This year, Google trends made putting together a perfect spooky movie marathon easy by revealing the top five most searched movies in the week leading up to Halloween. The tastes of the masses this year ranged from classic horror movies to Disney Channel originals, so there’s bound to be something for everyone in this streamable five-movie run.
However, if you’re more of a horror, neat type, we’ve also got you covered with 31 essential, history-making horror movies to stream this spooky season.
1. Halloween
The Big Three when it comes to iconic horror movie villains are Michael, Freddie, and Jason. All three appear on the top five most searched list, but only Michael came up as number one. To be fair, the advantage of searching for a movie called Halloween around Halloween is a given, but that doesn’t mean that Michael Myers and Laurie Strode’s decades-long battle for Laurie’s life began with anything but a bang. Halloween is as classically scary and heart-pounding as a movie can get, so it’s perfect to set the mood as movie number one in a spooky marathon.
How to Watch: Halloween is streaming on Shudder.
2. Friday the 13th
Telling scary stories around a campfire at summer camp is all innocent spooky fun until one of those stories turns out to be true. In Friday the 13th, the legend of Jason Vorhees, his hockey mask, and his unslakable thirst for the blood of anyone stupid enough to keep camping on Crystal Lake, is one of those not-so-innocent legends. Friday the 13th also sparked a notoriously loopy franchise, with sequels that vary from Jason coming back for revenge and Jason being cryogenically stored until he thaws out thousands of years into the future and kills everyone on a spaceship.
How to Watch: Friday the 13th is streaming on Peacock.
3. Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus put a spell on everyone back in 1993 and people are still returning for their yearly visit with the witchy Sanderson sisters. This movie would probably be on the most searched list every October, but the news that the reboot/sequel Hocus Pocus 2 is coming next year may have bumped this family-friendly Halloween staple a little farther up the list.
How to Watch: Hocus Pocus is streaming on Disney Plus.
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street
One, two, Freddie’s coming for you…on HBO Max and on Peacock, apparently. Wes Craven’s horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street is a must-have for any Halloween marathon, so it makes perfect sense that everyone would be searching for it right around this spooky season. It is, however, hard to go to sleep after watching a movie about a terrifying monster who literally haunts people’s dreams. So maybe watch this one with the lights on. And with an energy drink or five.
How to Watch: A Nightmare on Elm Street is streaming on HBO Max. A Nightmare on Elm Street is also streaming on Peacock.
5. Halloweentown
There’s a Disney Channel original movie for pretty much any topic, but Halloweentown is undoubtedly one of the top DCOMs of all time. It’s no surprise that this movie, which premiered on the channel in 1998, has become a staple rewatch for everyone who grew up wanting to recreate the magic of a mid-00s Halloween night. In Halloweentown, Marnie visits her witchy grandmother in a town populated with goblins, werewolves, vampires, and more while discovering her own magic powers and defeating a great evil that threatens the town.
How to Watch: Halloweentown is streaming on Disney Plus.
