6 Halloween Movie Recommendations

Hi guys! Halloween is only a few days away and so, today, I thought I would share with you some of the movies I love to watch at this time of the year. Halloween is my second favorite holiday, right after Christmas, but while the day itself is one of my favorite things in the year, anticipating Halloween is also part of the fun. And what better way to count the days till Halloween than to watch some spooky movies? 

I need to preface this though by pointing out that none of my recommendations are actual horror movies. I don't watch horror stuff. I'm too much of a scaredy cat for that. And the darker movies in this list lean more towards gothic than actual horror, so if like me you also don't really dig horror movies, these should suit you just fine. 

And now, onto the movies. Enjoy!

Practical Magic

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Sally and Gillian Owens, played by Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, come from a family of witches. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, for years the women of their family have been plagued by a curse, whereby all the men they fall in love with come to eventually meet an untimely death. Despite growing up to lead completely different lives, the sisters are as close as ever and when supernatural forces start wreaking havoc in their lives, they decide to join their powers and rid their family of the curse. This movie is perfect for Halloween because not only does it have witches and magic, but it also has at its heart a lot of humor. And for me, fantasy-comedies are the best Halloween movies ^^

Watch the trailer here.

Hocus Pocus

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Starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker as a trio of evil witches, the movie follows their adventures as they are accidentally resurrected by a young boy after they were put to death in Salem centuries ago. This movie is hilarious and still great fun to watch now despite having been released in 1993. 

Watch the trailer here.

Halloweentown

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Marnie, played by Kimberly J. Brown, loves everything about Halloween and the supernatural, despite her mother disapproving of it all. When her grandmother Aggie, who is in fact a real witch, shows up on the night of Halloween, she tells Marnie and her siblings the story of a magical place called Halloweentown, where all sorts of fantastical creatures live together in peace. When the children secretly follow Aggie back home after she leaves their house, they stumble right into Halloweentown, which turns out to be very real. If you enjoy the movie - and you probably will - be sure to also check out the sequels!

Watch the trailer here.

The Phantom of the Opera

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Starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum in the lead roles, this is the movie adaptation of a musical which was itself based on a French novel. It is 19th century Paris and the story takes place at an opera house rumored to be haunted by a mysterious masked Phantom. After he takes an interest in a young performer, Christine Daaé, the Phantom begins to scheme to give her the lead role in the opera, hoping to also win her love in the process. When Christine instead falls in love with someone else, the Phantom decides to do whatever it takes to make Christine his. The movie retains most songs from the musical, which is one of my favorite musicals by the way, and has the right amount of mystery mixed in with romance and gorgeous visuals to make this a delightful movie to watch in October. Plus Gerard Butler is in it. Enough said...

Watch the trailer here.

Scooby-Doo

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Back to comedy with this movie starring Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard and Rowan Atkinson. The story follows Mystery Incorporated, a group of four young detectives who solve mysteries with their dog Scooby-Doo. After going separate ways two years ago, the group reunites after they are called to a horror resort to solve a mystery there. This movie was a staple of my childhood growing up and one of those movies that I watched all the time with my sister. It’s a guilty pleasure and one of those goofy, fun movies that totally lives up to the spirit of Halloween.

Watch the trailer here.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

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Set in Victorian times, this is the story of Sweeney Todd, a barber turned serial killer who returns to the city after being wrongfully arrested and exiled many years ago. On a quest of vengeance, he takes his old job as a barber back and begins killing off his customers with a razor while his new accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, helps him get rid of the corpses by baking them into the meat pies she sells in her shop. It has Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the lead roles and while it’s much more violent than the other movies on this list, it’s more a gothic story than a horror one. Plus, it has the songs that featured in the musical it was adapted from and is overall quite a stunning film. 

Watch the trailer here.

So those were some of my Halloween movie recommendations. I know there are a lot of classics I haven't mentioned, like Beetlejuice and the Addams Family, but that's because I haven't watched those yet. I do have a list of Halloween movies I still need to watch so expect a second part to this post at some point!

Until next time guys, have fun counting the days till Halloween ^^

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Upcoming book releases I'm excited for!

Hi guys ^^ October is here and we've reached that time of the year where a lot of exciting things are soon happening. Halloween, Christmas and of course, more great book releases!

Seriously, October till December is my favorite part of the year (apart from February, which is my birthday month hehe). I'm that girl who gets super excited for both Halloween and Christmas. I mean, you get to decorate stuff and splurge on festive candy and food. Plus I love making holiday themed TBRs as well as music playlists, DIYs and lists of related movies I want to watch. It's all lots of fun, you know? So yeah, we're now officially in my favorite part of the year and I couldn't be more excited for all the upcoming fun ^^

So in this post, I thought I would share with you some of the upcoming books I'm most excited for. Here we go ^^

Heartless by Marissa Meyer 

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Catherine, unmarried and desired by many in Wonderland, is a favorite of the King of Hearts. Her passion though is baking and her dream is to open a pastry shop. Her mother though is utterly against it as she deems it unworthy of a girl who could be the next Queen. At a royal ball where Catherine is expected to receive a marriage proposal from the king, she meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker and for the first time in her life, she feels the beginning of real love. Going against her parents' wishes and running the risk to offend the King, Catherine begins to see Jest in secret.

Release date: 8th November 

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows # 2)

For this one I'm not going to include a synopsis simply because I haven't actually read the first book in the series yet and checking out what the sequel is about would spoil it for me XD. In Six of Crows though, which takes place in the same universe as Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy, we follow the story of the criminal Kaz as he sets out to carry out a heist which is as dangerous as it could be rewarding. Since he's unable to pull it off alone, he decides to recruit a crew of fellow brilliant criminals to assist him. I have Six of Crows but but haven't read it yet as I've been waiting for the sequel to come out so that I can marathon them both ^^

Release date: 27th September

Gemina by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman (The Illuminae Files #2)

Again, since this is a sequel, I'm going to keep its synopsis vague. This is a continuation of Illuminae, which follows the crew of a spaceship that carries the survivors of a small planet that undergoes a massive attack at the beginning of the story. The ship is fleeing the forces that attacked the planet and which are now after them to exterminate them as well. As if that wasn't bad enough, the ship's artificial intelligence begins to malfunction in ways that gradually gets more and more lethal for the crew. When a dangerous virus outbreak hits them as well though, the death toll on board seriously begins to rise... I really loved Illuminae. It was so much fun and as some of you might already know, rather than be written like your average novel, the book is presented in the form of files, instant messages, video transcripts, etc.

Release date: 18th October

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson and Robin Wasserman

This is a collection of short stories set in the Shadowhunter world, taking place after the Mortal Instrument series and before the sequel series the Dark Artifices. The stories were originally individually published in eBook form before the release of Lady Midnight, the first book in the Dark Artifices. Since I didn’t want to read Lady Midnight before reading those stories and since I wanted to read the upcoming bind-up instead of the individual stories, I’ve been highly anticipating this book. The main reason is that now, as soon as I buy it, I can finally get myself a copy of Lady Midnight and read it! So it’s actually both of them that I’m excited to get my hands on in November ^^

Release date: 15th November

So those were some of my most anticipated book releases in the last months of 2016. What book release are you most looking forward to? Let me know in the comments ^^

My previous post: What I'm Currently Reading

My next post: The Autumn Reading Tag

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