Watch · NostalgiaNo. 3561
The ’90s Halloween movies we grew up watching.
Halloweentown, Twitches, Don’t Look Under the Bed and the rest of the ’90s Halloween movies made for TV — plus the 2000s sequels that kept October going.
Field Notes
Notes from
the field.
36 dispatches — rankings, viewing orders, lookbooks and party plans, all built from the fieldguide's own shelves.
Watch · AnimatedNo. 9935
The best animated Halloween movies, and the one that really scares.
The best animated Halloween movies, ranked by popularity: Pixar monsters, Burton’s singing skeletons, Aardman’s were-rabbit and one Other Mother best saved for older kids.
Watch · RankedNo. 6992
The best Halloween movies of all time, according to 298 lists.
We counted how often each film appears across 298 ‘best Halloween movies’ lists. The best Halloween movies of all time, by consensus rather than taste.
Watch · GhostsNo. 9476
The best haunted house movies, from Beetlejuice to The Shining.
The best haunted house and ghost movies, from Ghostbusters-grade fun to Overlook Hotel dread — with a straight answer on how scary each one gets.
Watch · WitchesNo. 1640
The best witch movies, from cozy to properly cursed.
The best witch movies, sorted by how hard they bite — from Ghibli bathhouses and Salem sing-alongs to Puritan dread that follows you to bed.
Costumes · KidsNo. 5564
DIY Halloween costumes for kids, from a hoodie shark to a chicken.
Sixteen homemade looks, from a hoodie dinosaur and a sweatshirt ladybug to a stuffed-leotard chicken. Some barely need a needle; a few are proper sewing projects.
Decor · BudgetNo. 4428
Dollar Tree Halloween decorations that don’t look it.
Dollar Tree finds, thrift-store rescues and a few recycled bottles, turned into wreaths, centerpieces, signs and tombstones. Budget decor with the price tag well hidden.
Menu · PartyNo. 1587
Easy Halloween party snacks in 30 minutes or less.
Boards, dips and bites for the Halloween table, each with its prep time listed and none over half an hour. Every recipe links to its full guide.
Watch · FamilyNo. 8373
Family-friendly Halloween movies that are spooky, not scary.
Family-friendly Halloween movies for a spooky-not-scary movie night: every pick is mildly spooky, from Monsters, Inc. to Hocus Pocus.
Watch · TVNo. 7926
The best Halloween TV episodes for families, show by show.
Halloween episodes of live-action family TV, from Bewitched and The Addams Family to Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Goosebumps, grouped by show.
Watch · FreeNo. 1520
Free Halloween movies you can stream tonight, no subscription.
Free Halloween movies on Tubi, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Plex and more — ad-supported, no subscription, checked in September 2026.
Watch · TVNo. 7616
The best Halloween cartoon episodes, show by show.
Twenty-six Halloween cartoon episodes from Gravity Falls, SpongeBob, Hey Arnold!, Kim Possible and more, with season and episode numbers so you can find them fast.
Crafts · KidsNo. 7624
Halloween crafts for toddlers, one paper plate at a time.
Handprints, paper plates and bins of beans and bugs: toddler and preschool projects with few steps, big materials and a healthy tolerance for mess.
Menu · DrinksNo. 6805
Halloween mocktails the whole party can drink.
Alcohol-free punches, potions and brews: floating eyeballs, frozen hands, a syringe of fake blood. Every recipe links to its full guide.
Watch · StreamingNo. 5248
Halloween movies on Disney Plus, and the Disney Channel vault.
The Halloween movies on Disney Plus right now: Hocus Pocus, Jack Skellington, all four Halloweentowns and a deep bench of Disney Channel originals.
Watch · StreamingNo. 4924
Halloween movies on Netflix right now, plus four series to binge.
The Halloween movies on Netflix worth your October, plus four series — checked in September 2026 and sorted most-watched first.
Menu · KidsNo. 9886
Halloween treats for kids who insist on helping.
Cookies, cake pops, puppy chow and a few monsters, chosen for the jobs small hands do best. Every recipe links to its full guide.
Watch · HorrorNo. 9625
Horror movies set on Halloween, from Haddonfield to the funhouse.
Horror movies set on Halloween night itself, not just watched on it. Grown-up horror, not for kids — Michael Myers, Art the Clown and the deep cuts.
Pumpkins · No carvingNo. 2628
No-carve pumpkin ideas, from a painted Minion to gold foil.
No-carve pumpkin ideas in 25 guides: painted characters, sugar skulls, hobnail pins, gold foil, pressed flowers, and several big roundups for when one won’t do.
Watch · TeensNo. 9777
Twenty scary movies for teens, from Gremlins to A Quiet Place.
Gateway horror: twenty scary movies for teens, each a real horror film with an official PG or PG-13 rating, plus honest notes on which ones bite hardest.
Watch · RankedNo. 2079
The 25 best Halloween TV episodes, ranked.
Scored from 7,172 Halloween episodes by rating and votes, then argued over by hand. Every pick is on the watchlist.
Watch · Viewing orderNo. 3658
Every Halloween film — and three orders to watch them in.
Thirteen films, five timelines, one immortal Shape. Here is the whole franchise with the internet's honest scores, and three paths through it depending on how much October you have.
Costumes · LookbookNo. 2616
10 costumes from one black hoodie.
No sewing, no money, one evening. Everything below starts with the hoodie you already own and things from around the house.
Party · BlueprintNo. 5220
The two-hour Halloween party plan.
For the year the plan starts late: everything bookable, buyable and bakeable in one afternoon, sequenced backwards from the doorbell.
Watch · ScheduleNo. 7093
31 nights, 31 movies: a full October schedule.
A film a night, escalating from porch-light cozy to full Michael Myers — every title real, rated, and on the watchlist. Weekends get the big ones.
Watch · FamilyNo. 9259
Halloween movies for kids who scare easily.
Twelve real picks in rising order of bravery, from zero-scare to first-thrill — with the internet's ratings and honest notes on the scariest moment in each.
Watch · Crash courseNo. 2154
The one-night horror crash course.
Never really done Halloween horror? Three films, one evening, in the right order — and you'll understand the whole genre's grammar by midnight.
Costumes · LookbookNo. 9904
Group costumes that survive the group chat.
Eight concepts engineered for the real failure modes: the friend who bails, the friend who won't spend money, and the friend who 'will figure it out day-of.'
Makeup · TutorialNo. 6161
SFX for beginners: three wounds, one kit.
A drugstore-sized kit and three effects — a scrape, a bruise, a healed scar — that stack into almost any costume. Twenty minutes each, all of it washes off.
Party · 21+No. 8366
A grown-ups' Halloween that isn't a costume contest.
Four formats for an adults' night that don't hinge on who tried hardest at the costume store — built around food, film and one good ritual instead.
Party · GamesNo. 5993
Games that work in a dark backyard.
Seven after-sunset games that need nothing but the dark itself, a few flashlights, and things you already bought for the party.
Menu · Movie nightNo. 1914
The scary-movie snack table.
A table built for the dark: everything one-handed, nothing that crunches over dialogue, and a centerpiece that gets funnier as the night gets scarier. Every dish links to a real guide.
Menu · Dinner partyNo. 5489
A dead-elegant Halloween dinner.
Four courses that read gothic instead of goofy — black candles and dark linens do the theming, the food just has to be good. Real guides linked throughout.
Menu · DrinksNo. 2716
Cauldron drinks: three batches, zero fuss.
Three self-serve punch bases that hold a party for hours — family-safe as poured, and any of them takes a grown-up pour on the side without changing the recipe.
The Almanac · HistoryNo. 9401
Why the first jack-o'-lanterns were turnips.
Before the pumpkin was the turnip — smaller, harder to carve, and honestly much scarier. The strange Irish original behind the friendliest thing on your porch.
The Almanac · HistoryNo. 1486
Samhain to snack-size: how trick-or-treating happened.
Two thousand years of history end at your doorbell: harvest fires, soul cakes, masked strangers, and how a night of appeasing the dead became a candy economy.