The Best Scary Halloween Movies – And Where To Watch Them – Horror, fittingly, is the unkillable genre. Just when you think it’s peaked – the exploitation-heavy ’70s, the slasher ’80s, the post-ironic ’90s – it gets a new leash of life and lurches back at you, claw hammer in hand.
The Best Scary Halloween Movies – And Where To Watch Them:
Halloween, however, requires a very specific kind of horror film: it’s a time when spooks and scares, ghosts and ghouls take precedence over subtext and smarts. With that, and the genre’s recent purple patch in mind, here’s a few films from the last year or two that will scare you witless this week and enhance that gothic vibe. (If you’ve got younger viewers in the house, give this more family-friendly list a go instead.)
Our pick of the top Halloween movies:
1. Oddity
One of the hidden gems of this year’s horror bumper crop, this Irish chiller feels like an extended Tales from the Crypt episode, and that’s meant as a compliment. A young woman is brutally murdered in her home. Months later, her blind, possibly psychic twin sister drops by seeking answers – and she hasn’t come alone. Director Damian Mc Carthy keeps the creep levels high, and detonates jump scares at just the right moments.
Streaming on Shudder, AMC+
2. The Substance
Sick, twisted and hilariously absurd – and that’s just the scene of Dennis Quaid eating prawns – Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror instant classic doesn’t so much smash the patriarchy as drown it in viscera. It’s perhaps more gross than really, truly scary, but it needs to be seen for Demi Moore’s bold performance alone.
Streaming on MUBI
3. Late Night with the Devil
Aussie brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes make found footage fun again in this mockumentary covering the night, in 1977, when a talk-show host attempted to commune with a demon live on the air. David Dastmalchian is excellent as an arrogant late-night also-ran so desperate to pop a rating he invites a young girl supposedly in the throes of demonic possession on as a guest. Bad idea for him, a wickedly good time for everyone else.
Streaming on Hulu, Shudder, AMC+
4. Abigail
She is small, but she is bitey. In this riotous horror-comedy with a balletic twist, a gang of criminals kidnap a young girl in a tutu and hold her for ransom, but soon learn that she is not as cute and helpless as she appears. Blood flows liberally as directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett chomp down on vampire tropes with undeniable gusto.
Streaming on Peacock
5. Girl on the Third Floor, 2019
A young, expectant couple is eager to make their new house feel like home, but things take a creepy turn when the husband encounters a girl on the third floor who claims to be his neighbor. Strange and unsettling events soon follow. WWE fans rejoice – CM Punk plays a pretty big role in this film.
6. Late Night with the Devil
Aussie brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes make found footage fun again in this mockumentary covering the night, in 1977, when a talk-show host attempted to commune with a demon live on the air. David Dastmalchian is excellent as an arrogant late-night also-ran so desperate to pop a rating he invites a young girl supposedly in the throes of demonic possession on as a guest. Bad idea for him, a wickedly good time for everyone else.
Streaming on Hulu, Shudder, AMC+
7. Trick ‘r Treat, 2007
This anthology-style film weaves together four chilling stories that will keep you on the edge of your seat while also providing a dose of humor. Be careful—it might change how you view those around you!
8. The Witch, 2015
Set in colonial New England, this film explores the dark world of witchcraft and black magic as a family becomes unraveled following the mysterious disappearance of their son.
9.Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, 2019
Adapted from the beloved children’s book series, this film follows a group of teens trying to uncover the mystery behind a string of gruesome deaths in their town.
10. Stopmotion
As Ray Harryhausen’s skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts demonstrate, there’s nothing quite like stop-motion animation to deliver seriously uncanny scares. Brit filmmaker Robert Morgan takes the idea to a whole new level in this ingenious descent-into-madness freakout starring The Nightingale’s Aisling Franciosi. Registering at the intense and brooding end of the Halloween viewing spectrum, it’s a Grimm-like tale of an animator whose appalling creations come to life in nightmarish ways.
Streaming on Shudder
11. Don’t Move
Horror movies have been hellbent on putting us off taking a serene walk in the woods for donkey’s years, but they’ve really upped their game recently. In a Violent Nature and Strange Darling have both turned the great outdoors into a stalkers’ playground, and Netflix’s new horror-thriller Don’t Move also wants you to know that, no, a jaunt into the countryside is unlikely to end without serious bloodshed. Its gnarly premise has a woman (Kelsey Asbille) on the run from a deranged serial killer (Finn Wittrock) while a paralysing toxin is slowly released into her bloodstream.
Streaming on Netflix
12. Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
A surprisingly scary kids’ comedy, Jim Varney’s fourth film as Ernest P. Worrell finds the local yokel trying to protect area kids from an evil troll accidentally let loose on Halloween night. The creature design is adequately wet and putrid for preteens who love it when things get gross and Varney’s physical humor plays to the rafters. The plot machinations owe plenty to the “Leprechaun” series, but it has a light touch and decidedly wacky tone. Come for the schoolyard one-liners (“How ’bout a bumper sandwich, Boogerlips?”), stay for the wild performance from Eartha Kitt as the flamethrower-wielding Old Lady Hackmore. — W.E.
13. Casper (1995)
This sweet film centers its biggest reveal around a tween Halloween party. A father and daughter (played by Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci) move into a haunted mansion to rid the pad of its poltergeist tenants (Casper and his three uncles, the Ghostly Trio). After lots of spirited capers and calamities, the true story behind Casper the friendly ghost is revealed. But the record scratch moment is truly when Casper is transformed into a human boy in the form of 90’s Tiger Beat sensation, Devon Sawa. The new boy surprises Ricci at the party and whisks her into the air for a floating dance that ends with a kiss as the human boy then returns to his original ghostly shape. It’s charming, it’s innocent and his presence scares all the other kids away. — M.W.
14. Demon House, 2018
Join paranormal investigator Zak Bagans as he confronts the terrifying forces lurking within the real-life “Portal to Hell.” Prepare for a nail-biting experience!
15. The Thing, 2011
This prequel finds scientists in Antarctica facing a shape-shifting monster that wreaks havoc on their research expedition, leaving audiences with a gripping sense of dread.
