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No, that was not a typo. It’s Spoopy Season y’all and there’s only 5 days left! For those of you unaware, Spoopy Season is for those of us that like the treats of Halloween without the tricks. Jenna here, and as your resident Disney Princess of Turtle Time Reviews I’m giving you my top 5 Spoopy Halloween movies. One for each day of the rest of October!
As your princess I am here to slay the dragons but please don’t come at me with all your ghouls and goblins.
- Casper
Tell me what’s more spoopy than a FRIENDLY ghost? That is the kind of ghost that I want to run in to. A young teen angst Christina Ricci moves in to a “haunted” house with her dad. Casper shows up and just wants to make a friend. All hell breaks loose once people find out about a valuable machine inside their home.
I can’t be the only girl who had a crush on Casper when I was young right? Well we’ll move past that but this is still my favorite movie to watch during Halloween. I’ll give an honorable mention to the sequel, Casper Meets Wendy (aka young Hilary Duff), but it definitely doesn’t live up to the original.
2. Hocus Pocus
If this is not an ICONIC Halloween movie, then I don’t know what is! This move came out in 1993 and every Halloween since then it never fails us. Can we just talk about these legends? Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, Sarah Jessica Parker??? All giving us evil, crazy, funny, witch realness. I know this is pre-Carrie Bradshaw but it still blows my mind.
I must say, for a Disney movie, it sounds a little dark. A virgin lights the black flame candle to bring back the Sanderson Sisters to life who try to suck the lives of children on Halloween night. But you’ve got a talking cat, a mute zombie, and an iconic musical number. Hocus Pocus will put a spell on you and there’s no turning back.
3. Halloweentown
If you’ve never seen Halloweentown this was an iconic Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) that practically defined a generation. There are 4 Halloweentown movies in total. Don’t even bother with the 4th because they completely replaced the main character with a different actress pretending like we all wouldn’t notice. As usual, the original stands true.
Marnie secretly follows her grandmother (the legendary Debbie Reynolds) back home to Halloweentown where it’s Halloween 24/7. She finds out she comes from a family of witches and wants to embrace this new identity. Alas, there is an evil villain, Kalabar, who is trying to conquer Halloweentown and Marnie and her siblings must save it.
Halloweentown is no masterpiece, but it has become a pop culture icon around Halloween time. Every year a city in Oregon puts on a Halloweentown celebration and I can only imagine how amazing it would be.
4. Tower of Terror
This movie is based off the iconic and my favorite Disney attraction Tower of Terror (RIP to this ride at Disney’s California Adventure). You can still find the ride at Disney World in Florida. The Tower of Terror ride is based off the original Twilight Zone series to add more confusion. This movie has no relation to the Twilight Zone, just strictly the ride. It’s setting up a backstory to the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
Remember Steve Guttenberg? Where is he now? I don’t know but he is in this movie. Him and his niece (my favorite cheerleader Kirsten Dunst) investigate a mystery from the 1930s where five people in an elevator disappeared on Halloween night at the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Remember Jan from The Office? Oh she’s in this too.
Assuming you are familiar with the ride which drops you in an elevator, there is definitely some elevator dropping in this movie. I will tell you that the mystery is solved, but there’s a pretty good plot twist at the end. That could also be that I’m terrible at predicting movie endings.
5. House of Villains
Classic Disney cartoons are my jam. If you ever used to watch Mickey’s House of Mouse, it was a series about Mickey Mouse owning this theater/restaurant where other Disney characters would come and watch Disney cartoons. Yes, very meta. In this particular episode the Disney villains take over the House of Mouse and all of the cartoons are about Halloween.
Of course you know that Mickey will save the day. If you want some true innocent Halloween cartoons like I do, this one is for you.
So 4 out of 5 of these are Disney movies, and really you shouldn’t expect anything else of me. You may be wondering what about The Nightmare Before Christmas? One of the most popular Halloween movies ever. Maybe you think it’s a Christmas movie? This deserves a whole post of its own so I’m sure we’ll see more of that later.
While none of these films are cinematic masterpieces, they will at least get you in the Halloween spirit! I’m sure there’s plenty more out there, so please send me your spoopy recommendations. Only 5 more days of dodging invites to Knott’s Scary Farm and Halloween Horror Nights and we’ve made it through another year. Stay spoopy!
