” result in the dying away of 15 tourists and employees. The movie recounts how the calamity came about and documents the intricacies of what went wrong that night, which have long been a secret to the broader public. On November 1, 2016, the movie was made accessible on a variety of video-on-demand providers, including Amazon Video, Shudder, YouTube, Vudu, and iTunes.
A bunch of guys tries to prepare an antique hotel for the Halloween season by turning it into a haunted attraction. On their first night in operation, a horrible accident took the lives of 15 visitors and employees.
You can presently watch “Hell House LLC” for free with advertising on The Roku Channel, VUDU Free, Tubi TV, fuboTV, Shudder, and Amazon Prime Video.
7. 28 Days Haunted
All scheduled to debut on Netflix in October is ’28 Days Haunted’ this year for Halloween. The trailer for Netflix’s next reality TV show, which will focus on the paranormal, has been revealed. Joe Berlinger, the director of the true crime documentary series Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, is in charge of the series’ directing.
Three teams each spend 28 days at some of America’s most haunted sites for a paranormal experiment based on the ideas of Ed and Lorraine Warren, according to the series’ official description. The opportunity to take part in the most severe paranormal experiment ever will be granted to four daring teams of paranormal investigators.
The trailer begins out like any fictional horror film, when all the cupboard doors and cabinets are opening and closing on their own. Followed by a stern narration where the narrator states it feels like a warning over dark vision footage, where humans look more like ghosts.
8. Ghost Adventures
American paranormal and reality television program Ghost Adventures made its debut on the Travel Channel on October 17, 2008, and will transfer to Discovery+ in 2021. On July 25, 2007, the Sci-Fi Channel presented an independent movie of the same name. The show follows paranormal investigators Zak Bagans, Nick Groff (seasons 1 through 10), Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley as they check into rumored haunted locales.
In order to put together the eerie history of each area, paranormal investigators Zak Bagans and Aaron Goodwin, together with A/V technicians Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley, go to haunted locations. In an endeavor to answer each haunting riddle, they then undertake a dusk-to-dawn lockdown investigation while deploying the most up-to-date equipment to address the paranormal activity that has been reported.
9. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Another film that isn’t truly related to Halloween but has still established an unofficial place in the Halloween canon. Despite being officially set in November, this movie has a Halloween-like feel throughout. Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) feel as though they are unwittingly attending the most odd and crazy Halloween party ever when they stumble across Dr. Frank-N-(Tim Furter’s Curry) residence.
A famous example of how to disrupt traditions and expectations with a knowing grin is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The horror comedy has always been a legendary celebration of camp and deviant pleasure, from its 1973 debut on a tiny London stage to its 1975 film adaptation starring Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry, the movie’s subsequent cult classic status, and the thousands of midnight screenings that are still held worldwide every year.
10. Impetigore
The 2019 Indonesian horror movie ‘Impetigore’ was written by Joko Anwar penned and directed. Tara Basro, Marissa Anita, Christine Hakim, Asmara Abigail, and Ario Bayu all appear in the movie. The movie follows Maya (Basro), who, after having a strange occurrence, journeys to her distant family village with her companion Dini (Anita) in pursuit of an inheritance.
The movie, which had been in development for almost ten years, was first delayed and finally unveiled in 2011. Impetigore was obtained as a global co-production comprising production firms situated in Indonesia, South Korea, and the US seven years later.
A curse forces newborns in the secluded town of Impetigore to be born without skin. Maya and her best friend head to the village where she has an inherited home in the hopes of selling it. Instead, she finds angry people who are persuaded that her murder will lift the curse that hovers over them.
11. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
This is the third and last episode of the “Conjuring” series. This chapter digs deeply into the dark and criminally infected realm of a demonic spirit as never before. This installment is based on a true occurrence that became a landmark case in the history of the American court.
Authors David Leslie Johnson and James Wan ingeniously transform an actual incident into a compelling murder mystery. The Warrens also involve the audience in their excursion into the unknown. It is fairly clear that Johnson and Wan have a remarkable literary talent, as seen by blockbusters like “Orphan” and “SAW.”
The movie’s directing, by Michael Chaves, is outstanding and magnificent, bringing each scene to life and gradually raising the suspense and pleasure. He forgoes the traditional jumpscares found in horror films in favor of a legitimate narrative. Compared to Michael Chaves’ last film, “The Curse of La Llorona,” this is a vast improvement.
It’s unusual for a “Conjuring” series movie to be directed by someone other than James Wan, but Michael Chaves makes sure he won’t be missed. Like the story, the background music and cinematography both have an immersive quality. The editing is quick and fluid.
12. The Witch
The historical drama/horror movie “The Witch,” written and directed by Robert Eggers for the first time, cleverly describes itself as “a New England folktale” rather than a fairy tale. The feminist story “The Witch,” which follows a colonial American family as they experience what looks to be an occult curse, reads more like a sermon.
Similar to how one character utilizes the Book of Job to understand her place in her family, sermons raise questions that employ purposefully metaphorical images to help us reevaluate our lives.
You can’t go much better than The Witch if your idea of getting into the Halloween spirit is viewing a movie so terrifying that you need to wear four pairs of underwear.
Through Eggers’ flawless directing, the unsettling movie is a masterpiece in atmosphere, shocking spectators to their very core.
13. Umma
The Korean word for “mother,” Umma, is about Amanda (Sandra Oh) and her daughter (Fivel Stewart), who are leading peaceful lives on an American farm. However, when Amanda’s estranged mother’s remains arrive from Korea, she begins to experience nightmares, fearing she will turn into her own mother.
Despite its limitations, Umma is an outstanding debut for Shim; the type of performance that suggests there is much more hidden away or packed into a huge bag full of secrets. Despite having some interesting moments, Iris K. Shin’s debut film as a writer and director was mostly disappointing.
In it, there are jump scares, frightful ghosts, a lady being carried by a ghost, and a ghost choking a woman. It’s the ideal Halloween film.
14. Halloweentown
Disney Channel Original Movie from 1998: Halloweentown, directed by Duwayne Dunhama. Judith Hoag, Joey Zimmerman, Debbie Reynolds, and Kimberly J. Brown appear in the first movie of the Halloweentown series.
The main heroine, Marnie, discovers she is a witch on her thirteenth birthday, finds a secret portal, and goes to Halloweentown, a magical place where witches, werewolves, and ghosts live apart from people. But she soon finds herself up against evil warlocks, curses, and many surprises.
Marnie, who is credited with saying, “I’m thirteen; I’m nearly an adult,” is the show’s star. Marnie appears like any other 13-year-old. She is believable in her role, and I believe it is beneficial for young girls to see that one need not have “supermodel” looks to be liked as a young girl or to be a beloved movie character. She doesn’t look overly polished or ready for the runway, by which I mean that she is not overly fashionable.
15. Incantation
Horror films created using “found footage” techniques typically aim to make the viewer uncomfortable rather than terrified. They captivate by making it easier for the viewer to suspend disbelief due to their propensity to present frightful visuals in a (ideally) realistic manner. Incantation on Netflix does a good job in this regard; its eerie atmosphere and intriguing performers elevate what would otherwise be a conventional movie.
The movie Incantation, which was directed by Kevin Ko, is about Li Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen), a mother who struggles against a long-standing curse in order to protect her daughter Dodo (Huang Sin-ting). After visiting a distant mountain town, Ronan experiences a change in his life that may have been caused by an erroneous urge to explore an illegal area.
There are numerous horrible “accidents” filmed on cameras, cellphones, and security recordings. Everyone’s death looms, but Dodo’s predicament is especially distressing to the point where it can be thought that her premature death was the intended outcome.
You may view this one on Netflix; it’s more disturbing than terrifying.
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