13 Spooky-Season Movies That Make October Better

Some movies are technically Halloween movies. Others just have enough witches, ghosts, skeletons, monsters, and supernatural weirdness to become part of the October rotation anyway. For anyone who grew up on Disney Channel originals, '90s fantasy comedies, Peanuts specials, or Tim Burton's particular brand of strange, spooky season comes with its own unofficial watchlist.

These 13 movies and TV specials range from genuine Halloween stories to supernatural classics that simply feel right once the decorations go up and the candy bowls come out. A few have spawned sequels or remakes, while others have survived for decades without needing much of an update at all.

It is hard to imagine October without the Sanderson sisters at this point, which makes it even stranger that Hocus Pocus originally arrived in theaters in July 1993. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy play three witches accidentally resurrected in modern-day Salem on Halloween night. Max Dennison, his sister Dani, Allison, and a talking black cat named Thackery Binx then have to stop the sisters before they can restore their youth permanently. The movie was not an instant phenomenon, but years of television broadcasts and home-video viewing transformed it into a seasonal staple. Disney finally followed it with Hocus Pocus 2 in 2022, nearly three decades after the original.

Few movies manage to be funny, creepy, gross, strange, and oddly charming at the same time quite like Beetlejuice. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis play recently deceased homeowners Adam and Barbara Maitland, who discover that getting rid of the living family now occupying their house is much harder than expected. Their decision to seek help from Michael Keaton's chaotic Beetlejuice makes everything considerably worse. Tim Burton's 1988 fantasy comedy also gave audiences Winona Ryder's wonderfully gloomy Lydia Deetz and one of cinema's most memorable supernatural waiting rooms. The movie remained popular enough to receive a long-awaited sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in 2024, with Keaton, Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara returning.

Disney Channel somehow made an entire town full of witches, skeleton taxi drivers, goblins, ghosts, and other monsters look like a place you would genuinely want to visit. Kimberly J. Brown stars as Marnie Piper, a teenager who discovers that her grandmother Aggie, played by Debbie Reynolds, is a witch and that magic runs through the family. Marnie and her siblings eventually follow Aggie into Halloweentown, where they become caught up in a fight against the sinister Kalabar. The 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie became popular enough to launch three sequels: Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge, Halloweentown High, and Return to Halloweentown. For an entire generation of Disney Channel viewers, that giant jack-o'-lantern in the town square is practically an October landmark.

Halloween movie or Christmas movie? The easiest answer is both. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, becomes fascinated with Christmas after accidentally discovering Christmas Town and decides that his fellow monsters should take over the holiday for a year. Predictably, skeletons and ghouls are not particularly good at traditional Christmas cheer. Tim Burton created the story and characters, but the 1993 stop-motion film was directed by Henry Selick, an important distinction that regularly gets lost whenever the movie comes up. Danny Elfman's songs and Jack's unforgettable visual design helped turn what was once an unusual Touchstone release into one of Disney's most enduring cult classics.

Casper wrapped a surprisingly melancholy story about grief and loneliness inside a big-budget 1990s family comedy. Christina Ricci plays Kat Harvey, whose father, played by Bill Pullman, is a therapist specializing in ghosts. Their latest job takes them to the enormous Whipstaff Manor, where they meet Casper, a lonely young ghost who would much rather make a friend than scare anyone. Unfortunately, the mansion also comes with his much louder uncles Stretch, Stinkie, and Fatso. The visual effects were a major part of the movie's appeal in 1995, but the emotional story has probably done more to keep it alive. Few Halloween movies are equally comfortable making viewers laugh at ghostly slapstick and then reminding them why those ghosts exist in the first place.

Long before streaming libraries and month-long Halloween programming blocks, this 1966 Peanuts television special became an annual October tradition. Linus skips trick-or-treating to wait in what he believes is the world's most sincere pumpkin patch for the mythical Great Pumpkin. Charlie Brown has considerably less luck with the holiday, somehow receiving rocks while everyone else collects candy. Snoopy, meanwhile, turns his doghouse into a World War I fighter plane and battles the Red Baron in his imagination. The special is only about 25 minutes long, but that has been enough to keep Linus, the pumpkin patch, and Charlie Brown's tragically bad trick-or-treat haul in the Halloween conversation for more than half a century.

The 2003 Haunted Mansion was never one of Eddie Murphy's biggest hits, but it has become a nostalgic October watch for plenty of people who grew up with it. Murphy plays real estate agent Jim Evers, whose attempt to combine a business opportunity with a family trip brings everyone to Gracey Manor, where the prospective property deal turns out to involve considerably more ghosts than advertised. The movie borrows heavily from Disney's famous theme-park attraction, including Madame Leota, the singing busts, and the mansion's army of "happy haunts." The original article's talk of Disney planning another version is long outdated. Disney actually released a completely separate Haunted Mansion adaptation in 2023, starring LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, and Danny DeVito.

Disney was turning theme-park attractions into movies before Pirates of the Caribbean made the idea look obvious. Tower of Terror aired on The Wonderful World of Disney in October 1997 and starred Steve Guttenberg as disgraced journalist Buzzy Crocker and Kirsten Dunst as his niece Anna. They investigate the abandoned Hollywood Tower Hotel, where five people mysteriously vanished from an elevator during a Halloween party in 1939. The story drew inspiration from Disney's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction without actually using The Twilight Zone mythology. The result is pure late-'90s Disney television, complete with ghosts, a cursed hotel, an old Hollywood mystery, and just enough creepiness to make it perfect background viewing in October.

Under Wraps is one of those Disney Channel movies that can instantly unlock a memory for anyone who watched the network in the late 1990s. Three friends discover a 3,000-year-old mummy and accidentally bring him back to life, eventually naming him Harold. The problem is that Harold has to be returned to his resting place before midnight on Halloween or he will turn to dust and lose his immortal soul. Bill Fagerbakke, later famous as the voice of Patrick Star on SpongeBob SquarePants, played Harold in the 1997 original. Disney revisited the concept with a new Under Wraps in 2021, followed by Under Wraps 2 in 2022, but the low-budget charm of the original remains a very specific piece of Disney Channel nostalgia.

Disney Channel occasionally pushed much further into creepy territory than people remember, and Don't Look Under the Bed might be the best example. Teenager Frances McCausland finds herself blamed for a series of bizarre pranks around town, only to discover that a Boogeyman is framing her. Her unlikely ally is Larry Houdini, her younger brother's imaginary friend, who may know more about the supernatural trouble than he initially lets on. The original version of this article incorrectly described the movie as the first Disney Channel Original Movie to receive a PG rating. Disney+ currently lists the 1999 movie as TV-PG. Either way, its transformation scenes and genuinely unsettling Boogeyman made this one considerably darker than the typical Disney Channel fare of the era.

Before Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen became the center of a massive direct-to-video and merchandise empire, they starred in this wonderfully '90s Halloween TV movie. The twins play Kelly and Lynn Farmer, sisters who discover that their wealthy and unpleasant Aunt Agatha is actually a witch. They also learn that Agatha's twin sister, Sophia, has been magically trapped inside a mirror for years. Cloris Leachman plays both aunts, while the girls gather an unlikely group of helpers and search for the magical moonstone connected to Agatha's powers. The movie originally aired on ABC on Oct. 30, 1993, and remains one of the most Halloween-specific entries in the Olsen twins' enormous childhood filmography.

Coco is not actually a Halloween movie, and it is worth making that distinction. Pixar's 2017 film is built around Día de Muertos, the Mexican tradition of remembering and honoring loved ones who have died. Miguel, a 12-year-old aspiring musician living in a family that has banned music for generations, unexpectedly crosses into the Land of the Dead and begins unraveling the truth about his family's past. The skeletal characters and late-October setting make it an easy addition to a broader spooky-season watchlist, but the movie's real themes are memory, family, music, and the importance of keeping loved ones' stories alive. Coco went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Spirited Away is another entry that is not really about Halloween, but it absolutely works when the mood calls for ghosts, strange creatures, magic, and a world that feels slightly unsettling around every corner. Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 animated masterpiece follows 10-year-old Chihiro after she and her parents wander into a supernatural realm. Her parents are transformed into pigs, leaving Chihiro to take a job at a bathhouse run by the witch Yubaba while trying to find a way home. Along the way she encounters Haku, No-Face, river spirits, soot creatures, and some of the most imaginative beings Studio Ghibli has ever created. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003 and remains one of the most acclaimed animated films ever made.