Halloween is about more than candy and costumes; it’s a celebration of fear itself, and nothing encapsulates that better than a perfectly terrifying film. Each year, new Halloween movies come out ranging from family-friendly to pure fear to blood and gore that will haunt a person for the rest of their lives. Below, I have listed the three most iconic Halloween movies that everyone should watch to capture the essential spirit of All Hallows’ Eve.
Kid’s Friendly: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
While many Halloween films aim solely to terrify the audience, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas captures the holiday’s playful spirit. The movie perfectly blends the art of Halloween with a heartfelt story that creates a spooky and sweet mood for the viewers. The Nightmare Before Christmas is also known for its visual masterpiece, unique characters, and opera-like songs such as “This is Halloween”. In the movie, Jack Skellington, also known as the “Pumpkin King,” grows tired of the same Halloween routines. After discovering trees containing doors to other holiday-themed worlds, he assigns Christmas-themed jobs to his residents (which they neither understand nor enjoy). Jack realizes the trouble that he has caused by implementing Christmas on everyone which reignites his passion for Halloween. Jack returns home to not only save Halloween but also Christmas.
Most Popular: Hocus Pocus (1993)
Hocus Pocus is not only a scary movie to watch, but it also embodies the idea of pure fun. The main characters of the film are the comedic trio known as the Sanderson sisters. The trio, which consisted of Winifred, Sarah, and Mary, use musical numbers such as “I Put a Spell on You” and their bickering laughs to create a light-hearted atmosphere. The plot begins with a teenager named Max who dismisses Halloween. However, after exploring an abandoned house with his sister Dani and Allison, they free the three evil sister witches. Before the witches can cause any more trouble, Max and his friends must stop them with the help of a cat from becoming immortal. All in all, Hocus Pocus is a great movie to watch if one is looking for a movie they can get a laugh out of on the spooky holiday of Halloween.
Most Horrifying: The Exorcist (1973)
If “Hocus Pocus” (1993) represents Halloween’s light-hearted fun, then The Exorcist (1973) represents unadulterated terror. Directed by William Friedkin and based on William Peter Blatty’s novel, the film transcends the definitions of horror as it destroys innocence and replaces it with the face of pure evil. The Exorcist doesn’t rely on jump scares, but on twisting a person’s mind using psychology. Each scene is able to make the audience feel a sense of dread that lasts for a long time. More importantly, besides the creepy background music, the characters themselves are the ones that make the movie truly special. The plot is set around an actress named Chris McNeil and her twelve-year-old daughter Regan. Regan slowly begins to show strange behavior such as speaking in tongues because she claims she has the ability to communicate with a spiritual entity all by herself. Chris searches for a psychiatrist and one of the doctors mentions the rite of exorcism. Eventually, a priest is sent to perform the exorcism and Regan returns to her normal self.
