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If you want to watch a movie to put you in the Halloween spirit, you have a lot of choices. While everyone things of the scariest film as Halloween fare, there are plenty of films that Halloween themed without being unbearably scary. Choices can include scary movie parodies and other comedies as well as Halloween themed tales. Here are my picks for other 11 good Halloween themed movies.

It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! (1966)

How can you get into the Halloween spirit without watching this?? It’s a definite classic for young and old. Linus is waiting for the Great Pumpkin while those around him trick or treat. Will he be rewarded for his vigilance or left out in the cold once?

Starring: Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy

Runtime: 25 minutes

Rating: Not Rated

 

Halloween (1978)

This film started the slasher genre rolling. A masked murderer is stalking the teenagers of Hadenfield on Halloween, trying to finish something he started many years before. A huge smash, even the critics loved it and it still holds up today as one of the best suspenseful, well done horror flicks of our time.

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis

Director: John Carpenter

Runtime: 93 minutes Rating: R

 

Halloween II (1981)

This one didn’t do quite as well as the first, critics didn’t like it but it was equally entertaining. It takes up at the end of the first Halloween movie and we find out why Michael is so intent on killing Laurie Strode.

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence

Director: Rick Rosenthal

Runtime: 92 minutes

Rating: R

 

Halloween 3 - Season of the Witch (1982)

Most people hated this movie. I don’t know why. If you forget the title, it stands alone very well. It has nothing to do with the first two Halloween films, this time there’s a plot by a warped Irish toy maker to kill children on Halloween using masks and Stonehenge.

Starring: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace

Runtime: 98 minutes

Rating: R

 

Trick or Treat (1986)

High school outcast gets picked on by jocks because of his heavy metal loving, morbid ways. His rock hero dies in a fire, causing him much grief. But he gets the last unreleased record by Sammy Curr from a DJ  and that record holds the key to bringing Sammy back from the dead.

Starring: Tony Fields, Marc Price, Ozzy Osborne, Gene Simmons

Director: Charles Martin Smith

Runtime: 97 minutes Rating: R

 

Beetlejuice (1988)

Giddy, outlandish, high-spirited comic fantasy about two pesky poltergeists trying to frighten away the new owners of their old house. Not a Halloween themed film, but if it doesn’t put you in the mood to haunt, nothing will!! Michael Keaton shines as Beetlejuice!

Starring: Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin

Director: Tim Burton

Runtime: 92 minutes

Rating: PG

 

The Addams Family (1991)

It’s starts out at Christmas time and end up the following Halloween. It may not be a true Halloween film but how much more spooky could this family be? It’s always Halloween in the Addams household!

Starring: Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Runtime: 102 minutes

Rating: PG-13

 

The Halloween Tree (1993)

From a story by Ray Bradbury. An animated adventure about the Halloween Tree reveals the magical secrets of past and present Halloween traditions. Ages 5-8 and older, if you are still a kid at heart!

Starring: Lindsay Crouse, Leonard Nimoy

Runtime: 70 minutes

Rating: Not Rated

 

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Every time we watch it, we all want to move to Salem, Mass. It’s cute, it’s funny, the effects are great. Great special effects, cute story! Three  sisters who happen to be witches return to Salem after 300 years to wreck havoc on the town that hanged them.

Starring: Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, Sara Jessica Parker

Director: Kenny Ortega

Runtime: 93 minutes

Rating: PG

 

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Tim Burton’s innovative stop-motion animated musical about Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, who becomes enthralled by Christmas. He’s the head of Halloweentown, so this causes some problems. Some stunning visuals. Young and old will love this and you won’t be able to stop singing the songs for days!

Starring: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara

Director: Henry Selick

Runtime: 79 minutes Rating: PG

 

Halloween: H20 (1998)

The sixth sequel. In fact, if you watch 1, 2 and H20, you’ll be all set. This one takes up 20 years later, Laurie is a functioning alcoholic running a prep school. She’s haunted by what happened on that Halloween night long ago. But it’s Halloween again and guess who’s back. Don’t think about the plot holes, just enjoy.

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Williams

Director: Steve Miner

Runtime: 92 minutes Rating: R