Many people have a list of movies that they strongly associate with a particular holiday to get them in the spirit. Similar to how people have comfort movies they rewatch every year for Christmas, there is an abundance of Halloween movies that provide the right aesthetics for the spooky season. The niche that never seems to fail is nostalgic early 2000s Disney Channel Original movies, all of which are exceptional choices to consume in October. The following is a list of the perfect movies to enjoy during the Halloween season.
The 2012 Disney film follows the story of a high school girl named Skylar Lewis, played by Olivia Holt, as she mistakenly releases monsters from a secret chamber and learns she comes from a long lineage of monster hunters in the process.
Throughout the film, Skylar works alongside her friends to follow in her family’s footsteps and recapture the monsters, thwarting a revenge plot in the midst of it. While clearly targeted toward kids and younger teens, it’s a fun Halloween movie regardless of age.
This Disney Channel Original movie from 1998 is an absolute staple for annual Halloween movie rewatches. The story centers around 13-year-old Marnie Piper as she and her siblings inadvertently follow their grandmother Aggie Cromwell to a mystical town aptly named “Halloweentown.” The town, which nails the perfect fall atmosphere, contains a whole host of monsters, vampires, witches and other spooky creatures.
Upon arriving, they discover they come from a family of witches, including their mother, who tried to keep them sheltered in a completely mortal life. The siblings partner up with their grandmother to hone their magical prowess and save the town from an evil villain who aspires to rule the mortal world.
“Twitches”
The movie “Twitches,” released by Disney in 2005, chronicles the story of estranged twins who were born in a magical dimension known as “Coventry” but sent to live separate lives in the mortal world. This came after a force known as “The Darkness” raided the kingdom, killing their father in his attempts to protect the family. Now 21, the twins Camryn Barnes and Alexandra Fielding, portrayed by Tia and Tamera Mowry, come face to face on their birthday after their magical guardians Karsh WarBurton and Illeana WarBurton push them together.
Soon after meeting, they learn that they are not only witches, but princesses from another dimension. Through their quests to understand their past, they uncover a prophecy that dictates that they are the only ones who can stop “The Darkness.”
While not technically a Halloween movie, “Descendants” contains all the right ingredients to be included in this list. The musical franchise, which began in 2015, revolves around four children of notorious Disney villains who are exiled on the “Isle of the Lost,” where they have no access to magic.
The plot hinges on Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay getting invited by Prince Ben to attend school in “Auradon” alongside individuals deemed the “good guys” in fairy tales. Mal’s mother, Maleficent, immediately hatches a plan to gain access to magic by manipulating the kids to steal Fairy Godmother’s wand. Once the four of them arrive in Auradon and begin to make connections, they falter in whether they really want to do their parents’ bidding and fulfill their evil destinies.
The 2010 Nickelodeon film starring Victoria Justice follows 17-year-old Jordan Sands and her family after they inherit her deceased mother’s great uncle Dragomir’s castle in Romania. One day, Jordan Sands accidentally steps on a vial of blood while exploring Dragomir’s laboratory.
After experiencing a sharp change in behavior, her brother helps her realize that she had been exposed to the blood of a lycanthrope through the vial, and she ultimately transforms into a werewolf. As they work on a cure, Hunter Sands discovers he is part of the bloodline, also becoming a werewolf like his sister. Evil works eventually come into play and the siblings are forced to use their newfound abilities to defend the castle.
“R.L. Stine’s Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls”
Released in 2015, this particular movie is based on a novel by R.L. Stine who is most notorious for his “Goosebumps” series. It centers on a small town’s Halloween festival, which has a sinister carnival suddenly appear that feeds off the souls of missing teenagers in order to maintain the ringleaders’ immortality.
Four local teenagers get pulled into Dr. Hysteria’s carnival and inadvertently find themselves in the middle of his evil plot. Beth, who is played by Dove Cameron, is the only one who becomes suspicious of the carnival and works to uncover its dark side for everyone else. Before she is able to do that, though, her three friends get transformed into monsters for the circus.
The second installment of “Hotel Transylvania,” released in 2012, is arguably the best out of the franchise, and an excellent animated movie to get you hyped for Halloween.
The movie revolves around Dracula’s daughter Mavis as she gets married and gives birth to a son. It grapples with the question of whether Mavis’s son Dennis will be a vampire too, considering his father is a human. Between the vampire camp “Winnepacaca” and the Halloween-coded birthday party near the end, the movie checks all the boxes for a light-hearted spooky watch.
The 1993 film which features Christina Ricci’s portrayal of Wednesday Addams, follows the notorious family as a new sibling is welcomed. In order to tame Wednesday Addams and Pugsley Addams as they adjust to the family’s addition, they hire a nanny named Debbie Jelinsky. However, the parents are unaware that Jelinsky is a well known serial killer who targets men for their wealth and murders them. Her next victim? Fester Addams.
When Wednesday Addams grows suspicious of her, Jelinsky has the children sent away to summer camp. The movie comes to a head when she finds herself at an impasse and sets her sights on killing the entire family. In this, she manages to produce one of the most hilarious scenes of the movie, confidently declaring that she became a murderer when her parents gifted her the wrong Barbie as a child.
