“Beetlejuice” (1988) – Reviewed by Ben Schneider

Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” follows a young couple, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis), living out an ideal, small-town life. Their large, geometric house finds them at the start of a two week long, at-home vacation. 

On the way back from a routine drive into town, they’re involved in a horrific accident, leaving their car floating upside-down in a river. 

When they arrive home everything is strangely fine. Sure, they’re clothes are drenched, but they are alive. As they settle in however, they notice things are a bit off, the fireplace is suddenly lit, they have no reflection in the mirror and on the coffee table is the aptly titled “Handbook for the Recently Deceased.” They didn’t survive that accident. 

The death of this young couple is what ignites the plot of “Beetlejuice.” As ghosts they can’t leave their house, so when a new family moves in and literally reshapes their home, the idealistic life they have created for themselves disappears entirely. 

The Maitlands want to scare this new family away, however, they struggle because they’re nice people and just not that scary. 

Enter: Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), an unhinged, perverse ghoul who the Maitlands call to help them scare away this new family. What results is far worse than anything they could have imagined.

“Beetlejuice” isn’t a great Halloween movie in the typical sense, since it simply isn’t that scary. The reason it has been able to cement itself as an October classic is through the film’s legendary cast of actors and a dramatic sense of atmosphere. 

Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton and Wynona Ryder are the heart and soul of this movie. They work together to give iconic performances that have stood the test of time in a way few other Halloween movies have. 

“Carrie” (1976) – Reviewed by Faith Wallace

“It has nothing to do with Satan, Mama. It’s me. Me. If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things,” said Carrie White. Carrie is a tragic story about loss, religious trauma and girlhood. Considered a cult classic, “Carrie” is by far the best Halloween movie to watch this fall. 

Carrie White is bullied throughout the high school. When she discovers her first period, the girls in her gym class throw tampons at her screeching, “plug it up” until her gym teacher Collins swoops in to intervene. Her mother doesn’t have much sympathy telling Carrie that she now has a sin from Eve’s curse (stemming from the biblical story of Adam and Eve). 

Collins reprimands the girls’ behavior and suspends them for three days, barring them from prom. Seeking vengeance, one of the girls, Chris, and her boyfriend, Billy, plot revenge against Carrie. At the same time, one of the other girls, Sue, begins to feel remorseful.

After noticing that Carrie has a crush on her boyfriend, Sue tells her boyfriend to ask Carrie out to prom. What follows next is chaos. 

The book and movie are special to my heart for many reasons. For one, it’s the book that put Stephen King on the map and his first motion picture. Out of all the King’s books, this one is my favorite for its focus on teenage characters and the high school aesthetic.  

I love Carrie for its feminist message. It was one of the first movies to openly discuss menstruation. It confronts the shame personified by Carrie’s religious mother, that some women have about their periods. 

 Carrie displays teenage anguish in a way that’s hardly believable. Filled with inconceivable scenes such as the period scene, everything is over the top. The girls are almost cartoonishly evil. It’s a middle school nightmare of what high school would look like. A team of mean girls trying to bring you down. 

The movie doesn’t allow for complex thoughts, “the bad ones” die, including Carrie. The only good teenager in the movie, Sue, the final girl, who helped Carrie out, gets to live. It’s the simplicity that feels so perfect yet so twisted that makes the movie feel more dramatic. 

Carrie is a case study in which it’s too late to help. No one intervenes when it comes to Carrie and her mother. Only Collin and Sue help stop the bullying. Even so, when Carrie’s life comes around she is still haunted by her past. 

It’s easy in the mess of everything to feel a little sorry for Carrie. The movie highlights her demons. It just makes it that much more unfortunate when she becomes the monster. 

“The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993) – Reviewed by Cal Moore

Disney released a stop-motion animation movie called “Nightmare Before Christmas” in 1993. It grossed $91.5 million in worldwide box office sales, and became a classic Halloween movie that will be re-watched by everyone each October.

The film takes place in Halloweentown, a fictional town populated by monsters and creatures. Jack Skellington, the “Pumpkin King” of Halloweentown, organizes the Hallows’ Eve celebrations every year. 

Jack grows tired of running the Hallows’ Eve celebration and ventures into the woods to try and break the repetitive cycle of his life. Jack was over the moon after stumbling into the cheerful Christmastown filled with snowflakes and gifts, which made him change his perspective on the holiday season. He goes back to Halloweentown and eagerly shares his new passion for Christmas, which leads the residents to decide to take over Christmas and do things their way. 

Jack finally found a way to break out of his dull, gloomy life which wore him out and made him a shell of his former self. The spirit he finds in Christmastown brings back his happiness and makes him excited to start this new beginning which finally frees him from his former repetitive cycle.

The movie is a classic and is loved by many kids and adults around the world. Songs like “This is Halloween” and “What’s This?” are fun, catchy and make everyone sing along. The musical score by Danny Elfman was nominated for a Golden Globe. Chris Sarandon does a great job of playing Jack, embodying what Jack is all about and making the character’s adventures feel so much more whimsical. 

Some people might prefer a scary movie for Halloween, but a goofy and quirky quest feels so much more fun and exciting to watch. The combination of Christmas and Halloween make for a musical dual-threat that will be sung along to for years to come.