While Halloween is undeniably the season for watching the scariest movies ever made, sometimes, it’s a bit much. The world is plenty scary already. So, what is there to do when you want to get festive for Halloween but can’t stomach another jump scare?
Luckily, we have a list of movies just for the occasion—and the right audience. The last few years have seen an explosion of genre hybrids that blend horror with action, comedy, even romance. We’re talking movies like Send Help, a Sam Raimi joint starring Rachel McAdams as a woman stuck on a deserted island with her shitty boss, and Companion, a 2025 hit where Sophie Thatcher plays a “companion bot” who wakes up to her own programming.
Action junkies can join in too, with movies like Na Hong-jin’s Hope—maybe one of the coolest alien disaster movies we’ve seen in a long time—and Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s red-hot Oscar darling that made vampires even more cool. There are also gems like Beetlejuice and Practical Magic, as well as vintage classics like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The temperature has cooled.
Binge these not-so-scary horror movies that are perfect for everyone, and we truly mean everyone, this Halloween. You know exactly who to call. Released in 1984, Ghostbusters was a game-changer, being one of the first truly successful cross-genre movies that also found an unexpected audience in children.
Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Dan Aykroyd star as disgraced academics who turn their expertise into a business: catching pest-like ghosts in New York City. Later joined by Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), the Ghostbusters fight to save Manhattan when the ancient Sumerian (not Babylonian) deity Gozer rises up. Admit it: The theme song is still stuck in your head.
Don’t you hate it when your sister's boyfriend dies and then you use your witchcraft to resurrect him but accidentally possess him with an evil spirit instead? Practical Magic is a new-school favorite and a solid Halloween choice that gives you both Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Ten years after his last film The Wailing, Na Hong-jin came roaring back to theaters with his sci-fi monster epic Hope.
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