20 Best Movies Set on Halloween

Many people start thinking about watching horror movies now that the Spooky Season is upon us, but Halloween wasn’t that long ago. just now lends itself to the right atmosphere for something scary to watch. The specific nature of the holiday and the seasonal change in much of the world around it means that films set during Halloween can often use its specific atmosphere to great effect in everything from aesthetics to plot. That overall Halloween atmosphere – colder days, dark nights, bare and disheveled trees, glowing pumpkins lighting up the streets, and marauding bands of children or other things up to no good – is often a perfect backdrop not just for horror films, but for all kinds of stories.

Halloween is, realistically speaking, a very strange time – when kids dress up and roam their neighborhoods, when darkness falls earlier and harder than it has in months, and when everything feels just a little more menacing. Below, you’ll find 20 of the best Halloween movies – set in and around Halloween, and drawing on various elements of the time of year when the veil is supposedly thinnest. Some films use Halloween for its inherent fears to embrace the hauntings, while others find inherent comedy in the idea of ​​wandering around your town, begging for candy, and trying to scare each other. No matter what aspect of the Halloween spirit you’re after, there are films here that will satisfy it.

But if you’re looking for movies that are truly scary, be sure to check out our collection of GameSpot’s best horror movies.