Every October, like most fans of the greatest horror movies, I scroll through the best streaming services hunting for the next great spooky-season watch. I love Halloween movies that have nothing to do with the holiday just as much as I love the classics —Halloween, The Exorcist, A Nightmare on Elm Street, all the usual suspects. But, if Pet Sematary (the 1989 version, of course) taught me anything, it’s that fall horror should leave a mark. The best ones don’t just scare you, but hang around.
That’s why these five films, underrated, often overlooked, and deeply unsettling, belong in the same conversation. They might not be your go-to seasonal rewatches yet, but they should be. Here’s why.
The Babadook (2014)
The Babadook is a critically acclaimed film — Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert gave it a 3.5 out of 4-star review, and we gave it a glowing review as well. Since the 2014 release, its titular character has become a queer icon, an arthouse favorite, and, yes, the movie that scared your therapist. At the time, it felt like a reset button for horror. It proved you didn’t need gore or haunted houses when the scariest place was already your own mind.
The premise sounds straightforward: a grieving mother and her anxious son are stalked by a disturbing children’s book and the creature it conjures. However, the longer it plays, the clearer it becomes that what Mr. Babadook really is isn’t just a monster, but is a stand-in for depression, post-partum, and unresolved grief. It’s the thing you try to bury that never stays buried.
There are multiple ways for you to enjoy The Babadook this season, so be sure to check your favorite streaming service. But, if you want to watch it for free, it’s one of the best horror movies streaming on Tubi.
Pet Sematary (1989)
The 1989 adaptation of Pet Sematary, a book-to-screen adaptation of a Stephen King novel of the same name, still hits like a shovel to the chest. Yes, the acting is stilted in places. Yes, Zelda still scars people for life. But it’s that bleak, unrelenting tone that makes it essential Halloween viewing.
There’s no real mystery to solve here. Louis Creed buries his dead son in cursed ground. The kid comes back wrong. Things go downhill from there. Unlike your average zombie plot, Pet Sematary isn’t about survival; it’s about inevitability. You know from the jump this is going to end badly, and it still somehow manages to go worse than expected.
It’s a horror movie that doesn’t flinch or let you hope, and that’s its strength. October watchlists should be about confronting fear, not escaping it, and Pet Sematary gives you nowhere to hide. You can watch Mary Lambert’s terrifying original flick, and the pretty uneven 2019 remake, with a Paramount+ subscription.
The Reflecting Skin (1990)
If Terrence Malick ever directed a vampire movie, you’d end up with something like The Reflecting Skin. It’s one of those forgotten ’90s films that’s too weird for mainstream and too disturbing for cult comfort, which makes it perfect for Trick-or-Treat Time.
Set in 1950s rural America, the film follows a young boy whose reality is crumbling. His father sets himself on fire. His brother returns from war with a haunted stare, and the widow next door may or may not be a vampire. None of it feels supernatural in the way horror usually does, but it all feels wrong.
Unlike Pet Sematary and The Babadook, this one is told from a child’s point of view, and the horrors are filtered through that fractured lens. Death isn’t clean or heroic, but is instead a confusing, shameful, and buried under layers of denial. If you want your Scare Season bleak and beautiful, this is your ticket. Just don’t expect closure—or catharsis.
The Reflecting Skin is another great horror movie you can catch for free with a Tubi subscription.
Ravenous (1999)
Sometimes Halloween calls for a horror movie with a bit of bite… literally. Ravenous is part cannibal movie, part war satire, part fever dream, and all criminally underseen. It came out in 1999, was barely marketed, and tanked at the box office. Classic.
Set in a remote 19th-century military outpost, the film plays like a gothic Western with a growing appetite for human flesh. Guy Pearce plays a soldier with a coward’s past. Robert Carlyle steals the movie as a guest who brings more than just bad weather. The Wendigo myth, often misused in horror, is finally given the treatment it deserves.
What makes Ravenous Halloween-worthy isn’t just the gore (though it’s there, and it’s gross in all the right ways). It’s the tone. The film walks this razor-thin line between absurd and deeply unsettling. It knows cannibalism is horrifying — but also darkly funny, in that “what if survival turned you into a monster?” kind of way.
Like Pet Sematary, it’s a story about crossing lines you can’t uncross. Where King’s story is somber, Ravenous laughs in your face while draining your blood. Perfect All Hallows’ Eve energy.
Stir Of Echoes (1999)
1999 was loaded with genre-defining movies —The Matrix, Fight Club, Office Space, American Beauty, and The Sixth Sense. You could throw a rock that year and hit a classic. But while The Sixth Sense grabbed all the headlines, another horror gem quietly slipped through the cracks. Stir of Echoes didn’t get the attention it deserved, but it absolutely earns a spot in your October lineup.
Kevin Bacon, in one of his best performances, plays a regular guy who, after being hypnotized at a party, starts seeing ghosts. At first, it’s your standard “dead girl with a secret” setup. Then the film quickly delves into deeper, darker territory — class resentment, neighborhood rot, and the things people agree not to see.
Where The Sixth Sense is about empathy and healing, Stir of Echoes is about being forced to care. Bacon’s character doesn’t want a gift. He just wants peace. But once the door to the other side opens, it doesn’t close.
What ties it to Pet Sematary is that creeping realization that the horror isn’t just external, but inside the home. It’s in the people you thought you knew. That unease is what makes it such a solid Halloween watch. It’s scary in a way that feels just a little too plausible, and you can revisit it (you guessed it) with a Tubi subscription.
Why You Should Make Room On The Shelf For These Picks
Everyone has their comfort picks for spooky season, and the classics are all fine picks. But the creepy crawly season isn’t just about screaming at shadows. It’s about the quiet dread that builds, the choices that haunt, and the slow rot beneath the surface.
These five films aren’t just scary, but unnerving. They hang around in your mind long after the movie ends, which is precisely what a good Halloween staple should do. So, this season, why don’t you press play and sleep later?