Get ready to indulge in a month-long horror extravaganza with our 31 Days of Halloween Horror Movies List for 2023! Halloween isn’t just a single day, it’s an entire season. That’s why I’ve created the ultimate guide to horror movies for each day of October. Introducing the “31 Days of Halloween Horror Movies Marathon List” – a handpicked selection of my all-time favorite horror films.
From spine-chilling classics to hilarious horror comedies to the hottest new releases, this list has it all. Dive into our lineup and immerse yourself in the perfect spooky atmosphere for the Halloween season.
October 1, 2023:
Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
Synopsis: No better way to start the Halloween season than with Trick ‘r Treat. This Halloween horror movie consists of five interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: An everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer. A college virgin might have just met the guy for her. A group of teenagers pull a mean prank. A woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband and a mean old man meets his match with a demonic, supernatural trick-or-treater.
October 2, 2023:
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
Synopsis: This classic “Peanuts” tale focuses on the thumb-sucking, blanket-holding Linus and his touching faith in the “Great Pumpkin.” When Linus discovers that no one else believes in the creature, he sets out to prove that the Pumpkin is no myth—by spending the night alone in a pumpkin patch.
October 3, 2023:
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Synopsis: Hospital emergency room Dr. Daniel “Dan” Challis (Tom Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin), the daughter of a murder victim, uncover a terrible plot by small-town mask maker Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy), a madman who’s planning a Halloween mass murder utilizing an ancient Celtic ritual. The ritual involves a boulder stolen from Stonehenge, the use of Silver Shamrock masks and a triggering device contained in a television commercial — all designed to kill millions of children.
October 4, 2023:
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Synopsis: Long before he was Daryl Dixon’s brother Merle Dixon in The Walking Dead, Michael Rooker played the role of Henry in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. The film was directed by John McNaughton and written by Richard Fire and John McNaughton.
The story is loosely based on two real life serial killers, Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole. The movie was filmed in 1985 but really didn’t receive widespread distribution because the MPAA rated the film X. Later on it was awarded an NC-17 rating. This is probably one of my favorite all time serial killer movies as Michael Rooker really did a great job with the character Henry. The movie is raw yet not over the top.
October 5, 2023:
High Tension aka Haute Tension (2003)
Synopsis: A beautiful young Frenchwoman, Alex (Maïwenn Le Besco), travels out to the country to visit her family and brings along her friend Marie (Cécile de France). Soon after they get settled in the secluded home, Alex’s parents are brutally attacked by a psychotic truck driver (Philippe Nahon), who proceeds to stalk the two women as well. When the killer kidnaps Alex in his truck, Marie hides in the back to try and rescue her, but the bloodshed is far from over.
October 6, 2023:
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Synopsis: It wouldn’t be the Halloween season if Freddy Krueger didn’t come out to play. Wes Craven’s 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street is a must have on any 31 Days of Halloween Horror Movie Lists. This slasher film tells the story of a group of teens who are being murdered in their dreams. One, two, Freddy’s coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door, Five, six, grab a crucifix. Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. Nine, ten, never sleep again. And since you can’t sleep, than you might as well watch all of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.
October 7, 2023:
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Synopsis: Two teenage couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers. I would suggest making this a double feature tonight and watching The Devil’s Rejects too.
October 8, 2023:
Talk to Me (2022)
Synopsis: When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
October 9, 2023:
The Evil Dead (1981)
Synopsis: This Sam Raimi horror classic is sure to get you in the Halloween spirit. Even though I have watched this plenty of times I still jump. The Evil Dead tells the story of Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), his girlfriend and three pals who hike into the woods to a cabin for a fun night away. There they find an old book, the Necronomicon, whose text reawakens the dead when it’s read aloud. The friends inadvertently release a flood of evil and must fight for their lives or become one of the evil dead. Ash watches his friends become possessed, and must make a difficult decision before daybreak to save his own life in this, the first of Sam Raimi’s trilogy.
October 10, 2023:
Wolf Creek (2005)
Synopsis: Three backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are befriended by a local who turns out to be a sadistic psychopath and will plunge them into a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture.
October 11, 2023:
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Synopsis: Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren lock the possessed doll in the artifacts room in their house. But when the doll awakens the room’s evil spirits, it soon becomes an unholy night of terror for the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, her friends and their young baby sitter.
October 12, 2023:
Child’s Play (1988)
Synopsis: Gunned down by Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon), dying murderer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) uses black magic to put his soul inside a doll named Chucky — which Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) then buys for her young son, Andy (Alex Vincent). When Chucky kills Andy’s baby sitter, the boy realizes the doll is alive and tries to warn people, but he’s institutionalized. Now Karen must convince the detective of the murderous doll’s intentions before Andy becomes Chucky’s next victim.
October 13, 2023:
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Synopsis: Years after the strange drowning death of her father, Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln) returns to the site of his demise, Crystal Lake. Her developing psychic powers were responsible for ending his life, leaving Tina riddled with guilt as an adult. While deceitful Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser) tries to manipulate her abilities for his own ends, both physician and patient are in for a shock when Tina’s powers unwittingly free camper-killer Jason Voorhees from his watery slumber.
October 14, 2023:
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)
Synopsis: Two scruffy pals’ (Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk) backwoods vacation takes a bloody turn when ignorant college students mistake them for a pair of murderous hillbillies.
October 15, 2023:
Motel Hell (1980)
Synopsis: Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun) and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) run a rural hotel, but they earn most of their cash operating a food stand that specializes in world-famous sausages. After years of success, however, the duo’s upstanding brother, Sheriff Bruce (Paul Linke), eventually discovers the grotesque details of his siblings’ booming business: Vincent and Ida are actually plumping up their hotel patrons, killing and dismembering them and then grinding them into frankfurters.
October 16, 2023:
The Nun II (2023)
Synopsis: When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together, they uncover the order’s unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.
October 17, 2023:
Phantasm (1979)
Synopsis: The residents of a small town have begun dying under strange circumstances, leading young Mike to investigate. After discovering that the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), the town’s mortician, is killing and reanimating the dead as misshapen zombies, Mike seeks help from his older brother, Jody and local ice cream man Reggie. Working together, they try to lure out and kill the Tall Man, all the while avoiding his minions and a deadly silver sphere.
October 18, 2023:
Haunt (2019)
Synopsis: On Halloween, a group of friends encounter an extreme haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realisation that some nightmares are real.
October 19, 2023:
SAW (2004)
Synopsis: Photographer Adam Stanheight (Leigh Whannell) and oncologist Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) regain consciousness while chained to pipes at either end of a filthy bathroom. As the two men realize they’ve been trapped by a sadistic serial killer nicknamed “Jigsaw” and must complete his perverse puzzle to live, flashbacks relate the fates of his previous victims. Meanwhile, Dr. Gordon’s wife and young daughter are forced to watch his torture via closed-circuit video.
October 20, 2023:
The Collector (2009)
Synopsis: Desperate for money to pay off a debt, a man targets a wealthy family’s home and plans to break in and steal a valuable gem. He soon learns that he picked the wrong night to carry out his plans, for a masked madman has gotten there first, imprisoned the family, and lined the mansion with deadly traps.
October 21, 2023:
31 (2016)
Synopsis: Five carnival workers are kidnapped and held hostage in an abandoned, Hell-like compound where they are forced to participate in a violent game, the goal of which is to survive twelve hours against a gang of sadistic clowns.
October 22, 2023:
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Synopsis: Wes Craven’s cult classic about cannibalistic mountain folk on the trail of stranded vacationers in the arid Southwest.
October 23, 2023:
Creepshow (1982)
Synopsis: A compendium of five short but terrifying tales contained within a single full-length feature. This film conjures scares from traditional bogeymen and portents of doom. In one story, a monster escapes from its holding cell. Another focuses on a husband (Leslie Nielsen) with a creative way of getting back at his cheating wife. Other stories concern a rural man (Stephen King) and a visitor from outer space. A homeowner (E.G. Marshall) with huge bug problems and a boozing corpse.
October 24, 2023:
Hellraiser (1987)
Synopsis: Sexual deviant Frank (Sean Chapman) inadvertently opens a portal to hell when he tinkers with a box he bought while abroad. The act unleashes gruesome beings called Cenobites, who tear Frank’s body apart. When Frank’s brother (Andrew Robinson) and his wife, Julia (Clare Higgins), move into Frank’s old house, they accidentally bring what is left of Frank back to life. Frank then convinces Julia, his one-time lover, to lure men back to the house so he can use their blood to reconstruct himself.
October 25, 2023:
Children of the Corn (1984)
Synopsis: As physician Burt Stanton (Peter Horton) and his girlfriend, Vicky (Linda Hamilton), drive across the Midwest to his new job, their trip comes to a sudden halt when they encounter the body of a murdered boy in the road. In trying to contact the authorities, Burt and Vicky wander into a small town populated only by children, followers of sinister young preacher Isaac Chroner (John Franklin). Soon the couple is fleeing the youthful fanatics, who want to sacrifice them to their demonic deity.
October 26, 2023:
Fright Night (1985)
Synopsis: Teenage Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a horror-film junkie, so it’s no surprise that, when a reclusive new neighbor named Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) moves next-door, Brewster becomes convinced he is a vampire. It’s also no surprise when nobody believes him. However, after strange events begin to occur, Charlie has no choice but to turn to the only person who could possibly help: washed-up television vampire killer Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall).
October 27, 2023:
Scream (1996)
Synopsis: Wes Craven re-invented and revitalised the slasher-horror genre with this modern horror classic, which manages to be funny, clever and scary, as a fright-masked knife maniac stalks high-school students in middle-class suburbia. Craven is happy to provide both tension and self-parody as the body count mounts – but the victims aren’t always the ones you’d expect.
October 28, 2023:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Synopsis: When Sally (Marilyn Burns) hears that her grandfather’s grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Paul A. Partain), set out with their friends to investigate. After a detour to their family’s old farmhouse, they discover a group of crazed, murderous outcasts living next door. As the group is attacked one by one by the chainsaw wielding Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), who wears a mask of human skin, the survivors must do everything they can to escape.
This 1974 Tobe Hooper horror film still holds its own today. Leatherface remains a horror fan favorite. Some of the remakes have been pretty good.
October 29, 2023:
The Exorcist (1973)
Synopsis: When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
October 30, 2023:
Friday the 13th (1980)
Synopsis: Crystal Lake’s history of murder doesn’t deter counselors from setting up a summer camp in the woodsy area. Superstitious locals warn against it, but the fresh-faced young people — Jack (Kevin Bacon), Alice (Adrienne King), Bill (Harry Crosby), Marcie (Jeannine Taylor) and Ned (Mark Nelson) — pay little heed to the old-timers. Then they find themselves stalked by a brutal killer. As they’re slashed, shot and stabbed, the counselors struggle to stay alive against a merciless opponent.
October 31, 2023: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Halloween (1978)
Synopsis: On Halloween night in 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers stabbed his sister to death. After sitting in a mental hospital for 15 years, Myers escapes and returns to Haddonfield to kill.
Hope you enjoyed the 31 Days of Halloween Horror Movies Marathon List. Be sure to let us know your favorite horror movies that should have been on our list.
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