Лучшие фильмы и сериалы для осеннего ужасного сезона: от «Over the Garden Wall» до «The Craft»

Long before the days get a little shorter and the temperatures go down, autumn lovers are raring to kick into spooky-season gear. It’s the time of year that comes with plenty of cozy, sometimes spooky, movies and TV shows to watch to get into the spirit. From coming-of-age dramedies like Gilmore Girls to creepy animation like Coraline, the list of classic offerings to watch will put you in the mood for one of the best times of the year. So get in your comfiest pajamas, make yourself something seasonally delicious, and let’s get into what you’ll be watching (or, should we say, re-watching) this year. 1. Over The Garden Wall Over the Garden Wall is a significant mainstay that should be on everyone’s spooky season movie/TV list. It has become an annual tradition of mine to watch this animated Cartoon Network miniseries. With (devastatingly) only one season, containing just 10 roughly 11-minute-long episodes, it’s very easy to binge this one in a day. The story follows two brothers, Wirt and Greg, as they journey through “The Unknown,” an unsettling realm full of all kinds of characters. Some help and others hinder the kids along the way. The story happens around Halloween and the setting is overwhelmingly autumnal. Interestingly, the show is also a musical with charming songs sprinkled throughout. The dialogue between characters is amusing and feels very real at points. Where to Watch: Over the Garden Wall was hard to watch for a while; however, it is now available on Hulu/Disney+. 2. Sleepy Hollow A Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride are probably already on everybody’s watchlists and can go unspoken for. Sleepy Hollow, however, is an easily overlooked Tim Burton flick, complete with its kitschy late-1990s-style movie poster and campy slasher effects. What makes this movie outstanding is, as with any Burton movie, the attention to detail in the visuals. The story is interesting and spooky—a classic, fantastical ghost story—but the muted color grading, steampunk/victorian garb and props, and the gothic, foggy eeriness of it all really just make it stand out. Where to Watch: Sleepy Hollow is available on Paramount+. 3. Gilmore Girls There is no way that we could leave Gilmore Girls off this watch list. Gilmore Girls is to Fall what Die Hard is to Christmas. Is it technically a “Fall show”? No, the story spans seven seasons and follows the characters year-round. However, it has the feeling of the season. If you have the time for all seven seasons, that is entirely good on you. Please do what we cannot. However, if you only want to watch Fall-related episodes, this list from Betches has you covered. From episodes with bake sales to Autumnal Festivals and Lorelai and Sookie’s cozy inn, there are definitely some that are tailored more directly to that breezy feeling. All of them, of course, come with their funny, dramatic, and sometimes romantic moments. Where to Watch: Gilmore Girls, as of July, has moved from Netflix to Amazon Prime. 4. Practical Magic A classic witch movie with a slightly more mature and subdued feel than Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic is more a story about sisterhood than it is about magic. The movie is about family curses in the literal sense, but on a deeper level, it is about generational/familial trauma and those complex relationships. The movie was based on the 1995 novel by Alice Hoffman, which, if you are a reader, is definitely worth perusing. The movie keeps with the theme, with a touch of horror, magic, romance, and, of course, 1990s Fall fashion and color grading. And if you’re a longtime fan of the 1998 movie, the sequel, Practical Magic 2, is coming to theaters on September 11. The movie will be based on Alice Hoffman’s second book in the series, The Book of Magic, which came out in 2022. Where to Watch: Practical Magic can be streamed on HBO Max. 5. Rushmore Released in 1998, Wes Anderson’s Rushmore follows a fifteen-year-old private school student who befriends a millionaire, and both of them fall for the same woman. Starring Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Olivia Williams, this is ultimately a feel-good movie about friendship and love. And what is Fall about if not feeling good? We can’t explain it, but we feel like movies about academia feel inherently like September or October. That, and Wes Anderson’s signature creative color grading gives it an autumnal, cozy feel. Where to Watch: Rent Rushmore on Prime Video for $2.99. 6. Coraline Being traumatized by this creepy “children’s” movie was a canon event for kids of many generations. And, for younger Millennials and Gen Z, Coraline is that movie, indeed. Based on a book, Coraline is a stop-motion movie by Laika with a story chock-full of scenery and characters that are just off. Laika rightfully leans into the uncanniness that stop-motion can often have and uses both the medium and story to make an outright unsettling movie. Set in the gloomy Pacific Northwest, the story follows the blue-haired Coraline as she moves into a new house and discovers it holds terrifying secrets behind a small door. In her signature yellow raincoat, Coraline makes her way through an alternative version of her world, full of characters who don’t have the best intentions. Where to Watch: Coraline is available for purchase/renting at Prime Video, YouTube, and Apple TV. 7. Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated While the original animated series focused more on solving individual mysteries in the span of one episode, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated had a great overarching storyline. It also wasn’t afraid to lean into horror elements, with mildly creepy plotlines—and definitely creepy animation at times—tying into a big scary reveal. The world-building was also very well done—or, more, the “town-building” of Crystal Cove. As for representations of the main characters, it was faithful to the source material and even made them all more complex. Where to Watch: This 2-season show is a perfect spooky Fall watch and can be streamed on Netflix. 8. Fantastic Mr. Fox Fantastic Mr. Fox is the Fall movie for plenty of people. From the color palette, full of rich autumnal oranges and reds, to the animals it follows and the story centered around nature and farming, this movie is undoubtedly for people who love autumn. This movie is both wholesome and heart-wrenching. More than the aesthetics of it all, Fantastic Mr. Fox is about the importance of chosen family, loyalty, and honesty. The dialogue is incredibly realistic and feels so human, which is part of the irony of it. Based on a book, Fantastic Mr. Fox was Anderson’s first stop-motion movie. It featured some of Wes Anderson’s favorite recurring cast members like Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Willem Dafoe. Where to Watch: Fantastic Mr. Fox is brilliant and available for streaming on Peacock. 9. The Craft Another witchy one, The Craft is about your typical high school friend group… except they all kind of hate each other and can do dark magic. So much is iconic about this movie, from Fairuza Balk’s performance as Nancy Downs (“We are the weirdos, mister.”), the quasi-leader of the small coven, to the Gen X fashion and vibe of it all. The Craft touches on the social intricacies of teenagers, as any high school drama would, but also brings in magic and hints of horror. It combines what I was saying earlier about academia, even down to it taking place at a private catholic school (ironic), with outright spooky magic that both contribute to this movie being a perfect autumn watch. Where to Watch: Check out The Craft on PLEX for free, or for rent on other services.