Disney’s best movies for Halloween to watch on Disney Plus

All who enjoy scary films, happy Halloween!

For this episode, we have many horror movies to recommend for you. These are the most popular horror movies, which include the best on Netflix and five all-time horrors that can be viewed for free. Also, there is a list of all the latest horror movies available to stream. And if you haven’t checked out the daily updates in our Halloween countdown calendar, well, do that.

There are some great spooky-themed watches you can get for your whole family. We’ve gone through Disney Plus’ Halloween catalog and picked out the best of the best for you and everyone else to enjoy at home.

Mr. Toad’s Adventures with Ichabod

Image: Disney

Few American horror stories are as enduring as Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the tale of a superstitious schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane who is stalked one night by the headless ghost of a soldier who died in the Revolutionary War. Disney’s 1949 animated feature Mr. Toad’s Adventures with Ichabod is an ideal children’s horror film: one that offers equal amounts of spooky iconic imagery with whimsical animation and charming humor. Bing Crosby’s narration is complemented by Basil Rathbone’s score. Peter Pan composer Oliver Wallace, Mr. Toad’s Adventures with Ichabod This movie is safe enough to show your children horror, but not to traumatize them. —Toussaint Elgan

Christmas Nightmare

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

Henry Selick is a stop-motion master and this classic masterpiece from him (who also has a Netflix movie). Christmas Nightmare For thousands, including me, Halloween is synonymous with this movie. Selick and his crew created a delicate animation from Tim Burton’s idea. It was nominated as the first animated film to be nominated for an Oscar in Visual Effects. Unfortunately, it did not win. Jurassic Park), Nightmare Before Christmas The movie features Danny Elfman’s fantastic music, and it is truly a delight for the ears. This movie is so embedded in my head that when I watched it last Halloween, every word and image was like a lyric from a song I’d never forgotten. For me, it’s movie comfort food at its best. —Pete Volk

Don’t Look Under the Bed

Image: Disney

It’s a Disney movie with a history that sounds like an urban legend: Don’t Look Under the BedAccording to reports, it was Too scary for a Disney Channel Original Movie, so much so that parents asked the Disney Channel to stop airing the 1999 children’s horror film as part of its annual Halloween programming, a request the network granted. Watch the movie — which you can stream today on Disney Plus — and it’s easy to see why: Don’t Look Under the Bed It is in fact Very scary. It all starts out as a mystery. Frances Bacon McCausland has just started high school and is sticking out like an ogre. Then, she’s framed for a bunch of mean pranks — something she doesn’t understand until a man named Larry Houdini, who claims to be an imaginary friend, tells her that it’s the work of The Boogeyman. Don’t Look Under the Bed It is a wonderful, haunting adventure. The story takes you on a strange journey into the realm of spooky fantasy. However, in its final moments Frances discovers the truth. It’s frightening stuff. —Joshua Rivera

You Werewolf at Night

Image: Marvel Studios

It’s the MCU, but spooky!

Marvel’s Disney Plus Halloween special is a ghoulish and cheesy delight, per our review:

The unfolding takes place over a quick 53-minute period. You Werewolf at NightThis box is basically here to fulfill its purpose: provide stylish, throwback thrills with a more kitsch than terrifying setting in a new corner of Marvel Cinematic Universe. That it’s also presented differently from most other MCU ventures thus far goes a long way. Its nearest sibling is WandaVisionBut without the bigger stakes that show ended up taking on. The fun is in relishing the love for old Universal monster movies that everyone involved clearly has, and not in the special’s MCU connections. Sharp-eyed viewers and Marvel scholars will find several allusions to comics lore, but nothing here is really meant to change the MCU status quo — just to let you know that There are some monsters in this place, but hey!.

Descendants

Photo: Jack Rowand/Disney

Descendants absolutely took up the mantle from Disney’s musical heyday franchises — except this movie has more of a bad streak. The movie was directed by Kenny Ortega (of Disney Channel Original Movie-lovers). High School MusicalAnd Cheetah Girls 2. The trilogy stars the kids of Disney’s most famous villains: Cruella de Vil’s son Carlos, Maleficent’s daughter Mal, Jafar’s son Jay, and Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen (from Snow White and Seven Dwarfs.) These poor kids have been banished to the Isle of the Lost where there’s no magic. But the kindly kids of heroes, who attend Auradon Prep, have decided these evil teens deserve a second chance — specifically a chance to attend this magical boarding school for the good.

Like any excellent DCOM, it’s pure camp with catchy musical numbers staged like Broadway, starting with the opening banger, “Rotten to the Core.” Except this time around, it’s a film for the baddies and misfits — with all the nostalgia of growing up with Disney movies. The students at Auradon (all of whom look so awkward rapping) greet their new classmates with a remix of “Be Our Guest.” These goody two-shoes kids look so dorky, down to their garden party aesthetic. Prince Charming’s jock son is literally named Chad Charming. Importantly, Kristin Chenoweth absolutely steals the show as Maleficent, particularly in her show-biz ballad “Evil Like Me.” And here’s an important fun fact for Twihards — Jay is played by Booboo Stewart, aka Seth Clearwater from the Twilight series. —Nicole Clark

Frankenweenie (both versions!)

Image by Walt Disney Pictures and Tim Burton Productions

Disney Plus features two movies that combine Tim Burton’s two eras. Frankenweenie It began as a short film in 1984 when Burton was just a beginning animator at Disney. The short, which runs 29 minutes long, is a silly black-and white adventure about a scientist-minded boy with his dog. Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern and Daniel Stern are the stars of this short. Frankenweenie is perfect for anyone who might be turned off by the 1930s Universal monster movies’ 100-year-old time stamp but needs a gateway.

Burton’s FrankenweenieThe remake was rendered using stop-motion animation. Christmas Nightmare, keeps the throwback elements of the original short while expanding the coming-of-age arc of a young Victor Frankenstein and bringing an entire neighborhood of weirdos to life in the director’s signature style. It’s not as spectacular as the original, but it is still quite brilliant. Nightmare, Frankenweenie brings the visual humor and intricate crafting to a brand-new story, all while maintaining the B&W look — it’s eye-popping and totally under the radar 10 years later. —Matt Patches

Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge

Image: Disney

Four Halloweentown Disney Channel Original Movies are available. I believe the first is my favorite. Halloweentown IIAlthough the budget for this film is slightly higher than that of Halloweentown 1, the movie’s charm lies in its use of not-so great special effects from the 2000s. Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s RevengeTwo years later, the sequel is picked up. Marnie is a young, impoverished witch who lives in Halloweentown along with her grandmother. She meets a boy there while she’s visiting the mortal realm. But upon returning to Halloweentown, she learns that a mysterious illness has been affecting its inhabitants… turning them boring and normal. It’s a fun, spoopy romp that recognizes that the scariest thing in the world might be losing what makes you special. —Petrana Radulovic

Muppets Have Haunted Mansion

Image: Disney

The Muppets are a natural pairing with the Haunted House. Both have a sense of humor, are silly, and both sing with great song. Pepe and Gonzo spend the night in a haunted home. The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland/Disney World, but one made by the same architect — this is confirmed canon) and encounter the mansion’s undead denizens. There’s some splashy celebrity cameos and, more importantly, Muppet appearances. Muppets Have Haunted MansionThis is an enjoyable celebration of Muppet shenanigans and theme park history, perfect for a bowl of Halloween candy. —PR

The Muppet Show episode featuring Alice Cooper

Image by Associated Television/Henson Associates

The Muppet Show doesn’t have any official Halloween specials, but it does have the Vincent Price and Alice Cooper episodes, both stocked with “ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night.” But it’s the Cooper episode that takes the Halloween throne, with a very pointed rendition of “Once a Year Day” in which various monster muppets celebrate the one day of the year they get to let loose — and that’s aside from Cooper’s guest star subplot, in which he claims that he’s an agent of the devil here to offer the muppets Faustian contracts for riches and fame. —Susana Polo

The Simpsons, “Treehouse of Horror VI”

Image: Gracie Films/20th Television

This year I’m awarding Favorite Status to “Treehouse of Horror VI,” not because it’s the best episode (that’s “Treehouse of Horror V”) but because it embodies the ethos not only of the Treehouse of Horror catalog but The SimpsonsIt is all there. In “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores,” Homer’s gluttony awakens Springfield’s version of Big Boy and countless other promotional statues. Naturally, they can only be felled by a catchy Paul Anka jingle and the show’s Gen X approach to thwarting capitalism. “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” spoofs Freddy Krueger, while building a framework that would rapidly inspire seasons of lesser pop culture parody. Then “Homer Cubed” closes the trifecta with Homer stepping through an interdimensional portal in a botched effort to avoid spending time with his sisters-in-law.

The episode’s debut was a huge success. It featured Homer wandering around the third dimension with his body animated in computer animation. Treehouse of Horror has chased similar visual twists ever since, including this year’s anime-styled short. But what I love about “Homer Cubed” and rest of episode is how the gimmicks buttress big ideas rather than become the point unto themselves. While marketing gets people to click, meaning keeps them there. At the end of “Homer Cubed,” Homer falls through another dimensional portal, and lands, Roger Rabbit-style, in our world. He’s scared, confused, and very alone. But he’s also Homer, an icon of “everything will work out.” So he does what he does best: finds joy in an erotic bakery. —Chris Plante

How about… Zombies?!

Image: Marvel Studios/Disney

Marvel’s What If…? animated series didn’t pop with the mainstream like the studio’s films or live-action TV series, but maybe that’s a good thing — there was apparently no fear by the show’s creators to go completely ham on the sanctity of the mega-franchise’s iconography. The show’s anything-goes philosophy is no more apparent than in a one-off based on the Marvel Comics’ zombies line, in which the world is plagued by a virus, turning most of the Avengers into the slobbering undead. Chadwick Boseman, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Bettany, Sebastian Stan, Evangeline Lilly, Paul Rudd, and many more MCU regulars voice their characters in this horror-tinged half-hour, which was gory and weird enough to earn the show a spinoff — a What If… Zombies?!Last fall, the show was confirmed as still in development. —MP

Retire to Oz

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

In a funny way, this movie is quite disturbing. Picking up with Dorothy Gale in electrotherapy, where she’s been since her time spent in Oz, the movie is basically the Terminator 2Many whimsical adventures from childhood. When another evil force threatens the magical land, Dorothy teams up with Scarecrow, Jack Pumpkinhead, portly automaton Tik-Tok, and a flying bed with a talking moose head (his name’s Gump) to save the day. Renowned film editor and sound designer Walter Murch directed this frightening sequel, which I’m so pleased to say will be able to freak the next generation of youngsters out on streaming. —MP

Smart House

Image: Disney

Smart House was one of my absolute favorite DCOMs, and it’s no surprise as to why. Sci-fi was my first love and it has remained my favorite genre. Throw in a dash of social horror and you’ve got a winner. Add In Smart House, a widowed dad and his two kids win a “smart home” which includes a virtual assistant named PAT (Personal Applied Technology). In 1999, before “smart home” technology was really A Thing, Smart HouseThis was a sign of an AI gone mad.

It’s easy to see that PAT can be fun at first. PAT can make almost any food that the dad and kids want. After helping the children throw an enormous party that included a dance party for the boys, she cleans up all the mess. But when Ben, the 13-year-old star of the film, sees his dad dating again, he freaks out and programs PAT to be a 1950s-esque housewife in an attempt to convince his dad that he doesn’t need to replace the mom in their life. PAT then starts to obsessively mother everyone, eventually locking the whole family inside for their “safety,” before spawning numerous holographic versions of a human form for herself. This was my favorite show as a kid. I watched it every time it came on the cable. You can now enjoy that nostalgic feeling anytime with streaming. —NC