10 Movies to Watch this Spooky Season

As summer grinds to a halt, get ready for spooky season 2024. And what better way to start than finding your next go-to horror movie.

In our house, Halloween season hits first gear on the 1^st September. And while we don’t watch the classics until week one October, we begin to dabble in the spooky and the scary as soon as August ends. So in time to inspire some fright-season must-watch lists, I’ve decided to put together a list of movies to watch this Halloween season.

The first thing I’ll say is that this isn’t a list of my favourite horror movies. One does appear on the list, but in general, that’s a post for another day (probably sometime in October.) This is just a list of films that I’ve brought together that have a nice mix of scary, fun and outright frightening. I’ve tried to include one or two that I feel don’t get the love they deserve, and I’m hoping there are a few that you won’t have seen. The list is in no particular order, but I hope it inspires you to put your own list together, and maybe let me know of some under-watched classics that you will love (comments below, etc la la la). But until then, here’s my list of 10 movies to watch this spooky season.

Late Night with the Devil - 📺 Shudder

This is a movie I’ve only seen recently, but it’s a really fun, different take on the devil possession sub-genre. Taking place on, you guessed it, an American late night show in the 70s, this low budget effort is just spooky enough to ensure you’ll need to put an episode of your favourite comfort sitcom on after watching.

The Woman in Black - 📺 NowTV

I think this is possibly the scariest film I’ve ever seen. Or at least the most scared I’ve been watching a film. I’m genuinely always searching for something to scare me half to death, and so often disappointed. But I remember watching this in the dark, a little sleepy (both of which = a bit more vulnerable) and I was completely GONE. I could be wrong, but for a good, 90 min scare, take in the Woman in Black this Halloween.

Sinister - 📺 Netflix

This, at one time, was the most scared I’ve ever been in a cinema. I think the sound design and score is what really gives it an edge, but the haunted children will also do the trick. Set in a haunted but modern ‘murder house’, this scary flick is genuinely creative and gripping enough to grab your attention for the duration. There’s one particular big scare that never fails to get me, even when I know it’s coming. I encourage you to give it a go.

Ghost Stories - 📺 Amazon Prime

This is another movie that gave me the spooks in the cinema, but I’ve watched it a few times since and, while it’s still good and still freaky, it may have been a situational scare as much as coming from the movie itself. I always think that it’s how you feel and where you are that makes a scare a scare, as much as the movie itself, and this may be one of those moments. Three short scary tales that all work into an overall story, Ghost Stories is an underrated British gem that should be a must this Halloween.

Halloween 2018 (and sequals)

As far as ‘legacy sequels’ go, I think the recent Halloween trilogy does a lot of fun things that really hit the spot. The first movie, Halloween, retcons every movie in the series apart from the original, to great effect. Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, the second and third in the trilogy, do try some new things, some of which don’t land, but always stay in the realm of being watchable and, most of all, creepy. I found Halloween Kills a little difficult to get into initially, but after a rewatch it felt like a really good ending to the trilogy. Perfect fodder for your October spookfest. (The streaming rights are all over the place so I’ve left this off).

Us - 📺 Amazon Prime (rental)

I love this movie, maybe more so than Jordan Peele’s debut Get Out. It might have made the list in part because I’m going to watch it tonight, but it has its own merits to be here. Following a freaky, ‘people from the other side’ theme, Peele directs a unique and often unnerving movie that fits the bill for a Saturday night freakfest. I also want to give a big nod to the score, with a spooky ‘tethered mix’ of I Got 5 On It taking centre stage during the finale to incredible effect.

The Cabin in the Woods - 📺 Amazon Premium Sub

In my opinion, this movie isn’t so scary. But it’s such a cool, fun Halloween-y film that I couldn’t not include it. Treading an often-worn path of US collage kids taking a vacation to a spooky forest, Cabin in the Woods offers up a couple of small twists and a lot of fun scenes with classic Halloween ghosts and ghouls. Excellent for inspiring your next Halloween costume (FWIW, my go-to costume is a mime. That genuinely has nothing to do with this movie, but just wanted to share x)

Freaky - 📺 Amazon Prime (rental)

Another film to file under the ‘SO MUCH FUN’ banner of The Cabin in the Woods, Freaky is actually very similar to the Disney movie Freaky Friday… except with lots of murder. A body-swap film that takes inspiration from movie I’ve previously mentioned and a little bit of inspo from Child’s Play, this film is a great option for a lighthearted spook or a Halloween group watch.

The Blair Witch Project - 📺 BBC iPlayer/Amazon Premium Sub

A complete and stone-cold classic. Everyone knows the story of how this film took a teeny-tiny budget (something like $500,000) and blew a hole right through the genre with the unique found footage storyline that blurred the line between what was fact and what was fiction. A short, sharp runtime of 1hr 20 mins only serves to heighten the intensity of the ‘are there witches in this spooky forest?’ camcorder chaos. If you’ve never seen this before, then firstly: HOW?! but secondly: this is best watched in compete dark (not even candles) and preferably with one or two other people. Additional screams will make this an even better first-time experience. Atmosphere is the name of the game, and the game is afoot.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - 📺 Netflix

This is a little more of a teen choice, but a movie I love to watch every Halloween. It follows in a similar mold to Goosebumps (but more grown up) in that it has genuine hands-in-front-of-your-eyes freights, but feels like it’s in the right spirit of a youthful Halloween. I’d have loved this to have been out when I was growing up, as it has scream-a-thon written all over it, but I do feel it’s not as watched by horror fans as maybe it should be. Oh, and the concepts in the movie come from the mind of Guillermo del Toro, so you know there’s going to be some weird shit going on.

I hope you enjoyed my 10 choices for this spooky season. Let me know your thoughts on the perfect horror list in the comments below!