The weather outside is finally emulating the chill of the season, and the sun is slowly starting to make its exit, making room for the night to shine. In this new transition of frigid air and longer darkness, staying indoors with a cozy blanket, a pumpkin snack, hot chocolate, and a movie that calls into question that wrestling outside your window seems only fitting. This list of Halloween movies is ranked from fluffy classics to more… physiologically depraved. Pick and choose which one makes it to the cutting block for the night, but be warned and call a friend. Having someone else around provides an excellent cover for the horrors that will befall you. Or a mere companion to laugh with; it’s your choice.

Mean Girls

To begin, Mean Girls has a lot of hilarious and honestly sad cultural commentary if you look for it. The movie starts at the beginning of the school year, but Halloween night is when things hit the fan for our leading lady, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan). Navigating high school life becomes more challenging as Cady transforms into the thing she set out to destroy.

Harry Potter

This classic of magic and nostalgia is not specified for Halloween, but the academic setting and heroic battles make for an excellent companion for a cozy night. After all, the movie is about witches and wizards fighting off a great evil; what more can you want? Orphaned as a baby, Harry Potter is thrown into a world he never should have been ripped from.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Arguably one of Tim Burton’s appropriate Halloween movies, if nothing else for the jack o’lanterns. Of course, any Tim Burton movie will surely give you a haunting Halloween night, but I recommend this one. The story follows a young man who yearns to prove the inhuman way the justice system handles murder cases. Given a chance to prove his scientific methods of investigation, he travels to an anxious town plagued by a vengeful horseman.

Monster House (2006)

After losing his ball on an older man’s lawn, DJ starts noticing weird happenings at the house next door. He raises his group of friends to investigate on Halloween night, only to discover a much more horrifying truth about the monster house. If you can look past the outdated animation, you will find a highly entertaining and thrilling story about love, loss, and how to grow a house with an excavator.

Coraline

After moving to a new home, the young and rebellious Coraline spends her days in sarcastic despair of annoyance and neglect. However, when she comes in contact with a look-alike doll, Coraline’s life gets flipped upside down. Not so much set in the Halloween season, but nevertheless, the dark and gloomy vibe and aesthetic will get in the haunted spirit.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

This movie takes you through many horrifying secrets as the story of a tragic young girl’s past slowly starts coming to life. Scary stories have this funny way of seeping into reality, making you question what is real and what is “just a story.” So grab a hot drink and something to hide behind as a tortured soul and her creations take you on a bumpy ride.

Halloween

Halloween is a timeless classic; however, there is just too much to get through with 13 movies with one villain — Michael Myers. So here is a list of only four movies, including the most recent three. With this list, we follow Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), a high school student who gets targeted by a serial killer and has to face him again 40 years later. The three reboot movies retcon the others making this list something you can get through in a weekend.

• Halloween (1978)

• Halloween (2018)

• Halloween Kills (2021)

• Halloween Ends (2022)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A classic horror movie that is deserving of all the screams and laughter. By today’s standards, the filming is subpar; however, I find the old style adds a nice spice to the night. Nightmare seeps into reality as a group of high school teens is entangled with the spirit of a killer. One by one, the spirit inflicts pain on his target in dreams, only for the injury to show up in real life. This movie will have you questioning what is real and what is a dream the next time you wake up.

Hereditary (2018)

This… is terrifying. A horrific mix of grief and gore. If you are looking for a movie to ruin your night, here you go. By the same director of Midsommar, Ari Aster provides another psychological film with human depravity and cult themes. The movie is not a specific Halloween movie, but on the theme of witches and spirits that Halloween is linked to, the feel and atmosphere this movie gives off fits. The story follows the sins of a family with generational ties to something… otherworldly.

Mix and match these movies for the perfect night and tell us what you think. What are your favorite Halloween movies? Tell us what we missed, or tag us on Instagram with your cozily scary movie night.