The Most Underrated Halloween Movies to Watch This Fall Season!
The spooky season is finally here! Are you ready to get in the Halloween spirit, but don’t know where to start? Do all the Halloween movies you seem to hear about, seem too scary? Keep on reading to find out the best movies to watch this spooky season!
Halloween (1978)
This slasher film was written and directed by John Carpenter, along with his producer Debra Hill, and stars Jamie Lee Curtis. It was released on October 27th, 1978, and follows Micheal Myers. He has just escaped the mental hospital where he has been for the last 15 years for murdering his older sister when he was only six years old. Myers has returned to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, killing many people, hunting for his younger sister Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) while she and her friends babysit for her local neighbors. This film mainly explores the theme of fear and is rated PG-13 for horror, violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use, and nudity.
The Quiet Place
This post-apocalyptic horror film that focuses on themes of parental sacrifice, guilt and redemption, love and family, and the resilience of the human spirit follows the Abbot family as sightless aliens with very sharp hearing and impenetrable skin have taken over the world and killed off most of the population. This film stars John Krasinski and Emily Blunt and was originally written by Scott Beck and Byran Woods. Krasinski would later co – write this film and direct this film. Beck and Woods have come out and said, “Krasinski protected their version of the script and wasn’t about reshaping it in any massive way”. And that Boong Joon Ho had a significant influence on the film. The Quiet Place was released on April 6th, 2018, and rated PG-13 because of terror and bloody images.
The Sixth Sense
A psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which stars Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia WIlliams, Trevor Morgan, and Donny Wahlberg, follows the life of psychiatrist Malcom Crowe, who at the beginning of the movie is shot while a former patient who feels their problems are Malcolm’s fault breaks into his home. Later in the film, Malcolm is introduced to a little boy (Cole Sear) who reminds him of Vincent and claims he can see dead people. Malcom feels he can redeem himself if he doesn’t fail Cole and reconcile with his wife, who has become cold and distant towards him. This film has central themes of grief, trauma, isolation, supernatural perception, redemption, closure, and parent-child relationships. The Sixth Sense is rated PG-13 for Intense thematic material and violent images
The Shining
The Shining is a psychological horror film that was released on June 23, 1980, written and directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written by novelist Diane Johnson, based on Stephen King’s 1977 novel The Shining, which was released on January 28th, 1977. This movie stars Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. Jack Torrence, who is a writer (Nicholson), gets the job as a winter caretaker at the remote Overlook Hotel. When Jack arrives, Stuart Ullman informs him that the previous caretaker killed himself, his wife, and two young daughters a decade earlier. Soon after Jack, his wife Wendy, and young son Danny move in, Danny starts experiencing frightening visions including the murdered Grady Twins, and Jack suffers from writer’s block, becomes prone to violent outbursts, and has dreams of killing his family. This movie has themes of parents’ influence and inheritance, the name of evil, addiction and alcoholism, family dysfunction, and isolation. The Shinnings’ age rating is R for language throughout, disturbing behavior, sexual references, and some drug material. Will Jack and his family make it out of the Overlook Hotel alive? Only time will tell!
Goosebumps
This comedy-horror movie, directed by Rob Letterman and written by Darren Lemke and Carl Elsworth, was released on October 16, 2015, and it follows Zach Cooper as he and his mother move from New York City to Maddison, Delaware, following his fathers’ death. He soon becomes friends with a boy named Champ and his neighbor, Hannah. Hannah’s father doesn’t approve of their friendship and tells Zach to leave her alone. One night, while his mom is out of the house, Zach becomes afraid that Hannah is in danger, so he and Champ break into her house and find a room full of R.L. Stine novels. When Champ opens a novel, the monster from the book comes to life and breaks out of the novel. Another monster, Slappy the dummy, soon later breaks out of his novel and unlocks all of the books. Slappy feels as if Stine had forgotten about him and wants him to pay. Stine admits that he didn’t have any friends growing up and created the monsters to comfort him. So Stine, Zach, Hannah, and Champ have to write a new manuscript to trap all of the monsters in to save Maddison. Will they be able to save Maddison before Halloween ends? This movie stars Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Amy Ryan, and Jillian Bell. 
The original screenwriters, Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewoski thought R.L. Stine had written too many good books to make a movie about just one, so they decided to create a universe where the characters in the books lived together. The themes of the Goosebumps movie are friendship, adventure, loss, self-identity, and bullying. This movie is rated PG – 13 due to strong language, violence, and sexual innuendo.
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters is a supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It was released on June 8th, 1984, and stars Bill Murry, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, and Sigourney Weaver. The movie follows three eccentric parapsychology professors who start a ghost-catching business in New York City after being fired from their university positions. They use high tech machines to capture ghosts when their first case leads them through many supernatural events throughout the city to capture and defeat Gozer and many ghosts being controlled by Gozer, who are trying to destroy the world, such as the New York Public Library Ghost and the Marshmallow Man. This movie was created before the term “PG-13” was common, but today it would be classified as PG-13 because of crude humor and supernatural action. Ghostbusters follows central themes of chaos and order.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is based on the Peanuts comic strip written by Schulz. The movie was also written by Schulz along with director and animator Bill Mendez and producer Lee Mendelson. This was the third Peanuts holiday – themed special to be made and the first ever Halloween special. This movie follows the Peanuts gang as they travel through Halloween night. Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang go trick-or-treating and then to Violet’s Halloween party, but not Linus and Sally! Linus writes to and believes that the Great Pumpkin on Halloween night will appear in the Pumpkin Patch, but no one believes him except Sally! And all the while, Charlie Brown is trick or treating and getting nothing, but rocks, Linus and Sally are having no luck on finding the Great Pumpkin, Snoopy is flying around in his WWll-themed Doghouse until he is shot down and forced to land behind enemy lines in the countryside. Later in the night, Linus thinks he sees the Great Pumpkin, but it turns out to just be Snoopy. Sally yells and yells at Linus for making her miss the Halloween Party and trick or treating for the Great Pumpkin to not show up! Later in the film, Linus and Charlie Brown are reflecting on their mistakes of the night, and Linus gets very offended when Charlie Brown suggests that the Great Pumpkin is not real. Linus will look for him every year without doubt! This movie is not rated, but most would say it is G or PG, and it has strong themes of Religion and Faith, Childhood Innocence, Hope, Loyalty and Support, Friendship, and Independence and Individuality.
Now that you know about all of the most underrated Halloween movies, what are you waiting for? Go watch them and have a spooktacular Halloween Season! Are these some of your favorite Halloween Movies? Are you going to watch any of these this fall-festive season? Are you going to be looking out for the Great Pumpkin this Halloween Night? Comment Below?
