The Lamron’s favorite Halloween movies
Photo Courtesy of Vladimir Srajber- Pexels
With Halloween just around the corner, The Lamron is getting into the festive spirit, and what better way to do so then by getting together with friends and watching a Halloween movie or two? Halloween has a wide range of movies to choose from, with some that lean into the scarier aspects of Halloween, while others bring us the nostalgia of childhood trick-or-treating and eating insane amounts of candy.
Here at The Lamron, we generally favor the less scary of Halloween movies, with one of our favorites being It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966). The memories of sitting in front of your tv, waiting for the movie to start on cable, and watching it with all the commercial breaks always come back whenever the movie plays. On top of that, the movie is one that even the strictest of parents were likely to make exceptions for, making it a movie that almost all of us enjoyed as children.
Another movie full of nostalgia for many of us is Hocus Pocus (1993). The movie is arguably the definition of “witchy” and it’s a staple in our Halloween movie marathons. The movie even inspired the name “Binx” for one of our editors’ cats, and Halloween costumes—both past and future—for another.
You can’t talk about Halloween movies without addressing a highly debated title, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). There’s a large amount of debate on if the movie even is a Halloween movie, but here at The Lamron we believe that the movie is without a doubt a Halloween movie. Although we agree on the fact that the movie is a Halloween movie, we have mixed feelings about the movie in its ranking among others. Some argue that the movie’s stop-motion animation style makes it creepy, or at the very least a little unsettling. Others from The Lamron disagree and find the animation style endearing; combined with the fantastic music—which is arguably one of the best aspects to the movie—some find the movie to be a well-loved classic.
Now you can’t talk about Halloween movies without addressing some horror movies that overlap with the holiday. While not a big staple for most of us at The Lamron, watching a horror movie with friends while eating an outrageous amount of candy is one of the best parts of the season. Horror movies and Halloween movies have a strange overlap; many consider a wide range of horror movies a part of celebrating Halloween due to memories of late Halloween nights watching them. A horror movie that is undoubtedly also a Halloween movie—it’s literally in the name—is Halloween (1978). Halloween (1978) is well known for being the subject of many costumes throughout the years, and is a movie that we generally slot in for horror movie marathons.
Of course, having favorite movies also means that we at The Lamron have a few movies that just don’t click with us. In the realm of disliked Halloween movies, Beetlejuice (1988) stands out among them. Despite being a favorite at this time of year, many of us believe the movie to be simply a bit lackluster; when compared to Beetlejuice the broadway musical originally premiering in 2018, the 1988 movie pales in comparison.
We feel obligated to mention Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) because of how much we love the first one, but it falls extremely short in comparison. Given it is difficult to make a sequel to a movie as beloved as the first one, the movie is arguably even worse than just a not-as-good sequel. The main plot is very similar to the original movie and the characters don’t get the same well rounded treatment as they did in the original movie, rendering the movie one that we aren’t too fond of.
With Halloween right around the corner, The Lamron has been getting our old Halloween cds out, our costumes together, and preparing to carve up some pumpkins! Whether it’s cozying up with a pumpkin spice latte and watching a childhood classic, or eating an unhealthy amount of candy and having a horror movie marathon, The Lamron will be celebrating Halloween with a lot of movies; we hope everyone else has just as great of a Halloween as we do this year!