Spookiest Shows and Movies to Watch in October
Halloween is my favorite holiday, and fall my favorite season. Every year I look forward to that slight chill in the air, oversize sweaters, spiked cider, and scary content! If you enter my home during the 31 days of October, I promise all I’ll have on are witches, ghosts, haunted homes, and the supernatural. If you’re like me and you’re constantly looking for things to watch this month, I’ve rounded up my favorite shows and films to watch in October, to satisfy your spooky cravings!
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
There’s been a few iterations of Sabrina, and this one is by far the most fun and most dark. CAOS as it’s called, celebrates Sabrina’s coming-of-age story as she grapples with her mortal world, and her occult world leading up signing her name in the book of the beast on her 16th birthday. I know for some people this darker turn was unwarranted and slightly uncomfortable (they literally worship Satan in this adaptation), but if you aren’t easily spooked by the occult, this is a great Halloween time watch!
True Blood
Everyone loves a good vampire show, and this one is like Twilight on acid. I will admit, the show starts to lose it’s way around season 4, but by then you’re already so invested in the characters you can’t help but keep watching. This show undoubtedly made a star out of Alexander Skarsgard, but the underrated stars of this series are Tara’s Rutina Wesley, and Lafayette’s Nelsan Ellis.
Steam on HBO
American Horror Story
This FX show reinvigorated the anthology series, and has been a Halloween staple for nearly a decade. With nine seasons, most of all available to stream, you could watch nothing but this series during October and you’d be doing Halloween sooo right! In my opinion the best season is it’s first, aptly named Murder House, followed closely by it’s 3rd season. Jessica Lange and Sara Paulson have made this show what it is today, and honestly I couldn’t be more grateful.
Get Out
Listen, in 2020, ain’t nothing scarier for a Black person than ending up in the sunken place. Creepy white folks, doing creepy racist white folk things, yeah that’s my ultimate nightmare.
pans Labryinth
Not as scary as it is brilliant filmmaking and story telling, Pans Labyrinth is a glorious movie by Guillermo Del Toro. To escape her new step-fathers sadism and brutality, 11-year-old Ofelia is drawn to Pans Labyrinth and it’s mythical beings, namely an unnamed faun, and sets out on a series of quests. It’s especially satisfying to watch during Halloween time but take note, the ending is emotional.
Hereditary
This movie….girl. The plot is simple: a grieving family begins to unravel a sinister and unnerving family ancestry, as they attempt to outrun their perceived fates. This film really puts a new face to the emotional agony audiences feel when watching horror, and makes you wish you looked away when we you didn’t.
The Strangers
I rarely get spooked after watching scary movies, but this one definitely got under my skin when I saw it back in 2008. The premise is super simple, and I think ultimately that’s what makes it so scary. Strangers showing up on your doorstep, disconnecting your phones, and terrorizing their way into your home…cue the goosebumps. Not to mention all of this happens after a woman refuses her boyfriends marriage proposal. The film is just a gut punch all the way around.
Veronica
Quite honestly, this is by far the scariest film on Netflix, forget anything else you’ve heard. Veronica is about a young girl in Spain, who after participating in a séance at school, believes that evil forces are now following her, and set on claiming her soul. Hopefully reading subtitles isn’t a barrier for you, because this film deserves far more praise state side.
The Witch
Puritans afraid of the devil…it’s either some religious nonsense or some serious scary shit—it’s the latter on this one! When the families youngest son suddenly vanishes, everyone turns on the eldest daughter as paranoia mounts that she could be a witch. The film moves a bit slower than I’d like, but the payoff is worth it.
The Conjuring
Probably my favorite of the James Wan produced franchise films, The Conjuring is a classic haunted house story. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are so good as the paranormal investigator couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren, sent to investigate the disturbing events in a Rhode Island Farmhouse. The 3rd Conjuring Film is set to be released in 2021, but thus far this is my favorite of the greater Conjuring Universe films.
Rosemary's Baby
A pregnant woman unknowingly carrying the Anti-Christ, all because her husband is a raggedy ass wannabe actor, yeah that’s pretty scary! This classic, adapted by a novel of the same name is truly one of the best horror films of all time, and Mia Farrow’s portrayal as Rosemary Woodhouse is both traumatic and sorrowful.
28 Days Later
Zombie movies and shows are pretty much all the same. But 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead (more comedy than horror) are certainly an exception to that rule. Knowing that Danny Boyle directed 28 Days Later should be enough for you to give it a chance, but add in that the zombie’s are fast moving and the score is electric, well now you definitely have to watch. This is by far my favorite zombie movie, and even though it was made in 2002 it’s still scary AF.