A few years ago I watched every Universal Classic Monster movie I could get my hands on.
The next year I watched every entry from the major slasher franchises because I'd never seen most of them (F13, Nightmare, Halloween, TCM, Child's Play)
The next year I watched entries from franchises like Hellraiser, Scream, Saw, Amityville Horror.
Last year I watched 30 different monster movies, aiming for "rubber suit" stuff but since I went alphabetical, some of it was stop-motion, or not-quite-that-80s aesthetic I was shooting for.
This year, I'm feeling a little burned out on traditional horror stuff. In addition to watching all those slashers a few years ago, I've been watching a lot of them for podcasts and stuff over the past year or two...
So I'm going with "Fun and festive" this year. My list, though I'm sure not everything fits what I'm looking for 100% and I'm sure some of it probably sucks, looks like this:
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Clue
3. Coraline
4. Corpse Bride
5. Dance of the Dead
6. Demons
7. Demons 2
8. Ed Wood
9. Ernest Scared Stupid
10. Evil Ed
11. Fido
12. Fright Night (2011)
13. Fright Night 2 (80s)
14. Fright Night 2 (2013)
15. Ginger Snaps
16. Grabbers
17. Halloween Tree
18. Halloweentown
19. Hausu
20. The Hidden
21. Hocus Pocus
22. House (1986)
23. House II: The Second Story
24. Housebound
25. Monster House
26. Monster Squad
27. Nightmare Before Christmas
28. Repo the Genetic Opera
29. Rogue
30. Sleepy Hollow
31. Society
32. Something Wicked this Way Comes
33. Suck
34. Transylvania 6-5000
35. Trick ‘r Treat
36. Under Wraps
37. The Visitor
38. Wallace and Grommit Curse of the Were-Rabbit
39. The Witches
We'll see what I actually get through, as I start a new job on the 12th, but this is what I've got pegged for a somewhat more light-hearted Halloween viewing season, as I'm just burned out on franchises and slashers and slow, plodding, oppressing, atmospheric traditional horror stuff.
Also, Halloween Wars is a show on FoodNetwork that you guys ABSOLUTELY should watch if you haven't. It's a "cooking competition" where they have a sugar artist, a cake baker, and a pumpkin carver create themed displays and it's a TON of fun, and the stuff they create is awesome. I've been watching it every year for the past 4 years and now I feel like nothing gets me more in the Halloween spirit, honestly. I put "cooking competition" in quotes because this is more visual than taste.
These are just a couple of the cool displays they've made in past seasons: