Spooky Movie Month 2023

It’s time for Spooky Movie Month in The Mothership!

Back in 2020, we had two bored, disappointed and perpetually sad 8 and 10 year olds desperate for something to do when everything was shut down and we remembered back in 2018, we did the “Halloween Movie Countdown” with them and they had so much fun! So, we decided to bring that back with all new movies and help build their excitement about the holiday with a “Spooky Movie Month”. It was so much fun, it’s become a family tradition we’ve done every year since.

Each day in October, we introduce the kids to a new “spooky movie”. It doesn’t really have to be “spooky”, just something that can fall under the umbrella of sci-fi, fantasy, spooky/horror/suspense, thriller or monster movies.

This year, we decided to share our daily adventures with you! Maybe you want to join us?

The idea is simple; share our favorite movies (and some we’ve never seen) with our now 11 (Lion) & almost 13 (Dragon) year old kiddos, then record their reactions (with their permission) for posterity. 

Here’s what we did last year:

• October 1st – Mr Boogedy
• October 2nd – Bride of Boogedy 
• October 3rd – Wizard of Oz
• October 4th – Gremlins
• October 5th – The Blob (1858)
• October 6th – War of the Worlds 
• October 7th – Canterville Ghost 1996
• October 8th – Hotel Transylvania 
• October 9th – The new Munsters 
• October 10th – Tremors
• October 11th – Forbidden Planet
• October 12th – The Magnetic Monster 
• October 13th – King Kong (1933)
• October 14th – Break
• October 15th – Werewolf By Night 
• October 16th – Dreamworks Halloween specials 
• October 17th – The Ghost and Mr Chicken 
• October 18th – They Live
• October 19th – It Came From Outer Space 
• October 20th – Attack of the Killer Tomatoes 
• October 21st – House on Haunted Hill (1959)
• October 22nd – Beetlejuice 
• October 23rd – Muppets Hunted Mansion
• October 24th – Coraline
• October 25th – Break 
• October 26th – Star Wars (they argued it was sci-fi, monsters and an evil guy in a mask with powers)
• October 27th – Addams Family 1991
• October 28th – Groovy Goulies 
• October 29th – Classic 80’s cartoons: Garfield Halloween Adventure, Disney’s Halloween Treat and the Alvin & the Chipmunks Halloween Special
• October 30th – It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown & Spookly The Square Pumpkin  
• October 31st – Mickey’s House of Villains

This year, we’ve hit some big milestones and they’ve done a lot of growing. Lion and I have watched all four seasons of Stranger Things and Tim Burton’s Wednesday. Dragon has seen Lower Decks season 1, 2 & 3, the 1987 Predator and they’ve both clocked several hours in the PG-13, even a few of the more mild level rated “R” movies like Pitch Black and The Terminator. This year, Dragon has also played and completed Last Of Us and Lion tackled Good Omens, both the show AND the book!

So, this season, it seemed appropriate to turn things up a notch. We’re FINALLY dipping our toes in the bloody waters of some legit horror, B-rate monster movies, creatures features and sci-fi from the 50’s and 60’s and so much more!

To start our pre-game the last week of September, I thought we’d start with my favorite:

The Lost Boys

Written in 1987, directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Jan Fischer, James Jeremiah and Jeffrey Boam. I saw this movie for the first time when I was 9 and it became my absolute favorite movie of all time.

This is truly the movie that started it all for me – love of vampires, horror, special effects and all things strange. I’ve been waiting their whole lives to share it with them.

The summer it came out, I think I watched it about 100 times and had it memorized within a few weeks… the story of two brothers moving to a beautiful, sea-side town in California only to realize it’s “the murder capital of the world” because of “all the damn vampires” is one that lives in my heart no matter how much time passes.

How did it go?

Well… they groaned and hid their eyes during the one “naughty” part, rolled their eyes at the language and hid their faces making gagging noises during the “You’ll never grow old” scene.

Lion’s reaction to “saxophone guy” was somewhere between disgust and utter confusion while Dragon could not stop laughing and just yelling “WHHHYYY?” at the tv for the entire scene. No one left the room, they both laughed a lot, no one had nightmares, they both gave it a 2 thumbs up and said they’d watch it again.

SUCCESS!

So this is it! Sound like fun?

Join us on The Mothership throughout October as we share our Spooky Movie Month with you!