Cheap Thrills: 6 Awesome Halloween Movies That Aren’t Scary

Everyone knows that staying at home and watching a movie is one of the cheapest ways to share a night, but that can often get tiresome. There’s something about the Halloween holiday season that brings the notion back to life, as Halloween movies are usually only brought out around this time of year. So I’m providing my humble picks for the best Halloween movies.

I would like everyone to note that there aren’t any scary movies on this list. Pooping my pants with fright isn’t a particularly “Halloween” notion as scary movies come out year round. I love a good scare, but I don’t consider scary movies a very “frugal” choice for the following reasons:

1. I don’t sleep well, so I don’t perform well at work the next day. This decreases my earning potential.
2. I often buy extra snacks to comfort myself during scary movies. Also taking trips to the brightly lit concession stand or kitchen is the equivalent of turning on the lights after a bad nightmare. However, I can’t just wander up there and expect goodies for free.
3. Everyone goes to see scary movies hoping that the next one is scarier than the last. This means a lot of wasted $$ on movie tickets and rentals on movies that just aren’t that frightening in the first place.

On to the movie picks…

Casper. As a lonely pre-adolescent girl I swooned over this movie, and often wished there was the ghost of a teenage boy living in my house. Because he was trapped in my house this meant he could only be interested in me — what a great life! This later morphed into a lot of co-dependency and jealousy problems in middle school, but you get the idea. Jokes aside — it’s actually a very sweet movie, and a great way to show kids that ghosts don’t all have to be scary!

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! I must admit, I never saw this movie until last year when my boyfriend practically made me. Still, I was enchanted as this movie represents the best of what Halloween is all about: waiting all year in sweet anticipation for scores of candy, a giant pumpkin, or hanging out with your friends.

Beetlejuice. I hope you like a side of cheese with your Halloween candy as this movie is pure hokey. Still, I think it’s an awesome Halloween movie if you can overlook Michael Keaton’s disturbing pedophilic portrayal of Beetlejuice. Additionally if you see Michael Keaton, ask him what it was like to peak in 1988 when this movie came out. There is also a skinny, handsome, young Alec Baldwin in it, so … there’s that.

Hocus Pocus. This one is my favorites! And it’s perfection, perfection, perfection. I watch it every year, and it never gets old. Bette Midler and SJP and singing. Love it! I also enjoy the slightly more “adult” humor of this movie. If you haven’t seen it, go slap yourself in the face for having not seen it already, and then go watch it. I insist! It’s also currently on sale at Amazon Instant Video for 99 cents!

Ghostbusters. This movie has it all: ghosts, crime-fighting, and candy (Marshmallow man, hello?). Why wouldn’t you watch it on Halloween?

The Nightmare Before Christmas. I struggled with putting this movie on the list, as I think it kinda should be classified as a Christmas movie. Still, most everyone I talked to about Halloween movies said they watch it around this time, so I say “who cares?” Christmas and Halloween are so close they could be kissing cousins anyway.

Photo Credit: Monika Aržanauskaitė