Tis the season for scares (and fun costumes). Prepare yourself for Halloween with these 10 classic flicks, in no particular order.
1. Halloween (1978):
In the first installment of the Halloween franchise, this slasher horror film stars Donald Pleasance and actress Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut. The plot surrounds a brutal murder in a fictional small town in Illinois, where Curtis is then stalked by the killer.
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Watch on Amazon.
2. Beetlejuice (1988)
This 1998 Tim Burton film starring Michael Keaton, Genna Davis, and Alec Baldwin is one of the creepiest and most cringeworthy on the list. A recently deceased ghost couple (Davis and Baldwin) haunt their former home, while an obnoxious fellow ghost (Keaton) wreaks havoc as he attempts to scare away the current inhabitants.
Watch on Amazon.
3. Get Out (2016)
Although not technically your traditional “scary movie,” Get Out is horrifying in its own right because of its spotlight on the experience of being black in America. Jordan Peele’s 2016 film, which stars Daniel Kaluuya and Girls’ Allison Williams, modernized the horror genre, tackling race relations in a smart, satirical way. It’ll petrify you year round.
Watch on Amazon.
4. Ghostbusters (1984 original)
Three former parapsychology professors, played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, team up with Ernie Hudson to hunt down ghosts for profit. For those who aren’t into terrifying thrillers, this supernatural comedy is filled with plenty of gags and laughs. While you’re at it, watch the 2016 Ghostbusters remake, which gives the 1984 classic an update, starring an all-female cast of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones—and it’s just as hilarious.
Watch the original on Amazon.
5. Scream (1996)
This American slasher stars Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and Neve Campbell, focusing on a psychopathic killer who stalks a teenage girl (Cox), and her friends. He taunts them with trivia questions before ripping them to pieces.
Watch on Amazon.
6. Young Frankenstein (1974)
It’s been only just over a year since Gene Wilder, the star of this 1974 Mel Brooks classic, passed away. We owe all our laughs to Wilder in this nutty comedic horror film, which shows how the grandson of a famous scientist in Transylvania brings an incredible science experiment to life.
7. Halloweentown (1998)
This fun, family movie stars Debbie Reynolds and Kimberly J. Brown living in a magical town full of supernatural creatures. Brown plays a teenage girl trying to save the quirky townies after she discovers she’s a witch. Watch the first of the Halloweentown franchise because it’s better than the rest.
Watch on Amazon.
8. Hocus Pocus (1993)
This iconic ‘90s film, starring Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker, chronicles three witches resurrected after centuries. There’s a new remake reported to be in the works, but the original is standalone great.
Watch on Amazon. (Although, starting October 19, you can watch the movie almost every day on Freeform as part of the network's annual 13 Nights of Halloween, in addition to a Hocus Pocus marathon on Halloween.)
9. The Addams Family (1991)
Wednesday Addams for president, anyone? Anjelica Huston, Raúl Juliá, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci star in this supernatural dark comedy about an eccentric family and their Gothic values.
10. The Shining (1980)
Jack Nicholson stars in Stanley Kubrick’s horror film based on Stephen King’s 1977 novel of the same name. The film shows how an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic, Jack Torrance (Nicholson), takes a job as an off-season caretaker at an isolated historic hotel in the Colorado Rockies and is slowly driven insane by the ghosts of the hotel.
