Halloween has always had a love/hate relationship with Hollywood. There is no bigger sense of fun than having a packed cinema all scared out of their wits in a communal sense of fear. However, Halloween movies are not necessarily the best or most prestigious ones Tinseltown churns.

A Halloween movie can be a cheap slasher movie but it must be one which gets everyone all uptight. It must deliver a feeling of imminent danger and makes you want to run away. And if you have been naughty – which in most horror movies means you have been promiscuous – chances are you will end up eviscerated and dead.

Beware when someone knocks at your door because you might find a Freddy (from A Nightmare on Elm Street films), a Jason (from the Friday the 13th series) or a Pinhead (from the Hellraiser films).

A Halloween picture also has to be over the top, very much like the celebration itself which has a dark and bloody carnival feel to it.

A movie to fit the grade would be the adaptation of Clive Barker works such as Candyman (1982) or Hellraiser (1987) or Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever (2002) or Rob Schmidt’s Wrong Turn (2003).

The original Nightmare on Elm Street is the perfect Halloween movie with the children chanting such lines as: “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you/Three, four, better lock your door/Five, six, grab your crucifix/ Seven, eight, better stay awake/Nine, ten, never sleep again.”

A Halloween movie has to be over the top like the celebration

John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween is the ideal film to sit around with friends. One may also go for the recent remake by Rob Zombie which amped up the bludgeoning and grisly horror feel.

Wes Craven’s Screamis even better for these kind of gatherings as it appeals to all horror aficionados with its geeky sense of inside knowledge of how horror movies are constructed.

Then there is another side to Halloween: the one which is not exactly scary but so grotesquely fun. Beetle Juice (1988) is an absolute must: it brings all the spooky elements without being frightening. Even today, director Tim Burton’s imagination is still wildly exciting.

Then there are perfect seasonal family entertainment movies such as the Addams Family series, Casper and Frankenweenie.

For me Halloween is also tied to some classic cinema moments such as when in the 1982 Steven Spielberg fantasy, E.T. is taken outside the house without any problems due to it being Halloween.

In my opinion, however, the best movie about Halloween for young and old is the Burton picture The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). This stop-motion animation classic has wonderful musical-style tunes, wacky characters and an interesting plot, in which Jack Skellington, the king of Halloweentown, is out to dethrone Santa Claws and take over Christmas.

This year, as is the norm, the monsters will also come out to haunt cinemas. M. Night Shyamalan of The Sixth Sense fame will be delivering The Visit which is a strange combination of horror and comedy and from the trailer seems all set to give its audience a spooky time.

Children should enjoy Hotel Transylvania 2 which, while not being a horror show, has all the classic Universal monsters in it.

Jack Black will be appearing in Goosebumps which brings all the classic monsters from the Goosebumps novels on to the screen in what looks to be a rollicking fun movie.

The important thing is to have a ghoul of a time, enjoy your movies and have plenty of treats ready. However, I’d suggest you don’t eat too much candy as there are quite a few monsters out there who will be more than ready to gobble you up if you are naughty.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.