Written by Sabrina Rogers
Happy Halloween Maroons! Hopefully Halloween was spooky and brought some treats and perhaps some tricks along the way! Halloween has been a time to watch a myriad of movies that can bring tricks or treats. With that, here are some Halloween movies to watch with friends!
When talking about Halloween, one cannot forget to mention the cult classics, “Scream”, “Nightmare Before Christmas”, “Beetlejuice”, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. Yes, some of these (“Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”) aren’t particularly scary, but these movies are a must to really get into the holiday mood.
The “Scream” movies have brought people together and have set up a new way of looking at the genre in slasher-horror. The 1996 film is still commemorated today and an all-around hit for everybody. This movie is about high school student Sidney Prescott and her friends being hunted down by a mass murderer who wears a “Ghostface” mask to hide his identity. If one is looking for a stellar movie to get some plot twists and wanting to yell at the screen for a character to not make a stupid mistake, this is your movie!
“Nightmare Before Christmas” is overall a creepy film with the use of stop motion and the brain of Tim Burton. This film is about Jack Skellington yearning to do more than just await Halloween every year. After coincidentally finding himself to a door to Christmas town, he tries to adopt this new way and rid Halloween only to discover that this plan can have consequences. This Disney classic is always a joy to watch around the holidays-there’s even a debate I have seen with my friends on what kind of movie this is. Some say it’s a Halloween movie, some say it’s a Christmas movie. This for sure classifies as both, a jolly Halloween movie and a creepy Christmas movie.
Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. “Beetlejuice!” This movie has been adapted to a musical which has gotten eight nominations in the 2019 Tony Awards, some being Best Musical and Best Leading Man in a Musical for Alex Brightman who played the titular role of Beetlejuice. This movie is about Barbara and Adam Maitland who die in a car accident finding out they are to forever haunt their old estate. By the time they realize their ghostly state, the house is bought by the Deetzes and the Maitlands attempt to scare them away, without success, so they try to recruit a potentially dangerous spirit to scare the Deetzes away successfully. The 1988 film has been a fan favorite since its release to the point it has been rerun for a sequel, 35 years after its initial release. The costumes of Beetlejuice and Lydia have also been running the Halloween scene for quite some time; Beetlejuice in his pinstripe black and white suit while Lydia in her blood red wedding gown!
Another classic but not scary movie is the “Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” which came out in 1996. This animation is based on “The Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz a myriad of people have grown to love. This quick film follows the main children we see in the comic strip, specifically how Linus is in preparation for the Great Pumpkin and the other children prepare for Halloween trick or treating. Linus is the only person to believe this mythical creature exists, so the whole premise of the movie is Linus proving to his friends that this Great Pumpkin exists. This movie is especially fun to watch with friends who are looking for a chill night with no tricks and only treats.
There are so many more movies out there that could fall under this list, but a little mix of cute scary and jump scare scary will make Halloween much more enjoyable-especially with friends!
