This is Halloween! This is Halloween! So it's time to hunker down and peek between your frightened fingers at our what-to-watch list. Cheddar's Digital Team is bringing the eerie and macabre with tales of French Quarter vampires, a modern haunted house, the shenanigans of Jack Skellington, and the OG, kitchen knife-wielding Chucky doll.
Black as Night - Amazon Prime Video
Picked by Digital Editor Mike Nam
Vampires are back in a big way lately. Prime Video's young-adult take on the classic bloodsucking monsters in Black as Night almost seems like an aged-up version of Netflix's Vampires vs. the Bronx from 2020. The premise this time features teenagers who tackle the fanged menaces in New Orleans, a city heavily burdened by its history of poverty, racism, gentrification, natural disasters, and, of course, slavery. While the film might feel bogged down by these themes, the supernatural action-adventure elements, along with breezy referential humor about vampire tropes, keep it moving along. But, being decidedly for older teens, it has its share of scares and depictions of mature concepts from colorism to addiction.
The Night House - Amazon Prime Video
Picked by Reporter Alex Vuocolo
The Halloween season is good for all things scary, from masked maniacs to mutant monsters, but some have argued — like horror author Nathan Ballingrud, the creator behind Hulu's Monsterland — that this time of year is best reserved for the eerie, the supernatural, the mystical. If you happen to agree, I'd recommend The Night House for this final stretch of October. It's about a grief-stricken teacher, played by Rebecca Hall, who senses a presence in the beautiful lakeside home built by her late husband. As she struggles to understand what's happening, she unearths a shocking secret that upends her already precarious condition. While it's not quite the conventional haunted house story you'd expect, it's consistently dread-inducing and surprising. Hall turns in one of the best performances of the year, and director David Bruckner balances nightmare logic and abstract horror visuals with a clear and compelling mystery. Cap off the season with a movie that honors the ghost story tradition while adding a fresh twist.
The Nightmare Before Christmas - Disney+
Picked by Sr. News Editor Dina Ross
Is it a Halloween movie? Is it a Christmas movie? The season's hottest debate is on! (Just kidding — this is clearly the season's hottest debate.) I vote Halloween, so I'm picking it for my 'What to Stream' recommendation this week. This Tim Burton-produced classic is creepy and sweet at the same time — the skeleton love story you never knew you needed. Many of us have already seen the stop-motion animated film since it came out nearly two decades ago, but I highly recommend another watch. For those of you who never made the time, click over to Disney+ and catch it whenever between now and the end of 2021 — it'll still be the right holiday season.
Child's Play (1988) - Starz
Picked by Producer Lawrence Banton
When I think of Halloween, sure, Michael Myers of the Halloween franchise comes to mind, but the day of ghouls and goblins takes me back to a very specific time in my childhood. I can remember vividly just how scared of the original killer Chucky doll I was, and so in the spirit of the holiday, let's relive the story of the fictional murderer Charles Lee Ray together. The film starts out with a foot chase between the police and Ray, a wanted serial killer. Just before he gets cornered by the cops, Ray makes his way into a Good Guy doll factory and summons evil spirits to transfer his soul into one of the dolls. So, while the voodoo spell worked, Ray's mission now was to find a new body, ultimately sparking his more than 30-year killing spree sprawling across multiple movies and even a new TV series.
Looking for more to watch? Check out our recommendations from last week and the week before.
