For those who prefer a more familiar filmgoing experience, here are my 10 favorite films of all time to watch on Halloween:

1. Halloween (1978) — The original, and still the best. None of its sequels or imitators have ever managed to equal, much less surpass, the slow-burn chills John Carpenter evoked with shadows, a repainted William Shatner mask and his own synthesizer score.

2. Beetlejuice (1988) — Michael Keaton at his crudest, Winona Ryder at her most ethereal, and Tim Burton back when he had something to say. One of the most imaginative portrayals of the afterlife ever put to screen, and the Harry Belafonte possession scene is a classic.

3. Ghostbusters (1984) — What could have simply been a feature-length comedy skit actually works as a serious science fiction take on the supernatural, in between what are still some very funny jokes. This film made an entire generation want to become spiritual investigators.

4. The Exorcist (1973) — The gold standard against which all exorcism movies must be measured. The deliberately mundane setting makes the intrusion of the supernatural feel all the more harrowing and unnatural. I can almost guarantee you will be white-knuckling it through the final scene.

5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) — While some of the sequels came close, especially the meta-fictional “New Nightmare,” Wes Craven was never able to top himself after he introduced Freddy Krueger, the dream-invading killer of kids played inimitably by Robert Englund.

6. Scream (1996) — As played out as the concept has become since, Craven’s first outing of having horror movie victims try to survive by following horror movie rules remains clever and compelling, especially when you see genre-savvy kids falling for old traps in new ways.

7. Young Frankenstein (1974) — Mel Brooks lovingly recreates the Universal monster movies of the 1930s with his signature vaudeville humor, and gives birth to dozens of gags that countless other films have stolen since. My mom still cracks up at Marty Feldman saying, “Abby … someone.”

8. Dracula (1931) — There is no Dracula but THE Dracula, and Bela Lugosi defined him, with his dapper cape, worldly accent, sinister smile and slicked-back widow’s peak. The thing that everyone forgets? Lugosi never wore fangs, and yet, you will still swear Dracula has fangs.

9. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) — A significant chunk of this film’s plot deals with the kids trying to smuggle their stranded alien out of the suburbs in plain sight in a Halloween costume, and it is fascinating to see our alien visitor’s reactions to this admittedly strange human custom.

10. The Lost Boys (1987) — Along with 1983’s “The Hunger,” this film updated vampires for the MTV era, and was the first to play on the dark Peter Pan implications of being able to live forever as an eternal teenager. All this, and Kiefer Sutherland flashes his best Billy-Idol-goes-to-Montreal smile.

Bonus: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) — After five previous installments, this was the first film in the series to have fun with the concept, pioneering a level of self-awareness that Kevin Williamson would credit with inspiring him to co-create “Scream” with Wes Craven.