Good Netflix movies to watch if you like Halloween
If you’re a Halloween lover, you probably have a favorite movie (or two) you watch every season. Perhaps you prefer scary movies, or perhaps you gravitate to the not-so-scary. Or maybe, like this list of seven good Netflix movies to watch on Netflix if you like Halloween, you like a combo of both.
From classic to cult favorite, campy to family-friendly, this list ranges the gamut, but they’re all good choices for Halloween season viewing.
Check out these seven Netflix movies for Halloween 2020.
1. The Addams Family
The creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky clan known as the Addams Family comes to life in this live-action movie. Based on Charles Addams’ The Addams Family comic strip, which became a beloved 1960s television series, this rendition stars Anjelica Huston (who also appears in another movie on this list) as Morticia Addams, Raul Julia as Gomez Addams, the incomparable Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester and Christina Ricci (who also stars in another movie on this list) as Wednesday Addams.
In this offering, the family faces off (unknowingly, that’s the beauty of the Addams, who live in their own weird world) against con artists after their money. What happens when they take in the man pretending to be their long-lost Uncle Fester?
2. The Evil Dead
Writer and director Sam Raimi explores terror in this cult classic about five college friends who take a trip to a cabin in the woods. That’s where they find a book and a tape and end up unleashing demons.
The Evil Dead starred Bruce Campbell stared as Ash, the only survivor. Or was he? As he walks away from the cabin at the end of the movie, something rushes at him from the forest. It’s no wonder fans wanted a sequel…and eventually got one as well as more installments in the Evil Dead franchise. It turned Ash into a sort of horror movie superhero, but it all started with this movie.
3. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
This may be the only movie on this list that takes place during Halloween. It once again involves kids getting a hold of a book and bringing things to life that that cause chaos, including Slappy the Dummy from the first Goosebumps who’s intent on completing what he wasn’t able to before. Can the kids in this sequel work together to thwart him?
In addition to Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs), Madison Iseman (Annabelle Comes Home, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level), Jeremy Ray Taylor (It and It Chapter Two), Caleel Harris (Castle Rock) and Ken Jeong (The Hangover), Jack Black as R.L. Stine and R.L. Stine himself (but as “Science Award Presenter Principal Harrison) both make cameos in Goosebumps 2.
4. Killer Klowns from Outer Space
There are not many horror movies that get campier than Killer Klowns from Outer Space. It’s about as ridiculous and ’80s as you can get it, but that’s what makes it so much fun. No one believes the few young people who are trying to tell them the clowns that have invaded the small town are aliens and not circus clowns.
Granted, it’s hard to believe because everything about them is clown-like and comical, from their mannerisms to their weapons. But they’re dead serious when it comes time to kill.
5. Poltergeist
This 80s blockbuster became an instant haunted house supernatural classic. It was the Paranormal Activity of its time, and definitely paved the way for the movies like that that followed.
It stars Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams as Steve and Diane Freeling. They live in a nice middle-class, suburban house. Not the typical kind of place you’d expect to encounter ghosts. But it soon becomes apparent they’re not alone and something is haunting them and their three kids, Dana (Dominique Dunne), Robbie (Oliver Robins) and Carol Ann (Heather O’Rourke).
It soon escalates to torment when the spirits from beyond take Carol Ann. But surely the paranormal investigators the Freelings have brought in, along with the psychic medium, can help get Carol Ann back and help the spirits rest in peace, can’t they?
6. Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving likely never imagined his tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, to come to life like it did when put in the hands of director Tim Burton. That’s okay. Burton did a great job, aided by top talent like Johnny Depp (Ichabod Crane), Christina Ricci (Katrina Van Tassel), Miranda Richardson (Lady Van Tassel), Casper Van Dien (Brom Van Brunt) and Christopher Walken (the Hessian Horseman).
Detective Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the beheadings of three people by a killer known as The Headless Horseman. Crane doesn’t believe the Horseman legend…until he sees it with his own eyes.
But why is the Horseman killing certain townspeople? Is there a connection? When it becomes clear Katrina’s life may also be in jeopardy, will Crane be able to put the pieces together and find a way to stop the Horseman once and for all?
7. The Witches
One thing you might not want to do is stumble onto a witch convention, especially if you’re a child staying at the same hotel where said convention has assembled in an attempt to rid all of your country, England, from kids.
Anjelica Huston (from The Addams Family) also stars in this movie as Miss Ernst/the Grand High Witch. Other familiar faces include Rowan Atkinson (of Mr. Bean and Johnny English fame), Bill Paterson (who stars as Dr. Baker in Netflix’s Rebecca) and Brenda Blethyn (who some may know as DCI Vera Stanhope from the Vera British TV mystery series.)