There is officially only one week left until Halloween. One of the best ways to get in the spirit is to get a group of friends and together in a dark dorm room and turn on a spooky movie.  Grab a cup of warm apple cider and some freshly popped popcorn and gear up for the spookiest night of the year with a movie countdown.  

1. Hocus Pocus 

This movie is an absolute classic. Relive your childhood Halloween memories by watching the Sanderson sisters try to drain the youth out of children to become immortal. One of the only good things about growing up is you’re no longer a target for power hungry witches. 

2. Casper (1995) 

A wholesome halloween movie with questionable CGI. Casper voiced by Malachi Pearson is a friendly young ghost who peacefully haunts, if that’s even possible, a mansion in Maine and falls in love with a young girl who lives there. I’m not going to lie this movie made ten year old me want a ghost to fall in love with me and take me to a school dance, too. 

3. Beetlejuice 

Don’t say his name three times or else you’re in for a lot of trouble. Follow two newly minted ghosts learn how to haunt the house they once lived in, now inhabited by the Deetzes and their teenage daughter, Lydia,  who is played by a young Winona Rider.

4. Rocky Horror Picture Show 

In this cult classic watch as a couple takes refuge in transvestite scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s eerie mansion. If you haven’t seen this yet then dammit, Janet! This movie is also famously performed live, so after you’ve seen it on screen you can go find some tickets to the live show too!

5. Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost 

Scooby Doo is the ultimate spooky cartoon with countless movies and Halloween specials to keep you entertained for all of October. Scooby and the gang find themselves in Oakhaven for Autumn Fest after being invited by famous horror writer Ben Ravenclaw, leading to a series of mysterious events linked to Ravenclaw’s ancestors, zoinks! This movie made me want to start my very own vampire girl band, or at least dress up as one of them for Halloween. 

6. Silence of the Lambs 

While not technically a Halloween movie it seemed necessary to add in a movie to keep you at the edge of your seat. Young FBI academy student Clarise Starling is called in to bait information out of infamous psychopath and cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, to help gain insight into an ongoing case. 

7. Coco 

Finish off your week by celebrating the beginning of the Day of the Dead with Disney’s Coco. Watch as a young boy’s dream of becoming a musician leads him into the land of the dead and toward the truth about his family’s past. 

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While the majority of these movies won’t necessarily spook your socks off, here are some movies to keep in mind if you are looking for something a little bit more blood chilling for your Halloween week. These movies are best watched in the dark which now occurs at 5pm. 

8. Hereditary

This was one of the only horror movies I’ve seen in theaters that left me legitimately scared. Now streaming on Amazon Prime. 

9. The VVitch 

Set in1630s New England this movie confronts ideas of magic and witchcraft, testing an ostracized family’s loyalty and love for each other when the family’s infant son disappears right in front of their  daughter, Thomasin’s, eyes. 

10.The Blair Witch Project

Tensions run high between a group of friends filming a documentary about a town and the witch that supposedly haunts the woods. This movie will make you second guess going on a hike with your friends.

11. The Lighthouse 

This movie was just released on October 18. It’s a more art house style movie about two lighthouse keepers who try to maintain their sanity while living in isolation on the coast of New England.