3 Underrated Halloween Movies You Should Queue Up Tonight

Halloween is back and your watchlist just turned into a haunted maze. We cut through the fog with a killer lineup of horror essentials—from cult classics to modern screamers—that will stalk your thoughts long after the lights go out.

Halloween watchlists are chaos. You know the heavy hitters. You have probably rewatched them. So here are three underloved nasties that deserve a night in your queue. Each one either got buried by a weird release, arrived with the wrong expectations, or quietly became a seasonal staple anyway. Short version: all three will do the job.

Haunt (2019)

If you want a straight shot of modern slasher energy, this one is it. No A-listers, no overthinking, just a nasty little premise executed with mean focus.

Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, it follows a group of friends who stumble into a supposedly extreme haunted house on Halloween night. Harper (Katie Stevens), Nathan (Will Brittain), and Bailey (Lauryn McClain) head inside, and things go from spooky-fun to 'oh, these people actually want to kill us' fast. The operators behind the masks are not playing around.

It premiered at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival in August and then slipped into a limited release, which did it no favors. The folks who found it mostly agreed: some critics called it formulaic, but plenty praised the atmosphere, the ratcheting suspense, the go-for-it gore, and a few inventive exits. It is a blunt instrument of a haunted-house movie that works because it keeps things practical and grounded, not CG-heavy.

Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Michael Dougherty made his directorial debut here (produced by Bryan Singer) with a comedy-horror anthology that plays like a love letter to Halloween night itself. Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox headline, but the connective tissue is Sam, a tiny trick-or-treating demon in orange footie pajamas with a burlap sack over his head. He shows up whenever someone breaks a Halloween rule, and he is not into exceptions.

The movie’s release is a cautionary tale in studio second-guessing. After premiering at Butt-Numb-A Thon on December 9, 2007 and doing the festival/limited-screening circuit, Warner Bros. shelved the wider rollout and skipped a real theatrical run. Instead, it hit home video on October 6, 2009, nearly two years after it should have landed. That botched plan meant most people didn’t see it for a while.

And yet, over time, it built exactly the reputation it deserved: a full-on Halloween staple with a cult following, and a smart, playful anthology that nails the holiday’s vibe and lore. If it somehow missed you, correct that.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Yes, the Myers-less one. Tommy Lee Wallace wrote and directed this sci-fi horror entry for his feature-length debut, and audiences in 1982 were not amused that Michael sat this round out. In hindsight, that knee-jerk reaction buried a wild, grim little original.

The setup: kids everywhere want those Silver Shamrock masks, and a very bad toymaker has a plan baked into them that is... not great for children. The movie trades slasher beats for witchcraft and conspiracy, leans into an anti-corporate streak, and rides a moody John Carpenter score. It got smacked around on release, but decades later it’s earned a second life for being bold, weird, and completely its own thing inside a franchise that usually isn’t.

By the numbers and where to watch

• Haunt (2019): IMDb 6.3/10, Rotten Tomatoes 71% (critics) and 100% (audience), Letterboxd 2.9/5, Budget: n/a, Box office: $2.2 million, Streaming: AMC+ Amazon Channel
• Trick 'r Treat (2007): IMDb 6.7/10, Rotten Tomatoes 82% (critics) and 99% (audience), Letterboxd 3.4/5, Budget: $12 million, Box office: $27,909, Streaming: HBO Max / AMC+ Amazon Channel
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982): IMDb 5.2/10, Rotten Tomatoes 48% (critics) and 31% (audience), Letterboxd 2.8/5, Budget: $4.6 million, Box office: $14.4 million, Streaming: Apple TV / Amazon Video

Which one are you queuing up first, and what underrated Halloween picks are you yelling at me to add next?