Spooky Season Movie Guide | Best Horror Movies for Halloween

October 20, 2022

Are you looking for some spooky movies to watch before Halloween this year? Read on for my best of spooky season movie guide. 

There are many reasons why I love this time of year, from the smell of woodsmoke on a chilly fall night to spending the day carving pumpkins and baking cookies. Of course, one of my favorite fun fall activities is watching tons of scary movies, both old and new! 

While there seemed to be a serious lack of new entertainment in the last few years due to the pandemic, it feels like we’re finally getting a lot of quality entertainment in 2022, including plenty of new horror movies! 

So if you’re looking for something spooky to watch on a self-care night, I have compiled a list of old and new movies, ranging from not-so-scary to full-blown horrifying. Check out the complete list of my ultimate favorite Spooky Season Movies here! Happy haunting! 

 

Halloween (1978)

Of course, the first movie on this list has to be none other than the ULTIMATE spooky season movie, the original Halloween. This is the perfect movie to watch in early October when the leaves start to change, and you’re decorating your house for Halloween. And while it definitely is a scary movie, it’s not so frightening that you won’t be able to sleep! 

 

Strangers 

This still has me on the edge of my seat even after all these years of watching – this is my absolute favorite thriller horror film! Starring Liv Tyler, this follows a couple who planned for a weekend away in the woods only to experience strangers in masks taunting and terrorizing them. 

 

Scream

Does it get more classic than 1996’s Scream? This movie has so many iconic lines, and Drew Barrymore’s cameo in the opening scene still gives me the spooks, even after rewatching it so many times! 

 

The Shining 

You really can’t go wrong with any Stephen King book-to-movie adaptation, but The Shining takes the cake for effective horror. In case you’ve never seen The Shining, the movie follows a writer who takes a winter job at an isolated Colorado hotel in hopes of curing his writer’s block, but the hotel proves to be anything but ordinary and soon turns him into someone his family doesn’t recognize. 

 

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Okay, so this is more of an obligatory 90’s movie than a total spooky film! I just rewatched it on my honeymoon with my husband after telling him that he was severely deprived for never having seen this movie before. Having been the youngest of siblings with a big age difference, I was shown this movie at a rather young age which probably made me terrified of it and much more terrified than I am now as an adult watching it. Still, it has famous 90’s actors such as Ryan Phillipe, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and the now happily married couple Freddie Prince Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar all starring as recent High School Grads who are all involved in a hit and run and a year later begin to get haunted by notes and run ins that terrorize them.  

 

No Exit 

This was a very underrated scary Hulu Original film that any spooky season lover could use this Halloween! After a blizzard traps a woman in a lodge with complete strangers, she begins to suspect that one of the strangers is not to be trusted and is involved in a kidnapping. 

 

Hush 

This is one of the best Netflix originals for horror movie lovers! Again what is it with horror films wanting us to fear the woods?! The main character is a writer who is deaf and finds herself in a horrifying situation while staying in a cabin in the woods alone.  

 

Black Phone 

A 2022 horror film starring Ethan Hawke that is about the kidnapping of a thirteen-year-old boy. Ethan Hawke portrays the kidnapper and killer and plays a terrifying killer in this horror movie.