Top 20 Scary Halloween Movies

Top 10 R-Rated Movies
For the best of gore, suspense, and thrills take your pick from our R-rated classics. To get your kids into the spirit without scaring them out of their seats, turn to our top 10 family-friendly picks.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show
For the ultimate Halloween experience, catch a late-night showing of the raunchy musical about a newly engaged couple who get lost and stumble into an alien transvestite's castle. Make sure you don't ruin it by watching it on video. This film is all about audience participation.

The Shining
Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel could quite possibly be one of the scariest films of all time. The bone-chilling movie is based in an isolated hotel where Jack Nicholson and his family have moved in as caretakers for the winter. What follows is a ghostly encounter with a former hotel custodian who murdered his wife and two daughters. Beware: The eerie silence of the movie will haunt you long after you've hit the stop button.

The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter the Cannibal will scare you into numbness. Not for the weak-hearted -- the psychological thriller is a two-hour-long hair raiser about FBI agent Clarice Starling, who tries to gain insight into a murderer's mind by interviewing psychopath Hannibal.

Halloween
A Halloween night turns deadly when a former child murderer escapes from the mental hospital and returns to his small hometown to terrorize a babysitter. Soon her friends start disappearing one by one....

Poltergeist
Watch this before you go haunted house hunting this Halloween. A suburban family is visited by ghosts who play odd tricks on them, and soon the events build up to a frightening climax when the ghosts kidnap the youngest daughter.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
The film that spawned six sequels and made Freddy Krueger into a household monster is still a must-watch horror flick. A group of teenagers start having dreams about a scarred man with razor fingers and soon they are brutally murdered in their sleep. The remaining teen, Nancy, realizes that she has to stay awake to survive. Good luck going to bed after this one!

Alien
This ultimate horror-sci-fi combo is an eerie look at what happens when a space crew stumbles upon an unknown planet and finds alien eggs.

Night of the Living Dead
This black-and-white film can still disturb you to death. You'll cross your fingers for the group of people who hide in a farmhouse, trying to avoid being killed by the dead who have come back to life.

The Exorcist
You'll know why The Exorcist is the most bloodcurdling movie ever made when you watch the brutal depiction of a 12-year-old girl possessed by an evil spirit as the exorcist tries to save her.

Seven
Shock, nausea, and utter fright, you'll feel it all at the pit of your stomach while watching Seven. The intense psychological drama follows two detectives, played by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, as they try to catch a maniac who plans to kill seven people, one for each of the seven deadly sins.

Casper
Take a look at what happens when a ghost buster and his daughter move into a haunted mansion only to meet one very friendly ghost and his hostile "fleshies" hating uncles! Get the special edition DVD for fun extras like games, safety tips and scenes, all suitable for kids 3 and above.

Clifford's Big Halloween
Chock-full of thrills and chills. Your kids will love the mishaps of the Big Red Dog as he gets accidentally trapped in a bed sheet and scares his neighbors in one fun-packed Halloween night.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The books and movies have already cast a spell on your family. So what better time than Halloween to revisit the magical world of little wizard Potter? Don't miss Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, praised by critics as the best in the series, although your kids below 8 might find it disturbing.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Dubbed by a critic as one of "the most sincere of all Halloween specials," this classic should not be missed. How can you let Halloween pass without a sneak peek at the Peanuts gang searching for the best trick-or-treating costumes and other Charlie Brown-style antics?

Monsters, Inc.
BOO! There's a monster in your closet. It's huge, with blue fur and purple spots....and it's adorable. This heart-tugging movie follows the hilarious adventures of a two-year-old girl, aptly named Boo, who stumbles into monster world and frightens the daylights out of these supposedly scary ogres.

Rugrats Halloween
Here's a spooktacular helping of an animated favorite! In this special, Angelica, one of the four Rugrats' cousins, blackmails them into believing that they'll turn into whatever they're dressed up as if they don't give her all their Halloween candy.

SpongeBob Squarepants: Halloween
Dive into the underwater town of Bikini Bottom with the adorable sea sponge and his friends as they embark on one eerie adventure after another. Five action-packed episodes include "Scaredy Pants," "Imitation Krabs," "Frankendoodle," "I Was a Teenage Gary," and "Squidward, the Unfriendly Ghost."

12 and Above

Beetlejuice
For a side-splitting evening with the family, rent Beetlejuice. It's hard not to get ticklish and creeped out by the freakish Beetlejuice, hired by a couple of ghosts to chase away the new owners of their house.

The Nightmare Before Christmas
A ghoulish tale with elements of horror, fantasy, musical, and comedy all rolled into one stunning animated film. You'll watch with morbid fascination as the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown stumbles into Christmastown and tries to take over Christmas by kidnapping Santa!

The Witches
This macabre on-screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel is a gripping treat for both kids and adults. An orphaned boy moves with his grandmother to an English hotel, where a horrifying group of child-hating witches is holding a convention. What follows is definitely not a fairy tale but a sinister black comedy where good does eventually win over evil.

By Chandni Jhunjhunwala

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