Halloween has become more than just a holiday for dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating. For some, it’s a season — one that starts in July, depending on who you talk to — and for others, it’s a state of mind. Whether it’s the cooling weather, falling leaves, early sunsets, or even the spooky decor on store shelves that kick-starts that Halloween feeling, there’s one surefire way to get in the Halloween spirit, and that’s with scary movies.

Supernatural spooks, psycho killers, or haunted houses — whatever floats your ghost, er, boat, we have a Halloween watch recommendation that will hit the spot. For more Halloween vibes, check out the Netflix & Chills collection for an array of shiver-inducing movies from family-friendly scares to nightmare-fueled horrors. There’s something for everyone!

To get you started, the Halloween movie recommendations below range from Not Scary to Very Scary, with a Scare Meter score to prevent any unwanted screaming. The lower the number, the safer you are from feeling your flesh crawl. Whether you want a trick or a treat, these movies are the perfect way to celebrate Halloween. 

 Not Scary Movies

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Scare Meter: 1/5

The prospect of aliens coming to Earth is one that accompanies uneasy feelings in humans. But in 1982, Steven Spielberg proved visitors from outer space could be friends, not monsters. In this classic sci-fi film, a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas) befriends an alien he finds in the shed in his backyard. The alien, having been separated from the group he came with, is enticed with candy into the house, where Elliott hides him and learns more about his abilities. When the alien, dubbed E.T., falls ill, Elliott and his siblings set out to find his family and get him home before pursuing scientists can take E.T. for scientific study. 

E.T., l'extra-terrestre

1h 59m   13+   1982

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Scare Meter: 2/5

More than 30 years after she avoided marrying the nefarious “ghost with the most,” Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), once dark and gloomy teen Lydia (Winona Ryder) is now a dark and gloomy woman who is still able to see ghosts. A family tragedy brings her back to her childhood home, where she tries to mend things with her estranged daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). But, like mother, like daughter — Astrid soon stumbles upon a portal to the afterlife, and Lydia has to find a way to save her. Meanwhile, Beetlejuice remains obsessed with making Lydia his bride. Filled with the creepy creations of Tim Burton’s imagination, this one hits all the spooky vibes but with more laughs than scares.

Hubie Halloween

Scare Meter: 2/5

No one loves Halloween more than Hubie Dubois (Adam Sandler), which is why he takes the holiday seriously and is a self-appointed town monitor in Salem for the evening. Though mercilessly teased by his fellow townspeople, and easily spooked by even the tamest Halloween decorations, Hubie’s patrol leads him to discover strange happenings afoot threatening the townspeople. With no one to take him seriously, it’s up to Hubie to face his fears and keep everyone safe. With Sandler’s trademark humor and Salem’s rich history, this one ticks all the Halloween boxes.

Hubie Halloween

1h 43m   10+   2020

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Day Shift

Scare Meter: 2.5/5

Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx) might seem like an unassuming pool cleaner, but this is just a front for his real job: hunting vampires. Desperate to provide for his family — and rejoin the vampire-killing union — Bud agrees to take the lower-paying day shift and let a union rep tag along. But they soon encounter a rich and powerful vampire who is on a mission to create a vampire army and force humans into submission. There’s plenty of action and comedy, but a heads-up that where there are vampires, there is blood. 

Day Shift

1h 53m   16+   2022

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Scary Movies

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Scare Meter: 3/5

It’s the film that turned Dracula into a bona fide thirst trap. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film is dripping with atmosphere and dark foreboding. It relays the original 1897 Dracula tale of a British solicitor, Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), who travels to Transylvania to solidify a real estate deal with the mysterious Count Dracula and is forced into a fever-dream-style imprisonment with the count’s vampire brides. Meanwhile, Dracula (Gary Oldman) sets out for London to pursue Jonathan’s fiancée, Mina Murray (Winona Ryder), who he believes is his long-lost love reincarnated. 

Dracula

2h 7m   16+   1992

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The Babysitter: Killer Queen

Scare Meter: 3/5

A black comedy slasher follow-up to the 2017 horror film The Babysitter, this film shows Cole Johnson (Judah Lewis) two years after the harrowing events of his last night with his favorite babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving), who turned out to be part of a satanic cult. No one believes Cole about the events of that evening, and his friends take him out to a houseboat party to forget his troubles. A party game among friends turns into yet another cult ritual sacrifice situation, and once again, Cole has to escape being murdered. This time he is joined by new girl Phoebe Atwell (Jenna Ortega) who he’s developed a crush on. All the laughing distracts from the buckets of blood.

The Babysitter: Killer Queen

1h 42m   16+   2020

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Tarot

Scare Meter: 3.5/5

Halloween has strong associations with fortune-telling and mystical rituals, so a cursed tarot deck is a great inspiration for serious scares. Here, a group of college friends rent an old mansion to celebrate one of their birthdays, and they find an old tarot deck. One of the group, Haley (Harriet Slater), has experience reading the cards and tells each friend in turn what they can expect in their future. Upon returning to school, each comes face to face with the nightmares represented on each of the major cards they were dealt, dying gruesome deaths. Haley races against the clock to figure out a way to stop the curse before they are all dead.

Les Cartes du mal

1h 32m   16+   2024

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Ouija

Scare Meter: 3.5/5

Another game (or is it?) played on dark and stormy nights, a Ouija board allegedly allows one to communicate with the dead. This is what Laine Morris’s (Olivia Cooke) best friend Debbie (Shelley Hennig) was doing just before she hanged herself for unknown reasons. Searching for answers, Laine and her friends use the Ouija board to contact Debbie and instead reach an entity named DZ, whom Laine sees as a young girl with her mouth sewn shut. When another of Laine’s friends shows up dead, she tracks down the sister of the mysterious DZ, hoping to find out what she needs to do to prevent further possessions. 

Ouija

1h 29m   16+   2014

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Very Scary Movies

Malevolent

Scare Meter: 4/5

Siblings Angela (Florence Pugh) and Jackson (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) run a scam business pretending to remove spirits from haunted houses, promoting Angela as a supposed medium. A would-be client calls asking for their help to rid her home of the screaming voices she hears, but Angela is reluctant because she has started to think that maybe she can actually see disturbing things. Jackson owes money for his drug habit, so he pushes Angela into doing the job. With their cameraman and Jackson’s girlfriend, they start their investigation, but it soon becomes very apparent that dark things have happened in this house, and the dead want their revenge. 

Les mauvais esprits

1h 28m   16+   2018

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Until Dawn

Scare Meter: 4.5/5

Based on the popular horror video game, this film takes the time-loop trope and applies it to one terrifying night. Except in this case, each new night involves all-new horrors. Five friends return to a mansion in the woods where their friend/sister disappeared one year previously. Clover (Ella Rubin) wants to find clues about her sister Melanie’s disappearance, whereas the rest just want closure. They’ve barely arrived at the mansion when each is horrendously killed, only to awake at the beginning of the night with a new threat ready to strike. They realize they have only 13 versions of the night until they are permanently stuck and must race to figure out how to get out of this never-ending death cycle. 

Veronica

Scare Meter: 5/5

What’s scarier than a horror movie based on true events? This Spanish horror film opens in 1991 when emergency services respond to a panicked call and find a horrifying scene. Flashback to three days previous, when 15-year-old Veronica learns about the upcoming solar eclipse and its historical ties to spiritual rituals. With the rest of the school distracted by the eclipse, Veronica and two friends sneak into the basement and use a Ouija board (not this again) to speak to Veronica’s deceased father. Things go awry, and over the next few days, Veronica experiences disturbing occurrences, eventually suspecting that she may have inadvertently picked up an evil demon. Her attempts to rid herself of it result in only further horrors. 

The Perfection

Scare Meter: 5/5

In the classical music world, competition can be downright scary. Charlotte Willmore (Allison Williams) returns to the music school where she was a star cellist before leaving to take care of her sick mother, and finds there is a new prodigy, Lizzie Wells (Logan Browning). Charlotte befriends Lizzie, and the two end up in bed together. The next day, they go on a bus trip exploring rural China. Lizzie starts to feel ill, and the two are kicked out of their bus by the side of the road. But when Lizzie sees bugs crawling out of her arm, it’s Charlotte who presents a butcher knife and an obvious solution: Chop off her hand. This is truly just the start of what is a psychologically thrilling body-horror spectacle. 

The Perfection

1h 30m   16+   2019

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