With only a few weeks left of October you may have started to get ready for the last day of month, and arguably the best, Halloween.
Preparation for Halloween includes deciding what you're going to be this year, something scary like Scream, something classic like a Pink Lady, or maybe something cute like Sully and Boo. Getting ready for Halloween also means loading up on candy and making your favorite spooky treats. Once you have all that in order, the last thing to do is have a Halloween movie marathon.
There are plenty of films perfect for Halloween, especially in the horror category. But there are also some a little less terrifying you simply can't go this month without.
1. Sleepy Hollow
This supernatural horror film is directed by none other than the king of all things spooky and dark, Tim Burton. If you are a Tim Burton fan, you may also notice a couple of recurring actors like Johnny Depp and Christopher Lee. The film adaption of Washington Irving's "Sleepy Hollow", follows constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp), as he leaves New York to solve a string of sudden murders by beheading, in a small town by the name of Sleepy Hollow. This movie is perfect for those who like a good mystery, some gore, and an occasional scary thrill, as in this film "heads will roll".
2. Coraline
While this film is not directed by the great Tim Burton, it still has a pretty solid master of all things creepy, Henry Selick. "Coraline" is an animated film, but still has plenty of chilling components, including dolls that mysteriously move and spy on the characters. Coraline (Dakota Fanning) finds herself spied on when her neighbor gives her a doll that looks just like her. In turn, she finds a passage to another world that mirrors her frustrating home, but finds all the things she once hated to know be as perfect as they possibly could, including a neighbor that doesn't talk and a mother that cooks all her favorite meals. While the world seems perfect, the cat eventually warns her "You probably think this place is a dream come true, but you're wrong."
3. The Addams Family and The Addams Family Values
Both "The Addams Family" and "The Addams Family Values" are perfect for your Halloween movie marathon with plenty of spooky and creepy elements implemented with humor. Also, if you watch this list in order, you may see a familiar face as Wednesday Addams. The comical gothic films follow a family of wealthy misfits who seem unbothered by their strange behaviors and activities such as electrocuting one another, spilling boiling water on carolers, and holding séances. While this movie isn't meant to be scary, it does have some supernatural elements, reference to murder, and witchcraft. Perfect for Halloween right?
4. Beetlejuice
Ah "Beetlejuice". Another Tim Burton classic. "Beetlejuice" portrays a recently deceased couple, now in ghost form, as they try to become accustomed to the afterlife. In the midst of trying to cope with their new form, a wildly obnoxious family moves into the ghost's home. The couple tries to scare them away, but fails to do so as the couple becomes fascinated with making money on the ghosts instead. Cue Betelgeuse, who the ghostly couple hires to rid their home of humans, but ends up being more trouble than he his worth. With Winona Ryder's unusual character, plenty of those beyond the dead, and numerous other Tim Burton elements, it's no wonder this film is a Halloween favorite.
5. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
If you haven't yet gathered from the other movies on this list, you can't really go wrong with any Tim Burton movie for Halloween. However, you can NOT make it through Halloween season without watching one of Tim Burton's most famous and original works, "The Nightmare Before Christmas." The main character of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", Jack Skellington: King of Halloween Town, the most terrifying of realms, discovers Christmas Town. The people of his town such as the clown with the tear away face, the boogie man, and plenty of other creepy creatures, have trouble accepting the customs of Christmas when Jack tries to share what he has learned of the less terrifying and more joyous holiday.
6. Matilda
In the film adaption of the classic and beloved Roald Dahl tale, a young girl Matilda, who is very different from the rest of her family, finds a sense of compassion and understanding within her school teacher with a dark past, Ms. Honey. When the kind and gentle Ms. Honey reveals to Matilda that the evil Principal Trunchbull is really her aunt who inherited everything once her father, Magnus, mysteriously died, Matilda begins to use her telekinetic powers to stand up to all the bullies in her life and to unveil the truth about what really happened to Magnus. Thus, returning Ms. Honey's home and all other things left to her by her father and stolen by Trunchbull, back in her care.
7. ParaNorman
If you haven't seen "ParaNorman", but were a fan of "Coraline", odds are you will love it just as much if not more. "ParaNorman" was also directed by the great Henry Selick, so you can be sure of plenty of creepy and dark scenes, as well as some occasional comedy. Norman is a young boy who is out casted not only within his town and school, but in his home as well. This is because Norman possesses the unique ability of speaking to the dead, which no one believes. When the responsibility of a past relative, who possessed the same gift, gets forced upon Norman, he takes on ghosts, zombies, and a centuries-old curse to save the town. A must for any Halloween movie marathon.
8. The Haunted Mansion
Disney's "The Haunted Mansion" is an absolute must-watch and is a worthy contender of any Halloween movie marathon. The film has plenty of humorous scenes, I mean of course, with Eddie Murphy as the lead. Murphy's character, Jim Evers, a workaholic realtor, plans a special trip with his family to the lake but is enticed to make a detour when he discovers an old mansion is for sale, a possible business opportunity. However, Evers and his family soon discover that the extravagant mansion is haunted and inhabits no living beings. But rather, a ghost with a dark and mysterious past, and an additional ghost with a twisted scheme. So between beings of the afterlife, rising corpses, and a possible murder of a past resident, this movie is perfect for Halloween and will you have you feeling spooky and chilled.
9. Halloweentown
I do not care how old you are, "Halloweentown" is a Halloween classic. With all sorts of elements of the supernatural such as curses, goblins, witches, warlocks, and a place called Halloweentown, how could this Disney Channel original be more fitting for the spooky season? The film begins in the mortal world with a seemingly normal family, except for the paranoid mother who will not let her kids go trick-or-treating or participate in any other Halloween traditions. When the kids' grandmother comes, a woman who seems to love all things of what they know to be a forbidden night, she teaches them all about Halloween. We later learn that she as well as her daughter, and the kids, possess magic abilities that are later called upon to save the magic realm.
10. Hocus Pocus
"Hocus Pocus", similarly to the previously mentioned movie, is all about witches, but of a different sort. The witches in "Hocus Pocus" are not heroic, kind, but they are rather humorous. The Sanderson sisters, were sentenced to hang until dead three centuries ago for murdering children to keep themselves young. However, they placed a curse on the town that once a black flame candle was lit by a virgin they would be resurrected in Salem on Halloween night. The lead of the film, Max, lights the candle to impress a girl, and it is now up to them and a centuries-old cursed cat to put the witches reign of terror to end. Sarah Jessica Parker also has a pretty awesome song in it as well.
