Emily’s 25 Days of Halloween Movies REVIEW

October 29, 2021
10:44 am
Morning X Blogs

I’ve got 25 days of Halloween movies that I have carefully crafted to review for your enjoyment. October is one of my favorite months, so I thought that it would be appropriate to celebrate it by freaking myself out and refreshing my memories of some classic scares. If you haven’t seen my original list yet, check it out here so you can save it for next year or just whenever you feel like you want to see someone’s guts.

This is an Emily movie review so you know that it will be… interesting. As of writing this, these are not ranked. I am simply reviewing these in the order of my list. I thought it would be important to give it three different rankings; my overall score, how scary was it, and how well does it fit the Halloween mood. Tweet us @101xMorningX with your thoughts on my reviews!

Scream (1996)

Overall: 8.5/10
Scares: 4/10 good fun but nothing that would keep me up at night. Just scary boyfriends.
Halloween Worthy: 7/10 has some great nods to the classic horror tropes which is perfect for this list.
To me, this is a total classic. This is a re-watch for me, so 20 minutes into it I remembered the ending. Still enjoyed watching it a second time around, but how the heck are their sequels? I haven’t seen any of them so I don’t UNDERSTAND! To sum it up, the horror movie references were fun, Matthew Lillard is hot, and Drew Barrymore is cute; what more can you want?

House of a Thousand Corpses (2003)

Overall: 6/10
Scares: 3/10 in the beginning, 6/10 in the end.
Halloween Worthy: 8/10 only because the story happens around Halloween time.
The cinematography was insane, but in the best way. I can obviously tell that American Horror Story drew a lot of inspiration by this madness. Dwight was in it and turned into a merman which was, hilariously scary to say the least. This entire movie just felt like it could be a haunted house. Also, man were there a lot of boobs.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Overall: 8/10
Scares: 2/10 but if I would have watched this as a child, it would mess me up.
Halloween Worthy: 10/10
I will be completely honest, this might be the only movie on my list that actually made me cry. Every single time that the cat who is actually and immortal human showed up on screen, I just imagined my poor little black cat Lucy. There might have been other factors involved in the creation of my tears. I absolutely loved the witches. I thought that this movie was going to be overrated because, well, it’s created by the mouse. Guess what, it actually is worth the hype! It was pretty raunchy too, they said the word “virgin” a lot.

Friday the 13th (1980)

Overall: 3/10
Scares: 4/10 only reason why it was scary was because moms are terrifying.
Halloween Worthy: 2/10
Surprise, surprise! This is another one that I have already seen. I mean, honestly I am not too big of a fan. Teenagers playing strip poker during a summer camp is all fun or whatever, but there are just so many better options now. Also, how come it takes 3 movies to get to the actual well-known killer? I hate that. Nothing screamed “Halloween”; I am now just terrified of overly doting mothers.

The Craft (1996)

Overall: 7/10
Scares: 6/10 girls in high school are scary.
Halloween Worthy: 4/10
This is a movie that I knew I would like. It is true, I love a good high school teen drama. Add on some mean witches and you’ve got yourself a movie. I don’t know what is more terrifying, the fact that they were witches, or that they were all inherently evil teenage girls. Interestingly enough, there was a Scream cast overlap that I didn’t expect.

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Overall: 5/10 only because of the campy-ness of it.
Scares: 2/10
Halloween Worthy: 3/10
This was like Friday the 13th on the bad kind of drugs. Insanely bad acting except for Angela who had like 10 lines total. The best part of the movie was the laughable 80s summer clothing. The ladies wore knee-length shorts while the lads rocked the daisy dukes and the crop tops. It was insane and I absolutely am obsessed with it. My favorite part of the movie was when the mean girl was bullying Angela and she said (yes, I made sure to pause the movie to write this down), “She’s a real carpenters dream, flat as a board and needs a screw!”

Monster House (2006)

Overall: 10/10 I might be biased
Scares: 2/10 The wife was a bit scary, but that’s about it
Halloween Worthy: 10/10
Okay, so if it isn’t already obvious, I love this movie. Growing up, this was my favorite Halloween movie to watch. It’s got Tim Burton vibes with the skinny people animation, but it just has such a different feel. The jokes still make me laugh, and I might have had a little kid crush on DJ. Oh yes, I also played the GameCube game too. Just watch it, it is great Halloween fun.

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Overall: 8/10
Scares: 7/10 I was surprised that evil fisherman can scare me.
Halloween Worthy: 1/10 This movie is set on 4th of July…
I know I keep pointing out the actors but, Scooby Doo anyone? These cheesy 90s slashers just touch that part of my heart that makes me go, “Aww… how sweet. That was a good death scene.” All jokes aside, I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought! My only complaint was the cliffhanger at the end. No matter how much I liked this movie, there is no way that I am watching either of the sequel or the new Amazon Prime TV series. WHO WAS THE KILLER AT THE END?!

Child’s Play (1988)

Overall: 8/10 Purely because of the animatronics, WOW!
Scares: 4/10 Dolls just don’t scare me, sorry.
Halloween Worthy: 3/10
I am not sure why, but I was not looking forward to this movie. It might be because of all of the lame looking remakes that I have seen over the years that turned me off from taking this film seriously. Once again, I was wrong. Child’s Play was awesome! It was hilariously horrible to see everyone get their sh*t rocked by a piece of plastic. The child’s acting was absolutely impressive as well. I do wonder about how much damage some of these scenes could’ve had to that kid… I was so intrigued by the mechanics of the effects that I went down a YouTube rabbit hole afterwards.

The Addams Family (1991)

Overall: 7/10
Scares: 1/10 Only freaky thing about this was how much hair cousin It has.
Halloween Worthy: 6/10
This is another one where you’re going to say, “What? Emily hasn’t seen this yet?!” You are correct, this was a first time watch for me. My secret talent that I have developed is face recognition with actors. Morticia’s actress also played the evil step mother in the Drew Barrymore version of Cinderella, Ever After. Anyways, Gomez and Morticia have the best relationship ever and it admittedly made me feel things. Goofy, dark, hilarious, and just a fun time. My main complaint was that the plot was a bit weak, but who needs a good plot when you have such colorful characters?

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Overall: 3/10
Scares: 3/10
Halloween Worthy: 2/10
Yikes. I know this is a tough review. This was a re-watch for me, and the first time I watched it I remember being a fan. I guess you can say that some things don’t hold up. A small part of me wants to blame my dissatisfaction with the fact that I now have to compare it to 24 other movies on this list. Johnny Depp is fine, the acting was terrible, and it was just cheesy. If I was to go for a lame horror movie from the 80s, this would not be my first choice. Freddie is lame.

Practical Magic (1998)

Overall: 4/10
Scares: 1/10 Ex boyfriends coming back from the dead is always a tad terrifying.
Halloween Worthy: 6/10 They have that ending jumping off of their house scene during Halloween that is fun.
This was a cute little tale but it left me asking a bunch of questions. How long does it take for a loved one to die? Was the curse broken or will Sandra just have to deal with every one of her partner’s dying? How come she didn’t notice his eyes immediately? Do all of the women have powers or can there be men witches? Why does Sandra always play the same genre of character? Why did she choose to make shampoos? I personally would never go to her multi-level marketing hippie shampoo store and there is no way that she is making a living off of that. I don’t know, this movie was cute. Witches are fun, the sisters are hot. Honestly though, she can do better than the cop.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Overall: 8/10
Scares: 8/10
Halloween Worthy: 2/10 It is just a horror movie
So I loved these books as a kid. The illustrations were chilling, the stories were spine-tingling, and just the concept of spooky campfire tales is my favorite. I went into watching this movie with a completely doubtful mind. I don’t know why, but I actually enjoyed it. Now don’t get too excited, notice I didn’t say that I REALLY enjoyed it. I think that I am naturally drawn to stories that have a Goonies or It vibe. Something that features a cast of unlikely friends going on life-threatening adventures together really gets my gears going. The monsters were so well done and from my understanding, weren’t CGI which has now become a part of my criteria for a good movie. Spoiler alert: there’s going to be a sequel?!?

Halloweentown (1998)

Overall: 6/10
Scares: 1/10
Halloween Worthy: 10/10 It’s in the name…
This review will totally come with some bias. Although I was mainly a Nickelodeon kid, I did on occasion flip to Disney Channel when SpongeBob wasn’t on. Back in my day, I remember briefly watching a few scenes of Halloweentown but our family wasn’t ever a hardcore fan. Last year during the height of the pandemic I decided to do a marathon of all of the movies and wow, were they surprisingly entertaining. Very campy, colorful, and that 90’s nostalgia is strong in this one. I am also very impressed with the costumes, makeup, props, and staging of the world, there was obviously a lot of time put into this movie!

The Exorcist (1973)

Overall: 7/10
Scares: 8/10 I would like to continue with my previous take that children are scary.
Halloween Worthy: 5/10
The scariest thing about this movie is that it forced me to relive some religious trauma. Catholicism is rough. Besides that, this is a classic and also a rewatch for me! There is a reason why people always reference this movie. The little girl was terrifying and I give Linda Blair all of the credit for her acting. Hearing those things come out of a kid’s mouth was surprising. If that was me, my mom would’ve been washing my mouth out with soap in an instant! Overall, great things were developed in this movie. I watched many behind the scenes videos after my rewatch.

Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

Overall: 8/10
Scares: 6/10
Halloween Worthy: 10/10 Good Halloween lore.
First things first, Sam is adorable. So precious, so sweet, yet so murderous at the same time. This was a surprisingly enjoyable watch! It was campy and played really hard into the Halloween spirit but, somehow it worked. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but for most of these movies on this list I watched them alone. Trick ‘r Treat was one of the few that I had extra audience members for. Group consensus was, pretty good! Not too scary, but there were some great moments of surprise. I loved the razorblade candy weapon!

The Haunted Mansion (2003)

Overall: 3/10
Scares: 0/10
Halloween Worthy: 4/10
Fair warning, my Disney detractor is about to come out. I really wanted to like this movie. Eddie Murphy was the god of funny loud voices back in the early 2000’s. Maybe it is because I have only been to the Disney parks once in my life, so the Haunted Mansion ride did not have the biggest impact on me. Here’s the thing, I can totally appreciate a children’s movie but it has to be objectively good. There were so many plot holes, the wife was honestly insufferable, I had no emotional connection to the ghosts of the mansion, and if we are going to be honest, I feel like Eddie’s work hustle should be applauded. I don’t know, this was just boring to me. This was just another reason for the mouse to milk a different franchise. Stick to the ride.

Poltergeist (1982)

Overall: /10
Scares: /10
Halloween Worthy: /10

The Conjuring (2013)

Overall: 7/10
Scares: 9/10
Halloween Worthy: 6/10 There are scary parts?
Ah yes, another re-watch. I love this movie. Now is it the scariest and best horror movie of all-time? No. Do I think it’s cool that it is based on real people? Yeah totally. There is a giant part of me that can’t wait for the day that I can visit their Occult Museum in Connecticut to see Annabelle in real life. I think I read that it is permanent closed…

Beetlejuice (1988)

Overall: 5/10
Scares: 5/10 Some of the monsters were pretty wacky.
Halloween Worthy: 2/10
Here’s the thing, I like Beetlejuice but there was something about this watch that made me realize how empty it really is as a movie. I am obsessed with the dinner table scene, and love the concept. Tim Burton is a funny guy and no matter what project he’s on, I tend to have a weird connection to it. The goofiness is great, but I wouldn’t say that it is the best of the best. If you’re not satisfied with this review, check out our full Nitpickers podcast to hear what Jason and Nick think.

Psycho (1960)

Overall: 7/10
Scares: 4/10
Halloween Worthy: 5/10
Here’s another connection that I just made. The actress who plays Marion is Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother? I am a sucker for a good horror movie family. Moving on… although I have seen psycho before and watched a little bit of Bates Motel, this was refreshing to see again. I believe that this is the oldest movie and the only black and white one on my list. Seems like there is a common theme of crazy parents. This movie might have paved the way for people like Mrs. Voorhees from Friday the 13th.

The Shining (1980)

Overall: 7/10
Scares: 6/10 People and children are scarier than ghosts sometimes.
Halloween Worthy: 2/10
Just to let you know, this is one of my DVD worthy movies. In Emily terms, that means that it is good enough for me to spend money on to keep forever. If you’re not the type of person who enjoys looking into the “deeper” meaning of movies, then you would hate this. I am a big fan of the slow build up to the utter horror of the last 30ish minutes. This is the type of movie that makes you research the living crap out of it just so you can learn all of the fun facts to impress people with later.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Overall: 7/10
Scares: 3/10
Halloween Worthy: 10/10 It also works for Christmas!
Such a sweet movie. The Claymation is so impressive, the songs are catchy, and you can watch this movie twice a year! There’s something about this movie that is equally enjoyable. I haven’t heard of one person who doesn’t like the movie. Although, those people that make this franchise (or any Disney movie) their entire personality scare me. They are almost as bad as the Harley Quinn and Joker couples.

Evil Dead (1981)

Overall: 5/10
Scares: 8/10
Halloween Worthy: 6/10
Oh the gore! I absolutely love the trope of teenagers staying in a cabin in the woods. Although, this is one of those movies that makes you want to scream at the TV, “No! Don’t listen to that!” or “He’s right behind you!” Don’t get mad at me but, I actually really like the remake. The concept is always going to be very cheesy, but if you like gore and teenagers hooking up then sure, add this to your Halloween list.

Halloween (1978)

Overall: 4/10
Scares: 6/10
Halloween Worthy: 10/10
And last but not least, Halloween. I made it my mission to watch Halloween on Halloween and guess what, I did it! What better way to end my marathon of spooky fun than with a movie that starts off with your classic teenage make out scene trope? I wish I was alive when this movie was first released because I know that my opinion on it would be completely different. Just knowing that there are so many extra movies in the series just makes watching the first one a bummer.