I have two neighbors named Jerry. I identify them as “Next Door Jerry” (NDJ) and “Across the Field Jerry” (AtFJ). NDJ is a temperamental alcoholic who shouts incomprehensible frontier gibberish while hosting his drinking buddies for a Tuesday box social.
AtFJ is an upstanding citizen and modern-day Renaissance Man with the physique and demeanor of Gimli the dwarf. He and his son walk Murphy for me while I’m working, and AtFJ even mows my lawn (NDJ did the same until his health and riding mower deteriorated too much, so I’ve somehow managed to dupe two Jerries into engaging in lawn care on my behalf).
That background information isn’t necessarily germane to today’s post, but I thought it would add a bit of “local color” to the proceedings. If you just came for the list of Halloween flicks, well, you’re almost there!
Monday evening AtFJ texted me with excitement for the imminent arrival of Halloween. He sent along a list of films to watch each night of the month, although his list runs to thirty-two flicks in total. We discussed some other possible additions, but here is Across the Field Jerry’s Halloween Movie Recommendations (in no particular order):
Across the Field Jerry’s Halloween Movie Recommendations (2024):
- Ghostbusters (1984)
- Halloween (1978)
- Hocus Pocus (1993)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
- Dracula (1931)
- Frankenstein (1931)
- The Wolf Man (1941)
- The Invisible Man (1933)
- Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
- The Shining (1980)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
- Beetlejuice (1988)
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
- The Fly (either; 1958 and 1986)
- Fright Night (original, 1985)
- It (1990)
- American Werewolf in London (1981)
- The Thing (John Carpenter version, 1982)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
- Phantasm (1979)
- The Omen (1976)
- Sleepy Hollow (1999)
- Scream (1996)
- House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
- The Addams Family (1991)
- Evil Dead (1981)
- Poltergeist (1982)
- The Lost Boys (1987)
- Hubie Halloween (2020; per AtFJ: “It’s Adam Sandler; sue me!”)
Jerry said his list “is a mix of the fun, spooky, and downright disturbing, with minimal slashers and a bent to the classics.” He also noted that because “I have ISSUES with zombies, aside from them just being done to death (see what I did there?), I have no zombie movies listed[.] But, if pressed, I’d go with Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead [1968] and the Ving Rhames Dawn of the Dead [2004].”
I did not inquire about his “ISSUES” with zombies, but recommended Train to Busan (2016) as another zombie flick worth watching.
So, dear readers, which of these films would be on your list? Which would not make the cut? What’s missing? AtFJ identified himself as a layman when it comes to horror, but it seems like a good list overall, with some family-friendly fare tossed in for good measure.
Leave your comments and thoughts below. I know Ponty will have something to say—ha!
Happy Halloween!
—TPP