10 Movies to Watch for Halloween

A few weeks ago I did a part 2 of "Underappreciated Horror Films" and started doing horror-related stuff in the spirit of Halloween.

Let's expand our cinematic viewing with 10 films to watch for Halloween!

10: The Wolfman (1941/2010)

A young nobleman, Lawrence Talbot (Larry in the original) returns to his hometown to attend his brother's funeral and is bitten by a werewolf. Now doomed to become a wolf himself, Talbot struggles to maintain his humanity.

The original film was released by Universal Studios in 1941 and starred Lon Chaney Jr. in the role of Lawrence. It was a huge success and Chaney reprised the role in four sequels. It's a slow-burner of a film to be sure, but if you can sit through it I think it's well worth checking out.

2010 saw a remake of the film with Benicio del Toro in the role of Lawrence, Anthony Hopkins as his father, John, and Emily Blunt as the love interest character of Gwen Conliffe.

I've seen both versions and loved them both; that said, I'm more familiar with the remake than the original. Honestly it doesn't really matter which version you see; both are pretty good in my opinion.

9: The Lost Boys (1987)

Directed by Joel Schumacher and released in 1987, The Lost Boys follows two brothers—Sam and Michael Emerson—as they move to the town of Santa Carla. Michael's attraction to a girl named Star draws him into the sights of a vampire clan...

There's not much to say about this one, it's a great film on all levels. The beautiful cinematography and backgrounds create the perfect suburban/vacation spot type of feel for the main characters of the Emerson family.

Onscreen chemistry between all the cast members is absolutely great. Jason Patric and Corey Haim are fantastic as the two brothers and Dianne Wiest's role as the mother character of Lucy is perfect. You believe that these people are a family. Jami Gertz's portrayal of Star is absolutely fantastic as well.

Kiefer Sutherland's portrayal of vampire leader David is the typical silent antagonist—getting only a few lines of really cool dialogue scattered throughout the film. The other vampires are just as cool and some of them are even quieter than Sutherland.

The costume department deserves special praise, I feel, for the phenomenal job they did of catching both the human and vampire worlds so perfectly. The Emerson family is characterized with light colors, reds, blues, creams and so on. By contrast, the vampires are mostly seen in darker colors, black being the most common. The two worlds are starkly contrasted; the lighter colors worn by the human characters evoking a sense of liveliness and the vampires' darker attire characterizing them as the bringers of death that they are.

It's a great vampire flick and has aged remarkably well with many of the effects holding up to modern scrutiny without much difficulty.

8: Dracula (1958)

From the modern era of the 80s to the late 19th century, Dracula or Horror of Dracula in the USA was released by Hammer Films in 1958 and was loosely based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name.

Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) and Arthur Holmwood (Michael Gough) team up to defeat the villainous vampire Count Dracula (Christopher Lee).

I won't sugarcoat it, this film is old and it's very dated. Hammer Films were notorious for shoestring budgets and good quality films. Dracula is a good watch and in spite of its dated nature, it's still fun to waste time with.

7: The Vampire Lovers (1970)

A nobleman takes in the quiet and mysterious Carmilla following a carriage accident. Carmilla (Ingrid Pitt) takes a liking to the nobleman's daughter Emma (Madeline Smith) who begins to have terrible nightmares...

I mentioned this at the end of the "Underappreciated Horror Films Part II" piece when discussing the lesbian vampire craze of the time. The Vampire Lovers was the film that pretty much defined the genre and made lesbian vampires the next big thing.

The music, costumes and set designs are great, and while the dialogue is a little on the campy side sometimes, it's still worth a watch.

6: The House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Vincent Price plays an eccentric billionaire who hosts a haunted house party in the titular house on haunted hill. The people attending have each been promised a hefty monetary reward if they can stay for the whole night.

The group soon finds themselves locked in with the ghosts and become embroiled in a murder mystery when one of the party meets a mysterious end...

Really what more reason do you need to see it other than Vincent Price is in it? Now, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this one for family viewing as there are a few scenes that will definitely scare the heck out of young children, but that's not really my decision; if your kids can handle the more intense scenes, then let them join you on the couch by all means.

The film was released in 1959, so not everything holds up to modern scrutiny. In particular, the late-50s sensibilities, which are very painfully prevalent. The men are macho and the women are largely demure; a passionate kiss earns a rather brutal death (spoiler alert on that one). While these aren't necessarily a problem and they aren't really shoved down our throats, it's still a rather striking contrast with the films of today.

All that said this is a pretty good film and it holds up fairly well despite its age - although, as I stated previously not everything holds up. If you haven't seen it and it sounds like something that would interest you, then definitely check it out.

5: Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999)

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Greg, you've already done a list of kids films for Halloween; what's Scooby Doo doing here?"

You're half right and thanks for asking. The previous list that I did on creepy kids films was comprised of films that were largely appropriate for younger viewers—they weren't all kids films per se. As for Scooby Doo's presence... well:

1. It wouldn't be fair to have a list that didn't include something that kids could watch unsupervised.
2. Scooby Doo made creepy/scary things easier for younger kiddies to enjoy without scaring the pants off of 'em.
3. Building on the second point, come on; it's Scooby Doo!

The film follows the gang: Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and, of course, Scooby Doo as they join horror author Ben Ravencroft in his hometown of Oak Haven. Soon after their arrival—and in typical Scooby Doo fashion—the gang find themselves trying to solve a mystery.

The ghost of Ben's ancestor, Sarah, is haunting the town, but not everything is what it seems, and Scooby and co. soon find themselves in over their heads in genuine paranormal hijinks.

There's something for everyone here. The older Scooby fans (like myself) can enjoy the film's somewhat nostalgic feel while the newer fans can get a taste of the Scooby Doo formula without sitting through three or four different shows and iterations of the characters.

If that's not enough then I'll give you one more reason to check it out: Tim Curry plays the villain... happy viewing!

4: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2010)

We all know the classic fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, don't we? The two children are led into the woods by their father and abandoned in a time where food is scarce and when a flock of birds eat their bread crumb trail they end up lost. They stumble across a gingerbread house and start to chow down only to have a witch capture both of them.

After a while of trying to fatten up Hansel (so she can eat him), the witch is tricked and subsequently shoved into her own oven where she's burned alive...yikes.

Take that classic tale and continue it from the time of the first witch's death, add some crazy gore and you get Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. This film follows the grown up siblings as they come to a small town to investigate a series of witch-orchestrated kidnappings.

Now, this is a popcorn flick; it's a film that you sit down and laugh at. If you take it too seriously then of course you'll end up disappointed. It's not perfect and it's definitely not for everyone, but with stellar performances from Gemma Arterton, Jeremy Renner, Famke Janssen and others, this is genuinely a fun watch.

3: Silent Hill (2006)

Of all the films on this list, this is probably the one I've watched the most. I always find something that I missed on the previous viewing.

Silent Hill is based on the video game series of the same name and follows a young mother, Rose, who takes her daughter Sharon to the town of Silent Hill to see why the little girl keeps dreaming of the place.

When Sharon disappears, Rose teams up with a police officer named Sybil to track her down while avoiding the vile creatures that prowl the town.

I never played the Silent Hill games, but this movie has definitely piqued my curiosity. Yes, it's a video game movie and video game movies don't typically do too well. With that said, as much as we like to rag on video game film adaptations; we have to give credit where credit is due. This a solid film.

It's well paced, beautifully scored, the cast is great, the set and creature designs are absolutely phenomenal and it's a perfect standalone film. You don't need to know anything about the games the film is based on in order to understand what's happening and why.

2: A Quiet Place (2018)

A small family tries to survive in a post-apocalyptic world full of monstrous creatures that react to sound.

The idea of a world where a single sound could mean a horrible death is an interesting one and it's been very, very well done with A Quiet Place.

Generally speaking I don't pay much attention to the hype surrounding a horror film—or any film for that matter. If the trailer looks good then I'll check it out, but otherwise I ignore it. That said, I saw the trailers for this and thought it was interesting but not really something for me; so I didn't see it in theaters.

Instead, I saw it about two or three months later on a flight to France and it surprised me! For a film with only a few lines of spoken dialogue, A Quiet Place is remarkably effective. I've become quite picky about what I watch nowadays, particularly with the horror genre, but this is a film that I've enjoyed every time I saw it.

1: The Strangers (2008)

If you guys have been following the stuff I've been publishing for the past few weeks you'll know that I've been doing a lot of horror-themed content for Halloween. One article was a list of 10 Horror anime to watch, and on that list was a little film called Perfect Blue.

I described Perfect Blue as a 'human' horror film; it was a film that depicted a darker side of humanity. The Strangers is exactly the same; it's a human horror story and it's actually scarier than Perfect Blue—at least, I think so.

The story follows a young couple—played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman—as they're tormented by masked, knife-wielding killers.

What makes this film unique is just the level of realism. We all have that fear of meeting a total psycho who wants to hurt/kill us for no reason other than they can. That fear is what The Strangers taps into and oh boy does it do a good job! Between the pacing, music and performances this film is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that is sadly neglected today.

Fun Fact: Liv Tyler asked her co-stars to frighten her so that the fear she showed on screen would be real.

Final Thoughts

Well, that's my list; hope you guys enjoyed it. Halloween is just a week away and I have one more piece to write for the spooky season. In the meantime, let me know what you thought of this list. Do you agree or disagree with my picks? What would be some of yours?