With pumpkin patches, haunted houses, apple orchards and perfect weather, fall is the best time of the year. But, what really tunes people into the fall spirit is the wide variety of Halloween movies.
I will be ranking my top five classic movies to get into the Halloween spirit. The list includes, “Halloween Town,” “Hocus Pocus,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Girl vs. Monster” and “Hubie Halloween.”
Starting off strong with my all time favorite Halloween movie, “Hocus Pocus.” The film takes place when Max Dennison and his family move to Salem, Massachusetts in October of 1993. While trick or treating with his sister Dani, Max stumbles upon his crush from school, Allison Watts. Allison decides to tag along with them. Max, Dani and Allison decide it would be a fun idea to visit the infamous Sanderson sisters cottage from the 1600’s. While fooling around in the cottage, Max accidentally awakens the witches with a spell from the spell book. Once the witches awaken they are already hunting for souls of children. The rest of the movie is about the adventure that Max, Allison and Dani go on to escape and get rid of the sisters forever. They encounter talking cats, zombies and much more. All in all, “Hocus Pocus” is an amazing movie that captures the essence of Halloween and all of the events that surround it.
Coming in at number two has got to be “Halloweentown.” This movie is about a young girl named Marnie Cromwell and her two younger siblings and their adventures in Halloweentown. Every year on Halloween, their grandmother comes and visits Marnie and her siblings to bring candy and toys. Marnie gets suspicious of where her grandmother truly lives and decides to follow her grandmother back home. The younger siblings Dylan and Sophie also follow. They end up on a magical bus and get transported to Halloweentown. It is full of monsters, witches, goblins and many more. It is decorated to the brim with pumpkins, cobwebs and cauldrons. But, someone is trying to ruin Halloweentown. The rest of the movie goes through the course of a few days of the adventures that Marnie, her siblings and their grandma go through and all of the weird and spectacular occurences and people they encounter to try to save Halloweentown.
The third movie on my list is “Girl vs. Monster.” This movie is about a girl named Skylar and what she faces when she realizes what her parents true professions are. Her whole life she had thought that they were scientists, but on her 16th birthday she finds out that they are monster hunters. After a malfunction at home with one of her parents’ co-workers, all of the monsters that Skylar’s parents had caught over the years, were released. Skylar and her two best friends, Sadie and Henry go on an adventure to capture all of the monsters and save their town. This movie includes witches, monsters, gremlins and more. This is a great Halloween movie to watch to get into the spirit because of the decorations throughout the town, the Halloween parties shown and of course the monsters.
Fourth on my list is a movie that only came out just a few years ago, “Hubie Halloween.” Any movie starring Adam Sandler is automatically good so this movie had to be on my list. “Hubie Halloween” takes place in Salem, Massachusetts where a guy named Hubie Dubois lives. When Halloween hits, there are some problems in Salem like a prison escapee and a possible werewolf living right next to Hubie. Hubie decides that he is going to figure out what is happening. Though everyone in the town teases him for his voice and some of his actions, he still finds a way to protect the residents of Salem. Throughout the night, Hubie goes on an adventure to fix these problems. This really put me into the Halloween spirit because it takes place in the Halloween capital of the country, there are great Halloween songs throughout the movie, many costumes and Halloween activities shown. This is a must watch to get into the Halloween spirit.
Last on my list is “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” I have heard from many peers that this was a great Halloween movie so I decided to watch it. The main character of the film is named Jack and he lives in Halloweentown. One day he walked his way into the woods and found a circle of trees with symbols from each major holiday on each tree. Seeing the bright and colorful Christmas tree, Jack opened the door and went into the tree. Once arriving in Christmas town, Jack loves it and wants to become Santa. Later Jack returns and tells everyone his plan. After a few days Jack was ready to steal Christmas. After giving all of the children horrific presents like bloody ducks and animals that chase you, he realized that he wanted his old life back and had made a huge mistake. This movie came last on my list because of the fact that it can also feel like a Christmas movie at some parts and I found myself bored with the movie while watching. Although, there were many scenes that portrayed Halloween very well. Halloweentown was filled with monsters, pumpkins, cobwebs and more. The Halloween music throughout the movie also made it much better.
With Halloween coming up, I suggest lighting a candle, making Halloween cookies, grabbing a blanket and watching all of these movies to get into the Halloween spirit.
