Ellen’s Reccs for Halloween Movie Night

Each of our team contributors has sent over their own personal picks for Halloween movies. We’re so excited to see that many of you have found new things to watch, and rekindled a love affair with your old faves! Super, super cool. So we’re continuing on with a few more team picks, and hope you’ll share yours as well. Check out Ellen’s picks below!

Halloween is an incredibly nostalgic time for me. I love to immerse myself in things that make me think of childhood trick-or-treating, and the magic of the autumn season! I like things that transport me to other worlds, create a visceral experience, elicit a feeling of dread that I can feel deep in my bones, and rekindle my excitement for the campiness of the season as a whole.

My fave thing used to be takeout and trick or treating as a kid, but things look a little different now. What I most love to do now, next to trick-or-treating with my smol nephew of course, is curl up with my pumpkin blanket, candy corn, m&ms, popcorn, and “white box Chinese takeout” to have a movie marathon.

Here are my suggestions on hosting an Ellen Style Halloween movie night!

The House That Dripped Blood

The title of this one is a bit of a misnomer, as there are indeed no dripping blood covered walls, but it’s definitely a solid watch overall. There are four different spooky tales in one movie, all centering around the same house. This one has a brilliant color palette and fantastic retro aesthetic. The cast is brilliant and balances convincing character portrayals while managing to provide just enough intrigue mixed with camp to satisfy any horror fan.

Suspiria (Remake)

It doesn’t matter how many times I watch this movie, I can’t get enough of it. This update to the Dario Argento classic really gives the story a look and feel all its own, while still paying tribute to the original. It’s got witches, bitches, and plenty of gore along with lots of menacing spookiness and tension. The mirror dance hall scene is absolutely divine and truly something spectacular to behold! It’s not for the faint of heart and it really goes off the rails in the last like 30 minutes or so, but it’s incredible. I’m a sucker for dance movies, so this also takes the cake in that category. Combining choreography with terror is totes my jam, y’all.

Double Double Toil and Trouble

Look, I’m well aware that this third choice seems to come out of left field compared to the preceding options, but I don’t really care. This is a childhood favourite and I drove my boyfriend up the wall trying to acquire a copy. It is in my heavy Halloween rotation of classics that I watch every year without fail. I’m absolutely in love with its cornball antics, classic Olsen Twins wholesome spoop, and honest to goodness one of the best villain witches ever, IMHO. It’s kid/family friendly, of course, but to be honest it’s an absolute joy to continue watching well into my adulthood!

Coraline

This is one of my favourite books in the whole wide world, and I think giving this story the Laika treatment was the perfect creative decision. This one is possibly too scary for super wee ones, but really great for the hard-to-scare kiddos and those annoying adults who claim kids movies aren’t scary. Other Mother and Other Father are utterly terrifying! This has an excellent voice cast, beautiful atmosphere and aesthetics, gorgeous stop-motion animation, and is a rare fantastic adaptation from book-to-screen!

Paranorman

This one is a little less scary than Coraline, but yet another incredible installment from Laika. I love the way that this studio renders their character designs from concept to screen. They’re perfectly quirky, rough around the edges, and even if they’re 3D they have a painterly quality to them. This story is a charming kids-save-the-world plot and it features my fave movie monsters: zombies! Definitely good for all ages, and way less intimidating than Coraline.

Monster House

I am a sucker for movies centering on haunted houses, and this animated entry is no exception. I know that I’ve already included two other kid-friendly/family-friendly options on this list, but just like the other 2 this one is pretty creepy for a children’s movie. The ghosts are pretty menacing and terrifying; a house that tries to consume people who inhabit/visit is pretty ghastly and scary! There is the semi-problematic issue of the storyline of the fat lady ghost character, but you could definitely have a convo around body positivity, accepting others, reducing harm, etc., and raise the “humans are the real monsters” moral and story trope. As an adult with a critical eye, I’m able to appreciate the bad with the good, and really enjoy the atmosphere and animation of this one, but i know that it won’t be for everyone. (That’s why I included some other recs on this list and not just the 5. Also, I’m generally bad at choosing minimal anything, ha!)

The Haunting (1963)

I grew up in a house of movie nerds, and my father was hellbent on showing us anything that was, in his eyes, a classic in just about every genre. I have to say that some of the vintage horror options out there really do knock it out of the park on creating existential dread through the use of special effects. This is one of the scariest films I remember watching as a child, and it’s always stuck with me. It’s tame enough to watch as a family, but use caution if your kids are very sensitive or squeamish. I was pretty brave as a kid, but I do know this caused some nightmare fodder at some point! It’s a wonderful interpretation of “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson. I highly recommend watching this if you enjoyed the Netflix series adaptation, because you’ll find a lot of the updated show paid homage to the original film! That door breathing scene is iconic.