31 Essential Halloween Movies
by NathanielBacon | created - 03 Oct 2012 | updated - 03 Oct 2012 | PublicOne fantastic movie for every day of October, leading up to All Hallow's Eve! The # beside each movie corresponds to the day of the month. Start on Oct 1st with Jeepers Creepers and watch ON!
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1. Jeepers Creepers (2001)
R | 90 min | Horror, Mystery
A brother and sister driving home through isolated countryside for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature which is in the midst of its ritualistic eating spree.
Director: Victor Salva | Stars: Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck, Patricia Belcher
Votes: 142,379 | Gross: $37.90M
2. Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)
R | 104 min | Horror
Set a few days after the original, a championship basketball team's bus is attacked by The Creeper, the winged, flesh-eating terror, on the last day of his 23-day feeding frenzy.
Director: Victor Salva | Stars: Jonathan Breck, Ray Wise, Nicki Aycox, Garikayi Mutambirwa
Votes: 70,513 | Gross: $35.67M
3. Pet Sematary (1989)
R | 103 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.
Director: Mary Lambert | Stars: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne, Brad Greenquist
Votes: 114,900 | Gross: $57.47M
4. Pet Sematary II (1992)
R | 100 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
A teenage boy and his father move to his recently-deceased mother's hometown, where they encounter the ancient Native American cemetery with the power to raise the dead.
Director: Mary Lambert | Stars: Edward Furlong, Anthony Edwards, Clancy Brown, Jared Rushton
Votes: 23,462 | Gross: $17.09M
5. Evil Dead II (1987)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
Ash Williams, the lone survivor of an earlier onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits, holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley DePaiva
Votes: 181,733 | Gross: $5.92M
No need to watch part 1 first. This is more of a remake, and is both funnier AND scarier than the first. A riot!
6. The Howling (1981)
R | 91 min | Horror
After a bizarre and near deadly encounter with a serial killer, a television newswoman is sent to a remote mountain resort whose residents may not be what they seem.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone
Votes: 40,142 | Gross: $17.99M
This is one brilliant film, without a single sequel worth watching. All successive films were wretched, but this one remains a knockout.
7. Drag Me to Hell (2009)
PG-13 | 99 min | Horror
A loan officer who evicts an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Ruth Livier, Lorna Raver
Votes: 217,304 | Gross: $42.10M
Sam Raimi (of the Evil Dead series) recaptures his mojo with this hilarious, over the top, shriek-fest.
8. Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982)
R | 95 min | Horror, Thriller
Jason Voorhees stalks a group of friends who have just arrived to spend the weekend at a cabin near Crystal Lake.
Director: Steve Miner | Stars: Dana Kimmell, Tracie Savage, Richard Brooker, Terry Ballard
Votes: 60,318 | Gross: $36.69M
Watch this with the old-school red/blue glasses in bad 80's 3D if possible. It's one of my fave guilty pleasures.
9. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
R | 83 min | Horror
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain
Votes: 183,316 | Gross: $30.86M
10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
R | 91 min | Horror
Before being sent to serve in Vietnam, two brothers and their girlfriends take one last road trip, but when they get into an accident, a terrifying experience will take them to a secluded house of horrors, with a chainsaw-wielding killer.
Director: Jonathan Liebesman | Stars: Jordana Brewster, Matt Bomer, Diora Baird, Taylor Handley
Votes: 77,246 | Gross: $39.52M
Jordana Brewster(from the new "Dallas") and Matt Bomer(star of "White Collar") achor this well-done, grimmace-inducing prequel. I suggest watching it BEFORE it's predeccessor, as that's when it's set anyway.
11. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
R | 98 min | Horror
After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a deformed chainsaw-wielding loon and his family of equally psychopathic killers.
Director: Marcus Nispel | Stars: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Andrew Bryniarski, Erica Leerhsen
Votes: 152,289 | Gross: $80.57M
The ONLY horror series that I believe actually benefited from a remake. This one pulls out all the stops. It's truly hardcore.
12. The Burning (1981)
R | 91 min | Horror
A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.
Director: Tony Maylam | Stars: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua
Votes: 22,243
13. Scream (1996)
R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich
Votes: 387,951 | Gross: $103.05M
14. Scream 2 (1997)
R | 120 min | Horror, Mystery
Two years after the first series of murders, as Sidney acclimates to college life, someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jada Pinkett Smith
Votes: 209,488 | Gross: $101.36M
15. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 717,508 | Gross: $32.00M
16. Psycho II (1983)
R | 113 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
After twenty-two years of psychiatric care, Norman Bates attempts to return to a life of solitude, but the specters of his crimes - and his mother - continue to haunt him.
Director: Richard Franklin | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia
Votes: 31,039 | Gross: $34.73M
17. Hellraiser (1987)
R | 94 min | Horror, Thriller
A woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.
Director: Clive Barker | Stars: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman
Votes: 140,342 | Gross: $14.56M
18. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,063 | Gross: $25.79M
19. Silver Bullet (1985)
R | 95 min | Horror
In a small town, brutal killings start to plague the close knit community. Marty Coslaw, a paraplegic boy, is convinced the murders are the doings of a werewolf.
Director: Daniel Attias | Stars: Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Corey Haim, Megan Follows
Votes: 31,445 | Gross: $5.40M
20. The Descent (2005)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
Director: Neil Marshall | Stars: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder
Votes: 246,627 | Gross: $26.02M
21. The Descent: Part 2 (2009)
R | 94 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
Refusing to believe her story about cave-dwelling monsters, the sole survivor of a spelunking exploration gone horribly wrong is forced to follow the authorities back into the caves where something awaits.
Director: Jon Harris | Stars: Michael J. Reynolds, Shauna Macdonald, Jessika Williams, Douglas Hodge
Votes: 51,521
22. The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
R | 90 min | Horror, Thriller
On the way to California, a family has the misfortune to have their car break down in an area closed to the public, and inhabited by violent savages ready to attack.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, John Steadman, Janus Blythe
Votes: 39,188 | Gross: $25.00M
23. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
R | 81 min | Horror, Mystery
Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.
Directors: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez | Stars: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob Griffin
Votes: 285,077 | Gross: $140.54M
24. Halloweentown (1998 TV Movie)
TV-G | 84 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
When a young girl living with her secret witch mother learns she too is a witch, she must help her witch grandmother save Halloweentown from evil forces.
Director: Duwayne Dunham | Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Kimberly J. Brown, Judith Hoag, Joey Zimmerman
Votes: 21,243
This is best viewed AS a child, WITH a child or with a healthy dose of marijuana.
25. The People Under the Stairs (1991)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
Two adults and a juvenile break into a house occupied by a brother and sister and their stolen children. There, they must fight for their lives.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Brandon Quintin Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A.J. Langer
Votes: 39,581 | Gross: $24.20M
26. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon
Votes: 262,105 | Gross: $25.50M
27. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
R | 96 min | Fantasy, Horror
A psychiatrist familiar with knife-wielding dream demon Freddy Krueger helps teens at a mental hospital battle the killer who is invading their dreams.
Director: Chuck Russell | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Craig Wasson, Patricia Arquette
Votes: 90,146 | Gross: $44.79M
It's ok to skip part 2. You miss NOTHING.
28. Halloween (1978)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes
Votes: 306,506 | Gross: $47.00M
The #1 classic. Accept no substitutes.
29. Halloween II (1981)
R | 92 min | Horror
While Dr. Loomis hunts for Michael Myers, a traumatized Laurie is rushed to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, and The Shape is not far behind her.
Director: Rick Rosenthal | Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Jeffrey Kramer
Votes: 101,615 | Gross: $25.53M
30. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
R | 86 min | Horror, Thriller
Laurie Strode, now the dean of a Northern California private school with an assumed name, must battle the Shape one last time, as the life of her own son hangs in the balance.
Director: Steve Miner | Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Adam Arkin, Michelle Williams
Votes: 81,979 | Gross: $55.04M
31. Hocus Pocus (1993)
PG | 96 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A teenage boy named Max and his little sister move to Salem, where he struggles to fit in before awakening a trio of diabolical witches that were executed in the 17th century.
Director: Kenny Ortega | Stars: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz
Votes: 155,820 | Gross: $44.34M
The ONLY Halloween classic in my opinion, that is not a horror movie. Ridiculously over the top, goofy, fun and lame in the most deliciously campy way. Fantastic!
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