The Halloween Countdown: 31 days of horror to watch

Do you feel that? That chill in the air, that tingling sensation at the back of your neck? It can only mean one thing. That’s right: Halloween season is once again upon us!

Here at Polygon, we love horror. We cover it all year round, whether it’s ranking the scariest new releases of the year or curating lists of the spookiest horror movies to watch on Netflix.

We especially love Halloween, though, a holiday dedicated to all things scary and spooky. Which is why, every year for the past four years, Polygon has put together a Halloween countdown calendar, selecting 31 of our staff’s top horror-themed or Halloween-adjacent picks across movies, TV, and online videos throughout the month of October, all available to watch at home. It’s been so much fun, in fact, we’re doing it again — with an all new batch of films, shows, and videos to choose from.

Every day for the month of October, we’ll add a new recommendation to this countdown and tell you where you can watch it. So curl up on the couch, dim the lights, and grab some popcorn for a spine-tingling marathon of Halloween-adjacent delights.

Where to watch: Available to stream on Plex and Pluto TV with ads and to rent on Amazon

Kicking off the Halloween horror movie season is a delicate art. Just a few days into the official start of fall, it’s important to pick exactly the right movie to subtly shift that chill in the air from cozy to spooky as gently as you can. With that in mind, we’re easing into Halloween this year with Dario Argento’s Phenomena, a perfect blend of spooky, campy, and bleak that sets that stage just right for the frights to come.

Phenomena takes place in a remote town in Switzerland at a boarding school where Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), the daughter of a famous American actor, is the newest student. The only problem is there’s also a serial killer rampaging through the town, and when Jennifer witnesses one of the murders, her life is suddenly in grave danger. The good news is she has an inexplicable telekinetic power over insects to help keep her alive.

And while the movie isn’t quite as silly as the premise would imply, it is among the most bizarre and fun of the many sleazy slashers of the 1980s. But what truly elevates it to a special place is that it’s one of the rare horror movies where the supernatural is seemingly wholly on the side of good. It’s rare that a movie lets us unambiguously root for the mystical power at its center, giving the whole thing the strange, otherworldly feeling of a particularly grotesque fairytale.

All of this makes for a tremendously entertaining and odd mystery movie, and a great way to begin a month full of horror movies. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: Shudder, AMC Plus

Anthony Waller’s 1995 horror thriller is a premise straight out of a waking nightmare. Billy Hughes (Marina Zudina), a mute special effects makeup artist, is in Moscow working out of a dilapidated movie studio on a low-budget slasher. After returning to the building after hours to pick up an important piece of equipment, Billy accidentally locks herself inside with no way of getting in touch with either her sister Karen or her sister’s boyfriend Andy. Things quickly go from bad to worse when she secretly stumbles upon the filming of a snuff film perpetrated by a pair of Russian gangsters. When the gangsters suspect that someone else is inside the studio, Billy must find a way to escape undetected before her own life is put into danger.

Mute Witness is a terrific cat-and-mouse murder thriller packed with teeth-clenchingly tense sequences and a compelling lead performance courtesy of Marina Zudina. The first hour of the film is expertly paced and edited, ingratiating the viewer within the layout of the studio before transitioning into a mad-dash climax that’s breathtaking and terrifying to behold. If that isn’t enough to pique your interest, the film touts a brief yet memorable cameo appearance by Sir Alec Guinness (Star Wars, Lawrence of Arabia) in one of his final on-screen performances. —Toussaint Egan

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon and Apple

If you ever get bored with the same old restaurant cuisines, the answer is often to look for a fusion restaurant that mixes a couple of your favorites, taking spices and techniques from different cultures and mashing them up into something new. The same goes for horror movies: If you’re bored of the usual executions of all the familiar tropes, a genre mashup like 1998’s Fallen may be the best way to find some new flavor in familiar ideas.

In Fallen’s case, director Gregory Hoblit and screenwriter Nicholas Kazan put the serial-killer procedural thriller and the possession horror story in a blender and use ideas and techniques from both to spice up the drama. Hoblit is a police-show vet (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, LA Law, um, Cop Rock) who keeps the action grounded and gritty, even as the supernatural edge pushes the story far from the genre’s normal beat.

Denzel Washington stars homicide detective John Hobbes, with John Goodman as his partner Jonesy. The two men (working under a sinister lieutenant played by Donald Sutherland) recently cracked a murder case that sent a serial killer (Elias Koteas) to the gas chamber. After his death, though, the killings start again, and Hobbes and Jonesy start working a new case that seems to be the old case. Horror vets will know where this is going long before they do, but Hoblit ramps up the eerie tension as Hobbes’ life starts to unravel.

A lot of horror involves people encountering the supernatural for the first time and fumbling for a response that will let them survive, but the stakes always seem higher when the protagonist is in law enforcement and in theory has to follow procedures, obey rules, and presume innocence. (See also: The Hidden, Angel Heart, Longlegs, etc.) Washington makes for a terrific rule-following cop who’s stuck in a terrifying situation where none of the rules he’s learned can possibly apply. The result is a solidly creepy movie with just the slightest tinge of knowing camp. —Tasha Robinson

Where to watch: Prime Video, Peacock, Shudder

Creature feature directors often cite Jaws as inspiration for holding back on full monster carnage until the end — the less you show, the scarier it is. Screw off! If a movie promises a big mutant alligator terrorizing the city, then we best see a big mutant alligator terrorizing that city, and often!

Good news: Alligator is exactly that, with the added bonus of great performances, a wicked sense of humor, and a touch of social commentary.

Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, Breaking Bad) stars as detective David Madison, a cop with a reputation for doing good while losing his partners in the heat of action. When word of a killer alligator prowling the sewers reaches the surface, Det. Madison springs into action with a Dr. Marisa Kendall (Robin Riker), a herpetologist whose no-bullshit approach to amphibian research paves the way for a classic zinger-filled romance. Only the legendary John Sayles could squeeze a throwback screwball romance into a killer alligator movie and still find room to stick to the bumbling bureaucracy.

Much like Jaws, Sayles and director Lewis Teague interrogate the failed institutions that allow a 36-foot hyper-metabolic alligator to run rampant in Chicago — not only can the cops not get their shit together, but the alligator is only dino-like after consuming a biotech company’s discarded animal carcasses, all radiated with growth formula. Unlike Jaws, Teague puts his giant alligator puppet to good use, snapping its jaws on countless victims, from alleycats to random kids in a pool. Blood splatters, Chicagoans run for dear life, Det. Madison complains about his receding hairline, and by the end, things go boom. Alligator isn’t super scary, but it is a raucous good time, a cut above most monster B-movies of any era. —Matt Patches

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon and Apple

Park Chan-wook is in the top tier of living filmmakers for me, so of course I’m fond of even the “minor” works in his catalog. Stoker, his only English-language movie to date (although he’s made two English-language miniseries, including the fantastic The Little Drummer Girl), is an eerie, atmospheric psychological thriller that’s a perfect fit for people who want to participate in spooky season without getting too scared.

It’s India Stoker’s (Mia Wasikowska) 18th birthday. Her father (Dermot Mulroney) has died, and her mother (Nicole Kidman) has welcomed his younger brother (Matthew Goode) into their home. What follows is a Hitchcockian gothic fairy tale filled with sensory delight. The score is pitch-perfect in the eerie atmosphere it provides, and Park never fails to deliver memorable images.

Oh, and fun fact: The movie was written by Wentworth Miller, of Prison Break/CW-verse fame, under a pseudonym. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Max

Doctor Who has two tones: the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism, and heebie-jeebie-inducing horror that keeps young viewers peeking through their hands, hiding behind the couch, or dreading the occasional nightmare about it for years.

This two-parter from the first season of the franchise’s 2005 reboot embodies the best of both. Sure, it’s the one that gave us the indelible Doctor line, “Just this once… everybody lives!” But it’s also an episode that made me, a grown-ass adult, terrified of my own ringing apartment intercom. Set in London during the Blitz, the Doctor and co. battle a strange plague that seems to be transmitted through phones.
The phone rings, you pick it up, a creepy little British child voice on the other end says, “Are you my mummy?” Five minutes later there’s a knock on your door, and the creepy little British child is there wearing a gas mask, saying “Are you my mummy?” and BAM, you’re a gas mask zombie now. Millions of Doctor Who fans have never recovered. —Susana Polo

Where to watch: MGM Plus, YouTube

Adrian Lyne’s flawed but engrossing psychological horror movie Jacob’s Ladder has had wide-ranging impact, given its moderate success, inspiring Konami’s Silent Hill game series and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Chalk that up to the film’s frightening, hallucinogenic visuals, which symbolize Vietnam veteran Jacob Singer’s descent into madness.

Jacob’s Ladder is ostensibly a movie about an army vet and divorced dad making peace with his demons, which are presented as corporeal torturers in Lyne’s dark thriller. Jacob (Tim Robbins) experiences disturbing visions of shapeshifting apparitions pursuing him through a grimy and dangerous 1970s New York City. Searching for answers, Jacob learns he’s not the only one suffering from strange visions; members of his former platoon are, too, and they believe they were the victims of a secret government drug-testing operation.

As Jacob’s hallucinations intensify on a collision course with reality, he’s plagued by the memories of the family he’s separated from — which includes a very young Macaulay Culkin! — and guided by his fierce chiropractor, played by Danny Aiello. As the head-spinning truth about Jacob’s visions are revealed, Jacob’s Ladder practically demands an instant rewatch. That’s easy to recommend, because despite its nightmarish horrors and stylized gore, Lyne’s movie is also something of a strangely comforting rewatch. —Michael McWhertor

Where to watch: Shudder, Prime Video, Peacock

Magic is an inexplicable film in the filmographies of almost everyone involved in it. It’s a nasty little psychological chiller, a faintly grimy, sub-Hitchcockian programmer from 1978 about a ventriloquist whose life has been taken over by the vicious dummy who represents his id and is the reason for this troubled, introverted man’s unexpected success. But it stars Anthony Hopkins and is directed by Richard Attenborough from a script by William Goldman with a score by Jerry Goldsmith! You don’t get much more prestigious than that in ’78.

Fortunately, none of these luminaries condescend to the material or try to dress it up as something it’s not, and so Magic is just what it should be — a scary, twisted movie that’s by turns amusing and disturbing. Hopkins, who learned close-up magic and ventriloquism for the role, is mesmeric and uncanny in the film’s best scenes, which are just him arguing with himself as Fats (the dummy) tries to prevent Corky (the man) from reconnecting with his old love (Ann-Margaret). Magic is a bitter little pill that gets to the heart of why puppets are so sinister. —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: Criterion Channel

If you’re looking for a slow-burn psychological thriller with a brutal giallo-esque third act that’ll have you gripping the edge of your seat, Next of Kin is the horror movie for you. The film centers on Linda (Jacki Kerin), a young woman who inherits ownership of a retirement community from her estranged mother who has recently passed. As bizarre and unexplainable happenings begin to occur around the house, including a series of suspicious deaths, Linda grows to suspect that her mother’s death may not have been from old age and that she herself might be next.
With eerie slow-motion sequences and disorienting dolly zoom shots, Next of Kin conjures a sense of nauseating atmosphere and chilling terror that elevates it far beyond its “Ozploitation” origins. Compared favorably to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining by none other than Quentin Tarantino, Next of Kin is a cult-classic horror film that’s more than worthy of making the time for. —TE

Where to watch: Free with a library card on Hoopla, free with ads on Plex, or available to rent on Amazon and Apple

Mario Bava, often dubbed the “Master of Italian Horror,” made many iconic low-budget genre movies, including the legendary Black Sunday and the heist movie Danger: Diabolik. But I have a particular love for his sci-fi horror movie Planet of the Vampires.

Made on a budget of about $200,000, Planet of the Vampires follows a crew of space explorers who crash-land on… well, you know. It hits just about every conceivable aesthetic note you would want from such a venture. Bava claimed the set of the planet was composed of two plastic rocks and a set filled with smoke, which is simply remarkable when you consider how tangible the planet feels. You can see its influence all over the science fiction movies that have followed, from Ridley Scott’s Alien movies to the most recent Aquaman. —PV

Where to watch: Max, or available to rent on Amazon and Apple

Here is the skeleton key to all modern media: Everyone wants to be Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. Every single one! Scooby and the gang have broken up and gone their separate ways, until one intriguing case pulls them back in. And while Daphne is gunning for something bigger than a man in a costume, Mystery Inc. might have bitten off a bit more than they can chew with this one.

If you can remember the times when getting this bad boy on VHS was the height of both technology and cool points, then you remember the absolute right hook of a mystery that this 78-minute feature delivers. And in the years since, try as they might, Hollywood has chased that very high. The industry will try to get the gang back together, they’ll bring back old franchises that haven’t made a movie in a decade, and they will flip the script on who the “bad guy” really is. But Zombie Island, with all its Mystery Machine mannerisms and the pop punk delights of the “It’s Terror Time Again” sequence, is the blueprint, and the perfect addition to any spooky season (or just a spooky Saturday). —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Prime Video, free with ads on Pluto TV and Tubi, or available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Laika’s follow-up to the much-beloved Coraline is just as creepy and quirky — and absolutely deserves more love. ParaNorman centers on Norman, a lonely 11-year-old who can see and speak to ghosts. His family is judgmental and his peers mock him, though he has one friend in a fellow outcast. The two boys meet Norman’s long-lost great-uncle, who can also communicate with ghosts, and he warns them that something sinister will soon fall upon the town.

The stop-motion animation is charming, and it certainly gets spooky at times, as zombies begin to attack the town. But it’s family-friendly enough that it never gets too scary; there’s just enough spooky paranormal antics for a fun little shiver down the spine.

There’s a familiar trope in Halloween-related media, where the ghost of a wronged witch (sometimes explicitly tied to the Salem Witch Trials, sometimes just in an adjacent witch trial in a similar New England town) wreaks havoc and mayhem. ParaNorman takes that trope and gives it a twist — one that resonates much more. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon and Apple

If you have a remotely sensitive nature regarding harm to kids, animals, and other innocents, consider yourself trigger-warned for this one, and definitely go in having been warned about the contents, or don’t go in at all. This ultra-bloody Spanish drama was made for the real sickos out there, and no others need apply. But if you’re down for that, I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like The Coffee Table, the darkest of dark comedies and the most edge-of-the-seat movie I’ve seen in a long time.

If you’ve ever had the anxiety nightmare where you suddenly remember that you did something unforgivably terrible that no one knows about, The Coffee Table will feel hauntingly familiar. David Pareja and Estefanía de los Santos star as Jesús and María, new parents who have been trying for a long time for a baby. María is bossy, controlling, and belittling; Jesús is defensive and trying to carve out a small space for himself, even if that just means picking out a coffee table for their home. When something goes terribly wrong with the ridiculously gaudy, tacky coffee table, Jesús enters a state of deep, fugue-like denial, with the audience left to wonder when María — and the couple’s dinner guests — will find out.

That sounds like a premise for a wacky sitcom, something Pedro Almodóvar might have directed in the 1980s. It isn’t. The Coffee Table is soaked with blood and dread, and it’s full of vivid emotions and increasingly excruciating tension. It’s a watch-it-in-the-dark-with-an-audience type of film where you’re likely to be able to hear everyone in the room with you holding their breath. Just make sure everyone on your movie-night invite list is also a sicko. —TR