It’s spooky season, and VALLEY wants to give you a guide to the best movies to get into the holiday spirit. Even better, they’re all available online!
Childhood Classics
The following movies are bound to bring back some great childhood memories whilst getting you ready for Halloween without giving you nightmares. We guarantee that any of these movies you were scared of as a kid will seem childish now.
1. Coraline (2009) – Available on Netflix
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After her family moves into their new home, 11-year-old Coraline discovers a secret door that leads to a parallel universe. Everything seems perfect in this new world until her parallel family, referred to as her Other Family, tries to keep her there forever. Coraline must figure out a way to safely return to reality and close the door to this alternate dimension.
2.Halloweentown (1998)- Available with Xfinity (free subscription for all PSU students!)
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When Marnie Piper sees her grandma Aggie use magic during an argument with her mother Gwen, she decides to follow her grandmother to the bus stop home. However, this bus goes anywhere but home. Marnie and her siblings, Dylan and Sophie, take the bus to an obscure town called Halloweentown. Marnie learns that she, her mother and grandmother are all witches and her mother had been trying to hide this from her for her whole life. In Halloweentown, supernatural creatures can safely lead a normal life but not for long because evil is trying to take over the town and Aggie needs Marnie and Gwen’s help.
3. Hocus Pocus (1993) –Available for rent on Amazon Prime Video
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In this movie, another move to a new town reveals trouble for Max and Dani Dennison. The siblings and their new friend Allison explore an abandoned home and accidentally release a coven of witches from the 17th century. It is now up to them to somehow prevent the witches from becoming immortal. With a little help from magic and a wise black cat, they just might pull this off!
4. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) – Available for rent on Amazon Prime Video
This Tim Burton classic falls somewhere in between a Halloween movie and a Christmas movie. When the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, Jack Skellington, discovers the beauty and magic of Christmastown, he decides he’s tired of his routine of scaring people and wants to have a try at Christmas. Jack makes it his goal to take over Christmastown for the year with the help of all of his monsters, witches and ghouls from Halloweentown.
5. Monster House (2006) – Available for rent on Amazon Prime Video
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After the grumpy old neighbor Nebbercracker dies, teens DJ, Chowder and Jenny venture into his house. They’re on a mission to retrieve all of the neighborhood kids’ toys that Nebbercracker has confiscated when they discover the house is actually a monster itself. In order to protect the trick-or-treaters from coming to the house and being eaten alive this Halloween, the kids need to kill the monster at its source of life, the heart of the house, the furnace.
True Horror
This category is sure to make your skin crawl in the best way this fall. With a mix of some old classics and new takes, the following movies are not for the faint of heart and are sure to get you in the mood for Halloween.
1.Halloween (2018) – Available on HBO Go
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This remake comes 40 years after the original film and resumes when killer Michael Myers escapes from a psychiatric institution. However, Laurie Strode, the young girl he terrorized in the first film, has been preparing for this day. This Halloween, Myers returns to committing murders in his hometown of Haddonfield, Ill., and Strode must work with his psychiatrist to put a stop to his killings.
2.Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) – Available for rent on Amazon Prime Video
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Nancy Thompson, a Midwestern teen, begins having horrible nightmares about the Springwood Slasher, better known as Freddy Krueger. Krueger’s misshapen face and razor-blade gloves appear in her friends’ dreams as well. His ghost is seeking revenge on all of those who are responsible for his death by terrorizing their children. Soon, teens start dying in their dreams at the hands of Krueger, which kills them in real life as well. Thompson realizes she must stay awake to avoid death. She needs to figure out a way to stop this serial killer and bring him in reality where he can be stopped once and for all.
3. In the Tall Grass (2019) – Available on Netflix
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New to Netflix this month, this film is an adaptation of Stephen King’s book with the same title. When brother and sister, Cal and Becky DeMuth, hear a child’s cry for help coming from a cornfield, they spring into action and try to find the boy. However, as soon as they enter the field of grass they lose each other in the confusing labyrinth. Time is nonlinear in this maze of grass, and the siblings maneuver their way out of the field using corpses as their checkpoints because dead people are the only ones not affected by the force of the field.
4. Scream (1996) – Available on Netflix
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Set in the middle of a California suburb, a masked killer goes after high school students. This masked killer wears all black with just a white ghost mask to cover his face. His tactic? Call his victims and ask a series of horror movie trivia questions. If they get one wrong, they get murdered. The killer terrorizes the entire town, evoking a prolonged cancellation of school. High schoolers celebrate the school’s closure with a house party which gives the killer the perfect chance to strike again. The masked murderer continues his spree at the party and protagonist Sidney Prescot narrowly escapes death. Now, she must find out who the killer is and bring justice to her town.
5. All Hallows Eve (2013) – Available for rent on Amazon Prime Video
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On Halloween night, Sarah is left to babysit Timmy and Tia. When they return home from trick-or-treating, Sarah discovers a strange VHS tape in each of the children’s trick-or-treat bags. Sarah and the kids watch the first tape which shows the kidnapping of a woman by Art the Clown. After this, Sarah sends the kids to bed and continues to watch the rest of the tapes by herself. Each horrific story displayed on the tapes is linked together by the murderous Art the Clown. When the tapes conclude and Sarah turns off the TV, she receives a call from one of the characters in the film begging for help. Next thing she knows, the TV turns back on and Art the Clown is pleading to come out of the TV and into the real world. Art the Clown wants to work his way into Sarah’s life and she must figure out how to stop him.
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