James Caldwell high school students have very diverse taste in Halloween movies! In 2025 the top movies of this year were the following:
The most favorite Halloween movie this year was “The Nightmare before Christmas!” I found this to be interesting because the title of this movie may lead one to believe that it is Christmas themed; however, it is a spooky Halloween favorite that many people love, especially students at James Caldwell High School. This movie is about the beloved Jack Skellington, who scares people on Halloween but gets bored and discovers Christmas town. He enjoys Christmas town, so he decides to bring it to him by kidnapping Santa Claus. By trying to do this, he goes through many trials and tribulations, which makes this movie a beloved Halloween movie.
The next popular and entertaining movie that JCHS students loved was the “Scream” franchise. “Scream” is a series of slasher movies. They are known to be very scary and gory. The movie is a rated R and is considered very scary by a majority of its viewers. I do not recommend watching it if you do not like scary movies or movies that contain lots of gore. This movie was mainly enjoyed by the seniors that I asked at JCHS; very few underclassman said it was their favorite.
The third most popular Halloween movie is “Hocus Pocus.” This is a comedy movie, and is more family friendly than the Scream franchise. It is about a character named Max and his sister, who have just moved to Salem. They have problems integrating into their school, when they discover three witches that were killed centuries ago. The movie then follows Max and his friends trying to stop the three evil witches. This movie was very popular with the underclassman of JCHS, which I believed to be very interesting as I thought more upperclassman would have stated it was their favorite.
The fourth most popular Halloween movie is “Beetlejuice.” Within this movie, the characters Barbara and Adam Maitland die and begin to haunt their house. Then, a new family moves into their house including the main character Lydia. They try to scare the new family that has moved in, however they are unable to. The Maitlands later call in for reinforcements, which include Beetlejuice. He is an enigmatic and spirited force, but hard to control. This makes it hard for the family to get rid of Lydia and her family from the house. The movie then goes through Lydia and Beetlejuice’s journey.
The last favorite movie that JCHS students chose was “Ghostbusters.” This movie is about scientists at a local university that start catching ghosts. It follows their journey trying to stop a ghost from possessing people and trying to save New York City from demise. It is not very scary and relatively family friendly. Although it is an older Halloween movie, it is still loved by various JCHS students.
