25 Non-Scary Movies to Watch for Halloween

by - October 01, 2020


Happy October! The most wonderful time of the year is here. Fall means crunchy leaves, crisp weather, and the best holidays of the year (in my opinion at least). Up first, Halloween! Things are bound to be different this year thanks to the pandemic, but there's one thing that remains the same: seasonally-appropriate movie marathons!

I am not a scary movie fan. One time my friends tricked me into going to see Amityville Horror at the campus theater and I sat through the whole thing with my head buried in one of their shoulders. Several years ago I put together a list of non-scary movies for Halloween and thought it was time to update it. So here are 25 non-scary movies to watch as we get closer and closer to Halloween.

1. Hocus Pocus - A teenager lights a candle and brings back the Sanderson sisters, three witches who stay young and beautiful (ish) by stealing the souls of children. Freeform will be playing this all throughout the month (and I just found out our local movie theater is, too!).

2. The Addams Family - They're creepy and their cooky; mysterious and spooky; they're altogether ooky; the Addams family *snap, snap* In this 90s classic, a man impersonating Uncle Fester manages to evict the family from their home in an effort to discover a hidden treasure. (There's a new animated movie, but we haven't watched it yet.)

3. Halloweentown - This may be a Disney Channel original movie, but it's become a cult classic for this time of year. Marnie and her siblings follow their grandmother, played by Debbie Reynolds, home where they discover not only are they part of a family of witches, but they now have to save the world.

4. Casper - Kat moves into a haunted mansion with her paranormal investigator father and find that ghosts do exist.

5. Corpse Bride - Victor accidentally marries a corpse bride and finds himself in the middle of a murder mystery that threatens the life of his living fiancé.

6. Scoob! - Scooby and the gang team up with the Falcon Fury to stop Dick Dastardly from unleashing the ghost dog Cerberus. As a bonus, we finally learn how the gang was formed.

7. Ghostbusters I, II, & III - You can't go wrong with any of the Ghostbusters franchise. Yes, even the one with the all-female cast.

8. The Craft - When Sarah moves to LA, she becomes friends with three witches, Bonnie, Rochelle, and Nancy. When the spells get out of hand, Sarah tries to get out and finds herself the girls' new target.

9. Beetlejuice - After the Maitlands are killed in a car crash, their spirits are bound to their home. When a new family moves in, they turn to Beetlejuice for help.

10. Teen Witch - Every movie list should have at least one movie on it that's so bad it's good, right? From the questionable fashion choices to the cheesy end-of-movie dance scene, this movie is ridiculous in all the best ways. When Louise develops powers she casts a spell to become popular and attract her crush, but she soon learns that getting what you want isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

11. The Nightmare Before Christmas - When Jack the Pumpkin King gets bored with Halloween, he takes over Christmas, and things do not go well.

12. Practical Magic - Sisters Sally and Gillian have mostly avoided magic, Sally especially. When Gillian's abusive boyfriend unexpectedly dies, they have no choice but to witch up.

13. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown - This is technically a TV movie, but the shorter length makes it perfect for the littlest family members' attention spans.

14. Edward Scissorhands - This Tim Burton classic should be on everyone's watch list. Edward's creator died before he was finished, leaving him with blades instead of hands. A local family takes him in, and Edward and their daughter fall in love, but despite his gentle nature Edward remains an outcast.

15. Monster House - This movie is so much fun. A house that is possessed by a spirt literally turns into a monster, and it's up to a group of friends to stop its reign of terror.

16. The Witches of Eastwick - Three friends, who've all recently lost their significant others, begin seeing the same man, who turns out to be evil, and learn that they're witches.

17. Warm Bodies - It's a zombie love story. What more do you need? When a zombie named R rescues a young woman from other zombies, Julie realizes he's not like the other undead. As their relationship progresses, R's zombie-ness starts to fade.

18. The Witches - A little boy accidentally overhears a coven of witches' plans to turn all children into mice. When the witches realize their plan has been discovered, they test their spell on him.

19. The Haunted Mansion - A real estate agent played by Eddie Murphy takes his family on vacation. Along the way they stop to see a mansion he's been asked to sell and discover that not only is it haunted but the wife/mother is the key to breaking the curse trapping the spirits there.

20. Little Shop of Horrors - Seymore, a flower shop assistant, discovers a plant that lives off human flesh and blood, which he names Audrey II after the woman he's in love with. After he feeds Audrey's boyfriend to the plant after his accidental death, Seymore must figure out how to appease its growing appetite. Feed me, Seymore!

21. Sleepy Hollow - Ichabod Crane travels to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders in which the victims' heads have been removed.

22. E.T. - When a young alien is stranded on Earth, Elliot and his siblings take him into their home. Soon, E.T. becomes sick and the government is called in to intervene.

23. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - This is another one of those movies that's so bad it's good. Buffy is a teenager who's destined to fight and kill vampires.

24. Dark Shadows - After spending 200 years in a coffin, Barnabus is set free to seek his revenge on the witch who imprisoned him.

25. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them & The Crimes of Grindelwald - I usually include Harry Potter on my Halloween movie list, but this year I decided to sub in the Fantastic Beasts series, featuring Newt Scamander. It starts with an unexpected adventure in New York City that culminates with the return of the dark wizard Grindelwald.

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