Horror Movie Marathon of the Day: Ghosts

Every weekday until the end of October, CraveOnline will present an all-new Horror Movie Marathon to help you avoid showing the same old movies at your Halloween parties. Keep coming back every day for new schedules and party ideas!

Everyone Loves Ghost Stories

Whether they are looking to be reassured by the existence of the afterlife, or scared witless by the possibility that they are never alone in their homes, everyone loves a good ghost story. So Hollywood loves making them. And although zombie movies may seem more popular nowadays, there are probably more films about spooks and specters than any other “monster.” 

This means that sifting through all of them can be a real chore for casual moviegoers. What’s good and what isn’t? What’s as crazy as it looks and what’s just a bunch of lame jump scares that never amount to anything? That’s what film critics are for, and we’re here to help you plan the perfect batch of films to show at your Halloween horror movie marathon, specifically with a ghostly theme.

Check Out: Horror Movie Marathon of the Day: Zombies

Plan Accordingly

Haunted houses never go out of style. You may want to deck your house out with cheap fake spiderwebs (don’t forget the spiders!). Dim the lights, or make cardboard cut outs of creepy ghouls and place them in front of the lamps so they cast spooky shadows. Keep flashlights around so everyone can make disturbing faces. Light up the stove to roast some s’mores.

For music – which you won’t be listening to much of, since movies will be playing the whole time – get yourself a cheap old fashioned haunted house soundtrack, full of rustling winds, howling wolves and cackles in the night. You can download them online or, if you’re old school, you can still find them at practically any Halloween store, or any store with a decent selection of Halloween goodies.

And of course, you can’t forget everyone’s favorite ghost goodies: Blow-Pop Poltergeists. Buy a bag or two of Blow-Pops, wrap tissue paper around each lollipop and tie it off with a rubber band. Then get a black Sharpie and draw a ghost face on them. Sure it’s juvenile, but that’s what Halloween is all about: regressing to a childlike state of fear, wonder, imagination, and sugar highs.

Get The Right Movies

You can find a lot of decent, sometimes even great horror movies on Instant Streaming. Then again, so can everyone else. If you’re hosting a horror movie marathon, your guests expect you to show them something they haven’t seen before along with a handful of classic standbys.

So go to your local video store – the odds are good it still has a better selection than Netflix – or, if there aren’t any left in your neighborhood (such a shame), track them down online. Most of the movies we’re recommending are great movies that are either so popular they’re pretty cheap by now, or so obscure they are probably priced low since the demand isn’t high. But obscure movies can be the best surprises, and trust us, we’re about to recommend a ton of them.

Related: The 50 Scariest Horror Movies Ever Made

Put a Schedule Together

The film critics at CraveOnline have a tried-and-true formula for movie marathons. You start with a “Duh” movie (a popular film everyone has seen), partially to get it out of the way and partially because there’s a good chance some of your guests will arrive late and you don’t want them to miss the good stuff. 

Then you get everyone’s attention with the “Unknown Classic,” a film that none of your guests have (probably) seen, so even someone who goes home early will feel like they got something special out of the evening.

Follow that up with some “Background Noise,” i.e. a film that won’t necessarily capture everyone’s attention. That’ll play in the background while everyone socializes. But you’ve got to make sure it has enough good parts that people don’t take their eyes off the TV for too long and forget why they came.

Now the time has come for a “Jumpstarter,” a really lively, crazy film that’ll grab everyone’s attention again. You’ll follow that up with something even weirder, the “Oddball,” to reward the folks who are still going. This will be the strangest film of the evening, maybe a genre-bender or the work of a mad genius, and it will be a great capper for the masses who will probably call it an evening afterwards.

And now that the evening is coming to an end, you’ll want to throw in something stupid. A real “Stinker.” Take the edge off the night’s festivities by talking back to the screen or falling asleep to a film that doesn’t really deserve your attention. It’s the perfect way to end an evening of otherwise great movies.

Then again, you may want to just pick films from one of those categories to test your endurance. How many classics can you get through in one night? How many unsung classics can you discover? How can one weird-ass film top the next? We have multiple suggestions in every category to get you through the night, if that’s the way you want to play it. 

Just remember: don’t overextend yourself. Six movies is probably the maximum number that anyone can handle. Don’t feel bad if people leave early. Just make sure the folks who stay get something special for their trouble. 

CraveOnline’s Recommended Ghost Movies

It’s time to unveil our picks for the perfect Halloween horror movie marathon, featuring haunted house films and other ghastly tales of the afterlife (and also a couple of crappy ghost-related flicks too). Let us know if you have any other recommendations to share, and most importantly: have a Happy Halloween!

Let’s Plan Your Ghost Movie Marathon!

William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.