There are plenty of horror films that would be suitable for Halloween night watching in the canon of the genre. There are horror movie marathons on the majority of the big cable networks, and almost every streaming service offers hundreds of options.
Streaming services like Netflix and Disney are competing against one another by releasing movies and TV series that are exclusive to their platforms as the war of streaming services emerges as the next major conflict in the entertainment industry. Consumers now have to spend time sifting through an ever-growing selection of services to choose which one offers the content they want to view.
Therefore, here is our list of the 15 best Halloween TV shows and movies to watch right now. Take your popcorn and enjoy this holiday season with our recommendations under your blankets.
1. Ghostbusters
The first one on our list is the 1984 Ivan Reitman-directed and produced American comedy-drama Ghostbusters, which was written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It features Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis as three eccentric parapsychologists who launch a ghost-catching enterprise in New York City: Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler.
Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) form the Ghostbusters, paranormal research, and removal agency after losing their positions as academics at Columbia by attempting to offer proof of ghosts. The simplicity of the idea is part of its brilliance, as it is unquestionably entertaining to see three comic heavyweights trade insults as they battle ghosts and spirits across New York City. And even if you are an extreme worrier, you should be able to endure Ghostbusters as long as your worst nightmare doesn’t involve a vast Stay Puft Marshmallow Man running amok.
It’s true that a sizable piece of my love for Ghostbusters stems from two different kinds of nostalgia: one for the friendship that hangs over the whole course of this fantastic little comedy and another that is utterly solipsistic. But putting nostalgia aside, this has always struck me as the best mainstream 1980s comedy.
You can watch it on your Roku device with Hulu, Spectrum TV, Freeform – Movies & TV Shows, Prime Video, Vudu, ROW8, Redbox, or Apple TV.
2. Hocus Pocus
A teen boy (Omri Katz) accidentally revives a trio of evil comic witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) in Salem, Massachusetts, on Halloween night in the 1993 American fantasy comedy Hocus Pocus. Kenny Ortega is the director, while Neil Cuthbert and Mick Garris are the writers.
Walt Disney Pictures presented the movie on July 16, 1993, in the United States. It did not do well at the box office and garnered mixed to unfavorable reviews from critics upon release. It may have cost Disney $16.5 million during its theatrical run.
Three children who escape the Sanderson Sisters’ enchantment transform a traditional “Halloween Ghost Story” into a real-life adventure. When “a virgin lights the candle,” the Sanderson Sisters—amazingly portrayed by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy—who were executed around 300 years ago after being found guilty of witchcraft in Colonial Salem, Massachusetts, come back to life.
To prevent the evil witches from carrying out their evil plot to entice the town’s youngsters to their witch home and sip their life-force away from them, two teens and an eight-year-old must work together.
Hocus Pocus is currently available on Disney+. Hocus Pocus is available for streaming on Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes by renting or buying.
3. The Midnight Club
Now, let’s get to some of the new Halloween shows. Released on 7th October of this year, critics are vouching ‘the Midnight Club’ for this holiday season.
There is a contender for the Guinness World Record for the most planned jump scares in a single television show. Coincidentally, a new Netflix series is debuting at the same time.
At the Netflix New York offices on Thursday, co-creator of the series Mike Flanagan and his creative team were given a plaque honoring the new record of 21 jump scares. The Midnight Club, his new series, will premiere on the streamer the following day. Adjudicator Andrew Glass, a representative of Guinness, was present to make it official.
In the novel The Midnight Club, a group of teens lives together in a home that serves as a hospice. They strive to live out their final days without getting buried in medical procedures, keeping each other company, despite the fact that they are all terminally sick, most of them having cancer, and one has AIDS.
4. Trick ‘r Treat
A spooky (and sometimes endearing) trick-or-treater who stumbles through each of the tales of terror in a tiny village on Halloween night ties the four short films that make up the modern Halloween cult classic Trick ‘r Treat from 2008 together. This makes it the ideal Halloween pre-party date night movie before you create your own mayhem on the streets.
Even though it received excellent reviews, it was evidently seen to be too unconventional of a movie for general release, and just like The Cabin in the Woods five years later, nobody understood how to sell it to a large audience. It fell prey to its own inventiveness.
It simultaneously conjures old horror movies from the 1930s and the newest independent cinema. I have no doubt that Trick ‘r Treat will continue to feel utterly ageless in 30 years for this reason.
Trick ‘r Treat is available for streaming on Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes by renting or buying.
5. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Although A Charlie Brown Christmas may receive the most attention, this Halloween-themed production is just as enjoyable. Linus and Sally spend the night in a pumpkin patch in anticipation of the Great Pumpkin, while Charlie Brown’s effort to go trick-or-treating fails just as miserably as you might anticipate.
All ages can enjoy this beloved Peanuts classic. It encourages a number of beloved Halloween customs, including trick-or-treating, apple-tossing, and the famed Great Pumpkin.
Snoopy plays it up during a mock fight on top of his dog home while dressing up as a World War I flying ace, replete with flying bullets. The youngest viewers may find some of the Halloween images (ghosts, skeletons) frightening.
The “Charlie Brown” Halloween special is only available on Apple TV+ in 2022, and it is temporarily free for everyone.
6. Hell House LLC
Hell House is a found-footage horror movie that was released in 2015 and was made by Fbi Films, written and directed by Stephen Cognetti. The documentary-style movie follows a team of Halloween haunted house designers as they get ready to unveil their well-liked scary attraction, Hell House, in 2009.
On the first night of the trip, tragedy strikes as an unidentified “malfunction” result in the passing away of 15 visitors and employees. The movie explains how the catastrophe came about and documents the specifics of what went wrong that night, which have long been a secret to the general public. On November 1, 2016, the movie was made available on a variety of video-on-demand services, including Amazon Video, Shudder, YouTube, Vudu, and iTunes.
A group of pals tries to prepare an ancient hotel for the Halloween season by turning it into a haunted attraction. On their first night of operation, a horrific catastrophe claimed the lives of 15 guests and employees.
You can currently watch “Hell House LLC” for free with advertisements on The Roku Channel, VUDU Free, Tubi TV, fuboTV, Shudder, and Amazon Prime Video.
7. 28 Days Haunted
All set to release on Netflix this October is ’28 Days Haunted’ this year for Halloween. The trailer for Netflix’s upcoming reality TV show, which will focus on the paranormal, has been revealed. Joe Berlinger, the director of the true crime documentary series Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, is in charge of the series’ direction.
Three teams each spend 28 days in some of America’s most haunted sites for a paranormal experiment based on the beliefs of Ed and Lorraine Warren, according to the series’ official description. The opportunity to take part in the most severe paranormal experiment ever will be offered to four daring teams of paranormal investigators.
The trailer starts off like any fictional horror film, where all the cupboard doors and cabinets are opening and closing on their own. Followed by a stern narration where the voice says it feels like a warning over dark vision footage, where humans look more like ghosts.
8. Ghost Adventures
American paranormal and reality television program Ghost Adventures made its debut on the Travel Channel on October 17, 2008, and will move to Discovery+ in 2021. On July 25, 2007, the Sci-Fi Channel showed an independent movie of the same name. The show follows paranormal investigators Zak Bagans, Nick Groff (seasons 1 through 10), Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley as they look into rumored haunted places.
In order to put together the ghostly history of each location, paranormal investigators Zak Bagans and Aaron Goodwin, together with A/V technicians Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley, go to haunted locations. In an effort to solve each haunting enigma, they then launch a dusk-to-dawn lockdown investigation while employing the most up-to-date equipment to address the paranormal activity that has been reported.
9. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Another film that isn’t really related to Halloween but has still gained an unofficial place in the Halloween canon. Despite being nominally set in November, this movie has a Halloween-like atmosphere throughout. Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) feel as though they are unintentionally attending the most bizarre and outrageous Halloween party ever when they stumble across Dr. Frank-N-(Tim Furter’s Curry) house.
A classic example of how to subvert conventions and expectations with a knowing grin is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The horror comedy has always been a legendary celebration of camp and deviant pleasure, from its 1973 debut on a tiny London stage to its 1975 film adaptation starring Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry, the movie’s subsequent cult classic status, and the thousands of midnight screenings that are still held worldwide every year.
10. Impetigore
The 2019 Indonesian horror movie ‘Impetigore’ was written by Joko Anwar wrote and directed. Tara Basro, Marissa Anita, Christine Hakim, Asmara Abigail, and Ario Bayu all appear in the movie. The movie follows Maya (Basro), who, after experiencing an unexplained incident, journeys to her isolated family hamlet with her companion Dini (Anita) in search of an inheritance.
The movie, which had been in development for almost ten years, was first delayed and then unveiled in 2011. Impetigore was secured as a global co-production involving production firms located in Indonesia, South Korea, and the US seven years later.
A curse causes infants in the secluded community of Impetigore to be born without skin. Maya and her closest friend go to the village where she has an inherited home in the hopes of selling it. Instead, she encounters angry people who are convinced that her murder will lift the curse that hangs over them.
11. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
This is the third and last episode in the “Conjuring” series. This chapter digs deeply into the dark and criminally infected realm of a demonic spirit as never before. This installment is based on a true occurrence that became a landmark case in the history of the American court.
Authors David Leslie Johnson and James Wan cleverly adapt a true story into a suspenseful murder mystery. The Warrens also involve the audience in their foray into the unknown. It is fairly clear that Johnson and Wan have a remarkable literary talent, as seen by blockbusters like “Orphan” and “SAW.”
The movie’s directing, by Michael Chaves, is fantastic and magnificent, bringing each scene to life and gradually heightening the suspense and pleasure. He forgoes the traditional jumpscares found in horror films in favor of a legitimate narrative. Compared to Michael Chaves’ last film, “The Curse of La Llorona,” this is a vast improvement.
It’s unusual for a “Conjuring” series movie to be directed by someone other than James Wan, but Michael Chaves makes sure he won’t be missed. Like the story, the background music and cinematography both have an immersive quality. The editing is quick and fluid.
You can watch this on Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+.
12. The Witch
The historical drama/horror movie “The Witch,” written and directed by Robert Eggers for the first time, cleverly describes itself as “a New England folktale” rather than a fairy tale. The feminist story “The Witch,” which follows a colonial American family as they experience what looks to be an occult curse, reads more like a sermon.
Similar to how one character utilizes the Book of Job to understand her place in her family, sermons raise questions that employ purposefully metaphorical images to help us reevaluate our lives.
You can’t go much better than The Witch if your idea of getting into the Halloween spirit is viewing a movie so terrifying that you need to wear four pairs of underwear.
Through Eggers’ flawless directing, the unsettling movie is a masterpiece in atmosphere, shocking spectators to their very core.
13. Umma
The Korean word for “mother,” Umma, is about Amanda (Sandra Oh) and her daughter (Fivel Stewart), who are leading peaceful lives on an American farm. However, when Amanda’s estranged mother’s remains arrive from Korea, she begins to experience nightmares, fearing she will turn into her own mother.
Despite its limitations, Umma is an outstanding debut for Shim; the type of performance that suggests there is much more hidden away or packed into a huge bag full of secrets. Iris K. Shin’s first film as a writer/director was unsuccessful overall while having some unique moments.
Jump scares, frightening ghosts, a lady being carried by a ghost, and a ghost suffocating a woman are all present in it, and a perfect watch for this Halloween.
14. Halloweentown
Halloweentown, directed by Duwayne Dunhama is a 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie. The first film in the Halloweentown series, starring Judith Hoag, Joey Zimmerman, Debbie Reynolds, and Kimberly J. Brown.
Marnie, the main character, finds out she’s a witch on her 13th birthday, uncovers a hidden portal, and travels to Halloweentown, a wonderful location where witches, werewolves, and ghosts dwell away from humans. However, she quickly finds herself facing malevolent warlocks, curses, and infinite surprises.
The star of the program is Marnie, who famously exclaims, “I’m thirteen; I’m nearly an adult!” Marnie has an ordinary 13-year-old appearance. She is believable in her role, and I think it’s good for young girls to see that you don’t have to look like “a supermodel” in order to be liked as a young girl or to be a beloved movie character. What I mean by this is that she is not overly fashionable or has a ready-for-runway polished look to her.
You can watch this on Disney+ this holiday.
15. Incantation
Horror movies made with “found footage” methods are usually intended to be uncomfortable rather than terrifying. They enthrall by making it simpler for the spectator to suspend disbelief due to their tendency to provide terrifying visuals in an (ideally) realistic manner. In this aspect, Netflix’s Incantation does a respectable job; its unsettling atmosphere and compelling performances transcend what would otherwise be a routine film.
The Kevin Ko-directed film Incantation tells the tale of Li Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen), a mother who battles an old curse to keep her daughter Dodo (Huang Sin-ting) safe. Ronan’s life changes after visiting a remote mountain community, maybe as a result of a misguided desire to explore a prohibited territory.
Videos captured on cameras, cellphones, and security recorders show several horrifying “accidents.” The passing away hangs over everyone, but Dodo’s situation is particularly unsettling to the point that her premature demise can be viewed as the desired result.
This one is more disturbing than scary, and you can watch it on Netflix.