spooky skeleton movie

The 75 Best Halloween Movies of All Time

Here's your one-stop-shop for all your spooky season needs!

Good news, friends! It's officially time to break out your best skeleton dance, carve up those pumpkins, and debate the merits of candy corn (ok, actually we don't have to do that last one, it's ok to like or dislike whatever candy you chose). The point is that spooky season is here at last! With Halloween on the way, now's the perfect time to brush up on your spooky, seasonal, and downright scary movies! But there's just so dang many to choose from, so to help you get your watchlist off to the right start, we put our heads together to come up with the ultimate list of the best Halloween movies of all time. From the classics to the new favorites, here are the 75 best spooky and scary movies we put on when we're in the mood for an All Hallows scream!

If you're looking for something to watch  right now , you can head over to the Best Halloween Movies on Netflix and check out which spooky movies are streaming on Disney+ right here .

The Addams Family (1991)

Bringing big dark gothic energy to a film that plays so well for young children is a feat for which Barry Sonnenfeld definitely deserved Oscar consideration. The first film about a spooky family living its best life in modern-day America, featuring unforgettable performances by the perfectly-cast Raul Julia and Angelica Huston as well as a young Christina Ricci and the always wonderful Carol Kane and Christopher Lloyd ... wait, is this entire cast perfect? Yes, yes it is. The only non-positive thing I have to say about The Addams Family is that its sequel is the rare example of a film that surpasses the original — which, is to be clear, a net positive. - Liz Shannon Miller

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

Technically only half of this svelte, 69-minute Disney package film will interest those celebrating Halloween. But the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” section of  The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad  contains some of the spookiest, most iconic imagery in Disney Animation and it’s still a total Halloween treat. Adapted from the classic  Washington Irving  story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” follows hapless schoolteacher Ichabod Crane as he battles a potential supernatural evil in upstate New York. All of the notes from the original story are hit, exceptionally well, too – Crane crossing a creaky bridge while the Headless Horseman, Jack o’ lantern ablaze, is truly terrifying stuff. It’s a moment that has been recycled in countless Disney specials and one that was borrowed liberally for  Tim Burton ’s live-action version of the tale. And if you haven’t watched it in a while (and, really, you should – it’s on Disney+), it’s probably a lot more fun than you remember (although, admittedly, it takes a little while to get going).  Bing Crosby is great as the crooning narrator (who also provides some voices) and the animation is absolutely superb. It can’t be Halloween without this version of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” --  Drew Taylor

Army of Darkness (1992)

The third installment in Sam Raimi ’s Evil Dead trilogy sheds almost all of the genuine horror of the previous two films and steers completely into Three Stoogian slapstick absurdity. Endlessly quotable and inspiringly over-the-top, Bruce Campbell ’s adventure battling hordes of the undead in medieval Europe is so gleefully unserious that it’s hard to believe a major studio put it in theaters. It feels a little strange recommending a horror movie that does not approach actually being scary for one second of its breezy runtime, but then I remember this is Army of Darkness we’re talking about. If for some mind-boggling reason you’re here reading this list about Halloween movies and you’ve never seen it, stop what you are doing and watch it now. It’s like a grotesque Looney Tunes cartoon in which a man outfits a Delta 88 with helicopter blades and it deserves your consideration and attention. --  Tom Reimann

Beetlejuice (1988)

Before he had  Johnny Depp , director  Tim Burton ’s go-to guy was — checks notes — stand-up-comedian-turned-

serious-actor  Michael Keaton . And oh, what a great odd couple it was. The team’s great collab is 1988’s Beetlejuice which sees Keaton transform into the thoroughly odious yet very charming (and possibly bangable??) “bio-exorcist” Betelgeuse. Ol’ Beetleboy offers his services to the recently-deceased Maitlands ( Alec Baldwin  and  Geena Davis ), who find their home is now occupied by the Deetzes — Charles ( Jeffrey Jones ), Delia ( Catherine O’Hara ), and goth icon Lydia ( Winona Ryder ). Lydia is a quick ally of the Maitlands and starts working to get her family to move out of the seemingly haunted house.  Beetlejuice  is a pretty incredible early Burton entry if only because it so clearly establishes the director’s aesthetic and narrative interests early on, seeking to expose the grotesquerie of suburban life and the idiosyncrasies of the nuclear family through Gothic-leaning visuals. It’s also just a hella fun movie and, if you have any doubts about that, might I direct you to this scene . And this one . --  Allie Gemmill

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

There are few horror films as lavishly produced and deeply romantic as  Francis Ford Coppola ’s bold  Bram Stoker’s Dracula . The film, which kicked off a mini resurgence of big budget prestige horror movies like  Wolf ,  Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein  and  Mary Reilly , luxuriates in its opulence – from the incredible make-up effects, to the optical effects which Coppola wanted to achieve through old-school techniques, to the costumes by  Eiko Ishioka  that are still being ripped off today, to the brilliantly over-the-top score by  Wojciech Kilar . Everything is ornate and highly detailed and even if you know the story, you never have seen it presented in such a way, with a movie that is equal parts bloodbath and bodice-ripper. The cast, which includes  Gary Oldman  as the titular vampire and  Anthony Hopkins  as Van Helsing, is uniformly excellent, with great performances by  Winona Ryder  (seemingly making up with Coppola after the debacle of  Godfather, Part III ) and future Rocketeer  Billy Campbell . (Sadly,  Keanu Reeves  is a weird dud.) It’s hard to pick a favorite version of Bram Stoker’s immortal tale, but this one is a solid contender. It’s a bloody blast.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

I'm not going to sit here and argue that the 1992 film directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui is on the same level as what Joss Whedon would eventually transform his screenplay into for television. Those seven seasons are more than able to speak for themselves. However, to totally discount the film is to totally overlook Kristy Swanson 's spirited performance as a teenager who also happens to slay vampires, the incredibly charming way in which Luke Perry leant into his role as, ultimately, a dude in distress, and Paul Reubens hamming it up as a vamp henchman. And that, quite frankly, is bogus. Also, baby Ben Affleck makes an appearance. Buffy the TV show, of course, better represents Joss Whedon's intentions for the original premise. But even in this rough form, the idea is wonderful and supported with some great performances. - Liz Shannon Miller

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The modern wave of found-footage horror begins, arguably, with  The Blair Witch Project Looking at it now, it’s hard to believe a movie starring three unknowns at the time ( Josh Leonard  would eventually breakout into bigger projects) would become one of the biggest movies of 1999, grossing nearly $140.5 million domestic on a $60,000 budget. But we don’t just remember  The Blair Witch Project  for its box office impact; we remember it for the way it profoundly changed the found-footage game. From the premise to the execution to the final gut-punching shot,  The Blair Witch Project  knows how to worm its way deep into your psyche and prey on you. The story of three college students traveling to a rural Maryland town to document (and possibly experience) the local legend of the Blair Witch quickly transforms into a horrifying survival story. There are no special effects, no flashy gimmicks — just shaky camera footage of three grown adults slowly losing their minds as a 100-year-old witch preys on them in the dark. It’s easy to point to  The Blair Witch Project ’s thoroughly affecting finale sequence as the reason the movie now lives in horror movie infamy. However, I’d also like to submit the consistent and insidious psychological torture the Blair Witch enacts on her prey as she keeps moving the landscape around to get the lost, leads one member of the group to destroy their map, and quickly assembles dozens of weird stick figures for the trio to discover in the daylight as some of the reasons  The Blair Witch Project  just keeps working and makes it a truly great Halloween movie. --  Allie Gemmill

Candyman (1992)

One of the greatest modern gothic ghost stories, Candyman is often unfortunately mislabeled as a slasher movie. I love slasher movies, but that's not exactly giving the film credit for the literary nuance and well-implemented tradition it so richly deserves. Inspired by a story by Clive Barker and repurposed with a story rooted in America's great national sin of slavery, Candyman absolutely holds up as a still-relevant reinvention of a gothic tragedy. Trading the gothic mansion for the projects and embracing the gothic genre's focus on the vengeful oppressed, Candyman stars Tony Todd as the imposing, elegant spirit who returns from an unspeakable past to exact his justice and revenge. Candyman doesn't often get the credit it deserves as one of the all-time greats, carried by Todd's magnetic and commanding performance, and executed with classy precision, from Todd's regal poise to Philip Glass ' hypnotic score. -- Haleigh Foutch

Casper (1995)

Casper   was telling tweens it was okay to think a ghost was cute boyfriend material long before Netflix’s  Julie and the Phantoms.  A blend of horror, drama, and comedy,  Casper  is the perfect movie to entertain kids with frothy Halloween thrills and thoroughly depress their Millennial parents with Casper’s grim backstory. What is that backstory? Well,  Casper  follows Kat ( Christina Ricci ) and her dad, Dr. Harvey ( Bill Pullman ). The father-daughter duo finds themselves entwined with a spoiled heiress ( Cathy Moriarty ) who has inherited a decrepit manor inhabited by Casper (voiced by  Malachi Pearson , embodied by  Devon Sawa ) and Casper’s three awful uncles ( Joe Nipote ,  Joe Alaskey , and  Brad Garrett ). Casper — who is very much a dead child — and his uncles have been trapped in said mansion since their untimely demise and it is Dr. Harvey’s job to exorcise them from said mansion. And while Harvey is busy doing that, Kat and Casper become close friends and, uh, a couple. Kinda. Look,  Casper  is a total trip  and  a wonderful trip down memory lane. It’s the kind of throwback Halloween movie that’ll positively tickle Millennials and probably weird out Gen Z’ers. Then again, who cares! Casper the Friendly Ghost is #AnIcon and so is  Casper the live-action movie. --  Allie Gemmill

The Conjuring (2013)

Sometimes to go forward, you gotta go back. From its imposing “based on a true story” opening title crawl to its literal period setting, The Conjuring is here to tell you, in ways both subtly classy and muscly blunt, that our golden age of 1970s filmmaking has plenty of influential meat on the bones. James Wan , whose Saw is also a perennial favorite in my Halloween household (yes, I have a different household for Halloween; yes, I am doing poorly financially), directs the absolute hell out of this sucker, using long lens, long take, Steadicam-aided photography to absolutely play his audience like a damn fiddle. Combine these expertly rendered haunted house thrills with atypically emotional performances from folks like Patrick Wilson and Lili Taylor , and you’ve got a crowd-pleasing horror flick you’ll wanna revisit again and again. --  Gregory Lawrence

Coraline (2009)

For my money, Coraline is the spookiest animated kids' movie out there. I was a full-grown adult when I saw it for the first time and those button-eyed folks from the Other realm still got all the way under my skin. Directed by The Nightmare Before Christmas helmer Henry Selick with the incredible artists at Laika providing groundbreaking stop-motion animation, Coraline is gorgeous and stylishly made, pulling from Neil Gaiman’ s dark fantasy novella to build an immersive and unnerving parallel world. Dakota Fanning lends her voice as the title character, a young girl who discovers a door to another world, where she finds an idealized version of her life… almost. While Other Mother ( Terri Hatcher ) seems like a dream at first, there are sinister and strange overtones lingering in every frame, and when Coraline realizes she could get stuck there forever, she has to fight for the real family she took for granted. – Haleigh Foutch

The Craft (1996)

A newcomer’s arrival at a Catholic prep school leads her down some strange and wondrous roads in The Craft .‘90s icons  Robin Tunney ,  Fairuza Balk ,  Neve Campbell , and  Rachel True  make up the awe-inspiring quartet of high schoolers at the center of this teen movie with a twist and live on as one of the most powerful groups of onscreen witches in recent memory.  The Craft  blends a traditional high school-set story with its various teen dramas — a popular boy who turns out to be a snake, the pretty blonde who’s really a bully, the outsiders looking to reclaim their power — with the supernatural. The result is four young women who not only discover their magic but learn how to wield it both effectively and not-so-effectively when it comes to getting revenge on the people traumatizing them. Watching  The Craft  during the Halloween season is an instant level-up. From the soundtrack to the performances — Balk is especially enjoyable because she truly gives no fucks and lets it all hang out — to the ways in which the movie depicts magic,  The Craft  is eminently watchable and very much a product of the mid-90s. I mean, what’s not to love? --  Allie Gemmill

The Crow (1994)

The Crow is technically the very first movie you should watch on Halloween, because it actually takes place the night before on Oct. 30 -- Devil's Night. I typically watch it every year on that night around 11 pm so it doesn't end until after midnight and I can start the holiday on a high note. Based on the violent yet poetic graphic novel by  James O'Barr , the gothic action film follows a musician who is murdered along with his fiancee, and is brought back to life one year later by a mystical crow to avenge their deaths and "put the wrong things right."  Brandon Lee  was tragically killed during filming, and that accident has hung like a dark cloud over The Crow's legacy, but the film itself is hugely influential, and I believe that Lee would be one of the biggest stars in the world today had he survived -- that's how charismatic he is as Eric Draven. Director  Alex Proyas  does a fantastic job behind the camera, and the supporting cast is incredibly memorable, from  David Patrick Kelly 's T-Bird and  Michael Massee 's Fun Boy to their boss, Top Dollar, played by the great  Michael Wincott . The soundtrack is a standout of the '90s, with early tracks from Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots and Rage Against the Machine, not to mention The Cure's epic song "Burn" and "Color Me Once" by Violent Femmes.  The Crow  has endured as a vigilante superhero, and fans still paint their faces and throw on a black trench coat every Halloween in tribute to Lee's memory. The sad truth is that in real life, there are no mystical birds that resurrect the dead, but at least for one night, we're allowed to believe it's possible. Don't miss that opportunity this year. -  Jeff Sneider

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

The Creature from the Black Lagoon is sometimes considered the ugly stepchild out of the classic Universal Monsters, seeing as how it debuted three decades after Phantom of the Opera and is, uh, literally about an extremely ugly fish monster who can’t say real human words. But you simply cannot throw a monster mash without inviting the Gill-Man, inarguably one of horror’s most iconic creatures. The film follows a team of scientists who board the steamship “Rita” for exploration deep into the Amazon jungle, hoping to discover the remains of a human/amphibian hybrid. Instead of a skeleton, the crew finds a whole-ass river-creature, who becomes horrifically infatuated with scientist Kay Lawrence ( Julie Adams ). Has time and technology dated the Gill-Man suit a bit? Sure, but there’s also something both timeless and inimitable about the creature design by Millicent Patrick , plus the underwater footage from cinematographer Ted Kent remains dreamlike and mesmerizing almost 70 years later.

(Note: Black Lagoon spawned a few sequels, but only one, The Creature Walks Among Us , features the Gill Man hilariously wearing a tracksuit.) -- Vinnie Mancuso

Creepshow (1982)

Directed by the great George Romero from an original screenplay by Stephen King himself (who also delivers one of his few film performances here), the 1982 horror anthology Creepshow is a campy, loving homage to the pulpy pages of EC Comics that's witty, weird, and willing to be very silly in all the best ways. Featuring a cast that includes Adrienne Barbeau , Hal Holbrook , and Leslie Nielsen , Creepshow features spot-on effects from Tom Savini and is easily one of the best horror anthology movies out there. The result is a film that feels like settling 'round the campfire for some spooky tales, topped off with an added flourish of cinematic showmanship. -- Haleigh Foutch

Dracula (1931)

If you’re curious to know what a “serve” is defined as, may I point you in the direction of  Bela Lugosi ’s performance in Dracula ? Redefining romance with its February 14, 1931 release, Universal’s  Dracula  is also responsible for making audiences fall in love with movie monsters. Dracula is one of the great daddies of horror movies, with Lugosi’s version in particular inspiring sequels, riffs, remakes, spinoffs, and dang near anything worthy of being through into the  Dracula  cinematic canon. Lugosi’s performance as the immortal Transylvania bloodsucker may seem quaint nowadays, but he’s inspirational for generations of Drac’s who’s follow in his footsteps. The calm, cool, collected, dare I say sexy Dracula you see in the 1931 movie (the first of many great entries in Universal’s “Monsterverse”) is one of the biggest and best reasons to check out this Halloween classic ASAP. Yeah, you might not get a true fright by 1931 horror standards, but you will get a thrill. --  Allie Gemmill

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Did you forget that Steven Spielberg ’s sci-fi classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is also a bona fide Halloween movie? Because it most certainly is. While this heartbreaking tale of a young boy befriending a stranded alien orphan is certainly science-fiction in nature, the action all takes place against the backdrop of fall in the Californian suburbs. The Halloween costumes, the leaves, the bike rides in costume – it’s all there, it just takes a backseat to the humor and emotional turmoil that are probably front of mind when you think of E.T. But truly this movie is a great Halloween watch if you want something more treats than tricks. The spook factor on E.T. is low, but it’s got that Halloween vibe all the same. It’s also, you know, one of the greatest movies ever made. – Adam Chitwood

The Evil Dead (1981)

Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell brought a bunch of their friends into a cabin in the Tennessee woods and emerged with a low-budget horror masterpiece. The Evil Dead is a jolt to the system, a gnarled, rotted, nasty piece of horror that unleashes a book of the dead and all its demons among a hapless group of teens (and one helluva chin). And yet, despite its noticeable nastiness, the first Evil Dead remains fun, audacious, and stuffed to the gills with bravura energy. It’s an ideal Halloween movie for the roller coaster it takes you on; you’ll be laughing uneasily one moment and earnestly shocked to your core the next. A horror classic that will cast its spell on anyone who watches it. --  Gregory Lawrence

The Faculty (1998)

"We don't need no education!" Oh, but it seems some of you  do , as I learned during an alarming Slack exchange here at the virtual office this week. Apparently, there are people out there who don't like  The Faculty ! Are they hooked on scat or something? I don't really know the difference between a cult classic or a camp classic, but I suspect that  The Faculty  is actually both. Playing like a teenage take on  Invasion of the Body Snatchers  had it starred the kids from  The Breakfast Club , this throwback film follows a bunch of high school outcasts who come to discover that their teachers are being controlled by parasites and trying to infect the entire student body.  The Faculty  made  Josh Hartnett  a star, led to  Elijah Wood 's role in  Sin City , and marked early turns from  Jordan Brewster ,  Clea DuVall ,  Shawn Hatosy  and  Usher Raymond . Director  Robert Rodriguez  has always been a talent magnet, and teachers lounge is packed with stars ranging from  Jon Stewart  and  Salma Hayek  to  Robert Patrick ,  Piper Laurie  and  Bebe Neuwirth .  The Faculty  may get a little goofy in its third act, but it's mostly a blast, and the kind of fun sci-fi movie that studios just don't make anymore. Oh, and the soundtrack boasted major bands such as The Offspring, Creed, Oasis, Garbage, Sheryl Crow and Soul Asylum, but the best tracks are "Maybe Someday" by Flick and "It's Over Now" by Neve, and you'll just have to trust me on that. -  Jeff Sneider

Frankenstein (1931)

Another prong in the legendary Universal “Monsterverse” is 1931’s Frankenstein . Given its early release and its impact on the horror genre, having spawned more sequels, spinoffs, riffs, homages, remakes, and more over the years,  Frankenstein  is one of the granddaddies of Halloween movie category. Adapted from the 1927  Peggy Webling  play which was, in turn, adapted from  Mary Shelley ’s 1818 novel  Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus ,  Frankenstein  is simply iconic. This is mostly thanks to Karloff’s legendary performance of the reanimated antihero made of spare parts sprung from the grave and made living thanks to the wonders of lightning and Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s (Clive) genius. It seems only right  Frankenstein  would be a trendsetter and gold standard for horror movies in the ensuing years; Shelley’s work was equally as impactful on the horror and science fiction genres upon release in the early 19th century. Seeking out  Frankenstein  today means you’re seeking out horror history. Sure, you may not be scared in the way you’re used to, but you might be fascinated to see what  did  pass for a scary, even transgressive, movie nearly 90 years ago.  --  Allie Gemmill

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13 movies that define the spoopy canon

More silly skeletons than scary slashers

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With Halloween just around the corner, many are on the hunt for the perfect horror movie to usher in the spooky season. But as much as we like being scared, there’s another staple of the Halloween movie canon to consider: the Spoopy Movie.

Spoopy originated from a (now-defunct) Tumblr post from 2011, which aggregated an even older Flickr photo of a misspelled Halloween sign . Instead of the word “spooky,” skeleton bones spelled out “spoopy.” The goof blew up, with other users sharing their own spotted misspelled Halloween phrases. Eventually, the term became associated with Halloween, specifically the part of Halloween that indulges the fun and spooky, without ever being too scary.

The term captures the nostalgia-tinged Halloween of childhood, filled with trick-or-treating, buckets of candy, and movies that tickled that holiday itch (but were not traumatically scary). Spoopy movies embrace macabre aesthetics, without being too graphic, and tell scary stories, without being too traumatizing. They’re a cartoonishly giant skeleton instead of a rotting corpse, one with a smile and a quippy joke instead of an insatiable hunger for flesh.

Beyond celebrating the off-kilter Halloween aesthetic and presenting scary stories that kids can also enjoy, spoopy movies serve another vital purpose. Many of them also follow misfits — specifically outcast kids who struggle to find a place where they belong. And many of them end with said kids finding a community of their own, be it through other weirdos, supernatural beings, or realizing their own worth.

This list is far from comprehensive, but in the spooky spirit of Halloween, here are 13 quintessential spoopy movies that define this particular subgenre.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

Where to watch: Disney Plus

… specifically The Legend of Sleepy Hollow section. Sure, there are some autumnal scenes in the Wind in the Willows part, but Walt Disney Animation’s retelling of an iconic staple of American folklore is pretty legendary. Bing Crosby narrates this spooky tale, and the Hudson Valley setting is gorgeously rendered in swathes of autumnal color. It’s a great little entry into not just spoopy movies, but also the Headless Horseman lore. This version is actually one of the most faithful to Washington Irving’s original story!

Beetlejuice (1988)

Where to watch: Max

“I myself am strange and unusual,” proclaims Lydia Deetz, as played by Winona Ryder, in Tim Burton’s 1988 horror comedy. And it’s a sentiment that young goths, emo kids, and other alt-outcasts everywhere would cling to. Beetlejuice is equally about the misfit teenager making deals with the titular unhinged stripe-clad demon as it is about a couple (played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) navigating the perils of the afterlife. Beetlejuice ’s bold, bright sets put a colorful and zany spin on the dark and dreary afterlife, but it’s Lydia fearlessly going head-to-head with Beetlejuice that makes the movie memorable. By the end, the demon is vanquished, but the weirdness remains, and Lydia feels more at home in this new town than she did before.

The Addams Family (1991) and The Addams Family Values (1993)

Where to watch: Paramount Plus

Every iteration of the creepy and kooky Addams family makes for a spoopy time, but the live-action movies of the early 1990s are particularly iconic. Part of it is the superb casting. Every actor just embodies their designated Addams family member. Christina Ricci’s Wednesday is so definitive that Netflix brought her back for the Wednesday TV show in a separate role. Anjelica Huston is the perfect macabre matriarch, and Raul Julia caputes Gomez like no other. Christopher Lloyd’s batty Uncle Fester is just the icing on this spoopy cake. The first sequel continues this trend, with Joan Cusack sliding in as a scheming Black Widow killer. As a franchise, The Addams Family celebrates the joy in being weird, and that’s one of the tenements of a good spoopy flick.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

When you think of spoopy movies — movies that embrace dark Halloween aesthetics without ever being too scary for children — you probably think of The Nightmare Before Christmas .

The stop-motion flick has been a hallmark of Halloween ever since the movie came out 30 years ago. And with its infectious music, enduring characters, and distinct visual style, it’s very easy to see why. Directed by Henry Selick — who would go on to direct James and the Giant Peach , Coraline (on this list), and Wendell & Wild (an honorary member of this list) — Nightmare Before Christmas was a beacon to budding counter-culture youths everywhere , misfits drawn to the dark aesthetic and who perhaps identified with wallflower outcast Sally or restless Jack Skellington.

There’s silly debate about whether it’s a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie, but considering by the end, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington realizes that he does love Halloween and wants to embrace it fully, I firmly believe it’s a perfect Halloween movie.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

… and this is the other movie you probably think of when you think of a spoopy movie. Apparently 1993 was the year in the spoopy canon! Hocus Pocus follows Max, an edgy teenager, freshly moved to Salem, Massachusetts from California, who thinks he’s too cool for Halloween. He reluctantly agrees to bring his little sister trick-or-treating, and then, in order to impress a popular pretty girl, he accidentally summons the Sanderson Sisters, three child-eating witches. Bette Milder, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker absolutely commit to the bit as three out-of-time witches bent on feasting on children in order to preserve their immortality. Seeing their wacky interactions with modern day (well, 1990s) life is hilarious. But Max’s evolution from Too-Cool-For-School to someone fiercely protective of his little sister is also sweet. Also! There’s a talking black cat! What more could you want?

Halloweentown Quartet: Halloweentown (1998), Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (2001), Halloweentown High (2004), Return to Halloweentown (2006)

There are plenty of spoopy Disney Channel Original Movies , reliably providing few staples for every generation that grew up with the family-friendly network. (After all, by virtue of being on the Disney Channel, the movie will never be too scary.) But the Halloweentown Quartet reigns supreme. It wasn’t the first Halloween-themed DCOM, but it spanned four movies, right as the channel was coming into its own, and thus really solidified the general tone of DCOM spoopiness.

The movies take place in a world where witches, goblins, ghouls, and more live in a realm called Halloweentown. Misfit Marnie Piper has always felt a call towards all things dark and spooky, even though her mother doesn’t approve. But she discovers that her quirky grandmother (played by the legendary Debbie Reynolds), who only ever visits on Halloween, is actually a witch — and ends up learning about her own latent powers and the world of Halloweentown, which she saves time and time again across the four movies. It’s some very fun world-building, though time spent in the titular Halloweentown varies from film-to-film.

Casper (1995)

Where to watch: Netflix

Christina Ricci is truly the undisputed queen of 1990s Spoopy Fare.

In Casper, she plays Kat Harvey, the daughter of a quirky ghost therapist (who is… a psychiatrist who believes he can talk to ghosts). She and her father move into a dilapidated mansion in an effort to help the ghosts cross over, after the young lonely ghost who lives there (the titular Casper) watches a TV special about them and conspires to bring them to him, longing for a friend. While the older, bigger ghosts mess around with the ghost doctor, Casper and Kat start to bond, and try to figure out who Casper was before he died. Two kids trying to solve the mystery of how one of them died is pretty macabre fare, but it never gets overly scary or depressing.

If you prefere vampires over ghosts, The Little Vampire — starring 1990s It kid Jonathan Lipnicki — has a similar story of a misfit kid moving to an old haunted mansion and befriending a supernatural creature.

Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost (1999)

Where to watch: VOD

Basically any Scooby-Doo movie is spoopy fare, since the whole premise involves a group of teenagers and their talking dog investigating rumors of supernatural creatures. The 2000s live-action films — where young actors from popular horror franchises play the main cast — are a particularly fantastic time, and there’s also a whole trove of direct-to-home-video animated movies, direct-to-TV live action flicks, and a 2020 CG animated film. But the spoopiest of them all is probably Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost. It is the most Halloween-y of all the Scooby-Doo movies, by virtue of centering around autumn festivities in a tiny New England town.

Witch’s Ghost introduced the iconic Hex Girls , the eco-goth musical trio whose pop culture legacy has eclipsed every other Scooby-Doo side character (they’ve since reappeared in multiple other Scooby-Doo animated movies). Like many spoopy movies, Witch’s Ghost follows a witch put to death in the not-exactly-Salem-but-still-a-town-in-New-England witch trials, and her haunting legacy as it affects said picturesque New England town.

Monster House (2006)

Where to watch: Hulu

Everyone goes off about Coraline being the scary animated film that first terrified them (more on that in a bit), but Monster House is up there in family-friendly scares that lean on allusion and metaphor to convey what could be graphic imagery!It’s literally about an anthropomorphic house that eats anyone who gets too close! The three main kid characters attempt to subdue the dilapidated house, so it can end its reign of terror on the neighborhood. They delve deeper into the creepy house, and learn more about how it came to be that way, a story that’s actually pretty chilling and heartbreaking. The house itself is a uniquely designed monster — architectural structures are body parts, like the jagged fence turned teeth and the lashing rug tongue.

Coraline (2009)

Coraline proves that you can have a spoopy movie without the fall atmosphere — so long as you completely commit to the sheer terror. Laika’s stop motion film is famously scary, without actually being explicit in the moment-to-moment frights. As my colleague Nicole Clark puts it in her reflection on Coraline , the filmmakers depict the terror through “insinuations of gore and dialed-up theatricality.” Based on Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name (which is just as scary, especially the original accompanying illustrations ), Coraline follows the titular heroine, who discovers a strange world that almost mirrors her own — save for the fact that everyone has buttons for eyes. Initially drawn into the vibrant other world, Coraline soon realizes that the Other Mother, the black button-eyed creature who took on the appearance of Coraline’s own mother, has sinister intentions. Coraline must save herself, her parents, and the souls of the other children that the Other Mother preyed on.

Paranorman (2012)

A recurring trope in many of these movies is a witch from colonial times who died in a trial coming back in some way shape or form. Paranorman, however, cleverly deconstructs this trope in the second half of the movie. The first half is played pretty straight, though it hits all the quintessential spoopy movie marks. Norman is a young boy who can see ghosts, which alienates him not just from his family but the whole town of Blithe Hollow — except for Neil, a fellow victim of the school bullies who takes a liking to Norman and decides to befriend him. Laika once again flexes its stop motion skills, rendering an impressive world with wonderfully tactile little details, like rotting zombie flesh and graffitied school lockers.

The House With A Clock in Its Walls (2018)

Jack Black adds a certain zest to spoopy projects. He played children’s horror author R.L. Stine in the 2015 Goosebumps movie, but it’s 2018’s The House With A Clock in Its Walls that snags the entry on this list. For one, Black and Cate Blanchett have excellent banter as neighboring warlocks. For another, it really pushes just how scary and unsettling a spoopy movie can be without actually being super duper scary and unsettling. Those clockwork puppet creatures! The animatronic baby Jack Black ! Also, much of this one hinges on the idea of Found Family, and the young boy at the center learning about his own powers and finding a place where he belongs. And that’s just the spoopy way.

Muppet Haunted Mansion (2021)

There should be a Haunted Mansion movie on this list, because the Haunted Mansion is one of the best — and certainly the spookiest — Disney attractions. However, I cannot in good faith put the 2003 movie or the 2023 movie on here, since they’re both fundamentally okay . (Nostalgia might fuel the Eddie Murphy movie , while the wacky cast mostly keeps the 2023 one afloat in a sea of mediocrity). Thank goodness that someone out there looked at the Haunted Mansion’s legacy and fully understood that the attraction would work best with the Muppets. Muppets Haunted Mansion sees Gonzo and Pepe journey to a haunted mansion, where they encounter the ride’s grim grinning ghosts — only this time, in Muppet form. It’s a perfect marriage of two goofy properties and celebrates both in spooktacular Halloween fashion.

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10 Obscure Scary Movies And Specials To Stream This Halloween

By Juno Stump on October 17, 2023 at 1:11PM PDT

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

Favorite candies and memorized autumn movies are an essential part of the October season. Horror classics like John Carpenter's Halloween and family favorites such as Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas are required viewing, even if it's the millionth time, but there's something special to be said about unwrapping a flavor of candy--or movie--that you've never experienced before.

When you've found yourself surrounded by your annual pile of Reese's Cup wrappers, or whatever the candy is that you already know you love, then it just might be time to pair a new kind of candy with one of these ten obscure Halloween favorites you've never seen before.

These pieces of obscure Halloween media cover a few subgenres under the Halloween streaming umbrella so there's a little bit of variety. If you're looking for something specific, like a sinister and scary movie, then we've got a selection of must-watch slow-burn horror films that are sure to keep you warm , deep into the night. If you're cool and looking for something with teeth, we've got a list of essential queer stories in the horror subgenres that pack a different kind of message about the world that would make Rod Serling proud.

Here are 10 of our Halloween favorites that are a bit more obscure than you may be used to. There's no Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees to be found here. And, thankfully, they're able to be streamed at home!

1. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille: an outcast in society, a man without a family or a history, and an emptiness carved deep into the tattered center of his soul that he spends his entire life trying to fill, right until his last breath.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is based on Das Perfum, a 1985 novel by German author Patrick Süskind, a richly detailed tapestry that unwinds down to the end of a man who's always loved the world around him but never felt like anything other than an outsider. Jean-Baptiste does not possess a scent of his own, but he can smell everyone around him. He isn’t able to see himself as being a normal part of this world at all, even after becoming a skilled creator of perfumes beloved by high-class society and all of those around him. He just never feels like he belongs.

In the end, the only way he is able to feel like he can exist naturally in society is to give himself up until he is completely gone, when he no longer has anything to give, after creating the best perfume he’s ever made – before his last breath.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer isn't supernatural or hard to understand. We all know what it is like to feel like we do not belong here and have been made to feel like we shouldn't belong here at least. What makes Perfume unique and sad, alongside its horrors, is how hard Jean-Baptiste tries to feel real, before giving up and deciding that creating beautiful art was all he could ever do.

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana managed to find catharsis in the story of Perfume, keeping a copy of Patrick Süskind's novel with him while traveling on tours, and even going on to use the story as inspiration for the pained lyrics of " Scentless Apprentice ," a track from the album In Utero (1993), which just turned 30 .

Perfume is a must-see for everyone, because we all know what it's like to feel like we're intruding into everyone else's world.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is available to stream on Pluto TV .

2. The Innkeepers (2011)

The Innkeepers is a film about an inn during its last week of business and its two bored employees, who are both trying to pass the time. The establishment has a history and might be haunted, which gives the two something to talk about before they say goodbye and move on to another job. Business is slow and the two both believe in ghosts, so they keep trying to catch things on film for a website about paranormal happenings.

The Innkeepers will feel familiar to anyone who's ever spent more time thinking of ways to entertain themselves than working because there's simply nothing else to do. That's the case here until a guest checks in, right before the inn closes, with a very specific check-in request: a room on a floor no longer in use. He even insists after being told there is no TV or amenities on that entire floor. Everything has been stripped. The man says he just wants one more stay in a room he has a history with.

The Innkeepers is available to stream on Tubi and Pluto TV .

3. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a story about two men working at a morgue who need more help than they realize. An unmarked cadaver and casket arrive, unclaimed with no apparent history, and that's when mysterious things start happening. The two men are just trying to do their jobs, processing the body for proper burial, never realizing that they may in fact require an exorcist.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe is available to stream on Tubi .

4. Altered (2006)

Altered is about a group of men who just want to make things right in the only way they know how: by capturing the monster that changed all of their lives when they were just boys.

Coming from the co-director of The Blair Witch Project, the tension and noises of Altered follow four men seeking revenge against an alien who ruined everything for them when they were young. Nearly 20 years prior to the events of the movie, the group was on a hunting trip when they were abducted by aliens and subjected to experiments, traumatizing all of them and resulting in the death of one in the group.

The paranoia and pain each of them suffered was great, but nothing could feel heavier than the blame they each collectively share, after everyone assumed they all had something to do with the death of their friend

And now with the alien they've captured and held hostage in their garage, they believe everything can be made better through vengeance and the proof that something otherworldly for that horrifying hunting trip, all those years ago.

Altered is available to rent digitally on Prime Video and other services .

5. The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)

The Blackcoat's Daughter is about something sinister lurking inside the shadows of both loss and grief, waiting for the space to fully unfold. The isolation and cold of a quiet holiday break at a private school allows the devil to be in the details for a few girls who stayed behind.

Nearly everyone from Bramford Academy, a private Catholic boarding school, has gone home for two weeks except some nuns, a few priests, and two girls. One girl stays because she might be pregnant and is unsure of how to deal with her parents and all the associated religious guilt that will inevitably be packed like cold snow into that conversation.

The Blackcoat's Daughter is about what happens when we only talk about the devil, instead of the demons that we all deal with, but the devil may also be within the details.

The Blackcoat's Daughter is available to stream on Max .

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6. The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald - "Scared Silly" (1998)

Animation studio Klasky-Csupo gave us Rugrats, Rocket Power, and many other iconic cartoon treasures from the '90s, but McDonald's also contracted the studio to create a series of stories meant to sell more Happy Meals.

The cartoon adventures of Ronald McDonald and friends included live-action segments setting up the characters (and brand recognition) before diving into animated adventures that brought anyone that bought a VHS tape while visiting the chain into the lore of McDonaldland

In "Scared Silly," the first of the six episodes produced, Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Hamburglar, and other big name McDonaldland characters try to escape the anxieties of the big city, only to end up inside a haunted house, when a mysterious storm rains down on their camping trip.

Is this going to be as bone-chilling as some of the other entries on this list? Absolutely not, but it's a really fun little piece of nostalgia. What's more, it's got a catchy chorus of songs and some surprisingly big names in voice acting, including Bill Farmer and Tara Strong.

The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald - "Scared Silly" is available to watch on YouTube , or alternatively, used copies can be found online for a relatively low price .

7. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Picnic at Hanging Rock is about a group of girls who mysteriously go missing on an otherwise normal dThe disappearance of the girls shakes the community and nearby town, calling into question the reputation of the private school that was once trusted, with no one really sure what kind of sinister mystery is lurking in the shadows.

An ambiguous ending may prove frustrating for some, but the deep mysteries of Picnic at Hanging Rock, and the way it explores themes of repression nature, have influenced storytelling in and outside of the horror genre, including Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides and Damon Lindelof’s The Leftovers.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is available to stream on Max .

8. Hell House, LLC (2015)

Hell House, LLC is just as much about the supernatural as it is about the pitfalls of capitalism and what happens when we lose ourselves in our work.

The movie follows a group of friends putting together an interactive haunted house, which is easier said than done. Everyone is excited at first, as the friends all do the work in getting ‘Hell House’ open, until it’s actually haunted and better than anyone could have imagined.

For much of the film, the characters are dismissive of the very real horrors happening around them, in an attempt to convince themselves that all the stories about their real-estate purchase aren't true, until there's no denying what's happening in front of their eyes. This denial emphasizes what audiences know is happening on screen when it starts to feel like building a haunted house inside a haunted house wasn't such a good idea.

Hell House, LLC is available to stream on Prime Video , Shudder , and Tubi .

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9. 9 (2009)

9 is about a group of little knitted creatures trying to stay alive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, ravaged and torn apart by nuclear war. Machines wielding death are nearly all that's left in this imaginative, computer-generated film starring the voice of Elijah Wood as 9, a curious little guy who finds others made out of yarn and scattered parts, and starts to wonder if another world and way of life could be possible, provided they all stick together.

9 is based on a unique short film that was expanded into something bigger, and it paid off, culminating in a tight story about appreciating life and each other when it feels like death could come at any moment.

9 is available to rent digitally on Prime Video and other services.

10. The Skeleton Dance (1929)

The Skeleton Dance is a five-and-a-half-minute musical story, the first in Disney's Silly Symphony line of shorts, about skeletons dancing and partying in a graveyard. Notably, it was directed by Walt Disney himself.

An owl with big eyes, screeching black cats, dogs howling at the moon, and other Macabre imagery are the stars of this musical piece of spooky Disney history. It's a great example of the kinds of media that's been made more widely available with Disney+ and the streaming age. It's also cool seeing that people have always thought silly, spooky skeletons were fun, even nearly a hundred years ago.

The Skeleton Dance is available to stream on Disney+ .

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• Leave Blank

Horror movies about skeletons

In the top there are new films of 2022, a plot description and trailers for films that have already been released.

A man is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., where he must battle an army of the dead and retrieve the Necronomicon so he can return home.

Larry and his wife, Julia move into an old house and discover a hideous creature - the man's half-brother, who is also the woman's former lover - hiding upstairs. Having lost his earthly body to a trio of S&M demons, the Cenobites, Frank, is brought back into existence by a drop of blood on the floor. He soon forces his former mistress to bring him his necessary human sacrifices to complete his body... but the Cenobites won't be happy about this.

A young boy named Luke and his grandmother go on vacation only to discover their hotel is hosting an international witch convention, where the Grand High Witch is unveiling her master plan to turn all children into mice. Will Luke fall victim to the witches' plot before he can stop them?

Once an architect, Frank Bannister now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent.

Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

The long-awaited missing pieces from the original version of the film – nearly an hour-and-a-half of deleted/alternate scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – often referred to as the “holy grail” of Twin Peaks fandom.

When a virus leaks from a top-secret facility, turning all resident researchers into ravenous zombies and their lab animals into mutated hounds from hell, the government sends in an elite military task force to contain the outbreak. Alice and Rain are charged with leading the mission. But they only have three hours before the pathogen becomes airborne and infects the world.

Nada, a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like "Stay Asleep", "No Imagination", "Submit to Authority". Even scarier is that he is able to see that some usually normal-looking people are in fact ugly aliens in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued.

Henry Frankenstein is a doctor who is trying to discover a way to make the dead walk. He succeeds and creates a monster that has to deal with living again.

Novelist Paul Sheldon crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. He is found by Annie Wilkes, the "number one fan" of Paul's heroine Misery Chastaine. Annie is also somewhat unstable, and Paul finds himself crippled, drugged and at her mercy.

Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.

When some very creepy things start happening around school, the kids at Herrington High make a chilling discovery that confirms their worst suspicions: their teachers really are from another planet! As mind-controlling parasites rapidly begin spreading from the faculty to the students' bodies, it's ultimately up to the few who are left – an unlikely collection of loners, leaders, nerds and jocks – to save the world from alien domination.

Grace is a religious woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the family begins to suspect the house is haunted, Grace fights to protect her children at any cost in the face of strange events and disturbing visions.

In the final days of World War II, the Nazis attempt to use black magic to aid their dying cause. The Allies raid the camp where the ceremony is taking place, but not before a demon - Hellboy - has already been conjured. Joining the Allied forces, Hellboy eventually grows to adulthood, serving the cause of good rather than evil.

When a new murder victim is discovered with all the signs of Jigsaw's hand, Detective Eric Matthews begins a full investigation and apprehends Jigsaw with little effort. But for Jigsaw, getting caught is just another part of his plan. Eight more of his victims are already fighting for their lives and now it's time for Matthews to join the game...

Publisher Will Randall becomes a werewolf and has to fight to keep his job.

Based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men - a good and an evil side. He believes that by separating the two, man can become liberated. He succeeds in his experiments with chemicals to accomplish this and transforms into Hyde to commit horrendous crimes. When he discontinues use of the drug, it is already too late.

A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

When Billy Peltzer is given a strange but adorable pet named Gizmo for Christmas, he inadvertently breaks the three important rules of caring for a Mogwai, and unleashes a horde of mischievous gremlins on a small town.

Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

Hick handymen Val McKee and Earl Bassett can barely eke out a living in the Nevada hamlet of Perfection, so they decide to leave town -- despite an admonition from a shapely seismology coed who's picking up odd readings on her equipment. Before long, Val and Earl discover what's responsible for those readings: 30-foot-long carnivorous worms with a proclivity for sucking their prey underground.

A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.

Three children become the caretakers of a New England mansion that is home to a bevy of secrets and magic.

In 1916, a shadowy serial killer is targeting women with "afflictions". One night, during a thunderstorm, the mute Helen feels menaced.

When their ship crash-lands on a remote planet, the marooned passengers soon learn that escaped convict Riddick isn't the only thing they have to fear. Deadly creatures lurk in the shadows, waiting to attack in the dark, and the planet is rapidly plunging into the utter blackness of a total eclipse. With the body count rising, the doomed survivors are forced to turn to Riddick with his eerie eyes to guide them through the darkness to safety. With time running out, there's only one rule: Stay in the light.

Trainees in the FBI's psychological profiling program must put their training into practice when they discover a killer in their midst.

A man on the run is hunted by a demon known as the Collector.

During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.

A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus.

Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes, he discovers he has an ability to see into the past, present and future life of anyone with whom he comes into physical contact.

Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people it kills.

Since the sudden and highly suspicious death of his parents, 12-year-old Damien has been in the charge of his wealthy aunt and uncle. Widely feared to be the Antichrist, Damien relentlessly plots to seize control of his uncle's business empire—and the world. Anyone attempting to unravel the secrets of Damien's sinister past or fiendish future meets with a swift and cruel demise.

A young couple moves into an infamous New York apartment building to start a family. Things become frightening as Rosemary begins to suspect her unborn baby isn't safe around their strange neighbors.

Upon receiving reports of missing persons at Fort Spencer, a remote Army outpost on the Western frontier, Capt. John Boyd investigates. After arriving at his new post, Boyd and his regiment aid a wounded frontiersman who recounts a horrifying tale of a wagon train murdered by its supposed guide -- a vicious U.S. Army colonel gone rogue. Fearing the worst, the regiment heads out into the wilderness to verify the gruesome claims.

Shaun lives a supremely uneventful life, which revolves around his girlfriend, his mother, and, above all, his local pub. This gentle routine is threatened when the dead return to life and make strenuous attempts to snack on ordinary Londoners.

Columbus has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee doesn't have fears. If he did, he'd kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other.

Lestat de Lioncourt is awakened from his slumber. Bored with his existence, he has now become this generation's new Rock God. While in the course of time, another has arisen, Akasha, the Queen of the Vampires and the Dammed. He wants immortal fame, his fellow vampires want him eternally dead for his betrayal, and the Queen wants him for her King. Who will be the first to reach him? Who shall win?

Chic socialite Melanie Daniels enjoys a passing flirtation with an eligible attorney in a San Francisco pet shop and, on an impulse, follows him to his hometown bearing a gift of lovebirds. But upon her arrival, the bird population runs amok. Suddenly, the townsfolk face a massive avian onslaught, with the feathered fiends inexplicably attacking people all over Bodega Bay.

A man who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.

Lorraine and Ed Warren travel to north London to help a single mother raising four children alone in a house plagued by malicious spirits.

A psychotherapist journeys inside a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.

A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.

A grotesquely disfigured composer known as "The Phantom" haunts Paris' opera house, where he's secretly grooming Christine Daae to be an opera diva. Luring her to his remote underground lair, The Phantom declares his love. But Christine loves Raoul de Chagny and plans to elope with him. When The Phantom learns this, he abducts Christine.

Dutch and his group of commandos are hired by the CIA to rescue downed airmen from guerillas in a Central American jungle. The mission goes well but as they return they find that something is hunting them. Nearly invisible, it blends in with the forest, taking trophies from the bodies of its victims as it goes along. Occasionally seeing through its eyes, the audience sees it is an intelligent alien hunter, hunting them for sport, killing them off one at a time.

Exactly one year after young rock guitarist Eric Draven and his fiancée are brutally killed by a ruthless gang of criminals, Draven -- watched over by a hypnotic crow -- returns from the grave to exact revenge.

After a car crash, a criminal psychologist (Halle Berry) comes to, only to find that she's a patient in the same mental institution that currently employs her. It seems she's been accused of murdering her husband -- but she has no memory of committing the crime. As she tries to regain her memory and convince her co-workers of her innocence, a vengeful spirit uses her as an earthly pawn, which further convinces everyone of her guilt.

A girl calls on her brother's imaginary friend to banish a mischievous boogeyman who has framed her for his pranks.

A group of people try to survive an attack of bloodthirsty zombies while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse. Although not the first zombie film, Night of the Living Dead is the progenitor of the contemporary "zombie apocalypse" horror film, and it greatly influenced the modern pop-culture zombie archetype.

A young man and his four younger siblings, who have kept secret the death of their beloved mother in order to remain together, are plagued by a sinister presence in the sprawling manor in which they live.

An ex-cop and his family are the target of an evil force that is using mirrors as a gateway into their home.

Yahoo Entertainment

10 movies you need to watch to understand this year's most popular Halloween costumes

Posted: October 23, 2023 | Last updated: October 23, 2023

It’s almost Halloween time , and you know what that means: Spooky, scary skeletons send shivers down your spine … and niche, subtle and sometimes downright confusing costumes abound! When it comes to Halloween costumes in 2023, you may want to do a little bit of research before getting into the seasonal spirit, just to avoid having to ask the third guy you’ve seen in the basic striped shirt and shorts what he’s dressed as ( he’s Allan! ). Fear not, we’ve got you covered. In case you haven’t made it to the movie theater much this year, here are the top 10 movies to watch if you need a crash course on the most popular Halloween costumes for 2023.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023)

OK, you probably don’t need to see The Eras Tour movie to get the army of Taylor Swift costumes you’re about to see this Halloween, but knowing Swifties, there are bound to be some super niche Eras Tour costumes created this Halloween since fans have been reliving the tour in theaters. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is currently playing in theaters.

Barbie (2023)

Get ready to say “Hi, Barbie!” a whole bunch this Halloween. Barbie will undeniably be one of the most popular Halloween costumes this year (along with Ken costumes , “ Weird Barbie costumes" and maybe even an Allan ). Want to rewatch the Greta Gerwig blockbuster about everyone’s favorite doll? Right now, you can rent or buy Barbie on digital.

Oppenheimer (2023)

This summer, fans flocked to the theaters adorned in pink AND trench coats to celebrate the release day of the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer , Christopher Nolan’s three-hour drama about American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and how he built the atomic bomb. Naturally, Oppenheimer , Einstein and Barbenheimer costumes are all predicted to be big this Halloween.

Unfortunately, Oppenheimer isn’t out yet on digital or streaming (you'll need to wait to Nov. 21), but there are still some theaters showing Nolan’s film.

M3GAN (2023)

Get ready for bad blond wigs and questionable choreographed dance moves, because M3GAN will be taking over come Halloweekend. The near instant cult classic horror movie about an artificially intelligent kids' toy starring Allison Williams and Violet McGraw was already generating Halloween costume buzz way back in January when it premiered. So order your wig soon , if you plan on joining the M3GAN madness. You can stream M3GAN on Peacock .

The Little Mermaid (2023)

Always a classic for kids and grown-ups alike, mermaid costumes are extra popular this year thanks to the new Little Mermaid movie, starring Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem. You’re sure to see lots of Ariels and Ursulas , and perhaps a Prince Eric costume, too. You can stream The Little Mermaid on Disney+ .

Renfield (2023)

You can’t go wrong with a classic vampire costume , a fact proven by the bloodsuckers' consistent popularity every Halloween. This year, some people may put a contemporary twist on their vampire look and model it after Nicholas Hoult’s Renfield or Nicolas Cage’s Dracula . Right now you can stream Renfield on Prime Video .

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

According to Google Trends , Spider-Man is currently the third most popular Halloween costume search, so get ready to feel like you’re in the Spider-Verse this spooky season, with all the Spider-Man variants running around. If you want to understand which Spider you’re seeing trick-or-treating on your doorstep, you should revisit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, because you’re likely to see plenty of Miles Morales Spider-Man costumes , and probably a few Spider-Gwens as well. You can rent or buy Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Amazon .

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

According to Google Trends, Princess Peach was the 13th-most-searched costume this year (thus far), so it’s a safe bet that we can expect to see plenty of Mario and Luigis, and probably some Bowsers , too. You can stream the Super Mario movie on Peacock .

Scream VI (2023)

Do you like scary movies? Then you’ll love seeing so many Ghostfaces out and about this Halloweekend. Want to know who is under the Ghostface mask these days? You can stream the newest Scream movie on Paramount+ .

Cocaine Bear (2023)

If you see a grown man rocking an adult bear onesie this Halloweekend, he isn’t just opting to stay cozy in the cool autumn air. The Cocaine Bear frenzy will likely drive bear costume purchases this year, and you’ll probably see a few Cocaine Bear and Sari (played by Keri Russell) couples costumes, too. You can stream Cocaine Bear on Peacock .

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54 Best Kids Halloween Movies

Looking for a scary movie to watch with the kids and family? Or a horror movie that won’t necessarily send you scrambling beneath the covers, with a 6,000 watt night light plugged in? Then you’ve come to the right ghoulish place with our guide to some of the best children’s movies for Halloween!

There’s something for everyone, from the very young ( It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown , Coco ) to the…well, still young, but we bet they think they’re so grown-up ( The Addams Family ). We’ve got animated funhouses ( The Nightmare Before Christmas , Coraline , Monster House ), ’80s fantasies and creepfests ( The Dark Crystal , Return to Oz ), and ’90s classics present and accounted for ( The Witches , Hocus Pocus , Casper ).

But what’s a little mayhem for the young mind without some Steven Spielberg productions like Poltergeist and Gremlins ? Or the maestro of palatable twisted dreams: Tim Burton, who’s represented by Beetlejuice.

Meanwhile, modern-day fare like Goosebumps,   The Addams Family , and the long-awaited Hocus Pocus sequel will keep the torch burning well into the years. In the end, we kept the list to PG and below, before we sorted the list by Tomatometer, with Certified Fresh films first. Whatever scary family movies you’re looking for, the ones you need are in our guide to the essential kids Halloween movies! — Alex Vo

Coco (2017) 97%

Spirited Away (2001) 96%

Monsters, Inc. (2001) 96%

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) 95%

Ghostbusters (1984) 95%

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) 95%

The Secret of NIMH (1982) 93%

The Witches (1990) 94%

Coraline (2009) 90%

ParaNorman (2012) 89%

Frankenweenie (2012) 88%

Poltergeist (1982) 88%

Gremlins (1984) 86%

Beetlejuice (1988) 86%

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005) 84%

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) 81%

The Boxtrolls (2014) 78%

Goosebumps (2015) 78%

The Dark Crystal (1982) 77%

Monster House (2006) 75%

Labyrinth (1986) 75%

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) 95%

Toy story of terror (2013) 94%.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) 88%

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) 88%

Nightbooks (2021) 88%

Halloweentown (1998) 83%

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) 72%

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) 73%

The Addams Family (1991) 67%

The House With a Clock in Its Walls (2018) 65%

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) 65%

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018) 62%

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) 61%

Return to Oz (1985) 58%

Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) 56%

Ghostbusters II (1989) 55%

Casper (1995) 52%

The Watcher in the Woods (1980) 50%

Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999) 50%

Roald Dahl's The Witches (2020) 49%

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022) 49%

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018) 47%

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022) 46%

The Addams Family (2019) 45%

Hotel Transylvania (2012) 45%

Little Monsters (1989) 44%

Hocus Pocus (1993) 40%

Scooby-Doo (2002) 32%

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) 22%

The Addams Family 2 (2021) 28%

Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) 17%

The Haunted Mansion (2003) 13%

The Little Vampire (2017) 14%

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The Skeleton Key

A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past. A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past. A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.

• Iain Softley
• Ehren Kruger
• Kate Hudson
• Peter Sarsgaard
• 455 User reviews
• 184 Critic reviews
• 47 Metascore
• See more at IMDbPro
• 5 nominations

• Caroline Ellis

• Luke Marshall

• Violet Devereaux

• Ben Devereaux
• Mama Cynthia
• (as Fahnlohnee Harris)
• Bayou Woman

• Nurse Trula
• (as Trula Marcus)
• Nurse Audrey

• Robertson Thorpe
• (as Tom Uskali)

• Madeleine Thorpe

• Martin Thorpe

• Grace Thorpe

• Papa Justify

• Mama Cecile
• (as Jeryl Prescott Sales)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia The swamp behind the Devereaux house was created with CGI effects. The actual house used in this movie, Felicity Plantation, is situated inland in St. James Parish, and is surrounded by farmland. The fictional Devereaux house was situated in Terrebonne Parish, which is coastal and swampy.
• Goofs Violet rides up in the elevator when all power is out.

Violet Devereaux : Child, I believe you broke my legs.

• Crazy credits There are no opening credits.
• Connections Featured in The Making of 'the Skeleton Key' (2005)
• Soundtracks Do Whatcha Wanna Written by Keith Frazier , Philip Frazier and Kermit Ruffins Performed by ReBirth Brass Band (as The Rebirth Brass Band)

User reviews 455

• Oct 3, 2005
• How long is The Skeleton Key? Powered by Alexa
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• Is "The Skeleton Key" based on a book?
• What is Hoodoo?
• August 12, 2005 (United States)
• United States
• Chìa Khóa Xương Người
• Bayou Gauche, Louisiana, USA (trip to see hoodoo lady)
• Universal Pictures
• ShadowCatcher Entertainment
• Double Feature Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $43,000,000 (estimated)
• $47,907,715
• $16,057,945
• Aug 14, 2005
• $93,983,911

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 44 minutes
• Black and White
• Dolby Digital

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52 Best Disney Halloween Movies of All Time

Animated films with ghosts, cartoons and live action flicks you can stream on Disney+.

The great thing about Disney is that they make movies for everyone. You can count on Disney to come through with family-friendly films that are as enjoyable for small children as they are for teens and adults. And you can also depend on the company to deliver the best scary movies for kids that are just the right amount of eerie without giving them nightmares. Even if you’re more into comedy, so many of the flicks we’ve listed here have just a good amount of humor to take your mind off of the other more sinister aspects of the plot.

We have animated cartoons like The Nightmare Before Christmas , scary films from the 80s, like The Bride of Boogedy , as well as Disney Channel classics like The Scream Team and the Halloweentown series . A lot of these movies are also easy to stream and available right on Disney+ .

Z-O-M-B-I-E-S (2018)

This kid-friendly zombie movie focuses on what happens when zombies integrate into a human high school. Zombie Zed and human cheerleader Allison's unlikely friendship may help them save their school.

Werewolf By Night (2022)

After their leader's death, members of a mysterious monster hunter group enter a deadly competition to uncover a powerful relic. Through their journey, they end up encountering a terrifying monster.

The New Mutants (2020)

Five teens with unique abilities are sent to a special institution for treatment. It is soon revealed that everything around them isn't what it seems.

Mickey's Tale of Two Witches (2021)

In this film that's perfect for kids, Minnie and Daisy must undergo a series of four tests before they can graduate to become real witches. They learn the importance of working together and ultimately strengthen their friendship and their magic.

Growing Fangs (2021)

This is more of a short film, but it still passes for spooky vibes. Mexican-American teen Val Garcia navigates keeping her half-vampire/ half-human identities from being exposed.

Can of Worms (1999)

Mike Pilsbury is forced to save the world after his plea for aliens to come to Earth to take him away actually ends up happening.

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

The sequel to everyone's favorite Halloween movie is finally on Disney+. The Sanderson Sisters are back 29 years after someone lit the Black Flame Candle and are once again wreaking havoc on Salem.

The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular (2017)

In this short, Mickey's nephews challenge him to tell a scary story on Halloween night. The story he comes up with ends up being more terrifying than they expect.

Disenchanted (2022)

If you're in the mood for a musical comedy, this sequel to Enchanted will do the trick. After 15 years of Giselle living happily ever after in New York City, she and her family move to the suburbs for a change of scenery. What she didn't expect is that suburbia has its own rules. Giselle then turns to magic to make her life more like a fairy tale, but her spell has unintended consequences.

LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales (2021)

Travel to the dark side of the galaxy in this special holiday film that follows the events of The Rise of Skywalker . Poe, BB-8, Graballa and Dean must find a way back to their friends after they allow Darth Vader's servant Vaneé to lure them deep into his castle.

Descendants (2015)

The children of Disney's most iconic villains are given a shot at redemption. The question is: will they turn from their wicked ways or seek to help their parents regain power?

Lonesome Ghosts (1937)

In another short pick, a few bored ghosts decide to make a house call to visit the "Ajax Ghost Exterminators," Goofy, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. The group ends up being scared silly by their various pranks.

Escape To Witch Mountain (1975)

Two young orphans are lured to the home of an evil millionaire who seeks to exploit their clairvoyant powers. As they are trying to escape they encounter a magical force that takes them on an unexpected journey.

The Skeleton Dance (1929)

A quartet of skeletons come together and dance to the music of Edvard Grieg. Throughout their short performance, you will see plenty of gags and even some animals get in on the fun.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

If you haven't watched this flick before, you're seriously missing out. Max ( Omri Katz ), his sister, Dani ( Thora Birch ) and their friend Allison ( Vinessa Shaw ) explore an abandoned house and accidentally free three evil witches named Winifred, Sarah and Mary Sanderson ( Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy ). The kids then must steal the witches’ book of spells to stop the Sanderson sisters from becoming immortal.

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

A scientists crafts a human-like man, but dies before he is able to complete him. Edward ( Johnny Depp ) then roams around as an outcast from society until a local Avon lady welcomes him into her home.

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)

Inspired by Disney's Haunted Mansion attractions, Gonzo decides to spend the night among the grim grinning ghosts.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

While there continues to be a robust debate over whether this film is technically a Christmas or Halloween movie, we say it's great to watch any time of year. Pumpkin King Jack Skellington is bored of the same old scary features of Halloween Town, so he decides to explore the enchanting world of Christmas Town. And when he does, he is amazed at what he learns.

Coco (2017)

A story of a young boy, Miguel, who dreams of becoming a musician like his favorite idol Ernesto de la Cruz. Miguel wants to prove his musical talent and finds himself in the Land of the Dead, meeting a trickster named Hector. Miguel and Hector embark on a journey to unlock the true story behind Miguel's family name. Although the Day of the Dead holiday doesn't have anything to do with Halloween, it's a fun movie to watch the night before the celebrations on Nov. 1.

The Adventures of Ichabod And Mr. Toad (1949)

This animated film tells two stories based loosely on the fairy tales The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow . Most say the film is on the funnier side, but there are definitely moments of creep thanks to the horseman.

Larry Stansbury is a writer whose work has appeared in POPSUGAR, Sports Illustrated , Her Campus , Distractify and more. He covers a wide range of topics, including entertainment, lifestyle and sports. Larry graduated with a B.A. in writing and rhetoric from Syracuse University in 2018. When he’s not writing, he is either working out, eating carbs or dancing to the next Little Mix song. 

Cameron (she/her) is a staff writer for Good Housekeeping , where she covers everything from holidays to food. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she received a B.A. in magazine journalism. In her spare-time she can be found scrolling TikTok for the latest cleaning hacks and restaurant openings, binge-watching seasons of Project Runway or online shopping.

@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-1yxmhzw:before{background-repeat:no-repeat;bottom:-0.2rem;color:#ffffff;content:'_';display:inline-block;height:1.25rem;line-height:1;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-right:0.625rem;position:relative;width:1.25rem;}.loaded .css-1yxmhzw:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.loaded .css-1yxmhzw:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}} The Best Movies to Watch

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Screen Rant

15 spooky cartoons for halloween on disney+.

From full-length animated features to creepy cartoons and spooky short films, Disney has all the trimmings and trappings for one's Halloween binging.

Read update

With the Halloween season here, fans of all ages will likely be looking for some fun ghoulish things to watch to get them in the mood for the season. Disney+'s Halloween offerings are extensive, including even more cartoons that might interest the younger Halloween crowd or those who are simply fans of animation. It is a fun and spooky mix of new shows and movies worth checking out as well as some older classics that might inspire some nostalgia.

Halloween entertainment doesn't have to be all guts and gore. Sometimes all one really needs for a good Halloween is a few smiling pumpkins, a bucket of treats, a few tricks, and a good healthy dose of magic. Since Disney has been supplying viewers with that in spades, there's no better place for some festive and frightful animation than Disney+ .

From full-length animated features to creepy cartoons and spooky short films, Disney has all the trimmings and trappings for one's Halloween binging. Ranging from mild thrills to nightmare fuel, there's a little something for everyone on the streaming service. Even Mickey Mouse himself gets in on the act.

Updated on October 19, 2022 by Colin McCormick:

Mater and the ghostlight.

Though the Cars movie are not often regarded as Pixar's best work, they are still quite popular with younger audiences. And Mater has particularly proven to be a breakout character, getting several spinoff adventures, including this Halloween-themed outing.

RELATED: 10 Disney Characters We'd Love To Spend Halloween With

Mater and the Ghostlight follows the clueless yet lovable tow truck causing mayhem around town only to be scared straight by a ghost story about a mysterious blue orb known as the "Ghostlight." It is a short, kid-friendly adventure perfect for a small Halloween treat.

The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular

In 2017, fans were treated to a Halloween special starring the most iconic Disney character of all time, Mickey Mouse. "The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular" finds Mickey attempting to cap off the perfect Halloween night with a scary story.

The episode brings together Mickey, Donald, and Goofy for several spooky adventures with plenty of fun Easter eggs. It also provides laughs for viewers of all ages.

Lonesome Ghosts

The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular gives fans some 21st-century Halloween fun with the classic Disney character, and "Lonesome Ghosts" offers a classic spooky tale going back to the earlier days of Mickey Mouse.

The short cartoon follows Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as they are taunted and spooked by three mischievous ghosts. From 1937, it is fascinating to look back so many years later and see how these characters have managed to remain so beloved for so long.

The Legend Of Mor'du

Though the full-length Pixar movies get all the attention, the studio has produced several terrific short animated stories as well. The Legend of the Mor'du tells the story behind Brave as a witch recounts a tale of an ambitious man who accepted a terrible curse in exchange for power.

RELATED: 10 Unexpectedly Creepy Disney Shorts To Watch This Halloween

The animation style is beautiful as to be expected with a Pixar project. It is also a very intense story, so much so that it might be too much for the youngest Pixar fans. But it is still a compelling and magical tale to behold.

LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales

There have been times when the Star Wars movies have veered into horror territory. But LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales allows fans to have some real holiday fun in the galaxy far, far away. The story follows Poe Dameron who has to make a reluctant stop on Mustafar where he faces his fears.

The Halloween special is filled with fun Star Wars action, some family-friendly comedy, and enough Easter eggs to keep the die-hard fans satisfied. It shows that even this iconic franchise likes to get in on the Halloween fun.

The Black Cauldron (1985)

While it might not be exclusively a Halloween film, there are few Disney animated films absolutely designed for the holiday better than The Black Cauldron . The dark fantasy epic is loaded with scary monsters, undead warriors, and one of the most terrifying villains in the Disney canon.

It's not perfect, but those wanting to see just how dark the studio can go will not be disappointed. It makes for a Disney movie with an unexpected dark turn .

Mickey Mouse: Ghoul Fiend (2013)

Thanks to Paul Rudish, Mickey got a brand-new look and design in 2013 but returned to his traditional formula of short films. One such episode, "Ghoul Fiend," is a surprisingly dark comic outing for Disney's beloved mouse as he encounters a grotesquely zombified Goofy when his car breaks down in a dark wood.

RELATED: 10 Best Halloween Episodes In Disney Animated Shows, According To IMDb

The art style takes a lot from Mickey's early days and throws in an art-deco look that's absolutely incredible, but it also allows for a more graphic presentation for things like Goofy's rotting corpse. Granted, it's still a comical Mickey cartoon, but it comes packed with imagery right from Tales From The Crypt.

Toy Story Of Terror (2013)

While Lightyear offered a spinoff for the beloved Toy Story character , the franchise has also had fun with a number of shorts. Toy Story of Terror was a Halloween special that offered thrills and chills while poking fun at movies like Psycho and The Thing.

When the toys get stranded at a roadside motel, some strange creature starts picking them off one by one. Forced to face her fear of dark and tight spaces, it's up to Jessie to rescue her friends from whatever fiendish fate might have befallen them. Of course, it ends on a happy and high note, but it still comes with that special brand of Pixar storytelling.

Treehouse of Horror (1990-)

Halloween in Springfield is a bit of a special event every year, considering the dozens of "Treehouse of Horror" episodes that are currently available. The Simpsons have parody down to a science, and that talent truly shows every year with their "Treehouse of Horror" anthology episodes.

Whether it's the Simpson family poking fun at classic horror movies or new entries in the genre, it's always fun to what these episodes deliver. Some of the best "Treehouse of Horror" segments include spoofs of The Shining , A Nightmare on Elm Street , and Child's Play .

Gravity Falls (2012-2016)

There's no better time to binge-watch this popular animated series than Halloween. With Gravity Falls's collection of cryptids, monsters, zombies, and one-eyed demons from other dimensions, it's practically built for the holiday.

RELATED: 10 Best Animated TV Shows On Disney+ (According To Ranker)

The saga follows the Pines family in Gravity Falls and their frequent encounters with various entities, mythical beings, and otherworldly creatures. It is one of the most highly recommended series in recent years. In a time of spooks and scares, it's a solid animated choice.

What If… Zombies (2021)

Despite its short run time, the Zombies episode of Marvel's What If...? It's perhaps one of the most creative zombie outings this year. Watching the likes of Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Vision stand up against hordes of the undead will always be a satisfying battle royale.

If that wasn't enough, seeing horrifically zombified versions of the beloved Avengers is certainly a scary sight, especially for younger dedicated fans. For those looking for something a little more on the monstrous side, they can't go wrong with this episode of Marvel's latest triumph. It sets up a lot of questions the Marvel Zombies series can answer .

Donald Duck: Trick Or Treat (1952)

Trick Or Treat is a Donald Duck cartoon that's about as traditional as they come in terms of Halloween. Ghosts, witches, tricks, and treats are all par for the course when Donald ends up on the wrong end of Witch Hazel's magic spell.

After Donald pranks his nephews out of their Halloween candy, Huey, Dewey, and Louie get the upper hand when they make friends with a wily old witch. What precedes is pure Disney delight with a sprinkling of spooky fun.

Frankenweenie (2012)

No Halloween is complete without at least one Tim Burton feature, and Frankenweenie is a great entry point. Inspired by his Disney short film of the same name (also available on Disney+), the film is essentially what happens when the prolific director is given more control.

RELATED: Tim Burton's 10 Best Disney Projects, Ranked By IMDb

The stop-motion animated feature is practically a love letter to the era of classic movie monsters. From Frankenstein to Godzilla, all the greatest hits of the genre are represented in this tale of a boy and his undead dog. Definitely a dark venue for Disney, but everything one would want from the mind of Burton.

The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad (1949)

Considering the second half of the movie features arguably the most famous ghost story in American literature, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad definitely feels like a Halloween tale. Featuring two short-yet-brilliant versions of The Wind in The Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the package film is a great chaser to a night of tricks and treats.

Although Mr. Toad's wild ride with the motor car is all well and good, the real star of the show is Disney's rendition of the tale of Ichabod Crane. Considered by some to be one of the most accurate versions, the image of the skinny schoolmaster running away from the Headless Horseman is one that is as Halloween as jack-o-lanterns or candy corn.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?" Tim Burton's twisted tale of Halloween has been one of Disney's biggest cult films since the '90s, but it's also practically one of the most beloved Halloween classics available.

For many, Jack Skellington's creepy Christmas plot is watched yearly on both holidays each year, and the man himself is practically Disney's poster boy for all things creepy and crawly. The film is an absolute delight with just the right balance of horror and humor. After all, life's no fun without a good scare.

NEXT: The 15 Best Halloween Movies On Disney+ The Whole Family Can Enjoy

What Movie Is Spooky Scary Skeletons From?

If you’re a fan of Halloween, you’ve likely heard the catchy tune “Spooky Scary Skeletons” before. But where did this spooky song come from? In this article, we’ll explore the origins of “Spooky Scary Skeletons” and its journey to becoming a Halloween classic.

The Origins

Believe it or not, “Spooky Scary Skeletons” wasn’t originally a Halloween song. The song was created by Andrew Gold in 1996 for his album “Halloween Howls,” which was aimed at children. The upbeat melody and catchy lyrics quickly caught on and became a hit with kids and adults alike.

The TikTok Sensation

Fast forward to 2020 and “Spooky Scary Skeletons” found new life as a viral sensation on TikTok. Users began using the song in their Halloween-themed videos and dances, which led to a surge in popularity for the track. It even inspired a new dance trend known as the “spooky scary skeletons dance.”

The Movie Connection

While “Spooky Scary Skeletons” wasn’t created for any particular movie, it has been featured in several films over the years. One notable appearance is in the 1998 film “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy,” where the song is played during the end credits.

Other Appearances

In addition to its use in film and on TikTok, “Spooky Scary Skeletons” has been featured in various TV shows, commercials, and video games. It’s safe to say that this catchy tune has become a cultural phenomenon that transcends Halloween.

In Conclusion

So there you have it – while “Spooky Scary Skeletons” may have started out as a children’s song, it has become an iconic part of Halloween culture. From its origins on Andrew Gold’s album to its TikTok fame and use in film and TV, this song has had quite the journey. We can only imagine what other spooky adventures await for our favorite skeletons in the future.

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Mark Ulriksen’s “Spooky Spiral”

By Françoise Mouly

Art by Mark Ulriksen

Some people take a softer approach to Halloween: their celebrations begin and end with carving pumpkins and stringing up skeleton decorations, or consist of sipping mugs of apple cider and wandering through corn mazes. But, for braver folks, Halloween is all about the more terrifying activities—watching horror movies, or going to haunted houses. In this intensely scary world, spooky rituals provide a safe way to express and learn to master fear. For the cover of the October 30, 2023, issue, Mark Ulriksen used a staircase to represent the seasonal return of a holiday much beloved by kids and adults alike. I talked to the artist about his favorite Halloween memories and activities.

Did you enjoy scary books or movies as a child? Do you enjoy them now?

The scariest books I read as a kid were the Hardy Boys series, where every chapter ended with me frightened for my heroes Frank and Joe Hardy. But I was a huge fan of monster movies and making monster models—Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Phantom of the Opera. And I still binge on monster movies this time of year.

What are your strongest memories of Halloween as a child or as a parent?

One year, my little brother dropped his bag of candy into a sewer drain and wanted to make up for it by trick-or-treating the following night (didn’t happen). A memorable costume from when I was about ten was when my mom dressed me up as the Wolf Man, complete with hair glued onto my hands and knuckles that was extremely painful to remove.

My main memory of trick-or-treating as a parent was the inevitable task of finding a bathroom for our youngest daughter, typically at some kind stranger’s home.

Your children are grown up. Do you still celebrate—and, if so, do you prefer to stay home for trick-or-treaters, or to go out?

Given that San Francisco is a comparatively childless city, we hardly ever get trick-or-treaters. But we do typically carve pumpkins the day before; and, on Halloween, once it gets dark, we’ll walk the dog to one particular street in our neighborhood that goes big-time bonkers for the holiday. It’s always a mob scene. We people-watch, then return home to watch our family’s favorite comedy, “Young Frankenstein.”

See below for more covers about Halloween:

“October 31, 1983,” by Charles Addams

“Dressed Down,” by Ivan Brunetti

“Leaf Peepers,” by Liniers

Find Mark Ulriksen’s covers, cartoons, and more at the Condé Nast Store .

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Reese’s Releases a New Spooky Shape for Halloween

The skeletons join Reese's lineup of peanut butter cup bats, ghosts and pumpkins

Reese’s new Halloween candy is bad to the bone.

The beloved peanut butter cups already come in bats, ghosts and pumpkins during the spooky season — and now Reese’s skeletons are the newest addition to your trick-or-treat bowl.

Each chocolate is covered with a colorful wrapping and underneath, the candy is engraved with a skeletal pal. As with the other scary-good shapes, the Reese’s skeletons (sold in a 9.10 oz. bag) will be available nationwide. 

Hershey’s (which owns Reese's) has other new treats over in the freezer aisle.

The candy mavericks are bringing a fruity treat to their portfolio with chocolate-coated frozen fruit . The Walmart-exclusive lineup (but soon to be in other major grocery stores by 2024) has four different fruit and chocolate combos to choose from, Hershey’s confirmed to PEOPLE.

Hershey’s white creme and milk chocolate frozen blueberries and Hershey’s white creme and milk chocolate frozen raspberries layer two chocolates over the berries. For added crunch, the Hershey’s cookies n’ creme frozen strawberries come coated in white creme and chocolate cookie pieces. The only Reese’s option is the frozen fruit banana slices which layer chocolate and peanut butter over frozen banana pieces.

Each of the frozen treats range in price from $7 to $8 for an 8 oz. bag.

This Halloween, M&M’s will replenish your candy bowl for free if you run out. Customers can score last-minute candies through the M&M’s Halloween Rescue Squad . After requesting help on their website on Oct. 31 after 3 p.m. EST, the M&M’s will be delivered to homes within an hour thanks to GoPuff, while supplies last. 

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Memes dictionary

Spooky scary skeletons.

[  spoo -kee skair -ee skel -i-tns ]

What does Spooky Scary Skeletons mean?

Spooky Scary Skeletons is a song that becomes popular around October each year. It’s also a meme that includes skeletons in various forms appearing in conjunction with the song or the song’s lyrics.

Related words

Where does spooky scary skeletons come from.

Spooky Scary Skeletons is the title of a 1996 children’s Halloween song by Andrew Gold. It appeared on the album Andrew Gold’s Halloween Howls . On May 5, 2010, a video of the 1929 Disney cartoon “The Skeleton Dance” with the Spooky Scary Skeletons playing in the background was uploaded to YouTube. At some point, the characters from this clip became a permanent part of the meme.

On February 24, 2013, the video “2spooky4me” was uploaded to YouTube. The video includes a person in all black with a pumpkin on their head dancing along to the song. This dancer became part of the meme as well.

It should also be noted that the phrase 2spooky4me and its association with the meme predate this video. On October 31, 2013, popular YouTuber and musician The Living Tombstone uploaded a remix of the original song. By 2017, it had over 45 million views. A version posted on Tumblr had over 481,000 notes at one point.

It’s not known exactly why, but the meme became more popular than ever in September and October of 2014. It might be that the modest success of 2013 allowed it to reach new heights,  since users were already familiar with the meme. It could be because The Living Tombstone song reached a wider audience by that point. Whatever the reason, 2014 was the year that ensured the meme would continue to be a hit in subsequent years.

Examples of Spooky Scary Skeletons

Who uses spooky scary skeletons.

Spooky Scary Skeletons is a seasonal meme. Because the original song is meant for Halloween, the meme usually pops back up around October each year.

When Thanksgiving is tomorrow and you’re already decorating for Christmas but spooky scary skeletons comes on — 🏳️‍🌈Reign (@PinkAmy10) November 22, 2018

GIFs of “The Skeleton Dance” are a common sight around this time, and the song itself (and remixes) enjoys heightened popularity.

Sometimes you just gotta roll your car window down after a long day at work and blast spooky scary skeletons so your coworker can laugh about it one spot over hehe 🎃 — espurr (@Catlockian) October 2, 2020

The lyrics themselves may also accompany Halloween-related posts, especially those including skeletons. Any image of skeletons is also popular during this time. These might be props, animations, drawings, or costumes.

We're so sorry skeletons You're so misunderstood You only want to socialize But I don't think we should Cause spooky scary skeletons Shout startling shrilly screams They'll sneak from their sarcophagus And just won't leave you be pic.twitter.com/rHNEcKUNGY — Spooky Scary Skeletons send shivers (@Lucinda_Faewild) October 2, 2020

The phrase 2spooky4me or 2spooky is also sometimes associated with the meme.

This is not meant to be a formal definition of Spooky Scary Skeletons like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Spooky Scary Skeletons that will help our users expand their word mastery.

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Claudia Oshry Trolls Hater by Dressing up as an ‘Ozempic Skeleton’ After Losing 70 Pounds

The comedian had a clever response to an online troll who called her out for using the weight loss drug. 

Claudia Oshry cleverly responded to an online troll after they called her an “Ozempic skeleton.” The comedian, 29, shared a TikTok video and an Instagram post this past weekend of herself wearing a skeleton Halloween costume, using the hater’s original comment as a source of inspiration.  

Claudia’s outfit featured a black, long-sleeved skeleton-designed romper, and she completed the look with sparkling rhinestones around her eyes to embrace the skull look. In her social media post, the media influencer posed with the viral duck face by sucking in her cheeks, likely playing into the angular look. To top it all off, Claudia danced to the song “Ozempic Wegovy Mounjaro” by Ari Dayan in her TikTok video.  

The commenter whom Claudia clapped back at with her spooky costume originally wrote, “Y’all are so cringe. Yay Ozempic skeletons,” referring to her newfound weight loss.  

@girlwithnojob Replying to @kylietedesx1 ♬ Ozempic Wegovy Mounjaro_Ari Dayan – Ari Dayan

Ozempic is an FDA-approved semaglutide that is intended for patients with type 2 diabetes. The weekly injection aims to suppress hunger to make the user feel fuller faster. However, a handful of celebrities in Hollywood has admitted to taking the drug to lose weight despite not being diagnosed with diabetes. One of the most outspoken stars was Sharon Osbourne , who recently revealed the negative side effects from the drug.  

Previously, Claudia opened up about feeling “embarrassed” when she started taking the injection every week during an episode of her podcast, “The Toast,” in August.  

“I think when I started, I was a little embarrassed,” she confessed. “Like, ‘Oh my God, I have to inject myself with something just to get my fat ass to stop eating. Other people can do it without, why can’t I?’ In the beginning, my decision to not share was rooted in a little bit of shame.”

Claudia then tearfully explained that the “reason” why she was “nervous about sharing [how much weight she lost]” was “because I’m ashamed of myself that I got to a place where I had 70 pounds to lose.”  

“I could cry. I’m so mad at myself,” she said at the time.  

Nevertheless, the “Girl With No Job” influencer noted that her Ozempic experience was “liberating” and even “life changing.”  

“I can’t believe how many clothing options I was missing out on!” Claudia added. However, she clarified that she wanted to take the drug for reasons other than her physical appearance. “There’s so many reasons I decided to do it [sic]. Overall health was the number one, but of course, [being able] to have kids,” Claudia said.  

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Utah man ordered to remove halloween display featuring pole-dancing skeleton, social links for yaron steinbuch.

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They had a bone to pick with him.

A Utah community has ordered a resident to strip his “risqué” Halloween display from public property – one featuring a pole-dancing skeleton.

Christopher Fujishin’s display featured two skeletal onlookers offering money while “watching” another skeleton with a purple wig “dancing” on a city stop sign just outside his home in Grantsville,  KSTU reported .

“Maybe a little risqué for some people but it’s all in the name of fun,” Fujishin told the outlet.

The city posted a ​photo of the display to its Facebook page, where it told him he had until 9 p.m. Oct. 18 to remove it.

“Displays like this are not acceptable as it is against city code to attach anything to a street sign,” read the post.

The warning was later removed — but not before going viral and dividing the community.

“I guess teaching our children respect, decency and manners has gone by the side,” one user commented in favor of the city’s decision to remove it.

“If your kids understand what that is maybe the problem’s not the skeleton dancing on the pole, maybe it’s something else,” Fujishin replied.

He complied with the order and moved the skeletons to his own yard, where some residents expressed their support for his display – some also bringing more skeletons and decorations.

“We’re going to go tip them when we leave,” Carrie Sly, a server at The Outpost, told KSTU. “We know what it’s like to work for tips.”

“I think it brings a lot of good humor that we need to a small town,” resident Brandee Harris said.

Fujishin also found it all very humerus, saying: “We look forward to keeping this going and getting a little more elaborate as we go.”

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