It's almost the spookiest time of the year, and whether you're after something to watch before or after the kids are in bed - we've got you covered.
Here are our picks of the best movies to stream this Halloween.
Family Friendly
Hocus Pocus - Disney + (PG)
Halloween just wouldn't be the same without an annual viewing of this cult classic. Originally planned as a straight-to-TV project titled Disney's Haunted House, the horror-comedy centres on three witches, played with aplomb by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, who are resurrected in Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween night. Their mission: to steal as many kids as possible. A spooktacular movie for all the family, that won't have you looking underneath your bed in fear of the Boogeyman.
The Addams Family, Netflix (PG)
An amazing cast - Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci, Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd - head up this classic 1991 supernatural black comedy. Barry Sonnenfeld's directorial debut follows a macabre, aristocratic family who reconnect with someone they believe to be a long-lost relative, but who is actually a con artist planning to fleece their fortune.
The Nightmare Before Christmas - Disney + (PG)
Bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington longs to spread the joy of Christmas. He is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween Town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween - but his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for boys and girls everywhere. Young and old alike will be riveted by Tim Burton's 1993 stop-motion classic.
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Apple TV+ (G)
This classic special just screams Halloween. Join the peanuts gang for a timeless adventure as Charlie Brown preps for a party, Snoopy sets his sights on the Red Baron and Linus patiently awaits a pumpkin patch miracle.
KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix (PG)
Netflix's fantasy hit KPop Demon Hunters has become a runaway hit for the streamer, and it's not hard to see why. Unbelievably catchy songs, a strong plot and vibrant animation make this an easy watch for kids and adults alike. It follows a K-pop girl group who lead double lives as demon hunters and face off against a rival boy band, the Saja Boys, whose members are secretly demons.
Ghostbusters - Netflix (12)
It's four wisecracking New Yorkers versus a marshmallow apocalypse. They're nobody's first choice to save the world but, hey, who else you gonna call? The wonderful Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson play four scientists who team up to fight ghosts and hold off the apocalypse in this 1984 comedy classic that is always worth a rewatch.
Monsters, Inc. - Disney + (G)
Lovable Sulley (John Goodman) and his wisecracking sidekick Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) are the top scare team at Monsters, Inc, the scream-processing factory in Monstropolis. When a little girl named Boo (Mary Gibbs) wanders into their world, it's the monsters who are scared silly, and it's up to Sulley and Mike to keep her out of sight and get her back home. This Pixar classic works on numerous levels: sit back and enjoy the laughs or wonder if there's really much of a difference between the travails of a gigantic blue monster and the dilemmas you face in your own 9-5.
For Grown-Ups Only
Scream, Netflix (18)
The horror film from director Wes Craven that revitalized the slasher genre and kicked off a long-running franchise. It's safe to say - the original is the best. It has a top-notch cast - David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, and Drew Barrymore - and edge-of-your-seat suspense. It follows high school student Sidney Prescott (Campbell) and her friends, who, on the anniversary of her mother's murder, become the targets of a costumed serial killer known as Ghostface.
The Conjuring, Netflix (15A)
Saw director James Wan is at the helm of this extremely effective supernatural horror about a pair of real-life paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by the excellent Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. They've been called in to help the Perron family who are experiencing increasingly disturbing events in their Rhode Island farmhouse. Unsettling to the max!
Halloween, Netflix (18)
2018's slasher movie Halloween is the perfect companion piece to John Carpenter's 1978 classic, with a boundary-pushing script offering fans something truly cutting. Set 40 years after the Oct. 31 murder spree, this follow-up makes a shrewd call to press delete on the string of post-1978 sequels and follows the masked killer targeting the victim who got away - and her family. The real effectiveness of this film doesn't come from the jump-scares, but from the handling of Laurie Strode's (Jamie Lee Curtis) trauma and the exploration of empowerment across three generations of women.
Heretic, Prime Video (15A)
Hugh Grant is having a devilishly good time in this excellently-executed psychological horror. When two young Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) visit the home of the eccentric but harmless-seeming Mr. Reed (Grant), they become horribly ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Worth watching for Grant's performance alone.
Get Out, Netflix (15A)
Jordan Peele's razor-sharp directorial debut is both an edge-of-your-seat horror and cutting social satire about race relations in the US. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is anxious about meeting his girlfriend Rose's (Allison Williams) parents Dean (Bradley Whitford), a neurosurgeon, and Missy (Catherine Keener), a psychiatrist, in upstate New York. It's not long before hints of a dark underbelly to her parents' country pile bubble to the surface, from the vacant-behind-the-eyes black servants to the overly interested small talk with her parents' friends. Chris's mounting sense of terror is effortlessly portrayed and a chilling unease runs throughout. A must-see.
Rosemary's Baby, Paramount + (18)
Roman Polanski directs this super psychological chiller that's based on the best-selling novel by Ira Levin. It stars a young Mia Farrow as a woman who finds herself mysteriously pregnant, and fears that her husband may have made a pact with their eccentric neighbours. Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for her performance as Minnie Castevet, and the interior scenes were filmed in the Dakota Apartments, where former Beatle John Lennon was murdered by Mark Chapman in 1980.
Don't Breathe, Netflix (16)
Air we go! If it's the nasty, stuff-of-nightmares you want, then Don't Breathe will give you your money's worth. And then some. Against the wasteland backdrop of Detroit, three teenage thieves (played by Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette and Daniel Zovatto) decide to rob a blind Iraq War veteran (Stephen Lang), who they reckon is sitting on a fortune. That's the set-up, but to reveal any more plot-wise would spoil your immersion in a movie that nods to the masters while still managing to deliver real terror from the tropes and has a few tricks up its sleeve. There is a gripe about the end, but it's the only letdown in this otherwise brilliant addition to the genre. It's always good to check that you have a few spare bulbs at home...
A Quiet Place - Paramount + (15A)
This terrifyingly suspenseful horror film is directed by John Krasinski. He stars alongside his wife Emily Blunt as a couple struggling to survive and protect their children (Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe) in a a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by blind extraterrestrial creatures with an acute sense of hearing. This foot-to-the-floor four-hander is proper old school when it comes to scares, but also makes sure that your emotional investment in the characters - mum, dad, kids - is huge. Get ready for an almighty cardiac workout.
Longlegs, Prime Video (18)
The suspenseful, eerie and at times genuinely terrifying Longlegs sees Nicholas Cage on flying form. Set in the '90s, the film follows Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), an FBI agent who is assigned to hunt down an occult-obsessed serial killer responsible for a string of family murders across Oregon. Cage plays the titular Longlegs with a discomfiting intensity.
Switchblade Romance (Haute Tension), Prime Video (18)
Get past the awful English title, because with his second feature Alexandre Aja managed to impress even those whose hobby horse was that horrors just weren't that scary anymore. A student tries to rescue her pal from a killer on the rampage, and the desire to shout at the screen or vault behind the couch for a bit of a breather is constant throughout. There's genuine suspense and some brilliantly worked set-pieces here. The ending, however, is complete marmite.
The Omen - Disney + (18)
This supernatural horror film has garnered countless fans over the years, and inspired a spin-off franchise, and it remains just as hair-raising and disturbing now as it was when it was released in 1976. The film's plot follows Damien Thorn (Harvey Spencer Stephens), a young child replaced at birth by his father (Gregory Peck), unbeknownst to his wife (Lee Remick), after their biological child dies shortly after birth. As a series of mysterious events and violent deaths occur around the family and Damien enters childhood, they come to learn he is in fact the spawn of the Devil.
