A Blog Where I Plot out the Perfect October Viewing List
1-Halloween (First two together)-This is the best Halloween night viewing possible. Lights off waiting between kids to hand out candy screaming to watch out with your friends. Its the best way to experience it. 2-It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Garfield Halloween Adventure-Two of the greatest animated contributions to Halloween lore, should be required viewing if you are a child of the 70s.
3-Earnest Scared Stupid and Hocus Pocus- Great mid ground for the tweens too old for cartoons(those words should never appear together) but too young for hard horror.
4-Fear Street Trilogy- Fun films that just feel like love letters to horror in general.
5-Halloween 3 (and Real Ghost busters Halloween Special)- Another look at the pagan roots of Halloween, both pay homage to Samhain in interesting ways.
6-Gremlins 1 and 2-Comedy and horror are just the same emotion played different, so comedy horror is a great way to spend one of your nights.
7-The Monster Squad and Little Monsters- Teen boys love both these movies but girls, adults or anyone who laughs at Wolfman having nards will love it
8-Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Elvira Halloween Special-Elvira is awesome. She is funny, intelligent and doesnt deal well with bullshit, the fact she was easy on the eyes is the least interesting thing about her, and it sure is interesting.
9-Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands- Tim Burton’s unique vision of beauty and horror is as comforting as it is confusing. No one else makes terror look so breat taking.
10-Nightmare Before Christmas and Monsters Inc-More Burton goodness paired with one of the funnest monster movies ever. I not a Disney fan but love me some Pixar.
11-Nightmare on Elm Street I and III- Wes Craven’s original Nightmare is among the best horror flicks ever, but it was somehow topped by the third installment’s incredible action. Id watch Nightmare III every month if I could find the time, its that good.
12-Ghostbusters I and II-Comedy horror classics lean way more to the humor than the horror but makes up for it with pitch perfect comedy timing and Bill Murray at his most Bill Murray.
13-Eek the Cat (all of them)-The older I get the more I truly appreciate whatthis cartoon pulled off. It has some of the most horrific things ever done in aimation but somehow nevercrossed the line to things you shouldnt show in kids animation, figure that shit out.
14-Children of the Corn and Pet Sematary- Stephen King’s movies are hit and miss, but when they are entertaining they are entertaining as all hell. Children is a great little scare your pants off film that feels as much like fall as you can, and Pet Semetary is the Halloweeniest thing in King’s repetoire, well minus 1 other.
15-Dark Night of the Scarecrow and ET- and early 80s made for tv that is part revenge serial killer part mystery and one of the most famous Spielberg outings, strange pairing until you watch them and realizethey are perfect pieces against each other.
16-Scream and When a Stranger Calls-Ok you can turn Stranger off after that horrific classic opening scene that partly inspired Scream but you really should watch it before Scream, knowing the reference makes it easier to appreciate the art they made.
17-Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead-Saint Romero’s classic works. Arguably still the two best pieces of Zombie media ever created.
18-Simpsons Tree House of Horror-Id say just watch them all, but id start at beginning watch as many as you can and start next year where you left off. Even bad Simpsons Treehouses are fun to watch and feel like Halloween.
19-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Hotel Transylvania-Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the best Halloween feels ever. Couple hat with a fun romp with the classic Universal Monsters reimagined for a family comedy.
20-Tales From the Crypt-Kinda repeat my remarks about Eek and Simpsons Treehouse, every episode is great and you should start watching as many as you can then start were you end off next year make a tradition of it. But if I had to pick a episode to watch it would be episode 1, the Santa story is a personal fave o f mine.
21-Lost Boys and Near Dark-Two very unique very 80s takes on vampires. Lost Boys gets more love but Near Dark might be a better film actually. Fight me.
22-Young Frakeinstein and Buffy the Vampire Slayer- Lets go back to Horror comedy for two insanely different classics. YF is an all timer, one of the definitive parodies of classic horror and Buffy launched a tv series that became a part of culture like very few have.
23-Goonies and Casper- Here are two of the ones that hit me in the feels the most. Goonies is not a Halloween film per se and def not horror but it feels right on that list and when you pair it with Casper it ups that feeling just enough.
24-Daffy Quackbuster and Disney Halloween Treat-Two cartoon clip collections, both are amazing fun clip show format collections that are ideal to put on play and just let go while you carve pumpkins or put on your costumes.
25-Rob Zombie Halloween I and II- Another universes Mike Myers and how he came to be the killing machine. The best Texas Chainsaw duology ever they just used the wrong characters.
26-Freddy vs Jason and Friday 13th part 8-Gotta have my boy Jason on the list and went with his two funnest flicks. Not the best ones he was in but the two that are most fun to just sit back and enjoy, no paying attention or caring required.
27-Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hills have Eyes-Humans eating other Human will never not be creepy as fuck, and these two are arguably the two creepiest films of the suite, mainly do to the grindhouse unpolished nature of both.
28-The Fog and Psycho-These two scream old school thriller to me. Both are incredibly different films, both include some much deeper meaning in their shallow commentary if you take time to find it.
29-It mini series-Tim Curry chewing the scenery as an evil clown, if you aint watching it already what is wrong with you exactly?
30-The Shining and Dr Sleep-Stephen Kings most haunting film, love watching it in oct in PA when snow starts to fall for first time, makes that ending scary as hell, then if you have time watch the sequel, if not no worries.
31-Go trick or treating fool, if you are at home then obviously youtube halloween commercial comps are the way to go.
