Autumn Movie Watch List: Scary vs Cosy
Not everyone enjoys a horror film full of guts and gore for a night in on the sofa, which is why we've summoned a list full of flicks to suit everyone. From the comforting and iconic to the eerie and hair-raising, this is the only scary vs cosy watch list you need in your life. Grab a blanket and some popcorn and hunker down!
Cosy films
The Hunger Games
Based on the trilogy of science fiction novels by American author, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games sees Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteer to take her sister’s place in the annual games: a televised competition in which two teenagers from each of the 12 districts of Panem are chosen to fight to the death. Tense and action-packed for sure, but far from scary.
Labyrinth
Few movies can compare to this 80s dark fantasy world populated by goblins, weird creatures, puppets and the late David Bowie clad in some very tight trousers. If you liked The Muppets, you’ll love this.
Shutter Island
Looking for a mind-boggling, haunting, psychological thriller? Then this is your jam. Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island follows U.S. marshal and his new partner Chuck Aule as they investigate the disappearance of a patient at an asylum for the criminally insane. There they discover not everything is as it seems…
Sweeney Todd
Horror fans and musical buffs alike will love this film adaptation of the gruesome tale of Sweeney Todd – the demon barber of fleet street who cuts customers’ throats and has their bodies baked into pies by Mrs Lovett. Happy Halloween!
Hocus Pocus
It’s not Halloween unless The Sanderson Sisters have put a spell on you. A magical cat, a spider-eating Sarah Jessica Parker, catchy tunes… what more could you want?
The Witches
The kid-friendly witch movie based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name – no one does dressing up in an itchy wig and a fake nose quite like Anjelica Huston. No-one.
Twilight
Is it even Halloween without hot vampires and werewolves? The first film in the Twilight Saga focuses on the developing relationship between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, aka R-Patz and K-Stew. With five films in total, you’ll have plenty of romance fantasy action to sink your teeth into.
Practical Magic
For those of us who don’t want to be tormented with axe murderers and evil children, there’s Practical Magic. Charming witchcraft, romance, the Kidman + Bullock power duo and an iconic 90s vibe. Count us in! Plus, it passes the Bechdel Test so ya know #girlpower
Autumnal films
It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
If you’re into treats more than tricks, this is a watch for you. Revisit the lovable Peanuts gang as they prepare for a Halloween special.
About Time
Ugly cry faces at the ready, this one will give you all the feels. About Time is a sentimental, heart-warming and beautifully-told tale of family, love and making the most of life together, with or without the power of time travel.
You’ve Got Mail
While the technology in this 90s film might feel a bit old-fashioned, Tom Hanks never goes out of date. Think feel good comedy romance at its best – it’s the kind of film you can enjoy in the background while you’re prepping your popcorn or making a brew.
When Harry Met Sally
The rom-com that revolutionised all rom-coms. Thirty years after its release, When Harry Met Sally is still making waves with its one liners and that dinner scene. It has romance, it has comedy, it has highly quotable dialogue. They just don’t make ’em like this anymore.
Sleepless In Seattle
Another Nora Ephron classic. A widowed father (enter Tom Hanks) isn’t looking for love, nor is already-engaged journalist Annie (Meg Ryan) but thanks to a little matchmaking, love finds them, right atop the Empire State Building. SWOON.
Harry Potter
Pick your favourite HP movie or disappear down a Hogwarts rabbit hole and watch a back to back marathon, the choice is yours, dear muggles.
Scary films
It Follows
A horror movie about a curse passed on through sexual intercourse? What a way to kill the mood. Anyone infected will find themselves being followed by a randy malevolent force manifesting itself as a variety of people known to the victims. That’s us sleeping with one eye open, then!
Sinister
From the producer of the Paranormal Activity films, Sinister is a disturbing horror, supernatural thriller and murder mystery rolled into one. If loud bangs in the attic, possessed children and gruesome family massacre scares the living daylights out of you, then you might want to watch this one through your fingers.
Mercy
A retelling of Stephen King’s short story ‘Gramma’, Mercy centres around two young boys (The Walking Dead’s Chandler Riggs and Super 8’s Joel Courtney) as they move into their bedridden grandmother’s house to care for her. There they learn of an evil secret she’s been harbouring for all these years…
The Uninvited
The Uninvited revolves around fragile teenager Anna, who is released from a psychiatric hospital following her mother’s death. But when she returns home, she learns her father has since shacked up with her mother’s nurse, Rachel. Is there more to her mother’s death than she first realised or are the ghostly visions haunting her just a figment of her imagination?
The Conjuring
Who doesn’t love a modest haunted house story, eh? Take a creaky farmhouse, add in some paranormal ghost hunters and a demonic rag doll and Uncle Fester’s your uncle.
The Shining
Elevators filled with blood, the here’s Jonny scene, room 237. So. Many. Scares. Forty years on, it’s still haunting us. Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name and often dubbed the best horror movie of all time, The Shining tells the story of a writer and recovering alcoholic named Jack who gets a job as a winter caretaker in the Overlook, an isolated Colorado hotel. As he and his wife Wendy and their five-year-old son Danny settle into the hotel, strange things occur. Danny is plagued by psychic premonitions and Jack’s mental health deteriorates rapidly as he discovers the hotel’s dark secrets and spirals into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorising his own family.
The Sixth Sense
‘I see dead people’ – it was the blockbuster masterpiece everyone was talking about and for good reason. Featuring possibly the best child acting performance of all time to that mind-blowing plot twist, it’s a timeless corker with none of the blatant horror tropes a lot of modern day movies rely on.
Insidious
There’s nothing like a bit of home intrusion and noises in the attic to get those heart palpations going. A gripping story of a family settling into their new home only to find weird things are happening. When their son Dalton falls into a mysterious coma they enlist a medium to help them get to the bottom of it but all is not as it seems…
Saw
A scary movies listicle wouldn’t be complete without featuring this absolute gore fest of torture porn. Probably the least bloodthirsty of the eight-part franchise, the first film introduces Jigsaw, a sadistic serial killer who takes pleasure in torturing sinners and testing their will to live. Horror films don’t get more intense than this.
