by Elizabeth Poston
It’s spooky season! The dark is coming earlier, the cold is settling in, and it’s the perfect time of year to curl up under a blanket and watch a film. Just in case deadlines and figuring out how to juggle your schedule are scary enough, though, here are a selection of perfect films for the season that will leave you feeling warmed all on their own.
HOCUS POCUS
This is a 90s Halloween staple, and it’s a classic for a reason. The comedy-fantasy-spooky-all round excellent bit of entertainment features a group of modern kids who accidentally resurrect the three Sanderson sisters, three Salem witches who want to use children to keep themselves young. The action all takes place on Halloween night, and the 2022 sequel features it happening all over again – perfect for a movie marathon.
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS 
This is another classic, and it’s a classic with songs, so it’s perfect for those of you who like your films with an after-serving of humming. The Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, is suffering from existential ennui after facing an eternity doing exactly the same thing every year. Longing for something new, he stumbles across Christmas Town and, enchanted, decides to take over that holiday instead. Cue spooky hijinks!
PRACTICAL MAGIC 
This one is less of an all-ages choice, as the spooky bits are a good bit spookier, but it’s still cosy and brilliant and guaranteed to give you a perfect warming Halloween film night. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman star as the Owens sisters, the latest generation in a family of witches cursed to never have lasting true love. Featuring magic, relationships, romantic love and things that can be mistaken for it, midnight margaritas, and a beautiful setting, this film at core is about family, sisterhood, and women being there for each other. Trigger warning: domestic abuse
WENDELL AND WILD 
Most stop-motion films feature a sea of faces as white as a Halloween ghost costume, so this 2022 offering was a welcome change. It comes from the powerhouse team of director Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, and Jordan Peele, who produced, co-wrote, and acted in it. They bring their formidable Halloween movie chops to the dark and entertaining story of the titular pair of demon brothers, who try to get into the land of the living by striking a deal with 13-year-old orphan Kat Elliot. Trigger warning: bereavement
SCOOBY-DOO 
The live-action Scooby film accomplished the feat of sticking true to the spirit of the cartoon, and is just the sort of nonsensical, fun, disbelief-suspending mix that you’d expect. Two years after the Mystery Inc. gang split up because they couldn’t deal with each other any more, they reunite after all being mysteriously invited to Spooky Island. Can they work together again? Will they find out that they’re the dream monster-investigating team after all? Probably, but it’s a really fun journey to finding that out.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY 
Uncle Fester has been away for years, and finally comes home, but is it actually Uncle Fester? This is the first of many live-action Addams Family films, which makes it a good one if you really want to settle in and have an all-night session, but is also great entirely on its own. Christina Ricci is great as Wednesday Addams, ahead of her meta-casting in the Netflix series, Morticia and Gomez are still relationship goals, and the whole thing is pure spooky feel-good fun.
GHOSTBUSTERS 
Both versions of this story are beloved by many, so choose who you’re gonna call to be your ghost-busting squad this Halloween. Whether you go for the men of 1984 or the women of 2016, these movies feature comedy, buddies being buddies, ghosts being surprising, ‘science’, and a bunch of goo.
COCO 
After Halloween comes the Day of the Dead on November 1st, which makes this weekend the perfect time to watch Coco. Aptly full of great songs, it follows Miguel, a boy who loves music despite his family’s ban on it. Through a series of misadventures he finds himself in the Land of the Dead, and has to rely on his (already dead) family members to get home, and see if he can reconcile his passion and their disapproval along the way.
BEETLEJUICE 
In a fun inversion of the usual trope, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis star as a newly-dead couple annoyed by the living family threatening to move into their old house. They employ Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton’s supernatural huckster ‘bio-exorcist’ force of chaos to see if they can get them to leave. As expected, nothing goes to plan, and the story plays out in a brilliantly stylised paranormal spooky world that makes for a great watch.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 
Like everyone’s Halloween costumes gathered in one place, Hotel Transylvania is a super friendly, comfortable take on all the famous monsters in the canon. Dracula runs a hotel hideaway that provides a safe place for monsters who are weary of the humans of the world getting at them. A fly in the ointment arrives in the form of a backpacking human, who not only won’t leave, but catches the eye of Dracula’s hundred-and-teenage daughter. It’s silly, it’s light, it’s about acceptance, and it’s a great feel-good Halloween film choice.
CASPER 
Christina Ricci continued her childhood run of starring in spooky family films when she played Kat, who moves into a haunted mansion with her paranormal therapist father. Luckily, one of the haunters is Casper, the famously friendly ghost, who makes friends with Kat despite his poltergeist uncles. Choose this one for a gentle, genial, and featuring surprisingly good computer graphics for the time option.
MONSTERS INC 
It is true that this is technically not about Halloween, but it’s a good time of year to be reminded that the things that go bump in the night aren’t necessarily scary. Mike and Sully are the rulers of the child-scaring, energy-producing workforce, until they have a little too close an encounter with a small child named Boo, who steals their hearts and ours. It’s the cuddliest monster fare out there.
CORALINE 
This is the third Henry Selick film on the list, after The Nightmare Before Christmas and Wendell and Wild, and is another Halloween heavy hitter. Coraline is bored, dissatisfied, gently ignored by her parents, and sets off to explore their new house, only to find a button-eyed version of them living through a hole in the wall, hiding sinister intentions beneath a sweet-seeming exterior. It’s dark and spooky and unnerving, but whimsical, and features enough comfort in the form of lots of supportive secondary characters to keep this on the cosy list.
