Essential Halloween viewing?

Halloween
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Scream

    

Primemovermithrax Pejorative

My three choices may be a trifle unusual, but...

Sleepy Hollow ('99)

Ghostwatch ('92)

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad ('49)


...and giving the honorable mentions to...

The Haunting ('63)

House on Haunted Hill ('59)

Halloween ('78)

Bride of Frankenstein ('35)

Dracula ('31)

Something Wicked This Way Comes ('83)

"Trick R Treat" (2007)

Watched this knowing nothing going in...just slapping something up on Netflix to have on in the background. I loved it! It's a fresh little anthology (though it doesn't present itself as one) with a narrative that weaves all the stories together. It's not horror comedy, but its a horror movie that cracks a few great jokes. Definitely a standout.

I usually watch The Exorcist around Halloween time if I see it playing on cable.

Jaws

Universal Monster movies

Halloween

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Psycho (1960)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Halloween (1978)
Alien (1979)
The Evil Dead (1981)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Candyman (1992)

Movies I try to get to every October (though I usually get to three of them, tops)

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Monster Squad

Sleepy Hollow

The Thing

Cemetery Man

and of course Halloween

I love Trick R Treat. It is a great Halloween film, maybe the best adult Halloween film (in so much as it actually deals with the origins and traditions of Halloween) ever made. My favorite story is the Schoolbus Massacre and how they tied everything up at the end was brilliant. I gotta say I did not see that coming.

The rest of my favorites, not in any particular order:

The best Halloween film for kids (and adults, too) is The Halloween Tree, which captures the incomparable Ray Bradbury better than any other film (or tv show) I've seen.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown never gets old, I still enjoy it.

Halloween 78 is a masterpiece. I have already watched it this month. Gets better every time. I appreciate Carpenter's direction more each time, too.

Young Frankenstein is another masterpiece, Gene Wilder gives an Oscar worthy performance.

The Haunting is a superb ghost story. Avoid the remake at all costs.

The Conjuring is a flawless film up to the point they decided to go all Hollywood/Exorcist at the end.

Of course, The Shining is another great horror film.

Casper 1995 is a very good, and sometimes moving, film that really surprised me.

Curse of the Demon is a surprisingly effective 50s horror film.

Sleepy Hollow has such great atmosphere and I love how they updated the story.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the animated Disney film, still works wonderfully.

Fright Night 85 my favorite vampire film, Chris Sarandon best vampire performance, another film that loses a bit when it decides to go all-out Hollywood with the effects at the end

Cabin in the Woods goes over the top a bit at the end but still works so well.

It Follows is a genuinely original and scary story, feels like a 70s horror film, which means no shaky cam.

The Uninvited 1944 - elegant and old fashioned ghost story

Murder, He Says 1945 - a great comedy but takes place in an old house with all kinds of secret passages that I think works very well for Halloween

The Omen 1976 - starts out a bit choppy but once it really hits its stride it never lets up, has a feeling of relentless mounting terror