Halloween Movies for Horror Haters

Do you hate Horror movies? Hate having to watch a film with your eyes half closed, a pillow pressed up against your face, heart pounding, head turning at every noise, waiting for some imminent jump scare, causing you to spill your popcorn? If so, I have the perfect list for you. Here are my favourite cosy autumnal movies for the night of the 31st.. Movies brimming with Halloween spirit, but not so much so, that they’ll leave you having nightmares for days. 

The Corpse Bride: My first suggestion is a Tim Burton classic, an ideal beginning to your cosy Halloween movie night. Follow Victor Van Dort as he mistakenly awakes corpse-bride Emily, who quickly whisks him away to the world of the dead. Victor must figure out how to return to the land of the living quickly enough to marry his true heart’s desire, Victoria. With haunted forests, ghosts, bats, and a gothic Victorian landscape, this movie will quickly immerse you in the essence of Halloween. Yet, the musical numbers and funny anecdotes lighten the scare factor, allowing for a fright-free Halloween watch. 

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: My second recommendation is the tale of the Baudelaire children. Orphaned in mysterious circumstances, they are forced to move into the home of Count Olaf, a peculiar ‘cousin’ who’s desperate to gain access to the vast family fortune. Orphans, creepy relatives, and suspicious deaths may not sound like the cosy movie night I promised. However, this film has the perfect dosage of Halloween spook, leaving you feeling immersed in the holiday spirit, but not too nervous to turn out the lights. 

Hocus Pocus: This film is perfect for a cosy Halloween movie night. Follow the Sanderson sisters, a coven of three resurrected witches, as they plan to wreak revenge on the town that previously wronged them. To achieve their goal of staying youthful forever, the sisters need to steal the lives of Salem’s children before midnight. Yes, I know this may sound like a scary movie. But I promise the bright colours, jokes, and altogether non-scary atmosphere of Hocus Pocus, make this movie ideal for this list (and also for your movie night). Plus, if you’re a big fan of the first one, there’s even a musical sequel to watch afterwards. 

Beetlejuice: My fourth suggestion is another Tim Burton ensemble. When a young couple tragically dies, they find solace by spending their ghostly afterlives living peacefully in their own home. That is until a new (alive) family moves in. In a desperate attempt to scare away the latest inhabitants, the Maitlands seek the help of Betelgeuse, a ghost/self-proclaimed ‘bio-exorcist’. At the surface level, this may appear like another unwanted scare, but similarly to Hocus Pocus, the camp, unserious nature of the film carries just the right quantity of Halloween spirit. Plus, I believe this list would be incomplete without featuring Winona Ryder (at least once).

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: My final suggestion follows protagonist Jake as he discovers an alternate world centred around an intriguing home for peculiar children, run by Miss Peregrine. He meets characters with a range of magical powers, all whilst uncovering an unsettling mystery left to him by his recently deceased grandfather. Filled with eerie, eccentric moments, but concludingly characterised by friendship, this film is perfect to wrap up a cosy Halloween movie marathon.

I hope this list proves useful in helping you curate the perfect horror-free movie marathon this Halloween. So go and grab some Halloween sweets, blankets, and cosy fairy lights! But don’t worry about fetching a cushion to hide behind, as these films are all scare-free (mostly). Happy watching!

Illustration by Magdalena Yiacoumi