With Halloween quickly approaching, there are not too many days left to do many fun Fall activities.  Some of the most popular of these activities include apple picking, pumpkin carving, and, of course, going to haunted houses.  Personally, my favorite Halloween/Fall activity is watching Halloween movies.  There is just something about curling up under the blankets at night with a cup of hot apple cider that is just so appealing.  Since there aren’t too many days left it could be hard to crame in a bunch of Halloween movies in such a short time, and the fact that there are so many of them doesn’t make life any easier, so in order to help out anybody who doesn’t even know where to begin, I am listing my top five favorite Halloween movies!

5: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Starting off at number five we have It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!  I know that this movie isn’t one that comes to mind when you first think of Halloween movies, but it’s a classic.  I grew up with the tradition of watching this movie every year and it never gets old, and the iconic line “I got a rock” said by Charlie Brown himself will also never get old.  This movie is such a quick and happy watch.  I mean, who doesn’t love Snoopy?  For anybody who has no idea what this movie is about, it’s about Linus, Charlie Brown’s best friend, skipping out on trick-or-treating so that he can go sit in a pumpkin patch all night in the hopes of seeing the Great Pumpkin, which he believes to be a Santa-like holiday figure.  Throughout the movie you get to see the whole Peanuts gang take part in a bunch of different Halloween festivities, and by the end of the movie you feel that warm fuzzy feeling wishing you were a part of their crew!

4: Halloween Town

In my opinion, it can’t be Halloween without watching this movie.  This Disney classic is well-beloved by so many people, in fact it’s so well-beloved that they went on to produce three more sequels.  This movie is about three siblings who find out that their grandmother is a witch that lives in the mystical town, Halloween Town, which is in danger of being overrun by something called “the Dark Thing”.  Together, the main character, Marnie, and her two younger siblings sneak away to Halloween Town in order to try and fight “the Dark Thing”, but run into trouble along the way.  This movie is pure Halloween goodness, yes it can be a bit cringy at times, but aren’t all good movies cringy at some point?  I’ve seen all four movies multiple times and without a doubt I can say that this one is probably the best.  By the end you’ll wish that you too lived in a town that was Halloween themed everyday of year too!

3: The Addams Family

What’s Halloween without this creepy and kooky family?  This family will make you believe that yours isn’t as dysfunctional as you once thought them to be.  This movie gives us a look into the life of the Addams family as they are reunited with their beloved Uncle Fester, who they believed died long ago.  But everything isn’t all it seems with a plot to steal the Addams’ fortune underway.  This family is literally the epitome of all that is Halloween.  From the antics of Wednesday Addams to the hilarity of Gomez Addams, the viewers stay captivated the whole time while they are rooting for the family to be complete again.  

2: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Before anybody brings it up, yes I know that this is also a Christmas movie, and yes I will watch it again at Christmas time.  That is one of the many wonderful things about this movie, you can watch it twice in a year back to back without it being weird.  For those of you who may not know it, The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of Tim Burton’s most famous films.  If you are a fan of any of Tim Burton’s other movies such as Corpse Bride, Beetlejuice, or Sleepy Hollow, this movie is perfect for you!  This movie follows Jack Skeleton as he searches for something to make him passionate again and ends up finding it in Christmas.  The movie has a fantastic and catchy soundtrack that contains songs that will be stuck in your head for days after watching the movie, not to mention the animation is interesting and fun.  It can’t be Halloween without this movie.

1: Hocus Pocus

And coming in at number one is none other than Hocus Pocus!  If you asked anybody what their favorite Halloween movie is there is a good chance that they just might choose this one.  Hocus Pocus follows new kid Max who has accidentally released three children-eating witches out into the world and he and his friends must find a way to send them back from where they came from by the end of Halloween night or else there could be dire consequences.  Can I just say that Kenny Ortega was a genius when directing this movie, there is literally nothing bad about it.  There’s a talking cat, what more can anybody ask for?  Even the one song in this movie, performed by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, is on point.  These witches have you cracking up the entire movie with their lack of present day knowledge, and the plot itself is very emotional at some points.  It’s hard to come by a good movie that can make you feel multiple things at once.  This movie will just “put a spell on you” and make you love it!

These are my top five Halloween movies to watch.  I know I didn’t include any horror or scary movies, but I haven’t seen many of those since I’m not such a huge fan of the genre, but I do want to see more of the classics.  There are so many good Halloween movies out there to watch and I know that some of my favorites may not be yours, but this is a good starting place if you feel overwhelmed by all the options.  There are many more years to come to fit them all in so there’s no rush, just enjoy the season because it’s not here for too long! Happy Halloween!