My SO and I are always looking for good movies, shows, etc. to fill the month of October. We like things that are atmospheric, cerebral, or just fun. But a lot of the standard recommendations are your typical slasher movies and the like, disgusting body horror, kids movies that we have no interest in, and things that are just plain miserable.


Here’s some things we’ve liked to one degree or another from previous years.

Action Horror / Horror That’s Actually Enjoyable

  • Aliens
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula
  • Fright Night
  • Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
  • The Mummy (1999)
  • Silence of the Lambs
  • Sleepy Hollow (Great? No. Fun? Yes.)
  • Termors 1 & 2
  • Various Stephen King Mini series (IT, The Stand, Rose Red)

Funny and Spooky

  • Army of Darkness
  • BeetleJuice
  • Bubba Ho-Tep
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie)
  • The Burbs (didn’t love it, but a good fit)
  • Death Becomes Her
  • The Frighteners
  • Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
  • Ghostbusters 1 & 2
  • Gremlins 1 & 2
  • High Anxiety
  • Little Shop of Horrors (not really into musicals, but still a good fit)
  • Shaun of the Dead
  • What We Do in the Shadows (movie)
  • Various MST3K horror movie episodes
  • Young Frankenstein

Anthology Shows (inherently hit or miss)

  • The Twilight Zone (60s)
  • The Outer Limits (90s)
  • Tales From the Crypt

Old Timey Classics

  • Dracula
  • Frankenstein (actually underwhelming, but it was a good fit)
  • The Haunting (1963)
  • The Haunting of Hill House (with Rifftrax, but still counts)
  • The Last Man on Earth
  • Psycho
  • The Invisible Man

Barely Qualifies as spooky but still good:

  • Dark Man
  • The Dead Zone (movie)
  • Men in Black
  • Pacific Rim
  • The Shadow
  • They Live
  • @Gaspar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    19 months ago

    I don’t know if it would meet your “no kid’s movie” requirement, but Hocus Pocus has been in my spooky season rotation forever.

    Also, it’s technically a musical I guess but the animated Legend of Sleepy Hollow narrated/sung by Bing Crosby is a classic.

    Everything else on my list has already been mentioned, but I would be remiss not to mention one of my wife’s favorites, Corpse Bride. If you were already looking at Nightmare Before Christmas, I think you’ll enjoy it.

  • Maestro
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    319 months ago

    I recommend:

    • The Cabin in the Woods
    • Tucker and Dale versus Evil
    • Midnight Mass
          • DaGeek247
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            29 months ago

            This is the second time I’ve seen this movie genuinely recommended for a spot where it doesn’t belong. I swear, y’all horror movie watchers lose track of just how horrifying your movies get.

            The other time it was suggested as a kids movie.

    • trevor (he/they)
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      59 months ago

      Midnight Massterpiece is more like it. Anything from Mike Flannigan is great. Also check out Midnight Club. It’s not particularly scary, but more touching and sad, in a good way.

      • @Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        19 months ago

        He’s honestly the only reason I’ve still got a Netflix subscription at this point.

        He did one of the segments in the new V/H/S Beyond movie as well, although I’m pretty sure that falls under gore for this question.

  • @jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    29 months ago

    For “funny and spooky” I’d suggest Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. The gore is over the top to such a degree that it becomes just ridiculous!

    For shows, I’ve been digging “From” on MGM+. First season (10 episodes) is free. 3rd season just started, new episode tonight!

    Trailer:

    https://youtu.be/pDHqAj4eJcM

    • @Makeitstop@lemmy.worldOP
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      19 months ago

      I love Army of Darkness. I’ve had Evil Dead II on the to watch list, but it has to wait for my SO to be in an adventurous enough mood since they’re more squeamish than I am.

      From looks interesting. I’m curious how satisfying it is as a story. The premise seems like the kind of thing that would work best with a more stand alone story structure, so the fact that it has multiple seasons makes me worry about it either dragging on until it gets bad or getting cancelled without wrapping things up.

  • @reddig33@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Dead Zone with Christopher Walken is amazing. Glad to see it on this list.

    Some more classic Stephen King you might enjoy if you haven’t already seen it:

    • Salems Lot (the original 1970s mini series)
    • Carrie (the original Spacek version, not the remakes)
    • Firestarter (original with Drew Barrymore)

    Edit: The Fog isn’t Stephen King. But it’s still good. I don’t remember it being too gory because everything happens in “the fog” but there might be a neck slicing. It’s been a looong time since I last watched it.

    • The Fog (original with Adrienne Barbeau)
    • @Makeitstop@lemmy.worldOP
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      19 months ago

      We recently threw the Fog on the list but know nothing about it beyond it being early John Carpenter. Didn’t even realize it was Stephen King.

      Salem’s Lot is something I keep remembering exists and then forget to add to the list. Neither of us have seen it but I have a vague awareness of it.

      I know my SO hated Carrie, so probably not something we’re watching together. I’ve never seen it, I’ve just seen the ten million things parodying it.

      I completely forgot about Firestarter. I never saw the original, I think I saw the sequel that people hated, though all I remember is Dennis Hopper playing a guy who they establish sees the future with perfect clarity, and then immediately gets his predictions wrong.

  • @Nefara@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Haven’t seen anyone here recommend The Woman in Black (2012) which fits the atmospheric horror genre perfectly. Stars Daniel Radcliffe and I remember it as being quite good, with no gore and minimal cheap jump scares. I don’t think the trailer is a good representation of it so that would be one to go into blind.

  • Andrew
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    49 months ago

    For ‘Action Horror’, I’ve liked The Hunt (2020), Ready or Not, Totally Killer and Strange Darling (technically not a horror, but it’s about a serial killer)

    I watched Red Rooms recently, and that’s French (Canadian), so if anyone asks you what you watched recently, you can say ‘Les chambres rouges’ and sound all intelligent and stuff.

  • @misericordiae@literature.cafe
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    139 months ago

    I would add The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993) to your Funny and Spooky list. I’ll also second the The Fog (1981) suggestion.

    • @Makeitstop@lemmy.worldOP
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      29 months ago

      Hmm… Haven’t seen them since they first came out, my memory of them is vague, but might be worth a watch.

      • Guy Dudeman
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        49 months ago

        Also there’s an Addams Family channel on Pluto.tv that plays nonstop Addams Family episodes from the 60’s. It was a fantastic silly show. Love watching it with my kids.

      • @Albbi@lemmy.ca
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        69 months ago

        They definitely still hold up, and can actually be better seeing them as an adult for the first time if the last time you watched them was as a kid.

  • SanguinePar
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    69 months ago

    A few that I don’t think have been mentioned yet:

    • Rosemary’s Baby
    • Ring (Japanese original)
    • Mulholland Drive
    • Get Out
    • The Exorcist
    • The Omen
  • @0ops@lemm.ee
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    109 months ago

    The Pirates of the Caribbean movies fit I think. Skeleton pirates, curses, sea-zombie pirates, giant squid attacks, the East India Trading Company…

  • @rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio
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    79 months ago

    I don’t watch a lot of creepy/spooky stuff, so my recommendations come from a fairly limited breadth. That said, I recommend a few things that many might lump under “kid movies” (I prefer the more accurate label “family entertainment”) since they tend to be perilous and unsettling without being outright violent, gory, or generally miserable.

    Coraline (2009) - A young girl, dissatisfied with her home life after moving to a new town, stumbles upon a dark, parallel world. Therein, she finds solace in a parallel version of her mother who is not what she seems.

    Paranorman (2012) - A young boy who can speak with the dead learns that a witch who was executed by the townspeople hundreds of years ago will soon return to seek vengeance upon them.

    Over the Garden Wall (2014) - A mini-series focusing on two brothers who find themselves inexplicably lost in a forest teeming with fell beasts, witches, undead, and unlikely allies. I watch this one every year around this time. Cozy yet spooky at the same time.

    • @Makeitstop@lemmy.worldOP
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      29 months ago

      I don’t completely object to family entertainment, as the good stuff is usually fun for adults too. But there’s also a big difference between the really good stuff and well, everything else. I mostly just wanted to avoid the Hocus Pocus, Hotel Transylvania, and “some random Disney channel crap from the 90s/2000s” that tend to pad out lists of non-horror Halloween movies.

      My SO loves Coraline, I thought it was enjoyable enough. Although we watched it not long after watching They Live, which also has Keith David, which lead to a lot of joking about a scene mirroring the famous alley fight, but with buttons instead of sunglasses.

      We watched Over the Garden Wall, liked the spooky parts, but wished the little brother would have been MIA for the entire series.

      I know of Paranorman, I’ve had it on the list for a while, added when we felt like we were running out of options. Neither of us have seen it and we don’t know much about it, so it’s been a lower priority, but not ruled out.

  • @wjrii@lemmy.world
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    109 months ago

    The TV show version of What We Do in the Shadows is also quite good, I think, and very much traffics in the same themes as the movie, if even a bit sillier.

    • @Makeitstop@lemmy.worldOP
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      19 months ago

      We both liked What We Do in the Shadows, but neither of us loved it. I’ve been suggesting giving the show a try but my SO is always a bit resistant to starting a new show, and the prospect of trying to squeeze a season into a limited time frame only has only made that worse. But it’ll probably happen sooner or later.

  • @BalooWasWahoo@links.hackliberty.org
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    9 months ago

    Hocus Pocus is classic 90s comedy/super-light horror. It’s gooooood.

    edit: and OP says in another comment that they want to avoid it. Noooooo! …I get the sentiment, but noooooo!