It’s Halloween, and you know what that means: It’s time for some scary movies. Unfortunately, you went all-in on streaming and tossed out your physical media, so you’re stuck with whatever the major streamers felt like offering this year. The pickings may look slim, but don’t worry. We scoured Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ to find the best Halloween options for audiences of all kinds. Kids, teens, horror fans, superhero fans, classic movie lovers and more!
Halloween Movies Streaming on Netflix
‘Cobweb’ (2023)
If you’ve never heard of “Cobweb,” just blame the nuclear bomb. And Mattel. Samuel Bodin’s creepy Halloween treat had the terrible luck to open on Barbenheimer weekend, so it wasn’t just pummeled by Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” its existence was darn near erased. That’s a shame, because this freaky tale deserves to be a seasonal cult classic. Antony Starr (“The Boys”) and Lizzy Caplain (“Fatal Attraction”) play overprotective parents who refuse to let their son go out trick or treating, but there’s a sinister voice inside his bedroom wall telling him mom and dad are not what they seem. Eerily atmospheric and genuinely surprising.
‘Deadstream’ (2022)
Fans of horror comedies rejoice, because here’s a great one you’ve probably don’t know about. Vanessa and Joseph Winter co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in “Deadstream,” a found footage frightfest about a disgraced YouTuber trying to get his audience back by spending one night in a haunted house. It’s a real haunted house, of course, so before long he’s besieged by gross ghosts, obsessive fans and his overwhelming guilt over what got him canceled in the first place. It’s not as cartoonishly extreme as the “Evil Dead” movies, but it’s a spiritual cousin to that franchise, and should appeal to fans of boo scares and gross-out giggles.
‘Dracula’ (1979)
By this point everyone knows Netflix hates older movies, and has little (if anything) to offer film fans from the first 100 years of the art form’s history. But the streamer usually has a few token offerings, and John Badham’s underrated, ethereal and supernaturally sexy rendition of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is an unusually good acquisition. Frank Langella stars as the title monster, a leering, undead lothario who seduces young women and sucks their blood and must be stopped. Badham assembled one hell of a cast for this production, pitting Dracula against screen legends like Sir Laurence Olivier and “Halloween” star Donald Pleasance. Classy, sexy, scary stuff.
‘Hubie Halloween’ (2020)
Adam Sandler has a lot of fans, and film critics typically aren’t among them, but his overlooked Netflix original “Hubie Halloween” is one of his better comedies, late-era or otherwise. Sandler stars as the title character, a well-intentioned dork who spends every Halloween trying making sure everyone stays safe, only to be mocked by his entire community for being a nice guy. When Hubie’s biggest bullies start disappearing, Hubie is accused of murder, and he suspects his next door neighbor, played by Steve Buscemi, might be a werewolf. A great ensemble cast, a costume department that went overboard on everyone’s amazing Halloween get-ups, and a great big heart make “Hubie Halloween” a worthy addition to anyone’s seasonal movie marathon.
‘Wendell & Wild’ (2022)
“The Nightmare Before Christmas” director Henry Selick teamed up with Oscar-winner Jordan Peele for this bizarre and morbid stop-motion kids movie, starring Lyric Ross (“Ironheart”) as Kat, an orphaned outsider who makes a deal with two devils, voiced by Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, to resurrect her parents. They betray her, raise other dead people using magic hair cream – look, just go with it, okay? – and it’s up to Kat to embrace her destiny as a Hell Maiden and save the town. The story is convoluted but just drink in the awesome, ominous vibes, and that beautiful animation, and the incredible jukebox soundtrack from legendary Afro-punk bands like TV on the Radio, Living Colour and Fishbone.
Halloween Movies Streaming on Hulu
‘Late Night with the Devil’ (2023)
Celebrated character actor David Dastmalchian takes center stage in “Late Night with the Devil,” playing a 1970s talk show host who books a demonically-possessed young girl as a special guest on Halloween night. It’s a deal with the devil in more ways than one, and the episode eventually gets away from him. Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ feature plays like a lost episode of television, and it owes a lot to Lesley Manning’s even-scarier 1992 tv special “Ghostwatch,” but Dastmalchian carries the film like a champ, and it gets pretty darned freaky by the end. If, on the other hand, you’re boycotting any filmmakers who use A.I., then you should know the Cairnes employed the ecologically-dangerous and unethical technology to create some interstitial title cards (which any decent artist could have made for them).
‘Oddity’ (2024)
One of the most terrifying films of 2024 – and also, sadly, one of the most overlooked – was Damian McCarthy’s odd cinematic nightmare, “Oddity.” Carolyn Bracken stars as a woman who is murdered under mysterious circumstances. She also plays the victim’s twin sister, a blind spirit medium who shows up at her newly-widowered brother-in-law’s house one night with a life-sized, freaky golem that she plunks down in his kitchen. “Oddity” unfolds in shocking ways, and McCarthy builds tension like nobody’s business, building to supernatural surprises you never saw coming.
‘No One Will Save You’ (2023)
Writer/director Brian Duffield took a big swing with “No One Will Save You.” The film stars Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart”) as a young woman ostracized by her small town, so she can’t call for help when aliens arrive in the middle of the night and try to abduct her. “No One Will Save You” has almost no dialogue, and it doesn’t need any: Duffield’s images are nightmarish, his pacing is relentless, and Dever knows how to captivate the screen when nobody else is around. At least, nobody human. Ingeniously conceived, excellently executed, and you probably won’t see that ending coming.
‘Over the Garden Wall’ (2014)
We’re fudging the definition of “Halloween movies” a little bit, because although you can watch “Over the Garden Wall” as an episodic, nearly two-hour feature, it originally aired on TV as a mini-series. But it’s one of the best darned TV mini-series of the 21st century. Elijah Wood and Collin Dean play brothers who get lost in the woods and can’t find their way home, encountering bizarre creatures – like a town full of disturbing Jack O’Lantern people – and eerie mysteries along the way. “Over the Garden Wall” is often hilarious, and always beautifully animated, but it builds in power as the story progresses, reaching a climax that’s as emotional as it gets.
‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ (1975)
It wouldn’t be Halloween if nobody did The Time Warp, but instead of forcing all your party guests to do it, let the original cast of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” take the lead. Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick star as hapless conservative dweebs whose car breaks down, forcing them to take shelter in the castle of Dr. Frank N. Furter, a sexually ambiguous and super-horny mad scientist whose latest creation is a silent sexual dynamo. If you can see “Rocky Horror” in a theater with an energetic audience, that would be’s ideal, but its reputation as a “bad” movie that got saved by the midnight circuit is exaggerated. On its own it’s still a fascinatingly subversive and funny horror comedy with one classic song after another.
Halloween Movies on Disney+
‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad’ (1949)
In the late 1940s, Disney pulled back on feature-length animated movies and focused, instead, on anthology films with multiple animated installments. Most of these, like “Make Mine Music” and “Fun and Fancy Free,” are relatively obscure today, but “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” is still a beloved classic. Partly because the “Mr. Toad” sequence, based on Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows,” was the basis for the classic theme park attraction “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride,” but mostly because Disney’s take on Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a Halloween perennial. Gorgeously animated and engagingly narrated by crooner Bing Crosby, it’s still the gold standard for Headless Horseman movies (although Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow” comes close).
‘Hocus Pocus’ (1993)
It’s always in poor taste to argue that the Salem Witch Trials, a horrific historical event in which 19 people were executed for witchcraft (and more died from torture and mistreatment in jail), were justified. But of course, that’s what every movie that claims there were real, evil witches in Salem is indirectly – or worse, directly – suggesting. If you can set that aside, “Hocus Pocus” is a pretty fun film. Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker play witches who are resurrected in the present day, run amok (amok! amok! amok!), and have to be defeated by a couple of kids, a talking cat and a friendly zombie. It’s pretty edgy by modern Disney standards – you’d never see a family film from the Mouse House with virginity as a major plot point these days – and the Sanderson Sisters are campy legends for reason. (As for the sequel, you can skip it. It’s mediocre at best.)
‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993)
Is Henry Selick’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” based on a story by Tim Burton, a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie? The answer is yes. It’s the perfect way to conclude your Halloween movie marathon because it picks up after October 31st, when Jack Skellington feels completely burnt out by the holiday, and decides to take over Christmas as a change of pace. Selick’s stop-motion animation still dazzles, Danny Elfman’s songs are still delightfully demented, and the story will probably always be a timeless classic. Watch it for Halloween. Then watch it for Christmas too.
‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ (1983)
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Disney was in serious trouble and going through an identity crisis, as the studio struggled to find an approach that appealed to modern audiences. This was the era when they produced truly terrifying children’s entertainment, and although “The Black Hole,” “The Watcher in the Woods,” “The Black Cauldron” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes” are all exceedingly strange motion pictures, and have their flaws, they’re also cult favorites. “Something Wicked” stars Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark, the ringleader of an unholy circus troupe that steals souls from a small town, leaving only the noble Nightshade family to save the day. Pryce is at his creepy best, and the film – though jumbled up in post-production, and not always coherent – has the unmistakable air of a nostalgic nightmare.
‘Werewolf by Night’ (2022)
Marvel Studios isn’t doing great right now, in part because they don’t take very many risks anymore, so their films – even the good ones – are easy to take for granted. “Werewolf by Night” was a pretty noble effort though. Directed by Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino (“Up”), this black-and-white horror adventure stars Gael García Bernal as the title lycanthrope, who joins a gathering of monster hunters as they search for a strange creature. Stylish, Halloween-themed fun for Marvel fans and horror fans alike. But don’t even bother with the color version. What was even their danged point? Were they afraid they made something too interesting?
