Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I love movies that take place during the season. Here's 10 that might not be on your watchlist!
Have some fun today!
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10 Underseen HALLOWEEN Movies You Might Have Missed!
The Halloween season is finally here. The veil is thinning and spirits are roaming the earth more freely, which means you need to be wearing a costume so they don't know you're human. And no, wearing a button that says, "This is my costume," isn't going to cut it.
Today I'm excited to recommend 10 Halloween movies that actually take place on the holiday and are full of festive decorations, Halloween iconography, blood, scares, and dark occult rituals. There's no Trick 'r Treat, Hocus Pocus, or Michael Myers here. Instead, these are ten Halloween movies you might have missed.
1. Night of the Demons (1988)
One of the best things I can possibly imagine doing on Halloween night is going to a spooky abandoned mansion, having a Halloween party, holding a séance, and awakening demons. That is exactly what a group of teenagers do in Night of the Demons.
The movie absolutely rocks. It is an absolute party in movie form and incredibly Halloweeny. You've got characters dressed in Halloween costumes, Angela holding a spooky séance, and one of the most memorable dance sequences in horror. When it comes to over-the-top, ridiculous, campy teen horror, Night of the Demons does it better than almost anything else.
The characters are ridiculous caricatures, but they're a lot of fun to watch. Especially Linnea Quigley having the most memorable lipstick sequence of all time. The makeup effects are truly awesome, the demons look epic, and there is terrific blood and gore, campy sex appeal, genuine laughs, genuine scares, and such good atmosphere. Even if you've seen it before, October is the perfect time to check it out again.
2. Happy Halloween (2026)
Happy Halloween is a new low-budget Halloween slasher that recently hit streaming. On Halloween the previous year, a high school girl survived a brutal attack by her ex-boyfriend, which put him in prison. Now, another series of slayings has started, with a masked killer making gruesome decorations out of the victims' body parts.
This one does the best it can with its budget. It never bored me, and Halloween movies get an automatic bump in atmosphere when they fill the screen with decorations. This movie absolutely does that. It takes place in a small Midwestern town with farming atmosphere, corn fields, corn mazes, and even a Halloween dance.
The story is not lazy. There is an interesting mystery involving the girl's ex-boyfriend, and she has to wonder if he's back or if something else is going on. The acting is uneven, but the main girl is really solid and carries the movie well. The killer is also cool, switching masks and the kills are really good creating Halloween decorations out of the victims. It's a good little low-budget flick.
3. The Halloween Tree (1993)
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Based on the book by Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree follows four kids who are preparing to go trick-or-treating. They discover that their friend is dying and go on a quest to save his soul while learning about the origins of Halloween.
That's a very dark premise for a kids movie, but the animated format makes it easier to accept. It is a really dark movie, and that's a compliment.
One of my favorite things about it is the narration by Ray Bradbury himself. The writing is gorgeous and literary, giving the movie an intense nostalgic Halloween vibe. The animation is beautiful, especially the elaborate autumnal backgrounds. The kids meet Mr. Moundshroud, voiced by Leonard Nimoy, who takes them on a journey through different periods and countries while they learn about mummies, witches, skeletons, and the history of Halloween.
It's an animated film that can appeal to kids, but adults can also get a strong feeling of nostalgia for childhood and Halloween that's absolutely beautiful.
4. Cobweb (2023)
Eight-year-old Peter is plagued by a mysterious constant tapping from inside his bedroom wall, something his parents insist is all in his imagination. Cobweb is a little-known recent Halloween movie that's not really low budget and not really that indie.
It has recognizable actors such as Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr, but the movie never received the attention it deserved. It is a horror movie for weirdos, specifically weirdos like me who love a dark, creepy fairy tale.
The movie is so good at putting you in the shoes of a kid. Peter is afraid of his parents, doesn't trust them, and begins to feel that the only person he can trust is the mysterious voice coming from inside the walls.
Everything feels creepy, from the direction to the editing and production design. Yet it is also strangely cozy. The Halloween and autumn atmosphere is absolute peak, and everything culminates on Halloween night when a group of kids go out in creepy animal masks looking for tricks aka trouble.
The finale is bizarre and shocking. Cobweb is one of my favorite Halloween movies from the past few years.
5. Creeping Death (2023)
After a prank goes terribly wrong, Tim and his friends are hunted by a Celtic entity that walks the earth on Halloween. Creeping Death is another recent very low-budget indie Halloween movie, and it takes some time to get going.
The acting and dialogue can feel rough at first, but the movie gets better and better the longer it goes. By the end, I can't deny, I'm a big fan of this one. It becomes a really cool Halloween horror movie.
It has fantastic small-town Midwestern Halloween atmosphere, with decorations everywhere and teenagers dressed like It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown characters. The movie also incorporates ancient Halloween Samhain folklore and, in this case, genuine Celtic creatures.
And then there are the pumpkin-headed monsters. Their faces light up like genuine jack-o'-lanterns, making them visually striking and creepy. It is one of the better examples of trying to create a new Halloween icon.
6. Cemetery of Terror (1985)
Cemetery of Terror begins with a completely insane premise. Some guys want to get down and scare a group of girls so badly that the girls will run into their arms. Their solution is to take them to a morgue, steal a dead body, and perform an occult ritual to bring it back to life.
The problem is that it actually works, and the dead body happens to be a horrible killer who goes on a murderous rampage.
The movie is completely insane, but it is also a blast. It has the feel of old Italian horror from the 1970s and '80s, even though it is a Mexican film. It's definitely somewhat of a Halloween '78 ripoff, there's alot of similarities, but the killer doesn't use a knife. He literally rips people apart with his hands, and there is so much blood and gore. It's so crazy.
It is also a zombie movie, and one of the funniest parts involves kids trick or treating on Halloween while singing in Spanish but the English subs read, "Nice, nice, it's Halloween." I mean, yeah, I love Halloween, SO NICE.
7. Trick or Treat (1986)
A bullied metalhead gets his hands on the final record of his dead rockstar idol. By playing it backwards, he resurrects the musician from the dead on Halloween night.
Trick or Treat is one of the best movies on this list. It is blissfully fun, although it is probably one of the least traditionally Halloweeny. If you associate Halloween with creepy heavy metal music and 1980s hair metal, however, this thing will feel Halloweeny as hell.
Mark Price, best known as Skippy from Family Ties, is so believable as the nerdy outcast teenager. The high school storyline works well, the bullies are easy to hate, and you really want the main character to succeed and get the girl.
The movie also has fun with the old urban legend about playing heavy metal music backwards summons demons, it's Satanic music. The rockstar comes back from the dead because of a pact with Satan, and he's creepy, but he rocks. He has an amazing musical number at a Halloween party. Probably one of the most entertaining horror flicks of the 80's.
8. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
The feature film adaptation of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark takes the stories from the books and turns them into one larger story about a group of characters in a small town.
The autumn and Halloween atmosphere is phenomenal. The cursed book brings different creatures to life, giving the movie an anthology-like structure while still following one central story.
It has a great gateway-horror feel, like Goosebumps, but a little scarier. It's still PG-13. It would definitely be too scary for little kids. I love that it takes place in the 1960s. You've got a scene at a drive-in theater, trick-or-treating out in costumes, going to haunted houses, there's witchy stuff, and a collection of monsters that look fantastic.
The scarecrow remains my favorite. I still say that one part with the scarecrow is the best scarecrow horror we've ever gotten in a movie. The movie's cozy horror atmosphere makes it something that gets better with every viewing.
9. The Pumpkin Karver (2006)
The Pumpkin Karver is a bad movie, but it is the kind of bad movie you can have fun with. It follows a young man who stabs his sister's boyfriend to death after accidentally mistaking him for a masked killer on Halloween.
The opening scene is awesome, and the next year he returns to a Halloween party where there might be a real killer looking for revenge.
There are obnoxious characters, cringy dialogue, and not much happening story-wise. But the Halloween party vibe is pretty great. It takes place mostly outdoors on a farm, which is peak Halloween atmosphere for me. There are tons of costumes, decorations, a live band, and a pumpkin-masked killer annihilating dumb teens.
The mask looks dumb, but there are some gruesome kills. I'm always a sucker for pumpkin-masked killers, and this one mostly delivers.
10. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Yes, this list said there would be no Michael Myers, but that doesn't mean there can't be a Halloween franchise movie.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is one of the most Halloween-focused movies on this list. Instead of Michael Myers, the story is about occult ritual, Celtic folklore, ancient sacrificial practices, and a horrifying conspiracy involving Halloween masks.
Colonel Cochran is essentially a modern-day occultist trying to create the biggest sacrifice Halloween ritual of all time. It's a big, ambitious, crazy plot, and it is also a lot of fun.
Tom Atkins as Dr. Chalice is so fun. He seems like a weird leading man for an 80s horror movie because middle-aged men didn't lead horror movies in the 80's all that often, but they did a lot back in like the 50s and 60s and such. I mean, this kind of reminds me of like a Hammer movie. It was always middle-aged men going up against monsters in those.
I absolutely love watching him and this young woman who really wants to know where do you want to sleep, Dr. Chalice? I can sleep in the car. Where do you want to sleep, Dr. Chalice? Go on this investigation and discover a horrifying and extremely dark Halloween conspiracy. Halloween 3 is awesome.
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