Traditionally, Halloween is celebrated on the evening of October 31, but preparations for it start long before the official date — scary costumes appear in stores among with special candy sets consisting of marmalade eyes and vampire teeth, in the cinema they play new and old horror movies and, gradually, some people begin to decorate houses with cobwebs, pumpkin lanterns and artificial blood. This is how the people of England get into the spirit of Halloween, preparing for this fun and “lively” celebration.

Despite the fact that Halloween is still far away, the “spooky season” is already upon us and you can start preparing for it by watching horror movies. In this list we offer you the Halloween classics — movies, without which it is impossible to imagine this holiday.

Monster House — this 2006 animated film, produced by Steven Spielberg himself, has already become a classic of horror films for children. The story revolves around three friends who are left in the neighbourhood with a living monster house, which threatens the whole neighbourhood with the risk of being eaten by it. Despite the slightly weird animation, typical for cartoons made in the noughties with its experimentalism, Monster House is a great Halloween movie with equal parts good humor and genuinely scary scenes.

Hocus Pocus — a fantasy comedy about the wiles of three witch sisters, who on Halloween Eve decided to realise their plan to rejuvenate by drinking the life energy of all the children in the area. While the witches, who have slept a magical sleep for the last three hundred years, are getting used to modern mores, a brother and sister get in the way of them regaining their youth, helped by a magical black cat who has been guarding the town from evil witches for many years. This movie has already managed to become an absolute classic and is recommended for viewing not only for children, but also for adults. It is especially interesting to watch the adventures of absent-minded witches, played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy.

Beetlejuice — a Tim Burton’s movie, which earned the director worldwide recognition and fame. Beetlejuice gathers all the main qualities that distinguish Burton’s films — dark humour, deconstruction of traditional mystical plots, as well as unique costumes and sets. In the movie about the adventures of a recently deceased couple of ghosts, who are diligently trying to exorcise the new residents of their old house — typical inhabitants of New York, a real mess begins when Beetlejuice himself, a misguided “exorcist of the living”, enters the scene.

Labyrinth — is a fantasy movie by the author of “The Muppet Show” Jim Henson filmed in 1986. The movie tells a story of a young girl Sarah, who goes on a journey through a strange world-labyrinth to save her brother from the goblin king Jareth, played by David Bowie. The plot is clearly influenced by such famous fairy tales as “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Emerald City”. Despite the fact that the movie was initially received rather coldly, today it is a representative of cult cinema and possesses a high place in many movie ratings.

Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost — an animated feature movie from the franchise about the adventures of the talking dog Scooby-Doo and his friends, investigators of the paranormal. This time the famous gang goes to Halloween in a small American town and not to investigate another case, but to meet with Velma’s favourite writer. Of course, everything turns out to be not so simple, when the city starts getting terrorised by the witch who lived there two hundred years ago. Cartoons about Scooby-Doo have always been an integral part of Halloween for children and there has ben great number of them created throughout the years, but this particular one stands out with excellent drawing and quality plot, and will be interesting even to adult viewers.

Spiderwick Chronicles — this movie is based on the series of books of the same name about magical creatures that live in side by side with people. These creatures themselves are invisible to ordinary people and can only be seen by those whose heart and eyes are open to miracles. That’s exactly what was the grandfather of the main characters, Arthur Spiderwick, who disappeared many years ago under unknown circumstances. Now his grandchildren Jared, Simon and Mallory will have to learn the secret of their grandfather and the magical creatures living in the neighbouringforest, with the help of their grandfather’s diary-chronicle, which contains all the secrets of the inhabitants of the magical world. The movie was highly praised by critics at the time of its release in 2008, and at the moment it is still one of the best modern fantasy with elements of a horror.

Spirited Away — full-length animated film from the animation genius Hayao Miyazaki following the story of a little girl Tihiro, who along with her parents, accidentally fell into the world of Japanese spirits and deities. There Tihiro’s parents were turned into pigs, and the girl herself had to get a job with the witch Yubaba. However, Tihiro does not despair and explores this strange world, making loyal friends like Kamazi — half spider, half human, dragon boy Haku and many others. Despite the fact that the movie is not about Halloween at all, it has a lot of mysticism, magic and almost all the characters are either demons from Japanese folklore or ghosts.

Poltergeist — is a horror movie classic about a terrifying poltergeist terrorising an ordinary American family. Filmed in 1982, Poltergeist does not have the usual attributes of modern horror in the form of endless screamers, created with CGI, and an extremely simple plot, but that does not make it worse. On the contrary, the movie has an interesting story related to the history of the oppression of the Native Americans, and some very impressive and frightening effects for those times. It is also good that unlike many other classic horror films, this movie can be watched with children without fear for their young psyche.

The Dark Crystal — another 1982 fantasy movie from The Muppet Show creator Jim Henson. The plot revolves around a magical stone, The Dark Crystal, which was damaged, causing the balance of order and chaos to be disrupted. The movie won many awards in the past, and has since become a favourite of many fantasy genre fans. That being said, the dark undertones make it perfect for watching with the family in the run-up to Halloween.

Gremlins — is a 1984 comedy horror film. The movie is based on legends about folkloric mischievous creatures — gremlins, whohate technology and in every possible way harm people who use it. There are three rules for keeping such gremlins at home: you can’t turn on bright lights; you can’t get water on a gremlin; and you can never feed them after midnight. Despite the fact that the rules are quite simple to follow, the new owner of a gremlin, Billy, still breaks them by accident, which provokes gremlins to make a real mayhem in the city. The movie is a truly scary horror flick from the 80s, which has become one of the most famous examples of the horror-comedy genre in the last decades and is loved by many viewers around the world.