By ALEX DOEBLER

Creak, creak, creak go the floorboards as yet another unlucky soul tries to sneak away from a serial killer, a monster, or some other abomination in classic horror movie fashion. In preparation for the spooktastic month of October and Halloween in particular, I conducted a survey, trying to find what Bellefonte considers the best Halloween movie. For horror movies, IT won out, but the winner among non-horror Halloween movies was less clear. 

Top Horror: 20 of the 89 responders chose IT as their favorite horror movie. With well over 30 movies selected in the survey, no other movie came close to that level of popularity amongst the student body. Halloween was the next most popular with only 6 people choosing it. As far as Bellefonte is concerned, IT is the uncontested top horror movie. 

Top Non-Horror: 22 of the 93 people who answered what their favorite non-horror Halloween movie was listed Halloweentown, placing it highest in the survey. Hocus Pocus wasn’t far behind though with 17 votes, followed up by The Nightmare Before Christmas at 15. With only 30 movies selected in this survey, students were slightly more united behind the non-horror movies.

Top Overall: As far as the overall best Halloween movie goes, the non-horror movies showed a surprising amount of popularity among the 93 responders. Halloweentown stayed at the top with 13 votes, followed by Hocus Pocus with 11 and The Nightmare Before Christmas with 10. In the overall polls, IT only received 5 votes.

Halloweentown: By a narrow margin, this family friendly classic series of Disney movies won out for both the best non-horror Halloween movie and the best Halloween movie in general, so anyone who hasn’t seen these movies is probably wondering what makes them so special. These movies released from 1998 to 2006 were set at a prime time to work their way into the childhood of most current highschoolers, especially with the annual reruns. I have fond memories of watching all the movies as a kid whenever October would roll around, and this nostalgia was definitely a part of it. The other big part of its popularity comes from how novel the concept seemed at the time. Children helping monsters and humans with learning to live in peace with witches as intermediaries certainly stands out as an unusual plot, and the titular Halloweentown for which the movie’s named is truly a one-of-a-kind place that viewers will love.