Most people this Halloween are going to go for the big scare by watching IT 2, but I’d be more happy sitting at home and watching one of these five fan favorites! 

Test your knowledge of these movies by taking this trivia quiz.

Monster House

Monster House was one of the more “spooky” movies I watched around Halloween as a child. I remember thinking any dark or old house was haunted after seeing this. 

Three young children explore a haunted house and discover that something is threatening the livelihood of the neighborhood. With Halloween approaching, the trio must find a way to destroy the structure before innocent trick-or-treaters meet ghastly ends.

The appeal of this story was most likely based around the friendship between the characters. As a child, it was fun to imagine myself with my best friends, and exploring new places and fighting off the bad guys. 

Casper 

As a child, I wanted a ghost friend like Casper mostly because he held the personality traits I felt were admirable. 

In this age-old classic, Casper is a kind young ghost who peacefully haunts a mansion in Maine. When specialist James Harvey arrives to communicate with Casper and his fellow spirits, he brings along his teenage daughter, Kat. Casper quickly falls in love with Kat, but their relationship is complicated not only by his transparent state, but also by his troublemaking apparition uncles and their mischievous antics.

It’s easy to see why Casper the Friendly Ghost has had such an appeal to children for decades now. Though Casper comics were some of the biggest sellers, the little ghost first appeared in the late 1930s, as a pitch for a children’s book by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriollo. Throughout time, children have found it easy to relate to him, since they too might have felt invisible and misunderstood at times. 

It was reassuring to me as a child to see that in a world of scary and evil spirits, one would be on my side. 

Twitches

Twitches always held a special place in my heart because I liked to imagine that my sister and I discovered we had magical powers and saved the world!

In the first of two movies, reunited on their 21st birthday, two girls discover they are not only twin sisters, separated at birth, but that they’re also princesses from another dimension, called Coventry with magical powers. Twitches follows the girls’ adventure through understanding their powers and learning about the darkness that plagues the world of magic. 

Disney channel stars Tia and Tamera Mowry quickly stole the audiences’ hearts with a magical adventure where they discovered their true selves for the first time. Shortly after the movie series, the sisters were presented with a TV show on Disney Channel called “Sister, Sister.” 

It was exciting to see the sisters’ relationship develop and have them discover their similarities and differences. They seem very comfortable working together, and each allows the other to have the spotlight in certain moments of the movie. 

This movie was somewhat scary for kids as I remember, but as I matured, it quickly became one of my favorite films. One of the quotes that has always stuck with me was towards the end of the movie, Alex: “The opposite of darkness isn’t light.” Alex and Cam: “It’s love!” This quote put the image in the viewer’s mind that even when times became rough and confusing, love would save the day. 

Hocus Pocus 

Was I the only one that sat in my basement as a child trying to talk to my cat after watching this movie? 

The Disney classic, Hocus Pocus, begins after teenager Max Dennison moves to Salem, Massachusetts and proceeds to explore an abandoned house with his sister Dani and their new friend, Allison. After disregarding the spooky story Allison tells as superstitious, Max accidentally frees a three evil witches who used to live in the house. Now, with the help of a magical black cat, the kids must steal the witches’ book of spells to stop them from becoming immortal.

This movie creates fun and laughs for families all around. Hocus Pocus is known for its use of classic Halloween creatures to bring children’s imagination and awe into play. The funniest quote from the movie was when Winifred Sanderson, one of the three witches, said “(Go to hell!)  Oh, I’ve been there, thank you. I found it quite lovely.”

Halloweentown

I don’t know about you, but Halloweentown is constantly on in the background like the news throughout the month of October. 

This Disney Channel original sets itself up on the night of Halloween, where characters, Marnie and her siblings, are visited by their mystical grandmother. They then decide to follow their grandma home to Halloweentown where they discover they come from a family of witches. Halloweentown is a cheery-looking village populated with monsters, goblins, witches, ghosts, vampires, and other freakish creatures. Yet, it is quickly discovered that a dark force is turning the citizens of Halloweentown into zombies. The story focuses on the struggle of Marnie and her siblings joining together with their grandmother to bring peace to Halloweentown and destroy the evil warlock’s plans. 

This movie brings together all the aspects of Halloween that I love, monsters, witches, and other creatures, along with family adventures all revolving around the positive message of being yourself. It’s perfect for building up excitement to the holidays and has always been my favorite Halloween movie.