Halloween Horror Movies/TV Shows 2025

Sinners
This is a different kind of take on the genre, but still has all the hallmarks of classic vampire movies. It establishes the rules and the stakes. No pun intended. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just give a basic rundown. Two brothers return to their hometown in Mississippi where they meet up with their cousin who plays guitar. They buy an old saw mill and turn it into a juke joint and invite old friends to join them. As the night goes on some uninvited strangers show up and want to join the party. That's they key word, uninvited.

Music plays a key component to this movie and I thought it was an interesting idea, though it does feed into the notion that music can bring about evil.

Speaking of music in this movie is great.

There's definitely other horror influences like in particular "The Thing" comes to mind.

It's yet another movie rated R with zero nudity and there are plenty of opportunities where there should have been.

Apparently Coogler pitched this to Disney as a Blade period piece, but they turned it down. What a stupid move. Not only was this movie a box office success as well as critically acclaimed and liked by the audience, Disney has seen flop after flop and they can't get Blade off the ground.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty good. I like that it actually had a story to it. It's a bit of a slow burn and the endind is kind of weird, but worth a watch.

7.5/10

I saw it and liked it.

The whole vibe was good. The twin VFX are some of the best ever done. The cast was great. The vampires were suitably creepy.

Gripes? The racists, who don't really figure in the main plot, showing up at the end felt a bit tacked on to give the film a violently cathartic climax. It's a great action sequence, but it's doesn't involve the film's antagonists. And that ending does go longer than it needed to.

Yeah. I didn't want to give anything away, but the ending definitely felt tacked on and the part with the old man at the bar was kind of unbelievable. Meaning I don't believe that they wouldn't have killed him.

Final Destination: Bloodlines
These movies are all pretty much the same with variations on a theme. I thought there were some funny kills and some gruesome. ones. I'm glad I didn't waste money and time seeing this in theaters. It's bellow middling. Not on the level of The Fog, but it's on the low tier. Oh and the dumbest things have to happen for people to die.
4/10

I think I saw one of the Final Destination films back in the day, but it left so little impression that I feel no need to watch the sequels.

Annabelle Comes Home
After watching The Conjuring : Last Rites I wanted to see what connection it had to Annabelle Comes homes home. There's small references here and there, but you're not missing much. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are barely in this and they're the only reason I watch any of these movies in the first place. I remember liking the first Conjuring movie and The Nun, but that was over a decade ago so I'm going to rewatch the first one top see if I still like it. Anyway, this one is not scary and has no story at all. There was one jump scare that I wasn't expecting so points for that. I give these movies points more for technical work more than anything. Don't waste your time on this one. I've purposely avoided the Annabelle movies because I knew they would suck. These movies play fears and lore more than jump scares and story. I think Mike Flanagan relies on jump scares and story and I think that's why I like his works, he puts everything in the right places. I'd like to see what he could do with the same actors and this universe.

3.5/10

The first one is fine, but it's a gimmick. I'd rather just watch Freddy hack people up or something.

Not a scary movie, but one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Despite the bad CGI, which wasnt good even then, I still enjoy it mostly for the melding of old Universal monster movies.

I think it counts for the purposes of this thread. I would even count things like Scooby Doo or even League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 0r Harry Potter.

Saw it at the theater. I remember being...unimpressed.

Igor (Kevin J. O'Connor) had a line that made me laugh:

I know certain people don’t like Midnights Edge, but I highly recommend checking out their update of Nosfaratu. They color corrected the film and updated the sound. They did a really good job.
I think I pasted this last year.

The Conjuring
This is the one that started them all. I think at the time I liked it because American Horror Story was at it's peak and the Warrens I had heard of, but didn't know much about their story. I think it's the most coherent story of all of this universes movies. They all have the same basic formula and I can see why it works. I saw some similarities to Last Rites, but I think this movie is better because there's more of an investigation and they take a more scientific approach similar to the beginning of Ghostbusters and The Exorcist which I like. As I've said before, the main stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are a draw for me. The movie is well shot and well lit, but doesn't quite grip me as much as contemporary director Mike Flanagan, but there's enough to keep my attention. I think my grade still holds from the first time I watched it. It passes for me and is at least worth a watch.

7/10

Cuckoo


Stumbled across this on Disney+, and loved it. Good mystery, suitably creepy, and fantastic acting.

The Wretched

What a wonderful surprise. Dark, twisted. And it let's you know from the start that no one is safe, not even children.

Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
I laughed out loud throughout the entire movie. That hasn't happened in a long time. Keaton was great returning to the role of Beetlejuice, but William Dafoe was the funniest thing in the whole movie. I thought Beetlejuice's wife soul sucker sub plot was unnecessary and kind of went nowhere. The boyfriend sub plot also was unnecessary and went nowhere. Unfortunately without those plots, there's not much movie. What really held it together was the cast, the jokes and the nostalgia That's fine for a movie like this, but for a more serious movie I don't think it would work. I loved the mix of puppetry, practical effects and digital. I think they could have shaved about 20 minutes off this movie and it would be a little tighter. Overall though I thought it was pretty good. I'm surprised Tim Burton pulled it off. By far the best movie he's done in a long time.

7.75/10

I actually own a copy but haven't watched it yet.

What I've heard has been...not good.

(In fairness, I'm not a huge fan of the original.)

Another guilty pleasure: A Tarantino screenplay ,directed by Robert Rodriguez, George Clooney's first starring role, Cheech Marin plays three characters, Selma Hayek doing a sexy dance in what starts as a "robbers on the run" film, but changes halfway into a vampire survival film. What more could you ask for?

I tried watching it, got maybe halfway through it and couldn't watch anymore. The most entertaining part was the plane crash/shark scene.

Cat People (1982)

Horror thriller (with more than a little bit of eroticism) about a young woman (Nastassja Kinski ) who comes to New Orleans to reunite with her brother (Malcolm McDowell). She soon learns that he's transforming into the black leopard that's mauling local prostitutes. Worse, the same will happen to her if she doesn't mate with him, which complicates the budding romance she's having with a zoo curator (John Heard). Sexy and stylish, if only sporadically scary. Kinski does a terrific job playing the innocent girl who turns predator. The David Bowie theme--reused in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds--has been etched on my brain since I first heard it.
★★★

You know what I want to see (and show my kids) - The Grudge (2004) w/ SMG. I can't find it anywhere...it's not streaming or available for purchase. Even the blu-rays are out of stock/overpriced. Crazy. Add that to Dogma on the list of missing movies.

Dogma? Huh.
Time to hit alternative sources, it sounds like. I love Dogma.

I'm able to watch it on YouTube. Not sure if you can.

Huh...with ads. But OK.

I don't get ads... but.

I own Dogna. streamers can't take away physical copies.

I was a kid when this came out and havent seen it in years. I remember the ending being one of the most shocking.

Rosemar's Baby
I've never seen this movie until today, but I've heard that it's good. It's one of Captain Archer's favorite horror movies. Is this basically a documentary? Is this also the reason why people think Hollywood is filled with weirdos and Stan worshipers? This movie was a slow burn, but nailed the ending. It reminded me of American Horror Story in places. It had some proper nudity and Mia Farrow puts in a solid preformance. It's probably the only movie I've seen her in, but I liked her.
7/10

Frankenstein
I believe I reviewed this a few years back, but I don't remember. This is of course a classic and I like the story, but there really isn't much to this movie. Like The Invisible man a mad scientists' creation goes wrong. I actually feel bad for the monster and of course the girl than I do for the towns folk or Frankenstein himself. I don't know if that was the intent at the time, but It's what I felt watching this again. I think I like The Invisible Man better though.This very middle of the road.
5/10

Kevin Smith says Harvey Weinstein played some fuckery with "Dogma".
He finally just wrestled it free of him.

I guess you are referring to the Boris Karloff version that came out in the 30s because the one with Robert De Niro from the early 90s was very much like the original novel: captain of a ship comes across a crazed Dr Frankenstein who recounts his tale. The Karloff movie was typical of depression era Hollywood which was cut the story small enough so it could be shot cheaply. Same thing happened with Lugosi Dracula and we didn't get a more novel accurate version of that story until the Coppola version in the early 90s. While I respect Karloffs performance it just doesn't hold a candle to the De Niro movie as far as story, characters and novel accuracy.