“Creep Show” by Ben Dewey

Horror and comedy make an amazing combo, kind of like peanut butter stuffed pretzels or George Romero and Stephen King.

The duo released Creep Show in 1982 and the film is a must for every Halloween occasion. With five different stories starring actors like Ted Danson and Leslie Nielsen, the horror classic has ancient killer monsters, extra-terrestrial vegetation, and a clean-freak business kook who’s fate is not quite as fortunate as Ebenezer Scrooge’s.

This ’80s classic will leave you simultaneously chuckling and covering your eyes making it a Halloween favorite of horror fans for generations to come.

“Beetlejuice” by Courtney Owen

A favorite Halloween movie I like to watch during the month of October to get amped up is “Beetlejuice.”  It is a movie I grew up with and still enjoy watching.

Tim Burton is the director of the film, and I am a big fan of all his work.  He has directed many films from Batman to Alice in Wonderland.

Michael Keaton plays Beetlejuice and plays him wonderfully. He is crude and witty. Geena Davis is a riot in the role of Barbara Maitland, wife to Adam, who is played by Alec Baldwin. The undead Maitland couple go through a series of obstacles to try and keep their house from a living family that wants to buy it. One member of the living family, Lydia Deetz, is played by Winona Ryder. Lydia becomes fascinated with the Maitlands and wants to help them. The young Ryder plays a charming yet strange girl in the role of Lydia.

If you have not seen this movie, I highly recommend it. “Beetlejuice” is a classic of my childhood.

“Halloween” by Janice Daniels

What could be a better film to watch during the spooky season than John Carpenter’s “Halloween”?

This movie is about a killer named Michael Myers, who was admitted into a mental facility as a young boy for killing his older sister. After fifteen years, he escapes from the facility to hunt down and kill people in Haddonfield, Illinois– but he only does this during the Halloween season.

Michael Myers always wears a mask, and you never get to see his face in any of the movies.

Due to the low budget of the film, the movie makers used the cheapest mask they could find and what they found was a “Star Trek” William Shatner mask that they spraypainted white and whose form they have used ever since. Also, since the movie was filmed in the 1978, the blood does not look any different than ketchup, and in one scene you can even see cigarette smoke coming from the director behind the camera, but it is those kinds of things that make it so classic.

“Halloween” has always been my absolute favorite horror movie; I especially like it because it’s simple and did not take too much money or effort to make. Who knew a guy in a mask, wearing a mechanic’s suit, and walking around with a butcher knife could end up being one of America’s most famous movie serial killers? Let us not forget to mention the fact that nine “Halloween” movies came out after this one but, as in most prequels, the first one is always the best.

Those who haven’t seen this movie really should because, to me, the Halloween season just does not feel right without it.

“Hocus Pocus” by Chanel Saidi

“My ungodly book speaks to you. On All Hallow’s Eve, when the moon is round, a virgin, will summon us from under the ground. Oh Oh! We shall be back, and the lives of all the children of Salem will be mine!” Winifred Sanderson announces.

The film “Hocus Pocus” has become my favorite Halloween film ever since it debuted in 1993. Since I am not a huge fan of blood and gore this movie gives a fun, family-friendly spin on a Halloween tale. After 300 years, two children enter into a house and light a black candle bringing back three witch sisters. Determined to stay alive the witches set out to capture the towns’ children and cast a spell to stay forever young. The two children and a former farm boy turned black cat 300 years ago set out to take down the witches once and for all.

“Edward Scissorhands” by Alexandra Poggione

For me, Halloween is nothing without the movie “Edward Scissorhands.” Tim Burton’s 1990 tale of the socially inept creation of a good-intentioned inventor who died before he could give hands to his “son” is both heartwarming and a little bit creepy – and not just because of Edward’s scissor-hands.

Edward’s pokey appendages are deceptive; underneath his scarred exterior lies a kind, frightened soul looking for companionship in some of the wrong places. Ultimately, “Edward Scissorhands” sets out to answer the question of what constitutes a “scary” monster. Are Edward’s scissor-hands enough to isolate him from his utopic suburbia community, or will he find love and friendship after all?

“The Shining” by Alex Grotewohl

An elevator opens and lets loose a torrent of blood. A person in a bear costume slowly looks up from fellating an old man. A child writes “murder” backwards on a mirror.

“The Shining” is the best horror movie of all time. Director Stanley Kubrick captures the sense of foreboding and dread found in all the best scary flicks, but adds his signature bizarre touch for which he is famous.

Jack Nicholson turns in an all-time-classic performance as a struggling writer who moves his wife and young child to a Colorado hotel where he hopes the solitude will help with his writer’s block. But he quickly begins to lose his grip on reality. Is he going crazy, or are supernatural forces using him to achieve their own ends?

There shouldn’t be anyone out there who has not seen this masterpiece of American cinema. Watch it this Halloween and keep a clean pair of pants handy.