I’m not entirely sure why Halloween continues to top my list of favorite holidays, trumping Santa and the Easter Bunny.Every year goes off with multiple hitches. A few years ago, I had a broken ankle and spent my Halloween night watching Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown. I gorged on pumpkin pie before begging my neighbors for extra candy with a pathetic limp. Two years ago I got kicked out of a playground—it wouldn’t have been as bad if I had left my bunny ears at home. Usually I try to get in all my favorite horror movies alone and steal candy from my siblings (I usually just flip on Rosemary’s Baby, When a Stranger Calls or Carrie—a movie that I probably shouldn’t sympathize with as much as I do). Aside from the delight of roaming Target and rummaging through the cheap costumes and “ooh-ing and awe-ing” over bottled fake blood and pseudo-tomb stones, remains of plastic bones and decorative witches slammed into doors, Halloween usually ends up being eventless.Movies prove to be a great replacement for—friends. And parties. And whatever kids do to occupy their time these days. So, here we go: a few cult classics to get anyone through a boring and less-than-spell-binding Halloween night.
1. Edward Scissorhands, 1990-
Halloween cannot be complete without Tim Burton. He’s the master of loveably twisted cinema. Scissorhands tells the story of an abandoned and incomplete creation with scissors for hands. Don’t be alarmed. He’s far from homicidal.
2. The Exorcist, 1973 –
A necessity for a Halloween spent binging a bowl of popcorn (minus the projectile vomiting). Although not for the weak of heart, this film proves its worth as one of the most important cinematic horror classics. The film tells the story of a young girl, Regan, who becomes possessed by Satan—oh, you know, the guy in red—and her mother, who fights to get her an exorcism. Hence the name.
3. Beetlejuice, 1988 –
Beetlejuice follows Barbra and Adam, a painfully happy-go-lucky couple of newly-weds, who just so happen to drive their car into a lake, unintentionally killing themselves. A dysfunctional and eccentric family (who look strangely like a mob of funeral attendants) moves into their abandoned house while they hide as ghosts in their attic. Like any logical person, Barbara and Adam hire Betelgeuse, a “bio-exorcist” specializing in the extermination of the living, to remove the family from their home. What follows is undoubtedly one of the best films of all time with iconic lines suitable for any casual encounter with a ghost.
4. The Blair Witch Project, 1999 –
Forget Paranormal Activity. The original lo-fi, was-that-a-ghost-or-a-vibrating-cell-phone psychological horror movie pieces together the “footage” from three amateur film makers, Heather, Joshua and Michael in search for the Maryland legend, Blair Witch (who happens to be a serial killer with a creepier name than Charles Manson).
5. The Great Pumpkin, 1959 –
A less frightening option for the faint of heart, this American classic proves to be a great option if siblings—or parents—are in the room. The Great Pumpkin—Halloween’s version of Santa Claus—is strongly believed in among the Peanuts characters, especially Linus, the most intelligent of the group. Spoiler alert: The Great Pumpkin turns out to be a product of poor sight and Snoopy rummaging in a pumpkin patch. Also, Santa doesn’t exist. Sorry.
Whether it’s Casper The Friendly Ghost or Dracula, Halloween’s incomplete without a spooky movie to spill your popcorn to.
