With Henry Selickthe new stop-motion horror Wendell and savage releasing on Netflix on October 28, we’ll see once again that animation isn’t a genre just for kids. It will be so exciting to see another horror movie that uses the limitless creativity that animation can provide, but while we look forward to it, there are more animated movies that will get you in the spooky mood. Pulling from a range of animation styles, levels of scares, and a litany of talented creators, here are some animated movies you can have fun with during a Halloween movie marathon, watch as a family. after a trick or treatment, or staring recklessly alone in your bedroom in the middle of the night.
Monster House (2006)
The legacy of Robert Zemeckis‘ Motion-capture animated films are certainly messy, but The monster house is by far the strongest feature. A haunted house movie taken to the next level, it follows a motley trio of kids investigating the spooky mansion across the street that seems to eat both property and people.
A great horror movie for older kids – it might scare the little ones a little too much – it has an incredibly original and at times quite moving story. He also has a sardonic sense of humor, and the house itself is one of horror cinema’s most creative monsters. This movie isn’t talked about enough, and if ImageMovers’ other animated movies were at this level of quality, it might still be around today.
Paranormand (2012)
It was really a challenge to choose between this film and Coraline with the aim of showing as many filmmakers as possible and avoiding repetition, but while Coraline is a stunning dark fantasy with its share of scary moments, Paranormand is the one that gets you in the Halloween mood. It has everything a good Halloween movie needs: a misunderstood boy with supernatural powers, a witch’s curse, a zombie uprising, and a small town with a dark past.
We can see a lot of elements that Laika Studios would use perfectly in her next film, Kubo and the two ropes: Creative mixes of stop-motion and computer animation, and mixes of fun adventures and suffocating moments. Paranormand was overlooked in the 2012 awards season, but it deserves far more praise than it was given.
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
You can’t have Halloween without the Mystery Inc gang, and there are plenty of movies to choose from. The monster Scooby-Doo animated movie franchise has an unreal range of quality from one star to five, and there’s a lot of debate among fans about which movie is the strongest. There are people who like for ironic or nostalgic reasons, and others who are surprisingly good, but a good place to start is Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. The story follows Scooby and the gang, tired of the constant crooks in suits, investigating an island in the middle of the Louisiana bayou, where the monsters are a little more real than they’re used to.
This is the film that revitalized the characters before the new millennium, and for good reason as the tone and story of this film maintains the classic Scooby camp while ramping up the humor, horror and mystery. . If you liked the series Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated or even Gravity Fallsdefinitely come back and watch this one.
Edgar Allan Poe is the king of gothic horror, with his tales of madness, death and murder that have captivated audiences for nearly two centuries now. Many of his classic stories have been translated to the screen, mainly thanks to Roger Corman and Vincent Pricebut Extraordinary Tales recounts many of them in one anthology. Anthologies are ideal for horror, a row of creative talent killers telling or, in this case, adapting stories in their own style.
“The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Fall of House Usher”, “The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar”and“The Masque of the Red Death” are all performed in different styles featuring the voices of Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Lee, Julian Sands, and Bela Lugosi. It’s a fun, gothic period that gives small creators the chance to shine with the voices of industry giants backing them up, if you like Poe, watch this movie.
The House of the Wolf (2018)
It’s the scariest movie on this list, and the writer, from experience, wouldn’t advise watching it alone. The wolf’s house tells the story of a young woman who takes refuge in an isolated house in the woods to escape a colony of religious fanatics, and it really shows the potential that animation has to unnerve.
Although it is not the focus of the jump scare, the house turns into a nightmare around the fear felt by the protagonist, painting the walls in the void, moving on the floors and furniture, creating shadows and monsters of everything inside, the camera acting almost like a poltergeist as candles flicker and objects move. chilean directors Joaquin Cocina and Cristobal Leon using the whole house to its absolute gruesome advantage, the stop-motion is deliberately rough to create a surreal, inhuman and unsettling feel throughout. This movie is a horror masterpiece, and if you can stomach more disturbing and weird footage, then this is a top recommendation.
Mad God (2022)
This film is a mad labor of love by Phil Tippettaking 30 years to make and released on Shudder only a few months ago, but the time and care it put into it was well worth it. crazy god is a surreal and Orphic descent into the history of the underworld, the scale of this feverish dream of war, death and destruction is unlike anything seen before on streaming.
Tippett is considered a master of monster design and that mastery is shown in spades here, with stop-motion making everything even more visceral and tactile. The demons and tortured souls of his world are crafted with love and expertise. There’s not much to say without revealing the engrossing and abstract parentage, so I urge you to watch this film, if only to salute the amount of effort that went into it. This is Ray Harryhausen on acid, a disturbing and existential journey through hell, a showcase of immense creativity and perseverance, and it’s unlike anything else on streaming right now.
The Corpse Bride (2005)
It was even bigger than my struggle between Coraline and Paranormand, Tim Burton has three wonderful Halloween movies to choose from. The Nightmare Before Christmas is legendary, but was actually directed by Henry Selick, Frankenweenie is incredibly underrated and a labor of love by Burton based on a debut short, but The corpse bride represents everything we love about Tim Burton.
It’s like a mixtape, a combination of all his best work rolled into one movie: The Unlikely Love Story of Edward Scissorhands, the creative imagery of the underworld beetle juicethe main brand players of Sweeney Todd, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carterthe exaggerated gothic styles of sleepy hollow and of course the musical style of Dany Elfman. It’s the most Tim Burton movie, and Emily, the Corpse Bride herself, has become an iconic character and the subject of many Halloween costumes, and for good reason. It is an extremely fun watch.
Fear(s) of the Dark (2007)
Another anthology, this time French, Fear(s) of the dark is a mix of 2D and 3D animation covering the ideas of fear, trauma and paranoia. Notable graphic designers and comic book creators came together on this film, creating their own black-and-white short stories. Short-form horror is incredibly effective at instilling a wave of fear in audiences, and the fact that each short is black and white both unifies and diversifies the style.
Terror stories are also incredibly diverse, with human-shaped beetles, haunted Japanese graveyards and giant crocodiles galore. It’s a moody, aesthetically pleasing film and a brilliant effort by brilliant artists, French animated films have a reputation for greatness and that certainly adds to it.
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009)
It’s the Rob Zombie a film for people who can’t stand its more hardcore parts, this movie thrives on piling irreverent comic book humor on top of the usual gratuitous sex and violence. The haunted world of El Superbeasto follows an exploitative filmmaker and lucha wrestler (Tom Daddy), with his faithful sidekick Suzi-X (Sheri Moon Zombie) as they battle werewolves, Nazi zombies, and the infamous Dr. Evil (Paul Giamatti) at a heavy metal gore festival.
It’s as stupid and crazy as it sounds, and the movie knows exactly how stupid and crazy it is. It’s an obscenely raunchy cult classic of horror animation and horror musicals with Zombie as always breaking the boundaries of what he can get away with. It’s ridiculous, it’s over the top, and it’s a damn good time on any horror night.
The Halloween Tree (1993)
Ray Bradbury fans unite for the most underrated movie on this list. According to his 1972 novel, The Halloween Tree follows a group of children who go on an adventure through time to save their friend’s soul while learning about the origins of Halloween features like witches, demons, mummies and the holiday itself. This film is a delight, and a perfect one to see with the family.
He has a very warm and nostalgic side, aided by the vocal talent of Leonard Nimoy and Bradbury’s own narration, it’s a little Halloween fairy tale about friendship, tradition, and even the concept of mortality. It’s a comfort movie of course, few scares, just a good movie to watch with the kids in your life as you settle in and eat your learning and feeling booty.