Movies Set on Halloween Night

One night a year, and somehow it is always this one.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A thermos with a dozen gadget attachments sitting on a bicycle seat on a Salem street strewn with eggs and toilet paper.

    10. Hubie Halloween

    Steven Brill · 2020

    Adam Sandler as a deli worker in Salem who appoints himself Halloween monitor and is bullied by the whole town. Ben Stiller returns as the orderly from Happy Gilmore. It got three Razzie nominations and was Netflix's top title for two weeks. Both happen to Sandler every year.

  2. Ten different carved jack-o-lanterns in a row along a suburban curb, a vintage radio on the end playing into the night.

    09. Tales of Halloween

    Axelle Carolyn and others · 2015

    Ten short segments by eleven directors, all on one Halloween night in one suburb, with Adrienne Barbeau as the radio DJ tying it together. John Landis and Joe Dante turn up in front of the camera. Uneven, like a pillowcase of candy.

  3. A vinyl record spinning backwards on a turntable in a teenage bedroom, lit by a lava lamp, a jack-o-lantern on the windowsill.

    08. Trick or Treat

    Charles Martin Smith · 1986

    A bullied metalhead plays his dead idol's last record backwards and the ghost comes out for the Halloween dance. Gene Simmons plays a DJ and Ozzy Osbourne plays a TV preacher railing against heavy metal, which is the best casting joke of 1986. Fastway did the songs.

  4. A homemade cardboard knight's helmet and sword on a Brooklyn sidewalk next to a handwritten party invitation under a streetlight.

    07. Murder Party

    Jeremy Saulnier · 2007

    A lonely meter maid finds an invitation on the street, builds a knight costume out of cardboard and goes to a Brooklyn party that turns out to be a murder trap by art students. Saulnier's debut, made for about $200,000. Never trust a found flyer.

  5. A tube of red lipstick and a candle on the dusty floor of an abandoned funeral parlor, cobwebbed mirror behind.

    06. Night of the Demons

    Kevin S. Tenney · 1988

    Teenagers throw a Halloween party in Hull House, an abandoned funeral parlor, and hold a seance, because nothing else was on. A demon possesses them one at a time. Filmed under the working title Halloween Party, which is also a fair review.

  6. An empty hospital corridor at night, a wheelchair alone under flickering fluorescent lights, a smashed pumpkin on the floor.

    05. Halloween II

    Rick Rosenthal · 1981

    Picks up the same night, moves the stalking to a nearly empty hospital, and reveals Laurie is Michael's sister. Carpenter co-wrote it, reshot scenes because the cut was not scary, and later admitted he came up with the sister twist drunk. It shows.

  7. A carafe of dark elderberry wine and three small glasses on a lace doily in a Victorian parlor, a window seat lid slightly open.

    04. Arsenic and Old Lace

    Frank Capra · 1944

    Cary Grant learns on Halloween that his sweet aunts poison lonely old men with elderberry wine. Shot in 1941 but held until 1944 because the Broadway play would not close. Three stage actors took short leaves from the show to film. Brooklyn has never been spookier.

  8. A black candle with a flickering pale flame beside a stitched spellbook with a single eye on the cover and a broomstick leaning nearby.

    03. Hocus Pocus

    Kenny Ortega · 1993

    Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as resurrected Salem witches on Halloween night. Disney released it in July, it lost money, and then annual TV airings turned it into a holiday. Releasing a Halloween movie in July is the real spell gone wrong.

  9. A burlap sack with a lollipop poking out, lying beside a freshly blown-out jack-o-lantern on a front step.

    02. Trick 'r Treat

    Michael Dougherty · 2007

    Four tangled stories in Warren Valley, Ohio, refereed by Sam, a tiny trick-or-treater in orange pajamas and a burlap sack who punishes anyone who breaks the rules. Warner shelved it, then sent it to video in 2009. Blow out a jack-o-lantern early. See what happens.

  10. A kitchen knife resting on a front porch step beside a lit jack-o-lantern, fake autumn leaves scattered on a palm-lined street behind.

    01. Halloween

    John Carpenter · 1978

    October 31, Haddonfield, Illinois, shot in 20 days in South Pasadena in May with the same fake leaves raked back into frame. The mask was a $1.98 Captain Kirk mask painted white. It cost around $300,000 and made $70 million. Fall is a state of mind.

Honorable mentions

  • A lone blanket draped over a fence beside a moonlit pumpkin patch, a trick-or-treat bag holding a single rock.

    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

    Bill Melendez · 1966

    A TV special, not a movie, but it is the Halloween night. Charlie Brown gets a rock in every bag, and viewers mailed candy to Schulz and the studio in protest. Linus waits all night in the pumpkin patch. Still waiting.

Dishonorable mentions

  • Dozens of baseball bats and kitchen knives leaning against a picket fence in front of a burning house at night.

    Halloween Kills

    David Gordon Green · 2021

    Same night as the 2018 film, so Haddonfield forms a mob and chants Evil dies tonight until you want it to die faster. Laurie spends most of it in a hospital bed. It still opened to $49.4 million, which is how sequels happen.

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