The Best Movies & TV to Re-Watch During Halloweentime

Fall is for staying in. As the autumnal chill creeps closer, we need to cuddle up and watch festive films and shows on the sofa while sipping hot beverages. Or, we need to consume media that gets our blood pumping from all those jumpscares! However you celebrate Halloweentime, there are plenty of films and series to fit your vibes.

From cozy animated movies to terror-inducing TV, check out our list of what to watch during October. Plus, see the Sideshow staff’s seasonal recommendations.

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Over the Garden Wall

If you only watch one recommendation on this list, let it be this. A treat for the eyes and mind alike, Over the Garden Wall is a heartfelt and often horrifying animated story full of frogs, brave brothers, and comedic gold. While it leans more into the fantasy genre, a few of the episodes — especially “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee” — solidify OtGW’s presence on a Halloween list. Otherwise, it’s lovely and autumnal, with dried leaves and haunted woods.

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Scream

Let’s be real. There are tons of incredible slasher flicks out there to watch during October. Everyone loves iconic killers like Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, or modern murderers such as John Carver and M3GAN. Yet the self-aware, topical Scream is the main movie on my personal list. The Ghost Face® identity twist is still gasp-worthy ten times over, and the “horror movie rules” trope subversion will always satisfy.

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IT

 

IT Chapters 1 & 2 are fun for the whole family, because who doesn’t love clowns? In all seriousness, these modern takes on Pennywise are super scary, nightmarish rides through childhood. These movies include some of the creepiest imagery in horror, including spiders with human heads and clowns dancing in front of fire. Soon, Pennywise will also come back to our screens in HBO’s limited prequel series Welcome to Derry. You’ll never look at a red balloon the same…

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The Nightmare Before Christmas

Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is the perfect pick from October through December. Fans will forever debate whether this is more of a Halloween or Christmas movie. But … why not both? This animated family film finds the holiday spirit equally in piles of bugs, mounds of snow, and heaps of bones. Merge your end-of-the-year aesthetics for a good, gift-filled, gore-less time.

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The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead tells one of the greatest zombie stories of all time (the other one is In The Flesh, by the way). Rather than change too much about the generic zombie lore, it shows the audience a world overrun by dead and living monsters alike. Like many post-apocalyptic stories, characters struggle with lawlessness, morality, limited resources, and more. If you get through all 11 seasons by the time Halloween comes, check out the spinoffs: Daryl Dixon, The Ones Who Live, and Dead City.

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Saw

If you’re anything like me, you want your Halloween re-watches to induce absolute misery. We’re talking psychological torture and tragic endings. Well, that’s Saw. While the rest of the franchise is full of gory kills and intricate traps, the first low-budget installment to the franchise is a strange, sad drama. A deranged man called Jigsaw traps two men in a bathroom, where they slowly turn against each other before realizing too late how they should have cooperated. It’s a truly gripping tale that will stick with you.

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Twin Peaks

Only watch Twin Peaks if you have a lot of TV time on your hands. Far from a background watch, this surreal series demands your full attention. David Lynch’s masterfully intimate exploration of trauma, relationships, and the romanticization of crime in a small-town is riveting from start to finish. Every frame is near hypnotic, drenched in color palettes that subdue, excite, or scare. Also, there’s a log lady.

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The Terror

The Terror is an anthology series. Each season explores a historical haunting, blending the monsters of the real world with fictional phantoms. Season 1 is the strongest in the show. It is a breathtaking and deeply unsettling fictionalized account of the lost Franklin expedition. Set in the unforgiving 1800s Arctic tundra, The Terror season 1 is part period drama and part survival horror. It’s filled with incredible performances and creepy visuals, and is one of the most awesome frozen fearfests since The Thing (1982).

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Alien and Aliens

Horror isn’t solely Earth-bound. Alien, its sequel Aliens, and all the subsequent sequels and spinoffs are each a spine-tingling good time. With so many films (and series, with the recent Alien: Earth) in the franchise, you’ll be able to fill your entire day with extraterrestrial entertainment. Some feature overall foreboding atmospheres, others are packed with action. But if you prefer this tense and slower-paced corner of the sci-fi genre, try Annihilation (2018) as well.

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Staff Picks

We also asked the Sideshow staff to select their favorite October watches — and give us a little reasoning, of course. Check out their answers and explanations below.

Television

Run BTS! episode 24, “BTS vs Zombies,” is the perfect mix of cozy and comedic. From tricking the guys into braving a haunted house/bus to poking gentle fun at their reactions to the zombie actors, the production crew seriously popped off with this K-pop variety show special.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer! If you don’t have time to watch all of the seasons, then just skip around to the three Halloween episodes: “Halloween” (2×06), where everyone becomes their costumes, “Fear, Itself” (4×04) with haunted frat house shenanigans, and “All the Way” (6×06) where Dawn gets into teenage trick-or-treat trouble (and the musical episode comes next!). Bonus points for also doing Angel’s “Life of the Party” (5×05), where LA’s broodiest vampire has to throw a corporate Halloween party and invite literal demons.

I’ve always really enjoyed the “Haunting” series on Netflix by Mike Flanagan (Haunting of Hill House, Haunting of Bly Manor) and they’ve been my go-to spooky shows to just put on the TV and binge every Halloween season the past several years. Midnight Mass by Mike Flanagan is also one of my all-time faves — a lot of mystery at the beginning and slow build up to an insane twist reveal that’s worth the wait. I love everything about it!!

Wellington Paranormal. The often-overlooked spinoff series to What We Do In the Shadows follows the bumbling New Zealand police officers from the 2014 film as they tackle supernatural crimes and eerie phenomena in their city.  It’s a fly-on-the-wall reality TV show version of Police Squad. With werewolves. Watch it.

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Not to be confused with 2004’s Kingdom Hospital, Lars Van Trier’s 1990s horror series The Kingdom defies explanation. It’s a truly disturbing, sepia-hued surrealist masterpiece set in a haunted hospital. It’s certainly a product of its time, and should be viewed with that lens, but if you love Twin Peaks, you’ll find moments of magic in The Kingdom. 

Keeping with the haunted hospital theme, may we recommend Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place? A Brit horror parody show from the early 2000s featuring an amazing cast, and an ingenious premise. Dark Place is presented as a special release of a lost fictional ’80s television show, complete with interviews, commentary, and special features by the cast and creators. Pure gold.

You could start with Monster: The Ed Gein Story, then watch Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of Lambs between the corresponding episodes of the Ed Gein series.

Movies

These are newer, but they’ll be my re-watches from now on. I’m putting on Sinners (2025) again! I saw it twice in theater and have been waiting for Halloween to stream it once more — maybe with a garlic-covered pizza party. Additionally, I’m catching the newly released 4k digital of The Long Walk — a masterful dystopian thriller that will definitely make me guilty for enjoying it from the comfort of my couch.

Rocky Horror Picture Show. It doesn’t feel like Halloween season until I’ve watched Rocky Horror. The music, the performances, the audience participation, there really is nothing else like it. Little Shop of Horrors (1986 musical version), too, because a singing murder-minded alien plant is just a pure treat for Halloween.

House on Haunted Hill (1959) — There’s something so comforting about black and white horror, plus you can never go wrong with Vincent Price as the lead for anything spooky! It can be fun background ambiance or the feature film, and there’s just the right amount of kitsch to make it silly by today’s standards yet the twist is so satisfying. Also, William Castle movies always have the most gorgeous set design.

Netflix’s Fear Street movie trilogy is a good candidate too in my opinion. It’s got multiple slashers, witches, curses, lots of deaths. And it’s adapted from RL Stine’s Fear Street books! Not a direct adaptation but he’s said he loved what they did with the franchise.

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It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. We always watch this on Halloween after we get back from trick-or-treating, while going through our candy bags. So far we haven’t had one rock!

Corpse Bride, Beetlejuice, Frankenweenie, and Halloweentown are other favorites. But, I don’t like scary movies so mine will be the calmer versions LOL.

My entry for a must-see Halloween movie is Trick r’ Treat. It’s a wonderful movie of three seemingly separate stories that end up interweaving with one another nicely on a Halloween night. It harkens back (for me) to storytelling we’d see in things like Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow, so I always enjoyed the nostalgia feel of how this film is presented to the viewer. Plus, the stories and characters are very interesting. And a bonus of a great twist in the film!

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What’s on your Halloween watchlist? Join the conversation with other horror fans over at Sideshow Social Network or in side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!

Stir up the spirits and face the monsters within … Spooktacular has been unleashed once again!

Put the EEK! in geek during Sideshow’s Spooktacular 2025, a celebration with ghastly giveaways, deathly deals, eerie exclusive perks, and more. Join us from October 23 – October 31 by visiting side.show/spooktacular and don’t forget — sleep is for the weak!