This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Rochester chapter.

To count down the days till Halloween, here are 10 classic ‘must see’ halloween movies that are necessary for your October experience.

For those of you who don’t want to get too scared:

Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus is a go to classic. The movie takes place in Salem Massachusetts where some curious teens accidentally free 3 evil witches. The kids are left with no other choice than to steal the witches spellbook to prevent them from becoming imortal.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

A Halloween movie and a Christmas movie! This classic follows Jack Skellington, the king of Halloweentown. After Jack becomes bored with scaring people, he stumbles into Christmastown where he becomes infatuated with the bright colors and warm atmostphere. He plots to kidnap Santa Clause and take over the holiday for himself! Jack learns that even the best thought out plans can go wrong….

Halloween Town

This one is a series! After 13 year old Marnie Piper learns that she is a witch she must work with her grandmother Aggie to save the other mystical people of Halloweentown.

Casper

Casper is the friendly ghost of a young boy who haunts an old mansion with his his three uncles who are also ghosts. Casper’s uncles want to scare people and play tricks on them, but Casper likes people and tries to be nice to them. When a family moves into their mansion, the teenage daughter, Kat, becomes friends with Casper and helps him remember his past.

Ghost Busters

There is much debate as to whether Ghostbusters is a true Halloween movie, but I say any reason to watch Ghostbusters is a good reason. Ghostbusters is about a team of scientists who lose their jobs at a University and decide to fight supernatural beings and become, you guessed it, ghostbusters. They then find a gateway into another dimension that is letting these evil ghosts into the world and it is up to them to stop it.

For the horror movie buff:

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

Halloween is the beginning of a classic slasher movie series about Michael Myers, who, at 6 years old killed his older sister and was sentanced to 15 years in prison. While being transfered for his court date Michael steals a car and escapes his imprisionment, after which he is on the look out for his next victims.

The Shining

The shining is about a couple Jack and Wendy, and their son Danny who frequently has psychic premonitions. The family moves into a hotel where Danny’s visions become more frequent and the family is plagued by the hotels secrets as a homicidal maniac tries to kill them.

Signs

This movie might not be very scary to most, but it’s definitely the scariest to me! Signs is about a farmer who lost his wife in a car accident years earlier. He is currently raising their two kids with the help of his brother when out of nowhere crop circles appear in their fields. Aliens have come to terrorize the family and the last words of the dead wife are the only thing that can help them fight back.

The Conjuring

The Conjuring is a movie that focuses on the paranormal activity taking place in the Perron household. Expert investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren come to their aid in an effort to stop the terror. Events escalate quickly and the Warrens have to go to drastic measures to stop the paranormal activity.

Scream

Scream is another classic slasher series that takes place in the town of Woodsboro. The masked killer stalks his victims and taunts them with trivia questions before slashing them to bits. No one is safe!

10 Classic Halloween movies to binge watch this weekend