It’s spooky season, and there are so many absolutely delightful ways to celebrate the thinning of the veil between the spirit world and the land of the living: scary decorations, dressing up, eating your body weight in your kids’ Halloween candy (long live the Parent Tax) and, of course, reveling in scary movies. But whether you’re a die-hard horror fan or simply a former child, some movies just hit different. The scary movies we watched as kids in the ’80s and ’90s forged in our developing brains the shape of the fears that would stay with us for the rest of our lives. In some cases, these were mini, early-life traumas. In others, they gave us a taste for the genre and let us know what to expect from it.
So, we’ve gathered a list of the movies that made big impressions on us as kids, from teen slasher movies of the late-’90s to genre-defining classics to niche indie films that nevertheless loom large in our adult imaginations. And if you want to celebrate Halloween with a re-watch (or, perhaps, an “I’m finally brave enough to face my fears” watch), well, you be our guest!
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
When corpses inexplicably begin to rise from their graves, a group of strangers take shelter in an abandoned house. While there are those trying to keep everyone level-headed, selfish instincts begin to boil out of control.
I remember seeing this movie poster at my local video store as a kid and being terrified. It loomed large in my nightmares. But when I watched it as an adult, it turns out I loved it, and it helped usher me into my Horror Fan era. It’s basically a drawing room drama, but with the odd zombie attack: super cerebral and well done.
Hellraiser (1987)
Kink enthusiast Frank is dead after a mysterious box — promising him a whole new world of carnal pleasures — unleashes interdimensional demons called Cenobites, who tore his body apart. (Whomst among us…?) His brother and sister-in-law, Julie, move into his house and inadvertently summon Frank’s soul. Julie, who is obsessed with Frank, begins to hunt men in bars so Frank can drain their lives and regenerate. But the Cenobites aren’t through with Earth yet…
“I have never seen Hellraiser,” says Executive Editor Kelly Faircloth. “I never will see Hellraiser. What I did see as a kid was a SciFi channel (that was how they spelled it at the time, because that’s how old I am) promo for a horror movie series featuring images of Pinhead from Hellraiser, and it scared the living daylights out of me for years. I’m pretty sure it’s why I’ve never tried acupuncture, actually? Anyway, now that I’m an adult, I can appreciate Pinhead for such an absolutely iconic, totally Britain-in-the-1980s alternative look. Honestly, slay. F*ck that movie, though.”
It (1990)
You know this one. A shape-shifting monster emerges from a sewer every 30 years to prey upon children in a small town in Maine, using their worst fears against them. A group of outcast friends, The Lucky Seven, vow as children to stop him… and get their chance as adults.
This movie didn’t just traumatize the Scary Mommy staff — it traumatized a generation. Whether you saw it way too young at a sleepover or just weren’t prepared to see your deep and abiding love of Tim Curry used against you, this one is going to haunt our dreams probably forever (and also keep us from taking our kids to the circus).
The Craft (1996)
After Sarah’s mom dies, she transfers to a Los Angeles high school and befriends a group of three wannabe witches. It just so happens that Bonnie, Rochelle, and Nancy are looking for a fourth to complete their circle, and Sarah has some secret telekinetic powers that could prove very valuable to her new friend group. But things get dark fast when they realize the consequences that can come from dabbling in the occult.
“I would consider this ‘horror lite,’ but I rewatch it every year in October, so it deserves a spot on the list,” says Julie Sprankles, Deputy Editor of Lifestyle & Entertainment. “I was barely a teen when The Craft came out, and yet I still found a way to watch it — and I was hooked. No way I was going to stumble into my own tiny coven in the small Southern town in which I grew up, but that didn’t stop me from dreaming of the day. The music, the fashion, the one-liners (‘We are the weirdos, mister’)… it never gets old.”
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Cole is a sensitive boy. The adults in his life, including his single mom, assume he has emotional problems. But when he starts seeing renowned child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe, the truth is revealed: Cole sees dead people. They don’t know they’re dead, and their cries for help have made his life unbearable. Malcolm tries to help Cole by helping him communicate better with the spirits who are seeking closure.
“I am 31 and just saw this movie for the first time a few months ago,” says Associate Lifestyle & Entertainment Editor Katie McPherson. “I somehow managed not to be spoiled about the ending my entire life, so it was super fun to watch this with my husband — he loves the movie, and I had no idea what I was in for. He assured me there were some jump scares but nothing wild, which held true, but I know if I’d watched this as a kid, I’d have lost my mind about the bloody ghost kid.”
Lady in White (1988)
Melissa Anne was murdered and strangled to death 10 years ago, and her spirit reaches out to bullied kid Frankie on Halloween. Soon, Frankie learns Melissa Anne is not the only child victim of her killer — nine other children have died in the past decade, and he, Melissa, and a ghostly mother known as “The Lady In White” must discover the murderer before he becomes victim No. 11.
This was one of those movies that only seemed to be on when I stayed home from school sick,” says BDG’s Associate Director of Snapchat, Aubree Lennon. “I would watch it alone (shout out to the ’90s) and spend the rest of the day utterly petrified. The movie has everything I want in a horror film: It’s based on an urban legend, and there’s a ghost, a serial killer, and a killer soundtrack. Not to mention, it stars young Lukas Haas, who would grow up to be a solid actor and Leonardo DiCaprio’s BFF.”
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Ichabod Crane is a New York City detective at the beginning of the 19th century. He longs to apply scientific methods to solving the city’s most ghastly crimes but is rebuffed by the powers that be. When a purported ghostly killer is said to be terrorizing the upstate town of Sleepy Hollow, the skeptic is sent to investigate and soon finds himself embroiled in the complicated politics of the superstitious citizenry.
As a goth teenager in 1999 who loved Tim Burton, Christina Ricci, and Johnny Depp (it was before we knew, folks…), this movie was everything. Because I loved it so much as a kid, I was scared to rewatch it as an adult but was pleasantly surprised to see the macabre, ghoulish, atmospherically spooky detective story/horror movie/folktale really holds up over time! Also: Christopher Walken as thee Headless Horseman? Come on!
The Shining (1980)
Jack Torrance is a struggling writer who takes a job maintaining a lavish hotel in the off-season. Isolated in the mountains with his wife and young son, Jack slowly descends into madness as the malevolent forces of the Overlook Hotel make their presence known.
“I avoided scary movies for much of my childhood,” says Faircloth. “The Shining stood out to me as the one I needed to avoid the most. My mom talked a lot about how scary it was, and every pop cultural tidbit floating around seemed to confirm that it would give me nightmares for life. Then I actually watched The Shining, and it wasn’t at all what I expected. I was picturing gore, blood, slashings, and, yeah, it’s got plenty of blood. But mostly, it’s got an absolutely relentless atmosphere of intense dread cultivated by a master of cinema, and a gorgeously creepy, totally uncanny building. And man, that is my sh*t.”
Pet Sematary I & II (1989, 1992)
This franchise, which saw new life with the 2019 re-telling and 2023’s Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, started with a doctor moving his family to picturesque Maine. When the family cat is accidentally killed, the good doctor buries it in a local pet cemetery… only to discover that doing so would bring about a catastrophic chain of events.
“Yes, both of these movies f*cked me up, and yet I still watched them and continue to rewatch them to this day. The first one is the reason I’m always tempted to check under a bed before putting my unguarded ankles anywhere near it, and the second is why I sometimes get irrationally creeped out by my own husky,” says Sprankles.
Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
Los Angeles teenager Trish decides to have a sleepover while her parents are out of town, but what was supposed to be a night of fun turns deadly when an escaped serial killer named Russ chooses Trish and her friends as his latest victims. Can the friends make it to the morning, or will Russ and his drill put them to bed early?
In high school and college, my friends and I would head to Blockbuster (aging myself, I know) and rent a stack of schlocky horror movies. We found some truly hilarious ones and we thought Slumber Party Massacre would be a similar ilk. It is and it isn’t. It’s as quintessentially “’80s slasher movie” as it gets while still being genuinely well done. The female victims aren’t vapid targets but well-drawn characters with agency and guts… and not just the ones that get spilled.
The Lost Boys (1987)
When a recently divorced mom moves her teenage sons Michael and Sam to the northern California town of Santa Carla to live with her eccentric dad (and their granddad), the boys immediately begin to hear rumors that something is amiss with the town. Soon, Michael starts acting strange, Sam meets a pair of geeky comic-book nerds who have some wild conspiracy theories, and their mom begins to date a local man who seems a little too good to be true.
“I actually didn’t watch this one until much later when my now-husband introduced me to it, but it quickly catapulted to the top of my favorites,” says Sprankles. “From the cast (Jason Patric! Kiefer Sutherland! Dianne Wiest!) to the soundtrack (INXS? Yes, please), it’s just one of the coolest, vibiest vampire movies to come from any decade. Plus, it has genuinely funny moments, largely courtesy of the Coreys and Bernard Hughes.”
Tremors (1990)
Val and Earl are finding their lives in a small Nevada town very dull. So dull they decide it’s time to split — that is, until a string of mysterious deaths and unusual seismic activity make things decidedly less boring. Soon, they are fighting for their lives against giant, man-eating worm-monsters.
“Tremors has been on constant rotation nearly my entire life,” Lennon says. “I was raised by a mom who loved movies and Kevin Bacon, so we saw it opening weekend. If I had a Letterboxd, this might make my top four. The best thing about this movie is how much it’s held up over the years — CGI really got nothing on practical effect! While it’s pretty low stakes in terms of most ‘horror movies,’ there are plenty of jumpscares to satisfy even the harshest of critics. And my mom wasn’t wrong: Kevin Bacon really is worth watching whenever you can!”
Child’s Play (1988)
Authorities figured they saw the last of murderer Charles Lee Ray when they killed him… but what they don’t know is Ray used dark magic to put his soul inside a doll named Chucky, who was then purchased for a little boy named Alex. And while Ray might be dead, his murderous instincts are still very much alive.
“Who let me watch this as a child? Just… why?! I was creeped out by dolls for years because of this movie — to the point that, to this day, I have only rewatched Child’s Play a handful of times,” admits Sprankles. And sure, Chucky was always meant to be funny. But as kids, we didn’t know that. I also got lowkey scared of dolls for a while, which is pretty silly if you think about it because, like, you can punt a doll. Nevertheless, this movie left a huge impression on a lot of us as kids, and no Halloween season would be complete without watching one of the eight installments.
Urban Legend (1998)
A serial killer is on the loose at Pendleton University. Their hallmark: modeling their victims’ deaths after iconic urban legends. As a group of students investigate what’s going on, they discover that one such legend, the Massacre at Stanley Hall (right on Pendleton’s campus), turns out to have actually happened. Can the massacre’s lone survivor, now a folklorist, help solve the murders?
This is just a fun little movie that cleverly tapped into the stories that already terrified us. (“He’s flashing his high beams because there’s a killer in your back seat! Girl, run!”) It’s a great example of what the genre looked like in the late ’90s.
Candyman (1992)
Helen is an academic studying urban legends who comes across the story of “Candyman,” a spectral, hook-handed killer who appears when his name is said five times. The legend has haunted Cabrini-Green, a housing project in Chicago, for decades… but is it just a story…?
“I grew up in a suburb of Chicago in the early ’90s, and besides the Chicago Bulls, nothing had a bigger impact on my childhood than Candyman,” says Lennon. “I’m pretty sure I only watched the actual movie once — it truly terrorized me — but there wasn’t a sleepover I went to that didn’t dedicate a portion of the night to Candyman. Whether it was saying or threatening to say his name (five times), his presence was felt long after the movie credits rolled. There are a ton of underlying themes I didn’t understand as a kid, but watching the movie as I got older just made it all the more haunting.”
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Everyone in town knows the legend of Fred Krueger, at least from the children’s song everyone sings. But it isn’t until the disfigured maniac with knives at the end of his glove begins to haunt their dreams that Nancy and her friends begin to suspect there’s more to Freddy than just a silly children’s song. He’s real, their parents all know about him, and they have to fight him in their dreams.
This movie is way more cerebral than I think people give it credit for. All slasher movie monsters attack when victims are at their most vulnerable, but in dreams? There’s nothing more vulnerable than that! The effects are tremendous, Freddy’s design is superb, and we love to see a clever girl outwit the killer.
Scream (1996)
Sidney Prescott’s mother was murdered, and a year later, she and her friends are stalked and murdered by a masked killer who seems to follow patterns established by classic slasher movies. Will Sidney unmask the killer before it’s too late?
For many a Millennial, Scream was the first horror movie they ever saw… which is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good because it’s a clever, meta, very good film. On the other hand, it’s a high bar to set! If you weren’t there in the mid-to-late ’90s, it’s hard to explain the visceral, “scared-in-a-good-way” response a lot of us had to Ghostface’s mask.
The Halloween movies (1978 – present)
On Halloween night in 1963, young Michael Myers brutally murdered his teenage sister, Judith, leading to him getting locked away for 15 years. But he escapes on Oct. 30, 1978, and will stop at nothing to get back to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, to claim more victims — setting his sights on 17-year-old Laurie Strode, who we later find out is actually his orphaned sister.
“The ’80s and ’90s were a huge time for the Halloween franchise, which is one of the most enduring horror franchises in movie history,” says Sprankles. “Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode gave us the final girl archetype, and even though she wasn’t in every sequel, the effect of her presence was. Plus, she’s responsible for the franchise’s very rewatchable modern revival.”
