While the days are full of blue skies and the changing color of the flora of Cedar Rapids, the nights of autumn are dark and often too cold to spend outside.

This time of year is when people enjoy staying inside with food, friends, and films to enjoy motion pictures that reflect the time of year. Sometimes even real life situations reflect the feeling the seasons give us, like the situation of clowns in neighborhoods across the country the month of Halloween.

One of the safer and more enjoyable traditions practiced by thousands of people across the country during October is the viewing of scary movies, often depicting something to do with Halloween. Here is my list of Halloween and scary movies you should watch this fall season.

Starting, in no particular order:

-Halloweentown(TV-G, 1998)  A Disney classic. This series was a staple of a generation of young Halloween movie watchers and to many it continues to be re-watched year after year.

-Halloween(R, 1978) You can’t make a Halloween or scary movie best ever list without including this horror classic. A behemoth of the slasher genre, Halloween continues to scare audiences to this day.

-IT(TV-14, 1990) Considering recent incidents involving clown costumes and teenagers, there will never be a better time to be scared of clowns.

-Sleepy Hollow(R, 1999) Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have teamed up eight times in their careers, results varying, and in this increment the duo work together on recreating the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a classic short story by Washington Irving.

-The Babadook(NR, 2014) This dark Australian psychological horror film may lack relation to Halloween in content, but the imagery of the mysterious and terrifying figure of the Babadook absolutely remind the viewer of the scenes of dark and murky figures represented in Halloween movies all over. The film is also noted for its relatively light use of gore, which somehow just makes the whole experience of The Babadook creepier.  

-It Follows(R, 2014) Another film that has little to do with Halloween outside of “it’s scary,” It Follows is an allegorical horror film surrounding teenagers in an American suburb being stalked by creepy zombie-like demonized figures. Is that Halloween-enough for you?  

-Trick r Treat(R, 2007) This compilation of Halloween urban legends weave together in both a scary and fascinating way, presented in a way not many other horror films have been.

-Nightmare on Elm Street (R, 1984) This slasher-horror film changed the game of slasher-horror films. The “Master of Horror,” Wes Craven, after writing and directing this horror masterpiece, became a household name when speaking of scary movies. Before he passed in 2015, he directed a few other well known horror movies…

-Scream(R, 1999) …including all four of the Scream movies. This revolutionary series of satirical slasher horror films deconstruct the genre in a smart and often funny way and is essential to any list of must watch horror movies.

-Blair Witch Project(R, 1999) The very first found footage horror film in a long, long line of movies included in the genre, Blair Witch is still as spooky as ever. With the release of a sequel almost two decades later last month, there couldn’t be a better time to watch this classic.

-Hocus Pocus(PG, 1993) This lovably goofy Disney movie about a trio of witches on Halloween is an absolute classic of family-oriented Halloween films. Although the film is over twenty years old, Disney has yet to produce anything so iconic for Halloween as Hocus Pocus.

-The Nightmare Before Christmas(PG, 1993) Yet another Tim Burton produced movie, Nightmare Before Christmas transcends genres just as the protagonist, Jack Skellington, transcends the confines of “Halloween Town,” into the land where it is always Christmas. This incredibly entertaining but dark children’s film is a must-watch twice over every year.

-E.T.(PG, 1982) While maybe not conventionally considered a Halloween movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is without a doubt one of the greatest films of all time, and perhaps the best ever story for family put to film. The most iconic image from this film (and really one of the most iconic scenes in film history) took place within the story on Halloween.