Halloween doesn’t have to be all slashers, final girls, and jump scares. Halloween can be pretty romantic too. Here is a list that quantifies the ten best romantic movies, from all across the spectrum of supernatural horror, for you to watch this Halloween season.
Want more Halloween recommendations? Check out our ultimate guide to Halloween movies.
10. Let the Right One In
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime | Hulu | Roku Channel | Pluto TV | Vudu |
Let the Right One In is a Swedish film about a young boy named Oskar who meets a young girl named Eli. After they become friends, Oskar learns that Eli is a vampire. Despite learning that, Oskar and Eli begin develop the loving friendship of two scared young children who feel utterly alone and afraid.
While the majority of films on this list are supernatural rom coms, black comedies, and gothic romances, Let the Right One In is definitely a hard R-rated horror film so keep that in mind if you’re averse to something like that. The film also has an American remake starring a young Chloe Grace-Moretz as well as a Showtime original series adaptation as well.
9. Crimson Peak
Where to Watch: Netflix | Amazon Prime (rental) | YouTube (rental)
If you’re looking for something a little less visceral and bloody but still plenty scary, Guillermo Del Toro has a delightfully dark gothic romance that Charlotte Bronte fans and Stephen King fans can enjoy together.
Edith Cushing, played by Mia Wasikowska, is new author who meets and subsequently falls in love with the English Baronet Sir Thomas Sharpe, played by Tom Hiddleston as he is seeking investors for his latest invention. Thomas and Edith quickly get married and when he brings her to his large estate, Edith starts to uncover the dark and twisted secrets her new lover appears to be keeping from her.
Tips: Can’t get enough of Halloween? Check out these smart horror movies.
8. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Where to Watch: Disney+ | Vudu (rental) | YouTube (rental)
This list would not be complete without Tim Burton and Henry Selick’s Halloween and Christmas classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas. While there is a subtextual romance between Jack Skellington and Sally, the movie is mainly centered on Jack’s romanticized view of the world within both Halloween Town and Christmas Town.
Every song he sings is rife with this mood which steeps the film into a deeply romantic tone, despite there being very little on screen romance between characters, even though we do of course get that too by the end of the movie as well.
7. Bewitched
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime (rental) | Vudu (rental)
If you want supernatural and witchy (and here is our compilation of the best Witches movies), but find yourself to be averse to the majority of the movies on this list so far, the 2005 meta-film Bewitched is still a wonderful Halloween choice.
Will Ferrell plays narcissistic actor Jack Wyatt who’s remaking the classic sitcom Bewitched, and wants to cast an unknown actress opposite him as the show’s co-lead, in an attempt to have the most star power on the show. When he meets Isabel Bigelow, played by Nicole Kidman, he believes he found the perfect choice. What he doesn’t realize is that he casts an actual, real-life witch.
6. Sleepy Hollow
Where to Watch: Vudu (rental) | Amazon Prime (rental) | Apple TV (rental)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a classic Halloween story. An autumnal forest, witchcraft, and a spooky horseback rider who uses a flaming Jack-o-Lantern in place of a head, those are basically the three pillars of Halloween. That’s why Tim Burton’s reimagining in Sleepy Hollow finds itself on this list.
Not only is it taking a story so emblematic of Spooky Season, but the romantic relationship that blooms between Johnny Depp’s Ichabod Crane and Christina Ricci’s Katrina Van Trassel makes the movie just as sweet and endearing, as it is macabre and grim.
5. Ghost
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime (rental) | Vudu (rental) | Google Play (rental)
Of course, one of the most romantic movies of the nineties, Halloween movie or not, Ghost deserves a spot on this list. Starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, Ghost is the story of Sam Wheat, who, after he is murdered in a mugging, uses his abilities as a ghost to warn and protect his girlfriend Molly Jensen from enveloping money laundering scheme he’s unwittingly gotten them both of them involved in.
By recruiting the help of several paranormal characters, including a psychic medium and a poltergeist who haunts the subway system, Sam tries to find ways to communicate with Molly and to muck up the plans of those who had him killed. It’s part supernatural thriller, and part love story. Ghost is a perfect choice for those who aren’t comfortable with so much blood.
4. Only Lover’s Left Alive
Where to Watch: Hulu | HBO Max | Vudu (rental) | Amazon Prime (rental)
In this film, Tom Hiddleston (again!) and Tilda Swinton play two centuries old vampires named Adam and Eve. Adam is a disillusioned musician who has recently developed a disdain for humanity and when Eve realizes something is off about him she comes to Detroit to check on him. Who is then soon followed by Eve’s rambunctious younger sister, played by Mia Wasikowska (again!).
The film focuses on the loving relationship that exists between Adam and Eve and portrays vampires with all of their more human flaws and struggles. The burdens of immortality, the isolation of only going out at night and of not being able to relate to anyone unless they are also an Immortal Undead. It really highlights all the reasons why the most important thing a vampire needs besides blood is another vampire to share their time with. A very specific, dreary type of romantic that may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re laying on your floor, burning incense and listening to The Smiths on vinyl, this movie is for you.
3. Practical Magic
Where to Watch: HBO Max | Amazon Prime (rental) | YouTube (rental)
We have Nicole Kidman playing a witch again. This time alongside Sandra Bullock who plays the role of her witch sister, in a family that has a long standing relationship with witchcraft.
Practical Magic is the definitive Halloween Rom Com because in addition to having to use their witchcraft to aid in the, lets say, troubles, of their love life, they also have to use it to combat an evil spirit who is after them. There is a lot of sisterly love, romantic love, forbidden love, and some dark humor to boot. All of which is achieved without being a horror movie, opening up the gates for any Halloween fan to check it out.
2. Corpse Bride
Where to Watch: HBO Max | YouTube (rental) | Google Play (rental)
Tim Burton returns to make a second stop motion film that exudes gothic horror and gothic romance in equal measure. But while Nightmare Before Christmas focuses on the wonderment and romanticism of the world, this film more closely adheres to a more classical romance. Even if the bride-to-be is filled with maggots.
Out of the three Tim Burton films on this list, Corpse Bride has the best balance of whimsical, macabre, and romantic. Johnny Depp voices Victor Von Dort, a very nervous groom with cold feet. And when he flees his own wedding rehearsal in embarrassment and gets lost in the woods, he inadvertently puts his bride’s wedding ring onto the finger of a corpse named Emily voiced by Helena Bonham Carter (who technically also has cold feet, but in an entirely difference context).
1. Addams Family Values
Where to Watch: Pluto TV | Roku Channel | Paramount+ |
Despite the Thanksgiving play, this movie is included on many a Halloween watch list every year. And while you couldn’t go wrong with any of the Addams Family movies, Addams Family Values takes the cake for its autumnal aesthetic.
Besides maybe a little murder and a couple questionable cases of child endangerment, there isn’t a better portrayal of unconditional love on this list than the love between Gomez and Morticia Addams, and there isn’t a more wholesome and supportive family on television than the Addams. There isn’t a movie I can recommend more for those who want something that checks the boxes of romantic, wholesome, loving, creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky, all together ooky, neat, sweet, petite, strange and deranged as The Addams Family.
For more Vampire movie, check out our list of the best Vampire movies.
