Films for all kinds of Halloween nights

Whether you’re dressing up for a party, or dressing down and staying in, Halloween night can always be enhanced with a suitably spooky film.

However, while some might think any old gore-filled horror shlock will do, there is a trick to selecting the right film to match whatever kind of Halloween night you’ve got planned.

Annabelle (2014)

Watching a horror film with a group of friends is usually only about one thing, the scares – how many and how effective they are.

Story, characters and the ability to remember a single thing about the film after credits roll are all secondary to whether or not the film can make a room full of people spill their popcorn with a well-timed jump scare.

These jump-filled haunting stories are currently one of the most saturated genres of modern, mainstream horror, and so there are plenty of options to chose from, but Annabelle (2014) is a solid choice that is sure to make even the most stoney-faced friend flinch in their seat.

The film is a spin-off to The Conjuring series, which originally introduced the haunted doll, Annabelle.

The Shining (1980)

Staying in this Halloween night? That makes tonight perfect for locking all the doors, getting under a blanket, and letting yourself get lost in a truly terrifying horror-thriller.

A large group or party may scoff at the idea of taking the time to sit through an almost three-hour, slow burn, psychological horror classic, but its their loss, as The Shining’s tense atmosphere keeps the viewer engaged as they follow main character Jack Torrance’s winding decent into madness.

The film was directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel of the same name by Steven King. It has often been regarded as one of the best horror films ever made.

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)

It may be hard to believe, but not everyone’s idea of a successful Halloween night is one that ends with you staring bleary eyed into a dark corner of your bedroom at a shadow that just so happens to now look exactly like the monster from the horror film you watched two hours previously.

Indeed, for some Halloween lovers, a hard line is drawn between spooky and scary. Luckily, the latest Muppets special, which released last year on Disney+, dedicates itself fully to the idea of spooky rather than scary.

The film follows Gonzo and Pepe as they attempt to spend the night in a Haunted Mansion inspired by the Disneyland attraction of the same name. The film also makes endless obscure references to the original attraction for Disney fanatics to comb through and find.

Alien (1979)

The jump scare has always been a strong point of contention among horror buffs. Older films like Psycho (1960) had used the tactic sparingly to create some of the most iconic moments in film, but many horror fans today feel that jump scares are an overused cheap trick to make a film appear more scary than it actually is.

Understandably, a lot of horror fans don’t wants to spend their Halloween night waiting for a film to suddenly scream at them. The original Alien film stands apart as a truly scary sci-fi horror film that is mercifully short on sudden jump scares. The film instead allows the audience to glimpse the monster slinking around in the back of the frame as the characters remain unaware.

The plot sees the crew of the Nostromo space ship wage an increasingly desperate battle against a lethal alien stowaway, the unique design of which would go on to become one of the most iconic monsters in film.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Halloween films, and Halloween in general, isn’t for everyone. For some, it simply stands as the last thing in their way before they can start openly preparing for Christmas. Its for these people that The Nightmare Before Christmas exists. A Christmas musical wrapped in a Halloween veneer, which allows viewers to appear like they are observing seasonal norms, while secretly scratching their Christmas itch two months early.

The Nightmare Before Christmas could also be called a Halloween movie that can be watched at Christmas, but horror fans are already spoiled for choice when it comes to Christmas themed horror movies.

The film follows Jack Skellington, the ‘Pumpkin King’ of Halloween Town, as he attempts to introduce the idea of Christmas upon his spooky neighbours.

Halloween (1978)

It’s no coincidence that most Christmas films take place at Christmas time, because sometimes the only way to accurately capture the feeling of a seasonal festival is to depict it wholesale onscreen. But horror films usually stay away from such seasonal associations, opting instead to be set somewhere generic like an abandoned doll factory that was built on the burnt remains of another abandoned doll factory.

It takes a lot of self-confidence then, to not only attempt to make a quintessential film which captures the atmosphere of a particular holiday season, but to brazenly name that film after the holiday itself.

John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) set the mould for many of the classic slasher movies that would be made throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, including its own numerous sequels. But it’s the unashamed Halloween setting which cements it the perfect movie for all kinds of Halloween night.

By Andrew McPhillips