Tradition

Since 2006, it’s become a tradition to watch a scary movie on Halloween. It started because it was my first Halloween in college, no longer young enough to be able to go out and get candy door to door. I would either pick a movie out at work, or my dad and I would go to the rental store and pick one out. Then, around 6 p.m., we’d stick the DVD into the player with all the lights off and prepare ourselves for a night of terror.

Since my father’s death, the tradition has felt rather off for me. Yes, I still watch a scary movie on Halloween, but it no longer feels special. Watching a scary movie alone is no longer something I enjoy doing, and yet I do anyway because I don’t want to give up the tradition.

Is this how traditions start, I wonder? We start them with others and when someone’s gone, we continue on because we’re not quite sure how to end it even when it feels weird. Or maybe it’s the sheer fact that I’ve been doing it for so long that it feel shabitual to do it and it’d be too much work to unbreak it.

Halloween Movies and Traditions

I shouldn’t watch horror movies.

Every time I watch one, I always end up with nightmares. Especially if I watch them on a persistent basis. I’ve always been that way, ever since I was little. That’s why I try to limit what I watch these days. And especially if the movie pays homage to blood and guts just to get a shock out of the viewer.

But I always love a suspenseful movie. I love how a good movie can build up the tension and have good atmosphere and spooky bits without delving into the bloody side. I even enjoy watching Ghost Adventures and shows that delve into the hauntings, ghost stories, and folk lore of a place.

After high school when I couldn’t go trick or treating anymore, my dad and I would pick out a spooky movie from the rental place (or even at the library) and watch it during the evening. It was a great way to celebrate the holiday without having to go anywhere.

I want to be able to share some of my favorite movies and t.v. shows that delve into the spooky corners of the world, the ones that aren’t afraid to make you jump in your seat and give you crawly feelings up your skin.

1. A Haunting (the Discovery show)
2. The Haunted
3. Ghost Adventures
4. The Conjuring
5. Annabelle
6. Halloween (the original Jamie Lee Curtis one, not the bloody one)
7. The Mothman Prophecies
8. The Dead Files
9. The Ring
10. The Eye
11. The Village (not creepy, but I loved the story)
12. Haunted Histories Collection (from the History Channel–focuses on a few big cities around the United States)
13. The Skeleton Key
14. Cropsey
15. The Others
16. When a Stranger Calls

People also enjoy The Shining, The Exorcist, and others but for some reason I didn’t like them as much. What are some Halloween traditions do you partake in?