What is your favorite creepy, scary or Halloween themed movie and book?
October 31, 2022
This past month for our October 2022 contest (won by Maggie P. from MN), we posed two questions:
What is your favorite creepy, scary or Halloween themed movie?
What is your favorite creepy, scary or Halloween themed book?
If you are looking for any last minute Halloween movie or book recommendations for tonight, here are the results!
Favorite creepy, scary or Halloween themed movies
Not surprising, 39% of the votes for favorite Halloween movie went to Hocus Pocus 1 and 2! Followed by 13% of the votes to Halloweentown.
Beetlejuice, Goosebumps 1, Goosebumps 2, Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Shining each got a couple votes.
The rest of the list was mentioned once:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Cabin in the Woods
- Casper
- Coraline
- Corpse Bride
- It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
- Pet Semetary
- Practical Magic
- Scream
- Shawn of the Dead
- Sleepy Hollow
- The Goonies
- The Sixth Sense
- Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Favorite creepy, scary or Halloween themed books
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson was the winner with 4 votes.
Goosebumps by R. L. Stine was the second place recommendation with 3.
The following books received 2 votes each: Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe, Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and The Shining by Stephen King
The rest of the honorable mentions, with one vote each:
- Any haunted house style book
- Anything Psychological thriller
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman
- Eek! It’s Halloween! by Laura Driscoll
- Fear Street by R.L. Stine
- Five Little Pumpkins by Lucy Barnard
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
- Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie
- Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
- Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
- Mickey’s Halloween by Disney
- Pet Sematary by Stephen King
- Poetry by Edgar Allen Poe
- Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
- Small Angels by Lauren Owen
- Ten Little Pumpkins by Greening Rosie
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- The Hound of the Baskervilles by A.C. Doyle
- The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
- The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
- The Witches by Roald Dahl
- With a Voice that is Often Still Confused But is Becoming Ever Louder and Clearer by J.R. Hamantaschen
Analysis
Many expected spooky authors showed up on the list, R. L. Stine, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Edgar Allen Poe and one of my favorites, Grady Hendrix.
Goosebumps by R. L. Stine, Pet Sematary by Stephen King and Coraline by Neil Gaiman made it on both the movie and book lists.
R. L. Stine, Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman had the most total votes across multiple books.
If I had to narrow down and pick a favorite scary movie, I might second the Cabin in the Woods vote. As far as books go… Stephen King? Neil Gaiman? Grady Hendrix? So many to choose from. Maybe Pet Sematary. But don’t hold me to just one.
Happy spooky reading!
Emily Cook is the author and creator of the secular homeschool curriculum Build Your Library, a literature-based K-12 program infused with the teachings of Charlotte Mason. She writes full-year lesson plans as well as shorter topical unit studies. Emily has been homeschooling her four children in Southern NH for 21 years. She is passionate about reading aloud to children of all ages and loves to share her love of literature with others. She and her family also make incredibly dorky videos about homeschooling, books, and more on Youtube at ARRRGH! Schooling. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can also check out her author page on Amazon.
