What's your favorite movie or show to watch every Halloween?

From bone-chilling (Insidious) to family friendly (The Nightmare Before Christmas) to, well, Halloween, here's a rundown of our must-rewatch faves

By Jack Smart, Ian Spelling, Luke Y. Thompson, Tim Lowery, Matt Schimkowitz, Cindy White, Saloni Gajjar, Gil Macias, Hattie Lindert, Matthew Huff, Matthew Jackson | October 31, 2022 | 1:00pm

Film Features halloween

What's your favorite movie or show to watch every Halloween?

(Clockwise from bottom left:) The Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney Entertainment Studios), Insidious (Momentum Pictures), Halloween (Compass International Pictures), Scream (Paramount) Graphic: Rebecca Fassola

Happy Halloween! For many, the year’s eeriest holiday isn’t complete without an annual viewing of a beloved horror or fall flick, a sentimental favorite TV episode, or even a silly SNL spoof. To celebrate October 31 this year, we’re asking The A.V. Club staff and contributors: What’s your favorite movie or video to watch every Halloween?

The Changeling

The Changeling - Excerpt (1980)

John Russell (George C. Scott) already thinks his new house is haunted. Then, the composer—whose wife and daughter died in an accident—sees a ball in his desk and flashes back to playing catch with his daughter. Later, he heads to the foyer, where the ball bounces down the steps. Russell drives to a bridge, dropping the ball into the water. He returns home, and the ball bounces down the steps … wet. Now, he’s certain a spirit—the changeling—is dying to communicate with him. That’s the most spine-tingling moment in Peter Medak’s stupendously creepy haunted house movie. We get it all: a terrifying séance, jump scares, a wild dream sequence, a mysterious music box, the ethereal voice of a young boy, and affecting performances by Scott and Melvyn Douglas. Despite minimal violence and curse words, the MPAA slapped with an R rating. It was, and remains, that scary … every time. [Ian Spelling]

“David S. Pumpkins,” Saturday Night Live

Haunted Elevator (ft. David S. Pumpkins) - SNL

Now that he’s a double-Oscar winner and the go-to guy for biopics about nice people (and, ahem, Col. Tom Parker), it’s easy to forget that Tom Hanks became a star thanks primarily to his comedic talents. His regular appearances hosting are usually welcome, but there’s something transcendent about his David S. Pumpkins, a random Halloween character whose appeal lies in nobody understanding quite what the appeal is supposed to be. Slapping the asses of two dancing skeleton sidekicks, constantly asking “Any questions?” while steadfastly refusing to provide straight answers (Who is he? “His own thang!”), he appears as the unexpected recurring gag in a Tower of Terror-style horror elevator ride.Unlike so many other SNL “character” sketches, this one even has a really good punchline, in which, as he initially promised, the goofball Pumpkins really does “scare the hell” out of his guests by suddenly appearing behind them. The half-hour animated special featuring the character is good too, but a tougher sell to any party guests not into surreal, random humor. It’s easy enough to get them to sit through four minutes, though, which is why this one gets busted out every year. [Luke Y. Thompson]

Most Popular

Halloween (1978)

Michael Myers Unmasked - Ending Scene - Halloween (1978) Movie Clip HD

Growing up, we weren’t a horror family. So I remember, as many my age do, going to the video store as a kid (in my case, Video Villa) and ducking into that genre’s aisles and spending an ungodly amount of time studying the backs of horror VHS tapes, transfixed by bloody and shocking (and in retrospect, dumb) images that would invariably keep me up at night. But for some reason, my parents made an exception for , which I believe I’ve seen every Halloween season since I was 10. Back then, I thought this tale of Michael Myers was not only really shot in my home state of Illinois, despite those very California hills in some backdrops, but that it was also based on a true story. (I was young; leave me alone. Also, I didn’t think he survived being shot at the end, okay?) To this day, somehow, the pounding piano keys of the “The Shape Stalks” still hit and thrill me like they did back then, soundtracking Myers as he walks the empty, dark, parent-less streets of suburbia. [Tim Lowery]

Insidious

Insidious: A Face Made of Fire (Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne 4K HD Clip)

Every year, someone inevitably will ask for a recommendation, and every year, I offer , a movie that doesn’t just legitimize the jump scare but makes the audience actively dread them. James Wan pulls the audience through his funhouse with formal confidence, a low budget, and a warm, earnest cast willing to ground the film’s three parts. Insidious is a classic haunted house movie, a blistering possession movie, and an astral-projection nightmare; three great flavors that taste surprisingly great together. I watch it every Halloween, hopefully with first-timers. I scream. They scream. We all scream together. No one I’ve ever foisted it on has ever expressed disappointment. Nor have I. After 11 years of Insidious, it still scares the hell out of me. [Matt Schimkowitz]

The Nightmare Before Christmas

This Is Halloween (From Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas”)

What is there to say about that hasn’t already been said? This iconic classic is actually a year-round favorite in our house, but we always make sure to watch it together on Halloween night. Not only is it the perfect thing to transition from Halloween into the Christmas season, it has a special meaning for us—my husband and I saw it in the theater on our first date.It’s the kind of movie that never gets old, no matter how many times you watch it. Director (not Tim Burton, as many believe, though it’s based on his designs) packs each stop-motion frame with visual delights—the clown with the tear-away face; Sally brewing a poisonous bowl of soup; the mayor with his smile and frown; Oogie Boogie and his minions; Zero the ghost dog playing fetch with Jack’s bones; and of course, The Pumpkin King himself, analyzing his way through an existential crisis. And then there’s the score by Danny Elfman (listening to Oingo Boingo is another seasonal tradition of ours), which serves up everything that epitomizes the holiday in catchy musical form. As the song goes, “This is Halloween!” [Cindy White]

Rosemary’s Baby

Rosemary’s Baby - What have you done to its eyes?

Written and directed by Roman Polanski, is a psychological horror film that gets under your skin until its haunting end. The movie finds Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and her husband moving into a new apartment. Soon enough, the doting housewife becomes pregnant—after hallucinating she was raped by Satan. She subsequently believes that her elderly neighbors and obstetrician belong to a coven of witches hellbent on sacrificing her unborn child. Void of any jump scares, gore, major special effects, or demonic appearances, the film relies on Rosemary’s mounting paranoia as evil appears to close in on her. But is it only her imagination? The growing evidence and foreboding signs would suggest otherwise. A chilling sense of dread—combined with captivating performances and a shocking climatic scene that posits that the innocent don’t always triumph—makes Rosemary’s Baby a terrifying treat worth revisiting every Halloween. [Bryan Cairns]

Scream

SCREAM “Opening Scene” Clip (1996) Drew Barrymore

For me, spooky season is incomplete without devouring every film of the franchise. (It’s so nice to have a fifth one this year). What makes any rewatch worth the while is that despite knowing what’s coming next, there’s comfort to be found in the story. While a slasher doesn’t necessarily imply “comfort watching,” Scream fits the bill. The movies have everything: gallows humor, Ghostface’s creative kills (sorry, Tatum!), wild performances—from Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard to Courteney Cox and Parker Posey—and a badass final girl in Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. The movies are a perfect blend of creepy and pop culture satire. Wes Craven, Kevin Williamson, and the cast and crew have crafted an iconic franchise. Halloween time is just an excuse to enjoy it in its entirety. [Saloni Gajjar]

The Silence Of The Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs (1/12) Movie CLIP - Closer! (1991) HD

I know what you’re thinking: isn’t a Halloween movie. But what is Hannibal Lecter wearing a security guard’s face to sneak out of imprisonment if not a clever costume? Every day is a spooky holiday for that chianti aficionado. Jonathan Demme’s pulse-pounding, psychologically fucked-up (and, in terms of transgender representation, problematically fucked-up), Oscar-winning hit is worth returning to every year if only for top-notch performances from Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Seeing The Silence Of The Lambs in a Walmart parking lot for an October drive-in screening series has solidified it as a Halloween classic for this viewer, who somehow remains on the edge of his seat every time Clarisse descends into Buffalo Bill’s hellish basement. [Jack Smart]

Trick ’R Treat

Trick ‘r Treat (2007) Trailer #2 | Movieclips Classic Trailers

For years, whether I had it on in the background during a Halloween party, or as I suited up in my costume for the big night, John Carpenter’s Halloween was always the number-one movie to watch during my October 31st ritual. But things changed when 2007’s came around. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the hell out of Michael Myers, but aside from a few trick-or-treat scenes and jack-o-lanterns, springtime Los Angeles (complete with palm trees and lots of greenery) posing as the Midwest in the fall doesn’t exactly scream Halloween season.What makes Trick ’R Treat the perfect Halloween movie is that it’s oozing with an eerie atmosphere. It totally captures the essence of All Hallow’s Eve—the foggy nights, the orange foliage, the autumnal scenery—you can practically smell the aroma of candy corn and baked pumpkin seeds as you watch it. Not only that, but it checks off just about everything a movie set during the spooky season needs: trick or treaters, costume festivities galore, ghoulish zombie kids, werewolf vixens, creepy serial killers, the list goes on… But most of all, it brought us the mischievous Sam—the coolest (and devilishly adorable) pint-sized horror mascot to grace the screen since Chucky. Sam is a child-like, pumpkin-faced imp who wears orange pajamas and a burlap mask. Think of him as a Halloween enforcer of sorts. He wields a lollipop shiv and a candy bar razorblade—signature weapons he will happily slide and dice you with if you break any of the sacred rules of Halloween. Thanks to Sam, Trick ’R Treat is one of my own hallowed Halloween traditions. [Gil Macias]

V/H/S 2

V/H/S/2 (4/10) Movie CLIP - Birthday Party Zombie Attack (2013) HD

Rarely does a sequel truly improve upon its predecessor; is that rarity. The second film in the horror anthology based around a series of videotapes, V/H/S 2 gleefully pushes the limits of its format. Selecting one standout among the four shorts is no small task: if it’s spectacular gore you seek, cult centerpiece “Safe Haven” should satisfy best. But my personal favorite is directors Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale’s “A Ride In The Park.” Packed with casual horror (and underlying camp), the zombie extravaganza ends with a haunting and hilarious bang—and reveals Sánchez and Hale’s true passion for the genre along the way. [Hattie Lindert]

“Wes Anderson Horror Trailer,” Saturday Night Live

Wes Anderson Horror Trailer - SNL

My yearly Halloween watch is a film that has yet to be made: The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders, the great Wes Anderson horror film dreamt up by Saturday Night Live to taunt me. I didn’t know I needed a spooky Wes Anderson film about a gang of murderers who cutely and quirkily take a family hostage, but in 2013, the cast of SNL informed me that I, in fact, do. Now every October, I sit watching the skit on YouTube, praying that through some Bel-Air-esque twist of fate, Mr. Anderson will watch the clip, call up Lorne Micheals for the rights, and start working on a script. The sketch is one of SNL’s best parodies, the set design and props are incredible, and Kate McKinnon’s stabbing is exactly what makes a pitch perfect Anderson flick. So please, Wesley, for the love of Adrian Brody, make me a horror film. [Matthew Huff]

Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein - Creation Scene

I have watched every October without fail for perhaps 20 years now, and I’m still finding new jokes in it. There are things I didn’t get for the first 10 years that I now eagerly wait for, and things I’ve never seen before that delight me as though I’ve just seen the film for the first time. But it’s not just that Mel Brooks’ send-up of Universal Horror films is funny, though it’s arguably the funniest film he’s ever made. It’s that Brooks and co-writer Gene Wilder poured their love of such films into the celluloid, from borrowing some original Frankenstein props to crafting a narrative that truly feels like something a monster movie sequel might have cooked up in the 1940s to keep the series going. What could have been a cardboard parody of a then-40-year-old genre therefore becomes a timeless, endless, hilarious masterpiece of comedy and film craft. Plus, the late, legendary Marty Feldman gives what might be my favorite comedy performance of all time. [Matthew Jackson]